Jo and Cathy spend this episode with National Trust project officer and ecologist Steve Hindle on the slopes of Calderdale, in what looks like an ordinary field… but isn’t. They discuss the fascinating lives of fungi and their vital but often overlooked role in the ecosystem, not only as decomposers or parasites, but also as symbiotic partners engaged in a range of very sophisticated relationships with plants. Steve’s partner Sarah Flood scours the field for waxcaps, pinkgills, clubs,...

If you go up to Calderdale’s rough pasture and moorland during the spring and early summer you might encounter a variety of breeding birds – small ones like meadow pipits and skylarks and larger ones like oyster-catchers, golden plover, snipe and lapwings. There is perhaps none more distinctive though, both in its look and sound than the curlew – a large, elegant, brown wader with a very long curved beak and a strange, some say ghostly, bubbling song. Whilst numbers across Britain are going...

It’s always a pleasure to hear from our listeners and on occasion people have asked for an episode dedicated purely to nature sounds. This is one such episode.  It’s a compilation of ambient field recordings made around the coastline of the Hebridean island of Tiree.  Slow radio indeed, and we recommend listening on headphones. This is an energetic and vibrant landscape.  You can immerse yourself in the elemental sounds of waves and wind, and experience a wide variety of birdlife.  We begin...

A stone’s throw from the river in Hebden Bridge town centre Jill and Kathryn make a discovery under their eaves: House Martins have arrived. A summer of ups and downs follows and we track events over the year to learn more about the lives of these ‘epic’ little migrant birds, and how to love a ‘pile of poop’. We also find out more about Britain’s other Spring arrivals swifts, swallows and sand martins, and how to tell them apart.

What does rewilding in the British Isles mean, how do you start it off, and what happens when you do? In this episode we visit the 3000 acre Broughton Hall estate in Yorkshire with Rewilding Britain’s Alastair Driver to see how nature is bouncing back. A wide range of interventions and actions are now underway on land that was conventionally farmed for sheep and crops until very recently. Whether it’s tree planting, leaky dam construction, the introduction of ecosystem engineers (beavers),...

In an episode centred on climate change and community resilience, Jo and Cathy stay in their local town - Todmorden - to chat with Barbara Jones, a pioneer of natural building methods. Sustainable materials including clay, lime, wool, wood fibre and straw as well as stone and timber come into their own. We find out practical steps we can all take in our homes, whether they are old or new, to improve breathability (thus minimising unwanted condensation and mould), reduce heat-loss, and shield...

In this episode we visit Gronant and Talacre dunes with Mandy Cartwright from the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust to investigate the only Welsh population of Natterjack Toads, re-introduced after the Second World War. The shallow pools (scrapes) and sandy burrows provide a perfect habitat, but development pressures, predation, human activity and climate change mean life for these small, yellow-striped amphibians is precarious. How exactly do Natterjack Toads live, and what are...

What does the future hold for the ancient trees of the New Forest?  Join us inside the Forest, at Denny Wood, for an in-depth discussion with ecologist Adrian Newton and naturalist Lynn Davy.  Long term ecological monitoring of the woodlands is revealing the rapid and dynamic transformation of much-loved habitats that have existed for thousands of years.  Why is this happening?  Who are the winners and losers?  How should we assess the condition of an ecosystem that is changing so rapidly,...

Cathy and Jo join wildlife biologist and hare expert Carlos Bedson on location in the Dark Peak to find out more about the only mountain hares in England. Their ancestors arrived on a train from Scotland! 500 metres up on the moor looking out for ‘white fluffy blobs’ Carlos explains more about the likes and dislikes of this amazing creature, his long-term survey work to map the extent and size of the Peak District population, how to go about seeing one, and what we can do to ensure their...

Join Jo and Cathy for a Gaelic adventure to find out more about one of Britain’s rarest bumblebees – the Great Yellow Bumblebee (Bombus distinguendus). We meet ecologist Janet Bowler on the dunes to discover more about what one small island has done to keep its special bee buzzing. Charlotte Vale and Molly Knowles contribute readings in Gaelic from Beataidh Banrigh Super-Bee, a story book created by the children of Tiree.

“Come, summer visitant, attach to my reed roof your nest of clay”. In this episode Jo and Cathy look back to the Victorian era with poetry scholar Clara Dawson. Clara introduces us to poems by Charlotte Smith, William Wordsworth, Christina Rosetti, Edward Thomas and Thomas Hardy, and the interweaving of human and bird worlds. What is revealed about the poets’ relationships with nature as industrialisation took grip across the country? And how might these poems spark our own imaginations,...

This episode takes Cathy and Jo to Shropshire to explore a church graveyard. Harriet Carty, from the charity Caring for God’s Acre, explains all about these oases of species-rich grassland, and how to manage them. As well as meeting some of the plants and other creatures that make the graveyard their home - bats, rooks, butterflies, bees - they have a close encounter with an ancient yew tree, and find out how important burial grounds are to people, past and present.

