Panel: Richard Collins, Eric Dempsey & Niall Hatch

Reporter: Terry Flanagan

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 www.rte.ie/mooney. There, you will find an extensive archive of past broadcasts, conveniently split into different topics and segments.

On tonight’s programme, our panellists talk about a very special seabird, the Great Shearwater, which has recently been seen in record-breaking numbers off the coast of Co. Kerry. The driver behind this astonishing event was Storm Ashley, so our recommendation from the archives this week is another story about a shearwater being affected by weather events: the Manx Shearwater and the impact that climate change is having on its feeding opportunities.

To listen to this segment from the Mooney Goes Wild archives, visit https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22133512/

Storm Ashley sees record numbers of Great Shearwaters off Kerry coast

Storm Ashley impacted a great many people across Ireland over the past couple of days, but did you know that it also had a remarkable impact on seabirds. One species in particular, the Great Shearwater, was seen in unprecedented numbers off the Kerry coast this morning. An estimated 35,000 of these larger relatives of our more familiar Manx Shearwater, took shelter from the storm in Tralee Bay, then when the weather improved they streamed back out to the open ocean once more. This is the largest number of these Southern Hemisphere-nesting birds ever seen of Ireland; presumably, they were blown in by the storm after it had formed in the mid-Atlantic.

For more information about Great Shearwaters, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_shearwater

BirdLife International Partnership Meeting in Kazakhstan

As he tells us on tonight’s programme, Niall is just back from the city of Almaty, Kazakhstan. He was there on behalf of BirdWatch Ireland, our national BirdLife International partner, to attend that organisation’s Partnership Meeting for its European and Central Asian region.

45 other BirdLife International partners were also in attendance, all there to discuss conservation strategies, international collaborations, citizen science initiatives and fundraising opportunities. Niall explains all, and also tells us about some of the amazing wildlife he was lucky enough to see during his trip.

For more information about BirdLife International and its work, visit https://www.birdlife.org/

The Disputed Toll

Richard was recently in Manchester, England to visit the Manchester Museum. He was there to see a very special painting by Heywood Hardy called The Disputed Toll, which also happens to be the name of a documentary he is making, to be broadcast over the Christmas season as part of our Nature on One series.

The disputed toll in question concerned, of all things, an elephant called Maharajah. Originally from Edinburgh Zoo, in 1877 he was sold to Belle Vue Zoological Gardens in Manchester. Initially, Maharajah’s handlers attempted to transport him there by train, but he absolutely refused, smashing up the carriage. The only option, therefore, was to lead him there on foot, a journey of 300 km which took 10 days to complete.

On the way, the party had to travel via a toll gate, or turnpike, which is where the dispute in question arose: how much should an elephant have to pay in order to pass? While the keeper and the toll official argued it out, the story goes that Maharajah simply grabbed the gate with his trunk, lifted it off its hinges and walked through . . . the incident preserved for posterity in Heywood’s painting, which is currently on display in Manchester Museum, right next to Maharajah’s skeleton.

For more information about Maharajah and the toll incident, visit https://manchesterhistorian.com/2013/the-disputed-toll/

For more information about Heywood Hardy’s painting The Disputed Toll, visit https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/the-disputed-toll-205152

A vending machine for ducks!

While Richard was in Manchester, he came upon a story about how a vending machine to dispense food for ducks was to be installed there, at Burrs Country Park, by a local community action group. The machine was produced by an organisation called the Feed The Ducks Initiative, which has installed many of these machines across the UK, as well as in Ireland and The Netherlands.

The machines in question are solar-powered and take contactless card payments: £1 will get you a handful of nutritious duck food, with 10% of that going to fund local conservation and infrastructure initiatives.

As it turns out, the man who kickstarted the whole thing and invented the machines, Mathew Knight, lives in Cork, so of course we had to invite him onto the programme. Tonight, he explains how the provision of vending machines has led to a significant decrease in people feeding unsuitable food, such as bread, to ducks, and has also reduced the associated problems of litter and rodents.

For more information about the Feed The Ducks Initiative and its duck-food vending machines, visit https://www.feedducks.com/

Plant Pathogen Conference in Co. Carlow

Next Saturday, 25th October, sees a major conference take place in Teagasc Oak Park in Carlow. Entitled Future Plant Health Responders it will deal with topics such as climate-driven pests and pathogens, crop protection and pest management, to mention but a few.

The unusual thing about this conference is that it is being organised by a number of different associations who are coming together to look at problems from different perspectives, the intention being to bring scientists together to offer advice and knowledge to farmers and horticulturists.

The conference, which is open to the public as well as researchers in these fields, is being organised by the Society of Irish Plant Pathologists (SIPP) and the Entomology Society of Ireland (Entosoc).

For tonight’s programme, our roving reporter, Terry Flanagan, headed off to Teagasc Oak Park, where he met up with Dr. Aisling Moffet, founder of Entosoc, and Dr. Anna Tiely, chairperson of SIPP.

For more information about the Future Plant Health Responders conference and to register to attend, visit https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/future-plant-health-responders-society-of-irish-plant-pathologists-and-entomology-society-ireland-tickets-1007560058257

The Extraordinary Tale of the White Prominent: looking forward to Eric Dempsey’s moth documentary

As part of our popular Nature on One series, on Bank Holiday Monday 28th October we will be bringing you another special natural history documentary. Presented by naturalist and author Eric Dempsey, The Extraordinary Tale of the White Prominent follows his quest to track down one of our rarest insects. Believed to be extinct in Ireland for over 70 years, in 2008 the beautiful White Prominent moth was sensationally rediscovered in one small area of Co. Kerry, where it had somehow managed to cling on, unseen and unknown.

On tonight’s programme, we bring you a sneak preview of Eric’s documentary. Be sure to tune in to RTÉ Radio One at 15:00 on Monday 28th October to learn all about these long-lost moths and to discover whether Eric was successful in his quest.

For more information about our Nature on One series of documentaries, visit https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/mooney/generic/2023/0313/1362023-nature-on-one/