Go Kids

A round-up of events for children

One for early birds

It’s National Dawn Chorus Day tomorrow, and an astonishing number of events are planned to mark the day and get as many people as possible into the great outdoors. Needless to say, the events are on early – but that should be no problem to parents of small children.

BirdWatch Ireland is holding free guided dawn-chorus events, run by its branches around the country, to which all are welcome. They should be of particular interest to children, as a huge number of schools have been tuning into Nestwatch, the live birdwatch on Mooney, on RTÉ Radio 1.

There are events in most counties: birdwatchireland.ie has a full list. It includes a dawn chorus in Kilkenny, where the meeting point is Jenkinstown Wood car park at 4.30am; once the birds have sung there will be an interdenominational service; families are encouraged to bring their own breakfast or barbecue and make a morning of it.

In Kildare, the meeting point for its walks, including one for children, is the Aula at St Patrick’s College, in Maynooth, at 5am. There will be refreshments afterwards.

In Wicklow the meeting point is the Upper Lake car park at Glendalough, at 5am; after the dawn chorus has finished there’ll be a birdsong workshop in the education centre.