This week we’re going back to early spring and a trip to the north Cotswolds in Warwickshire to meet James Macdonald Lockhart who has written a book inspired purely by birdsong. Rather like our Plodcasts, James has spent several years on quests to listen to some of Britain’s most famous – and curious – avian melodies – and his book Wild Air reveals his adventures and the little known stories behind each species. In this quest, we were after perhaps the most written about – the most composed abou...
Jun 20, 2023•53 min•Season 16Ep. 8
We’re near Loch Maree in western Scotland. You’re not sure what woke you first, the light or the birds. Either way, you stir peacefully in your bed, the sun casting half-light across the stone walls of the cottage as the lilts of Scotland’s avian world pour in through the open windows. A wood pigeon, a cuckoo, a blackbird. Sparrows in the eaves. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, where...
Jun 16, 2023•13 min
This week we’re meeting naturalist Megan McCubbin who listeners will know from co-hosting TV shows such as Springwatch alongside her step-father Chris Packham. Plodcast host Fergus met up with Megan at the Hawk Conservancy Trust centre in Hampshire to talk about her new book – An Atlas of Endangered Species – and to find out more about her message of hope and action for a better future for our wild world. This is episode 7 of season 16: Get Active in Nature. Contact the Plodcast team and send yo...
Jun 13, 2023•49 min•Season 16Ep. 7
We're in Wester Ross in the Highlands. The drive to road’s end is long and leisurely, the statuesque mountains and island-scattered lochs of Wester Ross giving way to the persuasions of the sea. Tiny ocean inlets, sail boats, seaweed shores. By the time you reach Red Point, you hear the waves calling, and within moments you’re sat on the sand, the breaking water pulling all your senses towards it. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help y...
Jun 09, 2023•13 min
Plodcast host Fergus meets Isabella Tree, who with her husband Charlie Burrell, transformed a loss-making dairy farm at Knepp in Sussex into one of the most remarkable havens for nature recovery in Europe. Hear the incredible story – and the ongoing projects to further enrich the estate and the wider countryside with nature. Look out for Isabella's new guide to bringing nature back to the land: The Book of Wilding, published by Bloomsbury. Photograph by Anthony Cullen This is episode 6 of season...
Jun 06, 2023•53 min•Season 16Ep. 6
We’re tucked deep in the folds of the north Dorset countryside. As the light fades the dusk chorus rises. In a dense thicket of thorn, a single nightingale starts to sing - drowning out the tractor mowing the year’s first silage. Its performance attracts the attention of another male, who moves in closer and soon a competitive duet fills the night. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wh...
Jun 02, 2023•9 min
Plodcast host Fergus camps overnight at the most famous rewilding estate in Britain in the hope of finally hearing nightingales on the Plodcast. But as the birds remain elusive, he joins nightingale surveyors Ivan and Alice at the crack of dawn to explore the extraordinary landscapes of Knepp, learn about the astonishing wildlife revival happening here and maybe, just maybe, catching the most magical birdsong to be heard in Britain. This is episode 5 of season 16: Get Active in Nature. With than...
May 30, 2023•50 min•Season 16Ep. 5
It's late morning in a springtime Dorset garden. The morning was cool and rainy, but as the wind blows in the trees and mist clears; you look out over the hills as the bird song comes to life. Wood pigeons coo from trees now bright with fresh spring leaves. Blue tits and starlings land on the gently swaying bird feeders to eat their fill. A proud robin bounces across the stone steps into the garden, inviting you to explore. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard fro...
May 26, 2023•17 min
Head with us to deepest Powys in mid Wales to The Dreaming. This wonderful house and surrounding landscape has been opened up as a place of retreat by sing-songwriter Charlotte Church. Our own Margaret Bartlett went to meet Charlotte and learn how she uses the natural landscape and its wild sounds to help heal visitors – and herself. It's a wonderfully uplifting conversation. This is episode 4 of season 16: Get Active in Nature Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the coun...
May 23, 2023•49 min•Season 16Ep. 4
It's early and you're sitting outside a small tent deep the Knepp Wildlands of Sussex. A pre-dawn glow smudges the eastern sky. Elsewhere it is resolutely dark – but not quiet. Like a spring storm torrent, the blended voices of robins, blackbirds, blackcaps and thrushes wash away the woodsmoke tang of last night's campfires. It is urgent, passionate and fleeting. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewher...
