Panel: Eric Dempsey & Niall Hatch

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

Tonight’s programme features a discussion about the sad extinction of a one-abundant bird called the Slender-billed Curlew, the first ever bird species from mainland Europe known to have suffered such a fate. To give you more background to this story, our recommendation from the Mooney Goes Wild archives this week is a segment first broadcast in November of last year. In it, Niall Hatch sheds some light on the decline of this species and the drivers of its demise.

To listen to this segment from the Mooney Goes Wild archives, visit https://www.rte.ie/radio/podcasts/22464754-slender-billed-curlew-declared-extinct/

Ring Ring

Tonight’s programme opens with Derek rifling through the entire back catalogue of Swedish pop sensation ABBA: that’s a staggering 9 studio albums, 2 live albums, 13 compilation albums, 4 box sets, 5 video albums, 53 singles and 41 music videos. But why?

Well, he’s looking for one of their earlier songs – a catchy little number from 1973 called Ring Ring – which has inspired him and Niall to make a surprise phone call to listener Elizabeth Carney from Co. Sligo, who wrote into the programme recently with a couple of queries. It’s they who get the surprise, however, as they only manage to get through to Elizabeth’s answering machine. We’ll return to her later in the show.

For more information about the long and storied career of ABBA, visit https://abbasite.com/story/

Slender-billed Curlew declared extinct

We may have had difficulties getting through to Elizabeth, but luckily Eric Dempsey was standing by at his home in Co. Wicklow, ready, willing and able to chat with Derek and Niall about our next story. Very sadly, a migratory species of wading bird called the Slender-billed Curlew has formally been declared globally extinct by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and BirdLife International.

Formerly an abundant migrant through the Mediterranean region, where it was hunted in massive numbers, this elegant bird was nonetheless always something of an enigma. Its core breeding grounds – presumably located somewhere in the vast steppes of Central Asia and/or the tundra of Siberia – were never discovered by ornithologists, and little was known, either, about the species’ key wintering areas. Sharp declines were first noted as far back as 1912, but little was done to tackle the problem.

By the 1990s, just a tiny handful of Slender-billed Curlews was known to survive, spending the winter at a wetland site in Morocco called Merja Zerga . . . then just one . . . which, on 25th February 1995, was seen for the last ever time. In the intervening 30 years, no confirmed sighting has been reported, meaning that it seems certain that the species has been lost forever.

On tonight’s programme, Eric and Niall discuss the tragic loss of this once-plentiful bird, the factors believed to be behind its extinction and the lessons to be learned from its demise. This is especially relevant to us here in Ireland, where populations of the closely related Eurasian Curlew have plummeted since the 1980s, to the point where it is now one of our rarest breeding bird species. Could it go the same way as its slender-billed cousin? Let’s hope not.

For more information about the sad extinction of the Slender-billed Curlew, visit https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/slender-billed-curlew-extinct-bird-species-b2844971.html

Looking forward to Eric Dempsey’s documentary about a very special bird: the Ring Ouzel

Staying with the theme of rapidly declining bird species (as well as, fittingly enough, with the theme of ABBA’s Ring Ring), next on tonight’s programme we look forward to Eric’s upcoming documentary about one of Ireland’s most endangered birds: the Ring Ouzel, a close relative of the much more familiar Blackbird.

Once widespread breeders on high mountain peaks and scree slopes across Ireland, factors such as upland overgrazing and climate change have pushed the Ring Ouzel to the very brink of extinction here. By the summer of 2024, just one lone pair of these beautiful members of the thrush family was still known to be breeding here, in the mountains of Co. Donegal.

Eric’s documentary on the Ring Ouzel will be broadcast on RTÉ Radio One at 15:00 on Bank Holiday Monday, 27th October, as part of our Nature on One series.

For more information about the Ring Ouzel, visit https://birdwatchireland.ie/birds/ring-ouzel/

Robin with a crooked beak

Loyal Mooney Goes Wild listener Robert Brown got in touch with us recently to let us know about a Robin in his garden that appears to have a strange affliction: its beak is crooked. What could have caused this, he wanted to know, and how might the bird be impacted by this deformity?

As we discuss on tonight’s programme, while birds’ jaws are made of bone, the outer sheath of each mandible – the only part of the beak that is visible to us – consists of a protein called keratin, just like our fingernails and hair. And, like our fingernails and hair, these bill sheaths grow continuously throughout the birds’ lives. If the tips of the mandibles are properly in alignment, both the upper and lower sheaths grow and wear away at the same rate. However, if they go out of alignment, the tips can grow out of control, twisting and growing longer than they should.

There are several reasons why this sometimes happens to birds, including an injury to the beak, a congenital deformity or even a virus. It can pose serious problems for them, as it can make it more difficult or even impossible for them to eat or to preen their feathers. In many cases, it soon proves fatal.

