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Sean Ronayne in Birdsong

'The sound of extinction': One man's mission to record Ireland's precious birdsongs

Birdsong, a documentary film, airs on RTÉ One this evening.

SEÁN RONAYNE IS on a mission. He wants to record the call of every bird species across Ireland.

Each call is like a fingerprint, Seán says – unique. In a documentary film airing on RTÉ One this evening, we get to follow Seán across Ireland as he captures the sound birdsong — some of them highly elusive — and learn about his personal journey with ornithology.

We start on Tory Island in Co Donegal with the corn crake, a secretive bird with a distinctive call that builds its nests on the ground. They used to breed in Ireland in meadows with a rich diversity of plants but intensified and mechanised agricultural practices have driven them out, we learn. Nests have been destroyed and chicks have been killed by human interference.

The corn crake is not alone in its vulnerable position. 63% of birds in Ireland are at risk of extinction (either red or amber listed). 

In an interview with The Journal, Seán said that as he dived deeper into his task, which started as a personal project, he realised more and more the importance of what he was working on.

“When I got to the more difficult species, I realised why they were difficult – because they’re rare. They’re rare because of the fact that a lot of their habitats are wiped out or are down to a minimum here,” Seán said.

“For example, we have the lowest cover of native woodland in all of Europe,” he said, adding that “Ireland has lost 90% of all its wetlands in the last 300 years, which is the worst in any country in the world”.

People think that extinction is this far-flung concept, something that only happens in the Amazon Rainforest, when in actual fact it’s happening right here and right now. And it will accelerate and get worse if we don’t all band together to step up and take action.

Next generation

At one point in the film, Seán visits a classroom of primary school students, who listen raptly to a recording of birdsong to see can they guess the bird it came from. “A cuckoo!” one of them calls out. One child asks how many species of birds there are in Ireland. It’s a heartwarming scene and perhaps something of a contrast to Seán’s recollection of his own school days when he was branded “nature boy” – a term he’s now reclaiming to use as the title of his forthcoming book. 

These days, Seán is in high demand for talks at schools, community halls, festivals and other events. The reaction from young schoolkids, he says, can sometimes be hard to gauge, as some children can be quieter and might not want to admit that they’re interested in birds in front of peers.

“Sometimes I’ve had classes where I give a talk and there are no questions at the end. But then there are classes where I give a talk and I could be inundated with questions. I gave a talk two days ago and that was the case and it was just brilliant. It’s really rewarding to see that kind of reaction from the kids because they’re the future and we need them to carry the torch, so to speak.” 

Personal story

“Birds and nature in general have always been interesting to me, from the very beginning. My parents figured that out because I was restless as a kid but they knew that when they brought me out into nature that I was just a different person, totally calm. I was enthralled,” Seán recalled.

“I never had an interest in any sport. I probably tried every sport under the sun, but it just wasn’t me.

“I’m still restless and I need a project that challenges me. I need something to look forward to and to keep me driven. This is something that ticked all those boxes.” 

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Interspersed throughout the documentary are some moments of Seán’s parents and partner sharing personal stories, including when his partner, Alba Novell Capdevila, set him on a journey of learning that he has autism. Alba had noticed that some of Seán’s behaviours lined up with the criteria, she explains in the documentary, and he subsequently received a formal diagnosis.

When he received the diagnosis, it helped him to understand himself better.

“Everybody’s affected differently. For me, I found socialisation really difficult. I didn’t want it to be difficult. I wanted to be friends with people and I wanted to have smooth conversations but it just I couldn’t do that,” Seán explained in our interview.

“The other thing that like that affects me a lot is its sensitivity to sound. That has positives and negatives. Because I am so sensitive to sound, I can really use that to my advantage when it comes to listening intricately to bird sound and sounds of nature,” he said.

“But that also means that I get really irritated with sounds that most people wouldn’t really even pick up, especially low bass sounds. I get really anxious and it builds and it builds and it builds and I end up in a fight or flight reaction and sometimes I can actually blackout. Before, I used to think, why do I get so angry over something so little? Now I understand why. That for me is a relief, because now I can accept it and understand the mechanisms behind it.”

Skellig Islands

We meet many birds and see and hear striking sounds and visuals as the documentary brings us the length and breadth of Ireland – Tory Island, Killarney, the Dublin/Wicklow mountains, Glenveagh, Lough Ennell, and the Skellig Islands.

It’s on the Skellig Islands that the viewer is treated to some brilliant shots of soaring birds as Seán seeks out sounds that can’t be found on the mainland.

“Skelligs was a dream come true for me,” Seán said, explaining that there was a lengthy process required to obtain the necessary licences to visit and film overnight.

“Finally, we got the licenses to go out there, and it was amazing. After 3pm, there were no tourists, so it was just us on the island with a few of the guides that were there for the weekend.

“Kathleen Harris, the director, she’s from Texas, and they have significant wild spaces over there, so she’s really been in some proper world national parks, but she said that she has never seen such a place that’s totally just for the birds. It’s another world.”  

