Panel: Richard Collins & 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.

It may only seem like yesterday that we first took to our microphones, but would you believe that earlier this month Mooney Goes Wild celebrated 30 years on air? Over that time, we have brought listeners across Ireland and, increasingly, the world literally thousands of wildlife-themed stories, interviews and insights, showcasing and celebrating all aspects of our astonishing natural world.

To celebrate this landmark occasion, acclaimed documentary-maker Colm Flynn crafted a special programme all about three decades of Mooney Goes Wild. Featuring contributions from (who else?) our key contributors, reminiscences from Derek and our panellists and a listen-back to some stand-out moments from our last three decades of broadcasting, it was broadcast in the Nature on One documentary slot on RTÉ Radio One on Bank Holiday Monday, 5th May.

To listen to this very special documentary celebrating 30 years of Mooney Goes Wild, visit https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22510643/

Looking back at Dawn Chorus Live 2025

Sunday 4th May was International Dawn Chorus Day and, fittingly enough, the day when we broadcast this year’s annual Dawn Chorus Live programme on RTÉ Radio One and RTÉ Lyric FM. Each May for the past three decades, Derek and the Mooney Goes Wild team have been bringing you this very special programme. Winner of both the National PPI Radio Award for Innovation and the coveted International Rose d’Or award, the programme has become one of the key broadcast highlights of the year.

Our 'home base’ for the live broadcast once again this year was BirdWatch Ireland’s Cuskinny Marsh Nature Reserve in Cobh, Co. Cork, with contributions coming in from across Ireland. If you happen to be one of the many listeners who sent us recordings of the birdsong you could hear wherever you happened to be on the night, be it in Ireland or further afield, we would like to extend our sincere thanks to you.

To kick off tonight’s programme, Derek and Niall look back on what turned out to be another wonderful live programme, one which saw both the birds and our expert contributors in fine voice. One of the clear highlights was our live link-up with our colleagues in YLE, the national broadcaster in Finland, which brought the unmistakable "booming" song of the Bittern, a large and skulking member of the heron family, to listeners across Ireland, Europe and the world.

To listen back to our entire seven-hour Dawn Chorus Live 2025 programme, visit https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/programmes-dawn-chorus/2025/0504/1510991-dawn-chorus-sunday-4-may-2025/

Corncrakes and Cuckoos on Inishbofin

The island of Inishbofin, lying off the coast of Co. Galway, is well-known for its rich birdlife, as well as for its natural beauty. Former Mooney Goes Wild researcher John Bela Reilly happened to be there last week with his thirteen-year-old son Sam, and he contacted us to let us know about the wonderful experiences that the pair had listening to the distinctive songs two of Ireland’s most elusive and evocative bird species: the Corncrake and the Cuckoo. On tonight’s programme, he tells us more.

For more information about Corncrakes, visit https://birdwatchireland.ie/birds/corncrake/

For more information about Cuckoos, visit https://birdwatchireland.ie/birds/cuckoo/

Nestwatch 2025

Right now, we are at the peak of the bird-nesting season in Ireland, with millions upon millions of birds belonging to dozens of different species currently incubating eggs, feeding hungry nestlings or protecting their precious fledglings as they begin to explore the world around them.

If you have ever wondered what exactly goes on inside birds’ nests, we’re pleased to let you know that we’ve got you covered! You can watch three separate live camera streams from nests on our website, with our avian stars this year being as follows:

- Sand Martins: a live stream from a specially constructed artificial nesting bank at Harper’s Island Wetlands Reserve near Cork City, courtesy of the Cork Branch of BirdWatch Ireland.

- Blue Tits: live from a nestbox in Derek’s very own garden in south Dublin, giving us a fantastic insight into these cavity-nesters, whose breeding activity normally goes completely unseen.

- Choughs: a live stream featuring Ireland’s rarest crow species from Glengarriff Nature Reserve in West Cork, courtesy of the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

Also, be sure to tune in to the Today show on RTÉ One Television on Wednesday 14th May, when Derek Mooney and Jim Wilson will be broadcasting live from St. Colman’s Cathedral in Cobh, Co. Cork, currently home to a nesting pair of Peregrine Falcons and their chicks, also being streamed live online to the world.

For more information about Nestwatch 2025 and to view the live nestcam streams, visit https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/mooney/2025/0415/1507825-nestwatch-2025-sand-martins-blue-tits-and-choughs/

Introducing BirdWatch Ireland’s new Birds of Ireland Field Guide app

BirdWatch Ireland, which is the largest and most active conservation charity in Ireland, recently launched a brand-new, state-of-the-art bird identification app for smartphones and tablets. Called Birds of Ireland Field Guide and produced in collaboration with Sunbird Images, it is a truly comprehensive guide to all of the 492 bird species ever recorded in Ireland. All regularly occurring Irish bird species are included in the free version, while over 260 additional rare vagrant species can be unlocked with an annual subscription. It is available for download on both Apple iOS and Android operating systems.

The free version of the app includes:

- High-quality identification plates for all regularly occurring Irish bird species

- In-depth species profiles (habitat, behaviour, status & more)

- Bird names in 20 languages (including Irish)

- Manual ID tool

- ‘Similar species’ tool

- Side-by-side comparison of up to 8 species (up to 16 on tablets)

- European range maps

- The ability to create and export lists of personal sightings

Users can also choose to unlock the app’s full potential with the following optional premium paid features:

Use cutting-edge AI to identify birds by sound or photo – automatically and instantly

Access over 1,140 bird calls and songs, plus video clips showcasing typical behaviour

Explore lifelike 3D bird models and view species life-sized in your environment using Augmented Reality

The Bird Bundle Ireland add-on also includes egg images for all native breeding birds and custom-made Irish distribution maps

To download the Birds of Ireland Field Guide app for Apple devices, visit https://apps.apple.com/ie/app/birds-of-ireland-field-guide/id6743699372

To download the Birds of Ireland Field Guide app for Android devices, visit https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sunbirdimages.birds_ie_gold&hl=en&pli=1

Invasive Species Week: 12th to 18th May 2025

Over the years, we have spoken many times on the programme about the threats posed by alien invasive species: that is, non-native plants and animals that have been introduced to the wild by humans – either deliberately or accidentally – and which are causing negative consequences for biodiversity, agriculture or economic fortunes.

