Cork Harbour is a birdwatcher’s dream. It is of major international importance its total number of wintering migrants and for its population of Redshank. There are at least 15 wintering species that have populations of national importance, including a nationally important colony of Common Tern who have been breeding here since 1970. Several of the species which occur regularly are listed in Annex I of the EU Birds Directive. Cork Harbour in its entirety has therefore been designated as a Special Protection Area (SPA) for birds and a Ramsar site of international importance.
Other designations within Cork Harbour protect important habitats such as salt marsh, reed bed and intertidal mudflat. They include proposed Natural Heritage Areas such as Monkstown Creek and the Special Conservation Area of Belvelly Channel, which can be seen from Toureen Terrace between Little Island and Great Island.
Monkstown Creek is a tidal inlet of Cork Harbour. Its mudflats and tidal creeks are fringed by saltmarsh vegetation. Semi-natural woodland grows above the southern shore and a brackish lake is separated from the sea by a sluice gate. The mudflats of Monkstown creek are a feeding ground and winter refuge to both locally and nationally important numbers of wildfowl. Monkstown Creek has internationally important numbers of roosting cormorants.
The birds can be watched from the footpath running alongside Monkstown Creek or a hide can be easily set up in the overgrowth along the southern shore.
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