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I Wanna Take Ye to the Island - North Bull Island
, Raheny Bull Island on the northside of the city is the cheese! It’s a place where birders are truly spoiled for choice. A natural nature reserve, The Bull boasts an impressive range of unique natural habitats including salt marshes, sand dunes and slacks, the lush grasses of its two golf links, the expansive waters of Dublin Bay to the south and the long sandy beach of Dollymount Strand with its rolling sands and languid waves each of which attract different species of birds. Of course, its species change with the season in accordance with migratory habits but the variety remains impressive throughout the year – arguably more impressive in winter time. This time of year, though, watch out for the mysterious cuckoo which usually arrives around now and stays for a short few weeks in which time it will have tricked and cajoled the smaller buntings and pipits on the island into rearing its young for it! The young cuckoo, when fully fledged, will then make its way to its African wintering grounds on its own. On any given day though there’s a wealth of creatures to be seen on Bull Island: the raptors – sparrowhawk, peregrine, kestrel, merlin and short eared owl; the seabirds that include sandpipers, brent geese, curlew, ringed, grey and golden plover, godwits, redshank and lapwing; and the small populations of songbirds notably the skylark, meadow pipit, stonechat, linnet, redpoll, sedge warbler, willow warbler and chiffchaff. And let’s not forget the most underrated and perhaps most resourceful and brightest of all our city’s birds, the gulls, so much more intriguing than you’d think. At the very least, you’ll find five types there. For birds and birders alike, The Bull has it all! Take the 6 bus from Abbey St Lower to Causeway Road. DART from Tara Street to Raheny and then the H2 from Raheny Library to the Causeway Road Kestrel Teals 16