Thanks to the European Broadcasting Union, we are absolutely delighted to be joined for our 21st Dawn Chorus by broadcasters and listeners right across Europe, as we follow the wave of light sweeping from East to West as dawn breaks. Five EBU broadcasters (including RTÉ) will be transmitting the whole programme from 00:00 - 06:00 Irish time, and they will also be providing content for the show as they broadcast from locations in their region, bringing us their birdsong in this first ever pan-European Dawn Chorus!
Key EBU Members Contributing Towards Dawn Chorus
RUSSIA
Broadcaster: Radio Russia
Presenter & Bird Expert: Alexander Khaburgaev, author and presenter of radio and TV programmes about nature. Works for Radio Russia (staff member) and TV channel “Live Planet” (for more, visit click here and click here).
Location: Sparrow Hills in Moscow
NETHERLANDS
Broadcaster: VARA
Presenter: Rob Buiter, Dutch nature journalist who is a freelance reporter for the Dutch National Radio 1 show Vroege Vogels (‘Early Birds’) He’s been birding from the age of twelve, mainly in the dunes west of Amsterdam, where he grew up. Texel is one of his favourite ‘hide aways’ from the hectic life of journalism.
Bird Expert: Eric Dempsey, ornithologist, author and Director and Founder of the Bird and Wildlife Tourism Awards
Location: The Mokbaai, on Texel. Texel is the largest Dutch island in the Waddensea, the large tidal sea that stretches from The Netherlands, through Germany, to the north west of Denmark. The Mokbaai is a large inlet on the southern tip of Texel, on two sides of a dyke, so we’ll find totally different species. In the bay itself, we’ll find many waders, such as avocets, redshanks and oystercatchers, and ducks like shellducks and eiders. On the other end of the dyke, there’s dunes and shrubs, where we’ll hear common whitethroats, sedge warblers and bluethroats. Even in the middle of the night there will be activity from bitterns, little grebes and nightingales.
NORWAY
Broadcaster: NRK
Presenter: Helge Søfteland (41) is a reporter for the Nature division of the Norwegian Broadcasting Company. Born and raised on a farm in Voss on the west coast of Norway, he is an avid outdoorsman and keen skier and angler. Having spent his youth listening to AM radio, he found his calling when he took up the microphone himself, spending his days interviewing ordinary people about extraordinary nature, wildlife and the great outdoors.
Bird Expert: Niall Hatch, Development Officer with BirdWatch Ireland
Location: Herresåsen (capercaillie leik), Voss, Western Norway. The "leik" of the capercaillie is a result of pure Darwinism. Since the last ice age, the birds have spent centuries perfecting their display of courting and rivalry in the marshes of the pinewood hills in western Norway. Today they battle it out amongst the blueberry tussocks in Herresåsen near Voss, and only those who dare, wins.
The males fly in to reside in their favourite trees in the early evening, then drop down into the centre of the leik during the night, performing their impressive, almost theatrical dance to scare off rivals and impress the hens. Mystical black figures silhouette against the snow, leaving telling dragmarks from the wings as they claim their territory. Soundwise it is not for the faint hearted, with burping and screeching that culminates with a pop almost like a champagne cork.
Sometimes, showing off ones physical stature and vocal might is enough, but more than often they clash with the determination of heavyweight boxers. In some cases, the battle ends with one of them making the ultimate sacrifice. The winner then gets a chance to pass his genes on for posterity, mating his hens in the sweet spot of the leik.
Every year the leik in Herresåsen is visited by keen birdwatchers, who enjoy the spectacle of the capercaillies. During the afternoon they meet, silently nodding, maybe exchanging a few words on the last nights action, as they haul photo-lenses the size of drainage pipes into their camouflaged tents under the old, crooked pines. In order not to disturb the birds, one must be on site and silent before the birds fly in, and not break cover before they fly out again in the morning. After all, this is the home of capercaillies. We humans are only visiting…
NORTHERN IRELAND
Broadcaster: BBC Radio Ulster
Presenter: Anne-Marie McAleese. Anne Marie McAleese joined the BBC in February 1989, and presents the weekly Saturday morning programme Your Place Or Mine as well as the station's past Dawn Chorus programmes. She currently lives in Portstewart where she enjoys walking, golf and dabbling in ornithology.