Vast knowledge

Seán has thousands of audio recordings. Birds, naturally, are the primary characters, but he’s also captured sounds from the environment like flowing rivers or stormy weather. Other wildlife feature too, like bats, flies, and even an otter, whose playful chatter feels halfway between a toddler’s babble and a high-pitched cat’s meow.

Seán’s vast knowledge shines in a particular scene of the documentary film when he’s in a forest, surrounded by an orchestra of sound, and is able to pick out each individual instrument – meadow pipit, song thrush, mistle thrush, chiffchaff, kestrel, swallow, redpoll, house sparrow – without breaking a sweat.

When he shows us the process of using sound wave charts to pick out specific bird calls and then listen back to them in a recording – as well as identifying other noises, like an airplane passing overhead, simply by the visual pattern on the chart – you get a sense of the science behind the scenes.

Seán emphasised that his sensitivity to sound and his hyperfocus didn’t mean that all of this simply fell into place – “there’s a lot of blood, sweat and tears behind it”.

“When I was in the depths of this project, I was out all day doing bird surveys. I had microphones all over. I had two permanent microphones that were running for three years. Every six weeks, I was collecting memory cards on them and changing the batteries. To keep on top of that and analyse all that, after work I was doing sound analysis until one or two every morning. The live interpretation is the result of constantly listening and analysing.”

Birdsong_Still_SeanRonayne_2

The future

There are plenty of triumphant moments of discovery in this documentary, like when Seán captures the sound of a great spotted woodpecker drumming on a tree with its beak – it’s only the second time he’s heard one in Ireland and the first time he’s caught it on tape.

Some of them are underscored with a note of sadness as we are reminded of the vulnerable and uncertain future many of these birds face, like when Seán records a ring ouzel. “To see and sound record a ring ouzel, looking and listening to the last pair of the species in Ireland – listening to this haunting song of melancholy of the uplands, it was the sound of extinction,” he reflects in the film.

For Seán, there are three bird species left for him to find, each of which poses its own challenges.

In the nearer future, he has an album of Irish soundscape tracks called Wild Science coming out soon, as well as a book called Nature Boy set to be released on 10 October – and happily, he and Alba are expecting a baby, also due in October. 

Birdsong will air on RTÉ One tonight at 6.30pm.

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16 Comments
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    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Matt Donovan
    Favourite Matt Donovan
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    Apr 29th 2015, 4:12 PM

    Good woman. Almost as good as an irish mammy.

    1722
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    Mute Jim Butler
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    Apr 29th 2015, 4:17 PM

    All she was missing was a wooden spoon!!

    1130
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    Mute Cram Wood
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    Apr 29th 2015, 4:19 PM

    Deadly!
    The yanks need more mammies like her.

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    Mute RonanM
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    Apr 29th 2015, 4:20 PM

    Matt

    about 15 years ago…..parents today don’t know what the word means with the trash they drag up these days…

    302
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    Mute John Everyman
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    Apr 29th 2015, 4:22 PM

    My mother didn’t even need the wooden spoon, a rattle of the drawer was enough to get us to cop on!

    631
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    Mute Terri O'Gorman McCormick
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    Apr 29th 2015, 4:27 PM

    All we needed to hear at Mass was a cough!!!

    330
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    Mute The Todd
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    Apr 29th 2015, 4:43 PM

    I used to hide the wooden spoon, then get up to mischief. She’d then get flustered but the joke was on me when I got a crack of a pot

    353
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    Mute Lily
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    Apr 29th 2015, 5:00 PM

    I can only imagine if that happened in Ireland *now* the woman would be getting called on by social services and the child whisked away the very next day.

    329
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    Mute Kitty Prendergast
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    Apr 29th 2015, 5:35 PM

    This video made my day!

    171
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    Mute Joe
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    Apr 29th 2015, 6:48 PM

    Against the law here to slap your child.

    24
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    Mute Sinead Murray
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    Apr 29th 2015, 6:52 PM

    If a mother were to do that to their child here they’d probably have social services at their door even though their protecting their child sndmrry

    80
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    Mute Steve Tracey
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    Apr 29th 2015, 8:38 PM

    She don’t need no wooden spoon man, Jaysus she’s frightened meand there’s a couple thousand miles between us.
    Fair play to her

    68
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    Mute Paul Darby
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    Apr 29th 2015, 8:46 PM

    She needs to get her tubes tied, six kids and no father in the house.That’s the problem with inner city black neighborhoods in the U.S..

    26
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    Mute bings
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    Apr 29th 2015, 10:29 PM

    What do you mean by that’s the problem with inner city black neighborhood & no father with 6 kids, just look around where you live & I bet there are kids with no fathers also around. Kids with the same mother but different fathers.

    58
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    Mute Aislinné Freeman
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    Apr 29th 2015, 10:45 PM

    Why does SHE need to get her tubes tied? What about all the fathers who are abandoning her with their kids?? Seems to me she’s doing her very best as a mother

    122
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    Mute kevin connolly
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    Apr 29th 2015, 4:15 PM

    No justice like mother justice.