May 19, 2023•13 min
We’re in Armagh in Northern Ireland, following in the footsteps of St Patrick. The patron saint of Ireland lived in the 5th century and his incredible story has helped shape Ireland since then. But why was he drawn to Armagh? Fergus Collins set out on a new pilgrimage route called St Patrick’s Way to find out more, beginning at the mysterious ancient site of Ewain Macha – known today as Navan Fort – that was a powerful spiritual centre in preChristian Ireland and a key site in the tale of St Pat...
May 16, 2023•56 min•Season 16Ep. 3
Ebbw Vale in South Wales holds many secrets, not least within the water-rucked hillsides that feed the valley. On one such slope there is an ancient woodland. At its base a river sparkles beneath a canopy of fresh beech leaves. You cross it and climb steeply, first through trees then heath and grassland. Bluebells bob in the May breeze; a lizard rustles in the warm bracken; streams gurgle in the sun. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to hel...
May 12, 2023•13 min
In episode 2 of season 16, we’re talking about walking, but in the context of a curious new film: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry starring Penelope Wilton and Jim Broadbent – about a man in his 60s who embarks on an unlikely 450 mile pilgrimage across Britain to see a dying friend.Plodcast regular Maria Hodson went to see the film – and meet Penelope and Jim, as well as the original book’s author (and writer of the screen play) Rachel Joyce to talk about the project – and their own connect...
May 09, 2023•43 min•Season 16Ep. 2
We're in Velvet Bottom nature reserve in the Mendips where woodlands and wildflowers have overun the old lead mines. It's still early spring and mistle thrushes, willow warblers, goldfinches are establishing territories in the most enchanting fashion. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Maria Hodson, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast te...
May 05, 2023•13 min
In the first episode of a new season, the Plodcast team of Fergus, Hannah and Jack meet up with naturalist and One Show regular Mike Dilger to search for some of Britain’s rarest plants in the magnificent Avon Gorge on the edge of Bristol.Along the way Mike shares some astonishing stories from his quest to find 1000 plant species in the UK in the course of a single year. His book about this adventure is called 1000 Shades of Green and is published by Bloomsbury. This is episode 1 of season 16: G...
May 02, 2023•56 min•Season 16Ep. 1
We're on the northern edge of the Cotswolds in South Warwickshire – a vast open field of young barley stretches to the horizon. Quietly at first, then all of a rush, a hidden chorus of skylarks rises from the vegetation, singing exultantly, ever higher until they become specks in the cloudy heavens. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Fergus Collin...
Apr 28, 2023•8 min
We wandering in deeply rural County Armagh. It's early spring and the rooks rule the woodlands. Nesting close together in the canopies of a dozen roadside trees, the birds create a bustling city of more than 300 birds. Pairs greet each other and squabble with neighbours – and all the while the excitement rises as the first chicks begin to hatch. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewherebeautiful, wherev...
Apr 21, 2023•9 min
Welcome to the Plodcast – the nature and countryside podcast from BBC Countryfile Magazine. This is a preview of season 16 of the Plodcast where the regular team of Fergus, Hannah and Jack celebrate early spring, talk about upcoming episodes and invite you, the listener, to get involved. The new season of the Plodcast begins on 2 May. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag p...
Apr 18, 2023•16 min
We're in Blawith Fells in the Lake District. he walk up to the tarn felt a little like a dream; the sun-warmed lane rising gently – rhythmically – between trickling brooks and beds of bracken, beyond which rolled the flaxen commonlands of the Blawith Fells. You reach the pool and settle on a tussock of grass beside it. Water trickles and birds sing as Lakeland’s higher fells glow to the north in the rare spring sun. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the co...
Apr 14, 2023•12 min
Sun spills over the Avalon Marshes, driving away the last vestiges of winter. Chiffchaffs have arrived, bringing their flinty song two-note song to the reedbeds and willows. Across the water comes the hysterical giggling of courting little grebes. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Fergus Collins, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team...