Bird Expert: Dr. Kendrew Colhoun. As RSPB NI's only dedicated conservation scientist, Kendrew works on a wide variety of research. His work helps to identify where RSPB conservation resources are directed through research on population trends, or the impact of government farm subsidies on rural wildlife. Kendrew gained his PhD with work on over-wintering swans and has also worked on a research and conservation project on light-bellied Brent geese since 2003. As well as holding several roles with the RSPB, BirdWatch Ireland and the Northern Ireland Assembly over the years, he is also a neighbour of Radio Ulster’s star species this year – the Tollymore Forest Woodpecker!
Location: Tollymore National Outdoor Centre, Co. Down
ENGLAND
BBC Radio 4 will facilitate Eanna ni Lamhna at the RSPB Ham Wall Reserve in Somerset, where she will co-present coverage alongside Brett Westwood (BBC Radio 4 - Tweet Of The Day), the RSPB's Steve Hughes, and poet Paul Farley. BBC Radio 4 will be making two programmes about the Dawn Chorus (Open Country and The Echo Chamber) for future broadcast.
We'll also be joined from England by Eric Simonds, from Out Of The Woodwork birdboxes, and by the man who is behind International Dawn Chorus Day (which was initially created to mark his 40th birthday), Chris Baines.
SWITZERLAND
We are delighted that the Swiss national station, RSI Rete Due, will be carrying the full six hours of the Dawn Chorus programme live across Switzerland. It is, as the Swiss say so beautifully, "a genuine and spontaneous chorus that unites all Europe". For more information, visit http://www.rsi.ch/rete-due/musicalbox/Coro-dell%E2%80%99alba-7231757.html.
Other EBU Members Broadcasting Dawn Chorus
A number of other broadcasters will either broadcast the final hour of the programme live across their country, or will put together a programme about the Dawn Chorus. These broadcasters are:
BELGIUM: La Premiere, RTBF
CZECH REPUBLIC: Czech Radio Vltava & Czech Radio Dvojka
FINLAND: YLE
LITHUANIA: LRT Radio
LUXEMBOURG: Radio 100,7
RUSSIA: Radio Russia
SLOVAKIA: Radio Slovensko
SLOVENIA: RTV
SPAIN: RTVE
SWITZERLAND: Rete Due
VATICAN CITY: Radio - Vatikan
BirdLife International
Members of BirdLife International will also join us during the broadcast from. Representing their countries, we're delighted to be joined by:
MALTA (BirdLife Malta): Jason Aloisio
CROATIA (BIOM): Ivan Budinski
FINLAND (BirdLife Finland): Jan Södersved
POLAND (OTOP): Jarek Krogulec
AUSTRIA (BirdLife Österreich): Benjamin Seaman
SPAIN (SEO): Jorge Fernandez Orueta
Around Ireland
In addition to all our locations around Europe, we'll also be broadcasting from a number of locations across Ireland, including our flagship site of Cuskinny Marsh Nature Reserve in Cobh, Cork, from where Derek Mooney, Richard Collins and Jim Wilson will anchor the coverage of the Dawn Chorus. Click here for a list of birds that may be found at Cuskinny.
Dave Duggan, of the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), will be broadcasting from Glenveagh National Park in Donegal, whilst Mooney Goes Wild reporter Terry Flanagan will monitor the beautiful birdsong from the grounds of RTÉ in Donnybrook.
BirdWatch Ireland's Alex Copland will broadcast from Boora Bog in Offaly, and Theo Jebb will report from Kilmacud in Dublin.
In Dublin's Herbert Park, Steve Newton (BirdWatch Ireland) will join up with Niamh Ni Cholmain (Biodiversity Facilitator for Community Engagement, Dublin City Council) and actress Mary McEvoy.
BirdWatch Ireland's John Lusby will bring us the birdsong of Kilcolgan, Co. Galway, our apiarist Philip McCabe will switch from bees to birds, as he monitors the birdsong from Drogheda, County Louth, and Professor John O'Halloran will let us listen in to the Munster song of the Cork birds...