The Dawn Chorus 2024: Sunday 5th May from midnight to 07:00
The Dawn Chorus 2024
Sunday 5th May from midnight to 07:00 on RTÉ Radio 1 and RTÉ Lyric FM & BBC Radio Wales
Love nature, love the Dawn Chorus!
Listen to the birds sing: in the early hours of Sunday 5th May, International Dawn Chorus Day, Ireland’s airwaves will come alive with birdsong
RTÉ Radio One’s live Dawn Chorus is one of the most ambitious and innovative radio projects to have hit the Irish airwaves. For almost three decades now, Derek Mooney and his team of experts have been bringing the uplifting and fascinating strains of early-morning birdsong to listeners. Ireland’s biggest annual radio event, celebrating the loudest sound in nature.
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, not just in Ireland but right across Europe and beyond. Featuring live birdsong and expert commentary, it offers an unmatched live celebration of our natural heritage.
Interest in the natural world has never been higher. People have a greater appreciation of our flora and fauna, and in particular for the songs of our wild birds. The joy and optimism engendered by birdsong has become a crucial source of comfort and entertainment for a great many of us. During the height of the Covid crisis, the restrictions that were in place meant that most of us found ourselves suddenly confined to our homes, and the lack of background noise from traffic meant that the dawn chorus stood out to us like never before. It had always been there; it’s just that we had never really noticed it before and now it seems we love it.
The dawn chorus is one of the most magical experiences in nature: a multitude of birds of many different species all singing together in harmony as morning breaks and light begins to fill the skies. As our natural world’s most impressive and renowned concert, it is almost as though it has been tailor-made for radio. It never ceases. It moves, with the early morning light, like a great wave on the face of the Earth. At this moment, somewhere in the world, the birds are waking up and bursting into song.
International Dawn Chorus Day will take place on Sunday 5th May, and this year the Mooney Goes Wild team will once again be bringing 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 & BBC Radio Wales
While Derek Mooney steers the ship from the RTÉ studios 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.
The first birds are expecting to sing around 4am so what better way to pass the time that in the company of or colleagues on RTÉ Lyric FM. Lorcan Murray will present his 30 minute selection of bird related music and Peter Curtin bring us a 30 minute sequence based on the Ambient Orbit series which often features birdsong and ambient sounds from the natural world. Lorcan Murray, RTÉ Lyric Classic Drive will present his 30-minute selection of bird related music including Dawn by Ola Gjeilo, Lon Dubh by Laoise Kelly and The Cuckoo of Neffin by Colm Mac Con lomaire. These pieces highlight Lorcan’s appreciation for nature on all things natural, especially when it comes to the beautiful relationship that exists between all birds and the dawning of the day. Peter Curtain will bring us a 30-minute sequence based on the Ambient Orbit series which often features birdsong and ambient sounds from the natural world. Liz Nolan’s classical contribution to the Dawn Chorus, includes larks and swallows, blackbirds and baby chicks – a symphony of birdsong for your May morning! With music by Vaughan Williams, Rameau, Michael Head and more composers you’ll hear on The Full Score, RTE Lyric FM.
Sinéad Wlyde, Head of RTÉ lyric fm commented: ‘’The Dawn Chorus is very close to our hearts in RTÉ lyric fm and as we celebrate our 25th birthday this May it’s worth mentioning that birdsong is how RTÉ lyric fm first came into being when the new station was tested in 1999 before the first broadcast. Dawn with the awakening chorus of birds is a time of hope and joy – it has been an inspiration for musician and composers throughout time. We are delighted to be part of this wonderful initiative again this year and bring you some carefully selected music by RTÉ lyric fm presenters, Lorcan Murray, Liz Nolan and Peter Curtain to celebrate our natural world’’.
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.
Executive producer/presenter of the Dawn Chorus Derek Mooney, said: “The dawn chorus is the highlight of my year, professionally and personally. I absolutely love it and I find the whole experience refreshing. I always eagerly look forward to hearing the first song of the morning. In Cuskinny Marsh Nature Reserve, where we’ve done our live broadcast for many years now, that first singer is usually the Blackbird, typically followed closely by the Robin and then Wren. No two dawn choruses are the same, however. It really all depends on where you are in the country and which species happen to be close to you. People ask me if I’m excited to hear the birds singing during the programme. I always tell them that I’m more relieved than excited! This programme is literally broadcast around the globe, completely live, and it would be pretty awkward to say the least if our dawn chorus didn’t feature any birds. Thankfully that’s never happened. Regardless of the weather conditions on the morning, they always come through for us.”
“All of us at BirdWatch Ireland are delighted one again to be hosting the Dawn Chorus at our Cuskinny Marsh Nature Reserve,” said Niall Hatch, Head of Communications and Development with the conservation charity.
“We know that more people than ever before have come to appreciate birds, and especially birdsong, over the past few years, so it’s particularly special once again to be able to share the rich sounds of our very own avian orchestra with listeners across Ireland and the world. The Dawn Chorus connects so many people to nature in a very special way, and I can’t wait to be a part of it.”
So, join us on RTÉ Radio One and RTÉ lyric FM from 00:00-07:00 on Sunday 5th May 2024 for a very special celebration of our wild birds, an exploration of our shared natural heritage and the finest free concert you will hear all year.
Love nature, love the Dawn Chorus!