Week ending 17th July - Dublin Bay

The last week of our trip and I spent most of it wandering the shores of Dublin Bay. Monday was Dun Loaghaire and Booterstown, Tuesday I was at Bull Island and Wednesday Howth Head. A nice selection of birds, the highlights being; a juvenile Whitethroat On Howth Head in the gorse above the breeding colonies of Razorbills, Guillemots and Kittiwakes; Breeding plumage Black-tailed Godwit, Dunlin and Sanderling on Bull Island; Lesser Black-backed Gull and Little Egret at Booterstown.

Common Gull - adult. Quite a few on Bull Island, and a scattering at Booterstown

Black-tailed Godwit

Sanderling

Dunlin

Gorgeous, gaudy... Goldfinch

Little Egret. As elsewhere in Britain and Ireland these are now on every estuary. I remember twitching one in Dungeness in the '80s. Hard to imagine these days!

Lesser Black-backed Gull. The scarcest Gull I saw, these were only in small numbers at Booterstown and Bull Island, with a few in Dublin city on the Liffey

Common Tern

Kittiwake with nestling

Young Robin

Grey Seal

Stonechat

Whitethroat