Panel: Richard Collins & Éanna Ní Lamhna

Reporters: Terry Flanagan, Niall Hatch & Jim Wilson

Researcher: Michele Browne

In addition to listening to us on RTÉ Radio One at 22:00 every Monday night, don't forget that you can also listen back to each of our programmes any time you like at https://rte.ie/mooney. There, you will find an extensive archive of past broadcasts, conveniently split into different topics and segments.

On tonight’s programme, we look forward to one of the most eagerly anticipated radio events of the year: our annual live Dawn Chorus broadcast, which this year will be coming to you in the early hours of Sunday 5th May.

With this in mind, to whet your appetites for this year’s birdsong extravaganza, our suggested listen from the extensive Mooney Goes Wild archives this week is a recap of last year’s Dawn Chorus programme, which was first broadcast on 7th May 2023.

To listen to this programme from the Mooney Goes Wild archives, visit

https://rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22247538/

Looking forward to the Dawn Chorus: Sunday 5th May 2024

International Dawn Chorus Day will take place on Sunday 5th May, and this year the Mooney Goes Wild team will once again be bringing it to listeners across Ireland and, thanks to RTÉ’s online presence, the world a celebration of Irish birdsong from midnight through to 7:00am on RTÉ Radio One, in a simulcast with RTÉ Lyric FM. On tonight’s programme, we look forward to the biggest radio event in the natural world.

While Derek Mooney steers the ship from the RTÉ Radio Centre in Dublin, 'home base’ for the live broadcast once again this year will be BirdWatch Ireland’s Cuskinny Marsh Nature Reserve in Cobh, Co. Cork, where our main presentation team of Jim Wilson and Niall Hatch will introduce the dawn chorus and, while the birdsong builds in real time, explain to listeners what our feathered friends are getting up to as the sun rises.

Across the country, Richard Collins, Éanna Ní Lamhna, Eric Dempsey and Terry Flanagan will also bring us the birdsong from their parts of Ireland, as the sun gradually breaks the horizon and the birds begin their performances.

But that’s not all. We are delighted to be partnering once again with our colleagues across the Irish Sea in BBC Wales, who have become an annual fixture in the event and who will be simultaneously broadcasting the programme across the Welsh airwaves. On tonight’s programme, we hear from our good friend, BBC Wales presenter Daniel Jenkins-Jones about how plans for our joint live broadcast are progressing on his side of the Irish Sea.

Éanna also speaks to Jone Ugarteburu, Field Officer for Donegal with the Corncrake LIFE project, who will be broadcasting live for us on the big night from the island of Inishbofin in Co. Donegal, hopefully accompanied by the unmistakeable song of the Corncrake, one of Ireland’s most enigmatic and threatened birds.

Most importantly of all, we want to hear from you! We are counting on our listeners to send us their own recordings and live feeds of the birdsong performance happening near them. It could be the sound from your garden, your local park or woodland . . . or even just your open bedroom window.

For more information about this year’s live Dawn Chorus broadcast, visit

https://rte.ie/radio/radio1/mooney/generic/2024/0410/1442810-the-dawn-chorus-2024/

Eric Dempsey discusses the singing stars of Wicklow’s East Coast Nature Reserve

Throughout our Dawn Chorus programme next weekend, Eric Dempsey will be broadcasting live for us from BirdWatch Ireland’s East Coast Nature Reserve in Newcastle, Co. Wicklow. For tonight’s programme, our Researcher Michele Browne paid a visit to the reserve, where Eric gave her a sneak peek at some of the key avian singing stars he hopes to showcase on the big day . . . including, with a bit of luck, the skulking Grasshopper Warbler and the handsome Reed Bunting.

For more information about BirdWatch Ireland’s East Coast Nature Reserve, visit

https://birdwatchireland.ie/our-work/nature-reserves/nature-reserves-ecnr/

For more information about Grasshopper Warblers, visit

https://birdwatchireland.ie/birds/grasshopper-warbler/

For more information about Reed Buntings, visit

https://birdwatchireland.ie/birds/reed-bunting/

WildMind in Kerry and Scops Owls in France

Niall Hatch is not in studio this week; he’s in the village of Fenit on the shores of Tralee Bay in Co. Kerry. This picturesque location happens to be the westernmost commercial port in all of Europe, as well as the home of the WildMind festival, a celebration of environmentalism, conservation, sustainability and the natural world. It’s this festival that has brought Niall to Fenit, and on tonight’s programme he tells us more about the nature-themed festivities.