Apr 07, 2023•10 min
The first inklings of spring are stirring in the Rhymney Valley in South Wales. Down at the foot of the dell, where the two streams meet, there is a mossy bank. You lay down your jacket and sit upon it to gaze up at the trees, which soar like skyscrapers into the plain white sky, as spring rain and birdsong spiral down. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Reco...
Mar 31, 2023•13 min
Nature Isn't Neat is a project pioneered in South-east Wales to bring wildlife and a bit of wildness into public parks, gardens and other commonly used spaces. Plodcast host Fergus met Elliot Waters who leads the projects to talk about how the project works and what it does for our wellbeing as well as addressing the terrible loss of biodiversity in Britain. Not everyone is happy however – and we look at some of the challenges the project has faced. Along the way, the Plodcasters encounter the f...
Mar 28, 2023•50 min•Season 15Ep. 12
You're among the moss and ferns of a Welsh rainforest in early spring. Against the backdrop of a stream swollen with rain, the trees are dripping – and the birds stirring. A song thrush's voice rings out from the top of an oak tree while coal tits mutter and a green woodpecker yaffles. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Fergus Collins, presented b...
Mar 24, 2023•10 min
Dr Amir Khan is a well known GP and TV doctor but has recently been appointed president of the RSPB. We sent Plodcast regular Annabel Ross to meet up with the DR to talk about his new role – and discover just how important the link between nature and health really is. This is episode 11 of season 15 of the Plodcast: Mindful Walks in Nature. Image by Getty. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If read out on the show, you could WI...
Mar 21, 2023•59 min•Season 15Ep. 11
We're in New Zealand at the top end of the South Island. The nature reserve on the Pelorus river has the last stands of river-flat native forest in the region These beautiful, shaded glades of broadleaf woodland have a dense undergrowth of ferns, tree-ferns and lianas and epiphytes. The chorus of cicadas is the summer song of the forest. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you ...
Mar 17, 2023•7 min
In the heart of Wellington, capital of New Zealand, a brilliant wildlife haven has brought a host of rare species back from the brink of extinction. Margaret Bartlett joins CEO of Zealandia, Danielle Shanahan to meet and hear some of the inhabitants and find out what lessons other countries – especially the UK – can learn from the project. This is episode 10 of season 15 of the Plodcast: Mindful Walks in Nature. Image by Getty. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the coun...
Mar 14, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Season 15Ep. 10
It's a wintry afternoon on the Somerset Levels. In the pre-dusk light, you watch as a thin mist evolves from the reeds and settles on the ice. It’s not all ice, there are sections of the surface that have been broken open by the many waterbirds that live in this winter-gold enclave of the Levels. Undeterred by the by the frigid conditions are coots int their scores. Moorhens call, geese clamour, a marsh harrier rises silently from the din. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly au...
Mar 10, 2023•9 min
Enjoy a gentle ramble with poet Kenneth Steven who lives and breathes the wild landscapes on his doorstep on the Isle of Seil. Recorded in early spring last year, this mini adventure includes some wonderful poetry celebrating the joy of nature – and warning us that we must all do more to look after it. Later, join the Plodcast team to talk birds of prey, den building and tomatoes… This is episode 9 of season 15 of the Plodcast: Mindful Walks in Nature. Image by Getty. Contact the Plodcast team a...
Mar 07, 2023•45 min•Season 15Ep. 9
We're at Becky Brook on Dartmoor. It's the first day of the year where you can feel the warmth of the sun on your face. The light breeze floats through the trees causing the dappled sunlight to shimmer on the water. A dog barks happily while playing in the water. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Annie Sanderson. Presented by Hannah Tribe Email t...
Mar 03, 2023•21 min
Listen to the thrilling bustle of a seabird colony as naturalist Megan Shersby visits RSPB Bempton Cliffs on the Yorkshire coast in the company of visitor experience manager Abbie Ferrar. This marvellous haven for nature is one of the few mainland seabird colonies in the UK and anything can turn up, as you'll hear. Later, join the Plodcast team for a gentle chat about nature and countryside. This is episode 8 of season 15 of the Plodcast: Mindful Walks in Nature. Image by Getty Contact the Plodc...
Feb 28, 2023•53 min•Season 15Ep. 8