Following on from Episode 15 Jo and Cathy make a return to the peatlands, this time to a lowland raised bog on the outskirts of Manchester and Salford. Little Woolden Moss formed over thousands of years but was almost totally destroyed in the 1990s by peat extraction – it became a barren, lifeless place, swirling with clouds of black dust. Jo and Cathy meet Jenny Bennion from the local Wildlife Trust and Dave Steel, a birdwatcher and bog volunteer, to find out how it's now being brought...

Jo and Cathy venture into squelchy upland territory in search of sphagnum moss, a key species of the peat bog. Discovering that a third of the UK was once bog or fenland, and that most has now been degraded, they find out what needs to be done to restore these watery wonderlands and their carbon capturing powers. Up in Galloway they meet environmental artist Kerry Morrison and learn all about a tasty project which reconnects a local community with their peatlands.

Jo takes a trip up the west coast to the Inner Hebrides to join Cathy who is helping with the RSPB’s annual corncrake census on the Isle of Tiree. Locating these elusive birds involves listening for calling males in the dead of night. Join Jo and Cathy on a midnight journey to track them down, followed by an in-depth conversation with RSPB officer John Bowler who shares the story of the corncrake, why the Inner Hebrides remains one of the UK’s last strongholds for these birds, and what is...

Jo takes a trip up the west coast to the Inner Hebrides to join Cathy who is helping with the RSPB’s annual corncrake census on the Isle of Tiree. Locating these elusive birds involves listening for calling males in the dead of night. Join Jo and Cathy on a midnight journey to track them down, followed by an in-depth conversation with RSPB officer John Bowler who shares the story of the corncrake, why the Inner Hebrides remains one of the UK’s last strongholds for these birds, and what is...

Jo and Cathy resume learning birdsong in lockdown, this time tuning into the calls of the blue tit, great tit and coal tit. With Spring fast approaching, gardens, parks and woods are alive with the sounds of these three common UK tit species, but it’s easy to be confounded by all their chirping and tweeting, and treat them as background noise. In this episode Jo and Cathy set about investigating their individual sonic signatures and explore how to distinguish and disentangle (most of the...

Jo and Cathy resume learning birdsong in lockdown, this time tuning into the calls of the blue tit, great tit and coal tit. With Spring fast approaching, gardens, parks and woods are alive with the sounds of these three common UK tit species, but it’s easy to be confounded by all their chirping and tweeting, and treat them as background noise. In this episode Jo and Cathy set about investigating their individual sonic signatures and explore how to distinguish and disentangle (most of the...

Setting out to explore the River Colne, Jo and Cathy start at its source on the edge of the moors and journey downstream through urban West Yorkshire to its confluence with the River Calder. Their trip takes in weirs, walls, abandoned mills, industrial pollution, combined sewer overflows, liminal space and river life. As well as exploring the historical and present day human impacts on the river, they begin to question more deeply our relationship with rivers and the role they can play in...

Setting out to explore the River Colne, Jo and Cathy start at its source on the edge of the moors and journey downstream through urban West Yorkshire to its confluence with the River Calder. Their trip takes in weirs, walls, abandoned mills, industrial pollution, combined sewer overflows, liminal space and river life. As well as exploring the historical and present day human impacts on the river, they begin to question more deeply our relationship with rivers and the role they can play in...

Vast swathes of Britain's upland are currently managed for grouse shooting. As the official start of the shooting season kicks off (12th August) Jo and Cathy finally decide to confront this controversial topic. Listen in from their local grouse moor to find out about the history of this peculiarly British pastime, the ecological and environmental consequences of managing the moors in this way, the range of stakeholders involved, and possibilities for the future.

Vast swathes of Britain's upland are currently managed for grouse shooting. As the official start of the shooting season kicks off (12th August) Jo and Cathy finally decide to confront this controversial topic. Listen in from their local grouse moor to find out about the history of this peculiarly British pastime, the ecological and environmental consequences of managing the moors in this way, the range of stakeholders involved, and possibilities for the future.

In this episode we take the opportunity to meet the warblers, millions of whom travel thousands of miles every year, returning to the UK to breed, and sing - possibly in a tree near you! We then reveal the often overlooked acoustic charm of the long tailed tit. [Timings: Willow Warbler @ 2mins 19secs; Blackcap @ 13mins 45secs; Long tailed Tit @ 25mins 03secs]

In this episode we take the opportunity to meet the warblers, millions of whom travel thousands of miles every year, returning to the UK to breed, and sing - possibly in a tree near you! We then reveal the often overlooked acoustic charm of the long tailed tit. [Timings: Willow Warbler @ 2mins 19secs; Blackcap @ 13mins 45secs; Long tailed Tit @ 25mins 03secs]