“The chorus of birds singing together, from about 45 minutes before to 45 minutes after sunrise, our most spectacular phenomenon in nature, is at its best during these weeks,” presenter Frank Lewis will say at the beginning of the Saturday Supplement that is to be broadcast on Radio Kerry from 9 to 11am.

The programme was recorded on March 13 in Knockreer in the Killarney National Park

“During the past few weeks the Great Spotted Woodpecker has been heard here in the Gamewood in Knockreer,” field ornithologist Ed Carty will reveal.

“We expect to find it breeding here in the coming weeks – for the first time in hundreds of years or maybe much longer.”

“Walking in the woods after dark is very special,” 88-year-old Dan Kelliher will say of “The amazing experience of seeing a full moon sitting on top of Torc mountain – and hearing bagpipes being played in Muckross Abbey around midnight.”

Dan, as Superintendent in charge of Killarney National Park from 1963 to 2001, transformed it from a farm to a place where nature is king.

“Killarney National Park is now in the market to buy suitable adjacent property,” says Padraig O'Sullivan. He has been a conservation ranger in the Park for over 40 years, “A time when the Kenmare and McShane estates became part of the Park.”

The programme starts in wild garlic woods in blossom at the moment. Knockreer Gardens have had a clean-up – and there are further ambitious plans. At the Cloch Mo Choda mass rock, listeners will hear the story of Coda the monk from Innisfallen who followed an enchanted black bird and slept here for 200 years.

During these weeks there will be acres of bluebells in bloom in the woods.

White Bridge over the River Deenagh that was straightened by Lord Kenmare in the 19th century.

The programme will visit the Gamewood Bridge where the path that you could walk in your slippers years ago is now nearly always wet. Finally on Teahouse Point stories of other days will be told.

Join Frank Lewis with Dan Kelliher, Padraig O'Sullivan, Richie Clancy and Ed Carty as they walked for hours – from 5.30 - and witness the dawn chorus from Knockreer in Killarney National Park from 9 to 11am on Saturday.