Ballyhoura project urges all to Stop, Look, Listen

BALLYHOURA Development has issued an invite to community members and community groups from across the Ballyhoura area and beyond, to the final closing event of the Stop, Look, Listen: Preserving Biodiversity in Ballyhoura project.

The community initiative led by Ballyhoura Development, with special guest Sean Ronayne, Irish Wildlife Sounds.

The event will take place in the Thomas Fitzgerald Centre, Bruff on Wednesday, April 17 at 7.30pm.

There will be a tour of the local biodiversity projects by Bruff Tidy towns at 6.30pm.

The Shared Green Deal: Preserving Biodiversity project is an EU funded project which sought to raise awareness and knowledge on specific priority Green Deal topics, all of which contribute to the climate action and zero pollution ambitions of the Green Deal.

There will be an exhibition on the night of local biodiversity imagery and other images from the project across the year. There will also be a prize giving ceremony for the winners of the Stop, Look, Listen photography competition.

The special guest speaker Seán Ronayne, is an ornithologist and wildlife sound recordist and is on a personal mission to record the vocalisations of every bird species in Ireland. For three years, he has been documenting nearly 200 birds, including species on the cusp of extinction.

Now, in a multimedia presentation, Seán shares his story and his unique, and often surprising, recordings of mimicry, distinct dialects, and birds never recorded in Ireland before. His journey reveals the beauty and importance of sound, and what listening can tell us about the state of our natural world.