To celebrate the beginning of spring in the Gaelic calendar, ornithologist Seán Ronayne is across the schedule on RTÉ lyric fm with a new series to discuss the distinct bird songs, melodies and calls that we have today in Ireland. Sean celebrates the cormorant above...
About The Cormorant: Many of you will be familiar with the perched black silhouette of a cat-sized bird, head facing into the breeze, wings outstretched and gently, rhythmically flapping. They carry out this ritual every day, to dry off between bouts of fishing. Cormorants are wary of humans, and they don't like a close approach. They also tend not to vocalise much away from their communal winter roosts, or their summer breeding grounds. And it’s for this reason we don’t hear them too much.
Their sound is something really curious, though. A resonant, rolling, guttural sound. Again, like our sky-diving snipe, it sounds a little goat-like, but in a very different way.
Bird Songs with Seán Ronayne, RTÉ lyric fm, February 1st – 16th - listen back here
