The grassy edges of the Tolka Basin are still attractive to brent geese in 2017; here they are grazing well after sunset on 7 December 2017, anticipating a cold night. In general the dog disturbance (and the zombie-like numbness of some dog-owners) has increased throughout Dublin, but grazing in darkness might bring some relief to the geese.
This is the "central" flock of north Dublin, it is flushed as far to the west as Elmgreen Golf Course over course of the day and often visits the Scoil UiChonaill pitch or East Point Park just after sunset, before going for the North Bull overnight. The "southern" flock follows the Liffey on the south side as far inland as Palmerston, while the "northern" flock follows the old Santry valley and ends up as far inland as Santry (the pitches next to the park) and Ballymun (only rarely, B. is a derelict-sterilized area, unattractive to living beings) in the afternoon. Each of the three flocks may reach a maximum of 2000 inds. or a little more in years when they have offspring, here we probably see a measure of the carrying capacity of the hinterland. On top of this there is a Howth/Baldoyle flock that may send members into the northern Dublin flock (Darndale Park is a typical meeting place), but more often mixes with Malahide Bay birds in Portmarnock, maximum again order of magnitude 2000 birds. Larger flocks (3 - 4000 inds.) are created when two of the major flocks merge in the saltmarshes at North Bull, or on St Anne's Golf Course, in March and April, prior to the departure for Iceland.