When some children visited Birdwatch Ireland's Blackditch reserve on the Wicklow coast recently, it was not only the birds that were new to them.
None of them had ever stood in a field before, and so they asked what the dark brown patches in the grass were - cowpats were an exciting, slightly rude, novelty.
You might imagine that these were inner-city kids who had never left their neighbourhood, but in fact they were from a nearby rural village. They travelled through the countryside every day, but this was the first time they had ever had an off-road experience.
"It's very hard to spark an interest in nature in young people now," says BWI spokesperson Niall Hatch. He finds there is no equivalent today to the group of bright teenagers who professionalised, and in some ways revolutionised, Irish birdwatching in the 1970s and 1980s. He agrees that the only people under 40 likely to be visiting the organisation's reserves and hides are under-12s with their parents. There is little sign that such children are developing their interest in wildlife through their teen and young adult years.
He attributes this partly to the vast increase in indoor electronic entertainment, and partly to the "fraught" atmosphere for adults working outdoors with youngsters in an era which has become all too aware of sexual abuse.
A rather brighter picture was painted by a straw poll of a couple of other organisations. Eileen Daly, a retired teacher who works with Sonairte, which introduces young people to nature at the Ecology Centre for Ireland in Co Meath, says: "I am surprised by how much more awareness children have about environmental issues now, and how articulate they are. The primary curriculum has improved greatly in natural sciences, but the secondary situation still leaves a lot to be desired."
Pamela Whitaker of Groundswell, who offers basic courses in organic gardening and farming on her farm on the Cooley Peninsula, Co Louth, stresses that parents must be involved in order to draw in children. She thinks that today's young parents have had much less direct contact with nature than was the case 30 years ago, and this has had a knock-on effect on their offspring.
"Nature for nature's sake is not enough to attract young people now," she says. "It must be presented in a context involving socialising and arts activities. That can help re-engage whole communities."
Birdwatch Ireland: www.birdwatchireland.ie
Sonairte: www.community.meath.ie/sonairte
Groundswell: www.groundswell.ie