For those of you who would like to learn more about the threats that these introduced species pose or would like to become more proactive in tackling the problem, you will be interested to know that Invasive Species Week will be taking place from 12th to 18th May. John Kelly is Invasive Species Programme Manager with the National Biodiversity Data Centre, and he joins us on tonight’s programme to tell us more.

For more information about Invasive Species Week 2025, visit https://invasives.ie/invasive-species-week/

Tackling aquatic invasives

For the next segment of tonight’s programme, we stay with the theme of Invasive Species Week, which starts today and sees organisations from Ireland and the UK come together for a week of action to raise awareness on invasive alien species and to set out a course of actions to prevent the spread of these problematic non-native plants and animals.

The spread of invasive species is a major issue in both marine and inland waters around the world. They can disrupt our boating activities, compete with native plants and animals and can cause major changes to entire ecosystems.

Rory Keating is a Fisheries Officer with Inland Fisheries Ireland and also a member of the Dublin Angling Initiative outreach programme. Our roving reporter Terry Flanagan caught up with him recently on the banks of the Royal Canal near Leixlip, Co. Kildare to find out more about the threats posed by invasive aquatic species and the steps being taken to minimise the harm they cause.

For more information about Inland Fisheries Ireland, visit https://www.fisheriesireland.ie/

For more information about the Dublin Angling Initiative, https://www.fisheriesireland.ie/what-we-do/education-and-outreach/dublin-angling-initiative

Great Tits: a staggering 77 years of data from Wytham Woods in England

The Great Tit is a common and widespread species across Ireland, and indeed across much of Europe and Asia, and is a familiar visitor to Irish gardens. They take very readily to artificial nestboxes and are happy to be in close proximity to humans, which has meant that the Great Tit has become one of the most intensely studied bird species in the world.

But one particular study into these remarkably intelligent and charismatic birds stands out above all the others. For a staggering 77 years now, researchers have been studying the many Great Tits which breed at a location called Wytham Woods near Oxford, England.

On tonight’s programme, we are delighted to be joined by Professor Ben Sheldon, Director of the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology at the University of Oxford, to learn more about this remarkable long-term study, the methodologies and technology behind it and the information it has revealed about these fascinating little birds.

For more information about the University of Oxford’s Wytham Woods Tit Study, visit https://wythamtits.com/

IWDG invites you to Whale Watch Ireland 2025 between 5:00 and 7:00 PM on Saturday, May 17th.

This annual event, now in its 23rd year, comprises free and guided whale watching at local headlands and vantage points, as part of the All-Ireland Whale Watch Day. This year's event is held in conjunction with National Biodiversity Week Ireland, which runs May 16th-25th.

These simultaneous land-based watches at more than a dozen sites around the Irish coast provide IWDG researchers, whale enthusiasts and citizen scientists alike with a unique overview of whale and dolphin activity on the day and you can play an important part.

The event is suitable for all ages and is aimed at everyone from the novice wildlife enthusiast to the more experienced naturalist, with a keen interest in marine wildlife and biological recording.

📍From Clogher Head to Bloody Bridge, our watch leaders will be ready to guide you:

Clogher Head, Co. Louth – Breffni Martin📞 087-9145363 | 📧 bmartin@regintel.com

Howth Head, Co. Dublin – Ronan Hickey📞 086-3391142 | 📧 ronan.hici@gmail.com

Bray Head, Co. Wicklow – Siofra Quigley📞 086-0613131 | 📧 s.quigley1@outlook.com

Hook Head, Co. Wexford – Rory O'Hanlon📞 086-1983380 | 📧 Rory.OHanlon@npws.gov.ie

Helvic Head, Co. Waterford – Andrew Malcolm📞 087-7952061 | 📧 oxmoron@gmail.com

Cloghna Head, Co. Cork – Pádraig Whooley📞 086-3850568 | 📧 padraig.whooley@iwdg.ie

Slea Head, Co. Kerry – Nick Massett📞 087-6736341 | 📧 nickmassett@hotmail.com

Loop Head, Co. Clare – Simon Berrow📞 086-8545450 | 📧 simon.berrow@iwdg.ie

Nimmo’s Pier, Galway City – Cilia Kootstra📞 0031 611156327 | 📧 cilia.kootstra@research.atu.ie

Erris Head, Co. Mayo – Tom Breathnach📞 087-2688435 | 📧 tunas-insoles-01@icloud.com

Mullaghmore Head, Co. Sligo – Rossa Meade📞 086-0632081 | 📧 rossameade@gmail.com

Inishowen Head, Co. Donegal – Brendan Farren📞 086-2187242 | 📧 brendanrua@gmail.com

Portmuck, Co. Antrim – Ian Enlander📞 078-49853549 | 📧 ian.enlander1@hotmail.com

Bloody Bridge, Co. Down – Andy Carden📞 077-62019160 | 📧 andycarden58@hotmail.com

📣 General/media enquiries:Pádraig Whooley, IWDG Sightings Officer📞 086-3850568 | 📧 sightings@iwdg.ie