Bill deformities of this kind are more frequently reported in crows than in other species. This is not necessarily because members of the crow family are more likely to suffer from this disability, but because they are much more likely to learn to cope with it and to survive. They are extremely intelligent and also enjoy a very wide and varied diet, meaning that they often still manage to find enough food to eat and therefore live long enough for us actually to encounter them.

Also, as we are often asked this by listeners, we discuss the difference between a "beak" and a "bill": in a nutshell, there is none!

For more information about beak/bill deformities in birds, visit https://www.bto.org/get-involved/volunteer/projects/gbw/research/studies/beakwatch

Crows on the beach at Lissadell: just what were they up to?

Returning to listener Elizabeth Carney, you will be pleased to know that we finally managed to get her on the phone. The reason that we wanted to speak to her was because we wanted to respond to two questions that she emailed into us, as follows:

Walking on Lissadell beach (Co. Sligo) this evening, just before sunset, we saw hundreds of crows descend on the beach near the water as the tide was going out. Sorry, no photos, as neither of us had our phones. But it was a most unusual sight. They didn't look like they were eating. What do you think they were at?

Also, a second question: what is the name of the little hopper insects on the sand near the water’s edge? There are always hundreds of thousands of them.

Crows, especially all-black Rooks and black-and-grey Hooded Crows, do tend to gather into large groups at this time of year, especially shortly before they head off to roost for the night. It’s difficult to speculate what they might have been doing on the beach at Lissadell, but its possible they were waiting for some source of food to appear as the tide was retreating. It could also be the case that it is a nice, open space in which they can gather in numbers before going to roost, without the risk of predators sneaking up on them.

As for Elizabeth’s second question, the little creatures she saw hopping on the sand are called, appropriately enough, sandhoppers. They aren’t actually insects, rather they are crustaceans (like prawns, crabs, lobsters and woodlice), and they can be extremely abundant close to the tideline. They are a very important source of food for many other creatures, including wading birds.

For more information about crow behaviour, visit https://corvidresearch.blog/category/crow-behavior/

For more information about sandhoppers, visit https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/marine/crustaceans/sand-hopper

The Hare’s Corner

This year marks the 5th anniversary of The Hare’s Corner, a wonderful initiative of Burrenbeo Trust to help landowners make more space for nature through the creation of habitats, such as mini-woodlands, heritage orchards, wildlife ponds and wildlife hedges, and through the provision of bespoke 'Plans for Nature'. Originally centred in Co. Clare, this year Burrenbeo Trust has partnered with biodiversity officers in a number of other counties to deliver "hare’s corners" in other parts of Ireland.

Keen to find out more, we dispatched our roving reporter, Terry Flanagan, to Staffordstown in Co. Meath to meet third-generation farmers, Michael and Penelope Monaghan, who were looking for expert input into ongoing management and advice on how best to enhance natural habitats. Also present was Hare’s Corner advisor Donna Mullen, who prepared a Plan for Nature for them.

Terry also had the enormous pleasure of meeting Michael’s mum Walburga, one of our most fanatical Mooney Goes Wild listeners, not to mention one of our oldest: she tunes in to us every week at the ripe old age of 107!

For more information about The Hare’s Corner initiative, visit https://theharescorner.ie/

Creating roosting islands at Cuskinny Marsh Nature Reserve

Regular Mooney Goes Wild listeners will be familiar with BirdWatch Ireland’s Cuskinny Marsh Nature Reserve near Cobh, Co. Cork, as it is the traditional "home base" for our live dawn chorus programme each May. It’s a wonderful place to watch birds at any time of the year, not just in summer, and during the autumn and winter months it is home to many different wading and wetland birds.

Recently, thanks to wonderful work by the Cork Branch of BirdWatch Ireland and local volunteers, the reserve’s habitat for wetland birds has been enhanced even more, with the creation of dedicated roosting islands to afford them safe places to sleep and shelter. Our good friend, ornithologist, author and proud Cobh man Jim Wilson, joins us on tonight’s programme to tell us more.

For more information about Cuskinny Marsh Nature Reserve, visit https://www.facebook.com/cuskinnynaturereserve/

Mary’s Mizen Weather

Mary McCarthy from Mizen Head, Co. Cork has been fascinated with the weather ever since she was a young girl. Her father Paddy and uncle Connie were fishermen, and they taught her how to understand weather patterns through observing the natural world. Over the years, she also learnt how to use Met Éireann and a few other sources and has become very good at spotting upcoming changes in the weather.

Because she was asked so often, Mary now gives simple up-to-date forecasts to the people of the Mizen Community in West Cork, who have to deal with very localised, fast-changing weather conditions. You can find her Mary’s Mizen Weather page on Facebook.

Now we at Mooney Goes Wild – and indeed Mary herself – urge you check the Irish meteorological service, Met Éireann, for your weather information needs. But, as a reminder of how things were years ago, for tonight’s programme our researcher Michele Browne travelled to Mizen Head to meet with Mary and her father Paddy.

To visit the Mary’s Mizen Weather page on Facebook, go to https://www.facebook.com/p/Marys-Mizen-Weather-61553090414940/