It has a very elegant house around which the former estate spreads out with crafted vistas over large expanses of grass. It has been our privilege on this and previous outings to be shown around the house by park manager and staff who have personally done great restoration work to the house over the years.

It also had free fried breakfast in these elegant rooms for everybody that had got up around 3.00am to hear birdsong. Very welcome it was too. Provided once again by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Parks Department who had hired caterers to come in at 6.00am to make breakfast for us at 7.30, a very nice gesture and much appreciated.

A shadowy group had assembled in the carpark at 4.00am after driving up in convoy from Dunne's Stores. It had been very mild then but as the morning brightened the temperature dropped. We made our way around the park pausing to listen to various birds, noting the times the different species began to sing and pointing out the distinguishing features of each song Blackbird, Robin, Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush took the stage for us. We had crossed the stream and passed through some more beech wood when eventually we heard our first Blackcap. After many more birds we walked through the dense woodland at the back of the house where we heard again the first Song Thrush that had began to sing when we assembled in the car park. We admired the dense mature trees and the rookery on top of them and by then it was nearly time for that well deserved breakfast.

Michael Ryan

from FlightLines, the monthly newsletter of the South Dublin Branch (June 2001)

Booterstown & Sandymount Strand, 11th February 2001

From September to March every winter members of the South Dublin Branch take part in a nationwide count of waders and wildfowl, known as I-WeBS. On a chosen day of the month we count from the West Pier, Dun Laoghaire to Ringsend with other branches taking part in counts north of the Liffey. The count days are chosen so we can count on a usually rising and sometimes falling tide, the waders going inland or on high pier walls to roost when the tide is in full.

The count for February happened to coincide with the branch monthly outing but since the outing was in the same place it wasn't a unhappy coincidence but did mean that Michael Murphy was left single handed to show birds to the assembling crowd. Luckily Booterstown held a pair of birds that are rarely seen on the strand, Greenshank. Much lighter in colour and longer limbed then the Redshank the Greenshank is an elegant bird as often as not seen singly or in small groups.

Meanwhile out on the strand things weren't looking great. Lots of Oystercatchers but precious little else. Through telescopes we could see a tight group of birds roosting on the sea wall near Blackrock, almost definitely Knot but they were far too far away to show to anybody. As we made our way north we werenąt doing any better. Lots of the ubiquitous aforementioned Oystercatchers but not even a Redshank. No Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Sanderling or Bar Tailed Godwit, birds we usually count in dozens if not hundreds. Where were they when we needed them? A full moon had just passed, meaning a very high tide and an equally dramatically distant low tide. The birds were probably feeding for hours before we came and had either gone for an early roost or could be further north at the Bull Island. Anyway the counters went back and met the outing group and we all trooped back down the beach with the rapidly advancing tide lapping at our feet. Suddenly a big flock of birds swirled and twisted above the sea before coming to land among the large flock of Oystercatchers. Luckily for us the Knot had arrived and in big numbers too. Over 400 of them packed together some feeding, many tucking their heads in for a roost and we noticed one had a very white face. Was it entering it's breeding plumage or a semi albino. We consulted a field guide and no its breeding plumage didn't contain much white so it was a plumage deviant. Since these birds breed in the Arctic circle they are rarely seen in summer plumage by Irish birders. Apart from their feathers they change in another way. Their stomach shrinks as their diet changes from invertebrates to insects, which erupt in huge numbers as the snows melt and the waters and vegetation teem with midges and mosquitoes, much higher in protein and more easily fed to growing chicks. The name Knot is derived from their Latin name Calidris Canutus. King Canute was a famous British king who thought his royal inheritence would give him the authority to tell the advancing tide to stop.

A solitary Turnstone wandered in front of the Knot, smaller and much browner then the knot these birds are usually seen along the shoreline where their plumage renders them almost indistinguishable from rocks and seaweed. Somebody spotted Gannets back towards Dun Laoghaire their snow white plumage flashing brilliantly. These majestic birds winter out to sea and though not technically a migrant their arrival near shore is a true sign of Spring. Also out to sea we could sea rafts of Great Crested Grebe bobbing among the waves, some of them with their heads tucked low in sleep. Back to our north a mixed flock of gulls gathered and preened on the shore. As usual Black Headed Gulls formed the greatest mass but they were complemented by large numbers of Common gulls and a few Greater Black Backed Gulls.

Someone pointed out that the bank of sand we stood on was rapidly becoming an island and we began a fast walk towards Merrion Gates. A small group of Turnstones bustled around ahead of us but the tide was rising dramatically quickly threatening wet feet for those without wellies. A scramble up the seawall and a climb over on to the railway line was coped with admirably well by our group who hadn't realised they were coming on an adventure course. Thanks to everyone who came and glad you saw some of the wealth of birdlife found on our shores.

Michael Ryan