Niall hasn’t been staying in one place for very long lately. Last week, he was in the town of Mandelieu-La Napoule on the Mediterranean coast of south-eastern France, in the foothills of the Alps. While there, he recorded a report all about one of his favourite birds, the Scops Owl. These miniscule, Starling-sized migrants are hard to see, but their distinctive tooting song is an oft-heard feature of summer nights in southern Europe.

For more information about the WildMind Festival, visit

http://wildmind.ie/

For more information about Scops Owls, visit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_scops_owl

A quick audio guide to Cuskinny Marsh

As mentioned above, we are delighted that our home base for our Dawn Chorus programme this year will once again be BirdWatch Ireland’s Cuskinny Marsh Nature Reserve on the outskirts of Cobh, Co. Cork. Home to a rich diversity of birdlife, thanks to its wide variety of habitats, it is the ideal location from which to broadcast live birdsong.

On tonight’s programme, one of our presenters on the big night, naturalist, author and proud Corkonian Jim Wilson, gives us an overview of some of the species he hopes to bring us during the broadcast.

For more information about Cuskinny Marsh Nature Reserve, visit

http://cuskinnynaturereserve.com/

ChoughWatch 2024

The Dawn Chorus is not the only ornithological treat we have in store for Mooney Goes Wild fans this May Bank Holiday long weekend. On Monday 6th May, in a special collaboration with the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), we will give RTÉ Radio One listeners an unprecedented opportunity to get up close and personal with one of Ireland’s most fascinating yet least well-known birds, the Chough.

Despite its playful and inquisitive nature, dazzling flying prowess and beautiful appearance, the Chough is not a familiar bird to most people in Ireland. Our live Choughwatch 2024 broadcast on 6th May aims to change all that, as our experts Niall Hatch and Jim Wilson report live from two Chough nest-sites at secret locations in the southwest of the country. Thanks to the NPWS project team, we will also be streaming live video footage of both nests.

For more information about Choughs, visit

https://birdwatchireland.ie/birds/chough/

Nesting drama in Co. Meath

For tonight’s programme, our roving reporter Terry Flanagan paid a visit to a listener called Margaret Nangle, who has a pre-school in Summerhill, Co. Meath. For many years now, the school has had a nestbox with a camera.

This year, the nest was originally occupied by a pair of Blue Tits. They were ejected by a pair of Great Tits, but shortly after that a pair of House Sparrows took over and are now building their own nest in the box. Terry speaks to Margaret Nangle and her young pupils all about the drama they have been captivated by over the past few weeks.

For more information about Margaret’s Montessori School in Summerhill, Co. Meath, visit

http://mccc.ie/childcare_provider_details.aspx?ProvID=62&AreaID=5

Flora, Fauna . . . and Funga

Imagine a world without bread, chocolate, cheese, soy sauce, beer or wine. We can thank fungi for all of these things!

If you happen to have picked up the April edition of National Geographic magazine, you will have noticed that this esteemed publication has included "fungi" for the first time in its definition of wildlife, as in Flora, Fauna and Funga.

The driving force behind that inclusion is mycologist Giuliana Furci, Founding Director of the Fungi Foundation, an associate of Harvard University and a National Geographic Explorer. On tonight’s programme, Giuliana speaks to Éanna all about fungi, fascinating and crucially important organisms that are neither plant nor animal.

For more information about Giuliana Furci and her work, visit

https://giulianafurci.com/

Mooney Goes Wild Competition: win a beautiful Wren print by Eric Dempsey

We have a special competition for our loyal Mooney Goes Wild listeners this week. If you would like to be in with a chance to win a very special limited-edition print of a Wren, one of the standout stars of the Irish dawn chorus, by Eric Dempsey, simply answer the following question:

What is the Irish name for the Wren?

Simply email your answer to the above question to mooney@rte.ie and, if your answer is correct, you will be entered into our draw to win Eric’s gorgeous print. The closing date for entries is Monday 6th May 2024.

For more information about Wrens, visit

https://birdwatchireland.ie/birds/wren/