Walk down to South Bull Wall

Should I be embarrassed that I didn’t know there was a South Bull wall? Or an Irishtown Nature Reserve? Well I didn’t -  until we cycled down there today.

We did a small cycle from Drimnagh to Booterstown then along Sandymount then down a path which took us through Irishtown Nature Reserve (admittedly it was quite small, but still – it exists!) cycled on past the foot of the Poolbeg Towers, locked bikes and walked to the end of the South Bull Wall to the Poolbeg Lighthouse. Walked back, got back on bikes and cycled through the bleakness of ferry containers and found pints.

Saw Cormorants diving in the sea, loads of Oystercatchers, BH Gulls and some Turnstones and that’s all I spotted really. We were cycling.

Definitely a great spot to go back to, when it’s a bit warmer though, it was shivering cold today, especially the walk down to Poolbeg Lighthouse. I’d go back to the area around Irishtown Nature Reserve, it was lovely down there and to stand at the foot of the Poolbeg towers was pretty cool. I think if you went with a scope you’d probably see something special down there.

For today though, I only managed to add one new species to my list.

No 34. Turnstone, turning seaweed along South Bull Wall, Dublin Port

From a distance a Turnstone and a Ringed Plover look very similar. The main difference is their behaviour, a little bird flicking around stones or seaweed is likely to be a Turnstone. A little bird running gaily along the beach and stopping every few seconds will be a Ringed Plover.

Visually, the Turnstone’s bill is black (although a jeuv’s RP’s bill would be dark, but it’s legs would be dark too – Turnstone’s would be orange). A Turnstone also doesn’t have the black and white collar around its neck like a RP would have.

To see where Irishtown Nature Reserve is click here