The Seán Chorus

Seán returns with a late October walkabout at Knockadoon, East Cork, in search of rare autumn migrants. Take an audible adventure through this peninsula and discover why it's a magnet for visiting birds, encounters redshanks, pipits, greenfinches, and fox moth caterpillars along the shore, and shares remarkable news of recording two red-throated pipits a species that turns up in Ireland roughly once every two years, just 12 days apart at the same site!

This is a HeadStuff podcast produced by Hilary Barry and Dan Wilcox. Original artwork is by Matt Mahon.

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In this episode, Seán records through the night at Ballynamona Strand in East Cork, capturing golden plover wing beats overhead, a bat buzzing past his microphone, and the underwater sounds of fish and prawns beneath Ballycotton Pier.Interwoven with field recordings of bar-tailed godwits, curlew, oystercatchers, and a lesser yellowlegs, Seán reflects on autumn migration, the devastating decline of curlew in Ireland, the impact of off-lead dogs on wading birds, and a spooky encounter at a nighttime rewilding site!This is a HeadStuff podcast produced by Hilary Barry and Dan Wilcox. Original artwork is by Matt Mahon.
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In this episode, Seán recalls his beginnings and how a Catalan woman walked into a Cork city bar and changed the trajectory of his life forever.Interwoven with more sound recordings, Seán details his move to Catalonia, including encounters with roe deer, flamingos recorded over Barcelona's skyscrapers, screaming neighbours and amateur trumpetersThis is a HeadStuff podcast produced by Hilary Barry and Dan Wilcox. Original artwork is by Matt Mahon.

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This episode is a celebration of autumn bird migration — the great movements of birds that arrive on Irish shores each year from Scandinavia, Siberia, and beyond.

With field recordings of yellow-browed warblers, redwings, fieldfares, ring ouzels, and mixed flocks of chaffinches, goldfinches, bramblings, redpolls and siskins visibly migrating over East Cork. Plus the nasal calls of bramblings arriving off the sea in West Cork, the high-pitched trill of waxwings, the roding displays of woodcock, short-eared owls calling after their sea crossing, and the distinctive chuwit of a spotted redshank in Ballycotton.

As mentioned in the episode, please check out the "YouTube of Birdsong" website https://xeno-canto.org/

This is a HeadStuff podcast produced by Hilary Barry and Dan Wilcox. Original artwork is by Matt Mahon.
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Originally recorded Summer 2026

This very special episode is an immersive field audio essay, recorded live in two of Sean's favourite local spots in East Cork — a rewilding quarry he has known since childhood and the Knockadoon peninsula.

With on-site recordings of sand martins, stock doves, blackcaps, chiffchaffs and swallows, a remarkable discovery of breeding tufted ducks, the tumbling displays of rock and meadow pipits, herring gulls overhead, by-the-wind sailors washed ashore, and the tell-tale droppings of coastal otters.

The episode ends with the sound of waves on a rocky shoreline — a moment to simply listen.

This is a HeadStuff podcast produced by Hilary Barry and Dan Wilcox. Original artwork is by Matt Mahon.
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