Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk with Aviva Insurance.
Chapter 2: What is driving the rise of birdwatching among Gen Z?
New studies have shown that the second fastest growing hobby across the UK for Gen Zers is bird watching. The first, by the way, is jewellery making. It's no longer being considered an old fashioned pastime because record numbers of 16 to 29 year olds are picking up their binoculars daily. So what's behind the rise and is it happening here in Ireland as well?
I'm joined by Seamus Ong, who is founder of the Young Birdwatchers Ireland group and Niall Hatch is here as well of Birdwatch Ireland. It's lovely to have you both with us. Thank you for being here. Seamus, how did you get involved in all of this?
I suppose I was involved in birdwatching from a very young age. You know, I always loved nature and wildlife. And since a very young age, really, I would have always gone out birdwatching. I would have gone to some of the Birdwatch Ireland meetups. You know, there's local branches from Birdwatch Ireland that have different meetups.
And I would have, let's say, really always gone to those there and just loved going out birdwatching.
So it's always been in your life. But do you agree that there are more and more young people now who are interested in it?
Absolutely. I think, you know, there is a good lot of, let's say, there's people who have always been interested. And it's maybe difficult to find some of those young people out there who are interested in bird watching. But what it seems to be the case is that there's more people out there that genuinely have an interest in maybe, let's say, nature and wildlife.
And they're also, when they see other people that are interested, they're also thinking, you know what, maybe it's something for me, maybe to go out and experience a bit of wildlife. Wow.
Why do you think there's a growing interest in it? What is it that's happening now that's making people think, well, I'll give this a go?
I think personally at the moment, you know, our lives are so busy at the moment, particularly for young people, you know, we're very busy with college, let's say work, you know, there's all exams and, you know, our evening activities, social media. There's such a pressure around young people's lives at the moment. And I think sometimes we need just a bit of time to reconnect into nature again.
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Chapter 3: How did Seamus Ong get involved in birdwatching?
Our group is very much, let's say, grassroots, so very organic how it's grown, you know. And do you go out early in the morning? Yeah, we do. Sometimes... Not too early, I suppose, because we're still trying to get some of the new people involved, you know, so we're trying to be as accommodating as possible.
But we'd certainly go out and the last day we spent, let's say, I'd say the whole day nearly out there walking around.
So you're walking, you're not in one place, you're walking around looking for the partridge.
Yeah, but we do... Yeah, we do kind of, let's say, we'd spend a bit of time, like we were about in an hour, let's say, in a certain location, you know, maybe just watching and seeing what we could see, you know, listening as well to different birds. Some of us know the song calls as well to them, you know.
Do you record the sounds that you hear?
Yes, some of us do. Yeah. And then also there's a lot of us would be interested in, let's say, nature photography as well. So taking photographs of the birds as well.
And did you find the fella you were looking for, the partridge?
We didn't on this occasion, but we saw a white throat as well, which is one of the summer visitors that came in, you know, to Ireland. So that was a good find for us.
Well, Niall, this is why it's great in Ireland to go birdwatching, isn't it? Because we're the crossroads of the world for many birds that move around.
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Chapter 4: What factors contribute to the growing interest in birdwatching?
Give it a go. Come along, take part and also join Birdwatch Ireland. Help to contribute to help us save those birds, but also get knowledge and information from all our publications.
A great way to sell it, Seamus, is that it is like a real life Pokemon hunt. Tell me why.
Yeah, so I suppose one of the things really, like you're going around and you're looking for different birds, you know, there's different species, you know, of them. And I think for a lot of the new members as well, that's what they've kind of almost described it as. What they've grown up with, right? Yeah, and they would have...
Possibly just they'd be looking at the different birds and they would maybe say, oh, my gosh, this is actually like Pokemon. We see a blue tit and then we're looking for, let's say, the grey partridge. You know, there's always these different species and it's almost something that they can maybe relate to a bit.
And do you think it's daunting for people to get started on this? Like, how would you recommend people give it a go?
So, no, I think basically, as Niall was saying, very much like you can... there's always different ways you can just go out and I think maybe even just start by listening to the birdsong, you know, when we were going around living our daily lives, you know, we can then we're constantly immersed in nature.
There's always birds around and even getting kind of just starting by appreciating that for ourselves anyway, you know, as I said, we've the young birdwatchers group, a group for young people that are interested in birdwatching. And it's very much a welcoming group as well, you know, and we just kind of go out and you don't have to be an expert.
So you don't you can get into this without knowing a thing about it.
100 percent. Everyone had to start somewhere. And I was I remember being a young bird watcher myself, which I could say I still was. But I actually started when I was a toddler. I was just fascinated by birds. I don't remember a time when they weren't. very important in my life.
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