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    Mute Mick Jordan
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    Apr 29th 2015, 4:31 PM

    She has probably seen what street gangs have done to Baltimore and is doing her best to keep her own kids out of that lifestyle. So as she said when she saw her son she “just lost it”. His street cred is in minus numbers after that video.

    305
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    Mute bo jangles
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    Apr 29th 2015, 4:19 PM

    Ha “in to the streets”? He won’t be able to show his face on them anymore after that lol

    299
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    Mute Lily
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    Apr 29th 2015, 4:18 PM

    Parenting done right…

    286
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    Mute Ron
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    Apr 29th 2015, 4:13 PM

    Now that’s a paddlin’

    277
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    Mute Antrim/Kurdistan
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    Apr 29th 2015, 4:08 PM

    Some slaps lol

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    Mute Sandra Lysaght
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    Apr 30th 2015, 12:14 AM

    Oh no she’s me lol .. Well done girl

    27
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    Mute Deco James Connolly
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    Apr 29th 2015, 4:17 PM

    Imagine the digs next time he’s out in the hood .

    196
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    Mute Terri O'Gorman McCormick
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    Apr 29th 2015, 4:26 PM

    Nice one! Mom!

    189
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    Mute Peter M Buchanan
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    Apr 29th 2015, 5:01 PM

    I can hear the cries from the corporal punishment do-gooders already…. Hitting you child is never right……

    174
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    Mute John Deane
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    Apr 29th 2015, 4:53 PM

    What a great mother.

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    Mute Summer Bay Devil
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    Apr 29th 2015, 4:35 PM

    Imagine if he didn’t go to mass.

    131
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    Mute Eimear
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    Apr 29th 2015, 6:04 PM

    She was right, pity more mothers wouldn’t take the same attitude!

    115
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    Mute Paul Raven
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    Apr 30th 2015, 7:35 AM

    Where have you been lately. They are no longer allowed to. The Irish moral police would post it on the internet and ask for them to be arrested. The constantly outraged liberals would lap it up.

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    Mute Gis Bayertz
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    Apr 29th 2015, 5:42 PM

    Well on her…..good woman

    108
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    Mute von
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    Apr 29th 2015, 6:05 PM

    What a Mum, its a pity all Parents don’t do the same and not only in America anywhere in the World.
    I have great admiration and respect for her

    103
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    Mute JustAoife
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    Apr 29th 2015, 6:12 PM

    He won’t do it again, the pup!

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    Mute Goldberg
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    Apr 29th 2015, 4:43 PM

    Wasn’t she the housekeeper in the tom and jerry cartoon

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    Mute r keane
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    Apr 29th 2015, 5:20 PM

    Good mama!! This riot is not about rights, the kid that died, according to reports and a record that made Nige look like an alter boy, which is no excuse for his death. It’s just decks looking for trouble like the water protest lot. Spend your energy on worth while causes like lowering tax rates for people who actually work!

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    Mute Simon Haden
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    Apr 29th 2015, 6:38 PM

    We need a few more Mother’s like that in this country at the moment.

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    Mute Tap Solny
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    Apr 29th 2015, 7:08 PM

    Derek Byrne’s mother needs to take similar action.

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    Mute Margaret Ryan
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    Apr 29th 2015, 6:24 PM

    She’s probably being doing that since he was a baby. It’s not right at any age. Beating your child around the head is not right . Can’t understand why all the comments are saying she’s a great mom. If she were a great mom she wouldn’t have to beat her matthew at 16.

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    Mute Margaret Ryan
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    Apr 29th 2015, 6:26 PM

    Her “child” at 16. Predictive text.

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    Mute Antrim/Kurdistan
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    Apr 29th 2015, 6:35 PM

    Better a few clips around the head from his mother than a bullet or a severe beating from the police.

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    Mute Chris Hennessy
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    Apr 29th 2015, 8:41 PM

    sweet Jesus , blessed art thou whose teenagers have always stayed on the straight and narrow, ffs!
    16 is precisely the time they need a good clatter and to be hauled back into line. For those commenting about what a failure she is, just wondering , did your kids reach this age yet, or grow up in the nice leafy suburbs?
    Mothers in disadvantaged areas are not just trying to guide their children, they are trying to fight the whole bloody world!
    At 16 peer pressure and trying to look ‘gangta’ in front of their mates means way more than what any mother has taught them
    The humiliation will stay with him a lot longer than the effects of the smack he got, and in my opinion , thats good!
    Better that than sitting at home whining about not being able to control him, and asking ‘what am I supposed to do?’
    fair bloody play to her

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    Mute Pat Kirwan
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    Apr 30th 2015, 6:06 AM

    Which shows the respect you had!

    18
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    Mute Joseph Pilking
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    Apr 29th 2015, 8:47 PM

    She whooped him good well done mama

    26
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    Mute Shawn Rahoon
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    Apr 29th 2015, 5:46 PM

    Ah heaw., leave a fukinouuu!

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    Mute Tommy Whelan
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    Apr 29th 2015, 6:22 PM

    If only jihadi John had a mother like this .

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