A Wild Year on the Northside – Ep 3 –

The Autumn is a wonderfully abundant time in nature, the time of harvest and preparation for the coming cold of the winter months. A lot of our birds undertake extraordinary migrations, our Spring and Summer migrants depart to Southern Climes having reared the next generation and our wintering birds return from more northerly latitudes to spend a milder winter on our shores.

In this episode we see this migration in action with Naturalist Tom Cooney on the Headland at Balscadden in Howth a wonderful place to witness what birdwatchers call “vis mig” and a great place to search for rarities. Finding these rare birds is the holy grail for twitchers and Tom recounts one of his favourite days at this location.

We join a fascinating nocturnal bat walk with Kieran Flood and Sean Meehan of the Irish Wildlife Trust to St. Anne’s Park in Raheny. Autumn is great time to search for bats as they attempt to bulk up for their winter hibernation so they are very active. So we ventured into the night, bat detectors at the ready to learn about these amazing creatures.

Finally we went out to the Phoenix Park to meet Park Superintendent Paul Mc Donnell to witness one of the city’s most dramatic spectacles the fallow deer rut and learn about the park and the deer heard for which the park was created.

About the series

A Wild Year on the Northside takes a lyrical look at a year in nature on the Northside of Dublin City. Each of the four episodes will focus on a different season and give listeners a calendar of nature’s spectacles and the amazing proliferation of wildlife that we can encounter on our doorstep. The series will aim to educate and inform our listeners to where and when they can see these events and talk to some of the volunteers and organisations that attempt to promote and protect  the city’s wild animals and habitats.

With contributions from local conservation organisations including Birdwatch Ireland, The Irish Wildlife Trust and The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group. The episodes will be recorded on location in some of Dublin’s richest locations for biodiversity… like the Bull Island, Howth, Ireland’s Eye and the Phoenix Park and will detail some of the fascinating natural events that occur during  “A Wild Year on the Northside”.

Produced, presented and sound design by Edd Kealy. The series is made with the support of Coimisiún Na Meán’s Sound and Vision scheme, with the Television License fee.