Eoghan Murphy

speaker

214 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 27 Jul

Eoghan Murphy’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.

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Mooney Goes Wild · Headstarting Chicks Helps Ireland's Curlew Numbers · 27 Jul 2026 podcast

These birds come from northern latitudes down to Ireland for a mild climate during the winter.

And they, of course, are joined by our resident breeding birds.

But it is hard for people to get a grips because they look out and they see a load of red shank or loads of lapwing or loads of curlew and they say, there's nothing wrong with these populations.

We always have to be honest.

There is a little bit of uncertainty into exactly where these birds will go.

First of all, we looked at genetics.

There is no genetic difference between the two populations.

So it would be problematic to bring in birds from the UK if there was a genetic difference with our Irish breeding birds.

So we're happy that there's not.

Birds then, the patterns that these birds follow, some of the waders, their philopatric is the term, but they come back to their breeding grounds.

So there is a little bit of uncertainty as to exactly what stage does a bird get locked into what their home territory is.

But we're bringing these birds down to soft-release facilities at around 15 or 16 days.

So the eggs are going to Dublin Zoo or Florida Wildlife Park, depending on whether they're UK or whether they're Irish.

They're there for 15 or 16 days, and we're bringing them back to release facilities on Lough Ree and Lough Corrib.

And they're in pens.

They're getting associated with outside, with invertebrate populations, with, I suppose, the stars and the moons or whatever way they align themselves.

So we're hoping that will sort of lock them in to Ireland.

But we're also fitting them with GPS tags.

So a big cohort of these birds will be fitted with GPS tags, and that will give us answers.

So I'm hoping in a couple of years' time, if you get me back on the show, I'll be able to say, well, this is what happens when you release birds from the UK and Ireland.

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