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Transport yourself to the beautiful mountains of northern Spain as we visit our lovely friends Katie and Luke at their Wild Finca – an old farm they are managing through agri-wilding, creating the most wonderful diverse habitat mosaics for nature and a refuge their young family.  This episode is a departure from the normal format with a long and wide-ranging discussion on how they manage the land with Asturcón ponies and Casina cattle, the importance of environmental education for local children, and the celebrations and challenges as apex predators return to the land. There was so much to talk about I have divided this episode into two parts to share it all with you.  We discuss everything from pond creation to the everyday management of the livestock, we hear Grasshopper Warblers, Red-backed Shrikes, Nightjars, Field Crickets and, most importantly, Luke’s impression of an Eagle Owl. It’s worth tuning in just to hear that! This is Part 1 of 2.

Transport yourself to the beautiful mountains of northern Spain as we visit our lovely friends Katie and Luke at their Wild Finca – an old farm they are managing through agri-wilding, creating the most wonderful diverse habitat mosaics for nature and a refuge their young family.  This episode is a departure from the normal format with a long and wide-ranging discussion on how they manage the land with Asturcón ponies and Casina cattle, the importance of environmental education for local children, and the celebrations and challenges as apex predators return to the land. There was so much to talk about I have divided this episode into two parts to share it all with you.  We discuss everything from pond creation to the everyday management of the livestock, we hear Grasshopper Warblers, Red-backed Shrikes, Nightjars, Field Crickets and, most importantly, Luke’s impression of an Eagle Owl. It’s worth tuning in just to hear that! This is Part 2 of 2.

Join me for a bit of autumn sunshine on the beach as I meet up with inspiring conservationist Henri Brocklebank, Director of Conservation at the Sussex Wildlife Trust. In this episode we hear about an uplifting conservation story happening just beneath the waves off the Sussex coast, in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.  The act of understanding the value of a healthy functioning marine ecosystem has resulted in a trawling exclusion zone of over 300 square kilometres, and has kick-started the most amazing kelp forest recovery. Kelp is a humble brown algae but is a mighty ecosystem engineer as it creates habitat for a whole host of beautiful marine life, as well as offering coastal protection, nutrient cycling and climate regulation. These other-worldly underwater forests provide an incredibly biodiverse habitat for all sorts of species including seahorses, cuttlefish and even breeding stingrays!  This project has been a shining example of partnership working across conservation organisations and passionate individuals, including free divers who have been instrumental in engaging people in marine conservation, capturing footage and helping collect data for the project.

Episode 5 takes us on top of the South Downs at the Wiston Estate where I join awesome entomologist, Graeme Lyons, on some invertebrate surveys. We’re looking at the benefits of having wildflower strips along the arable fields, and how having a diversity of these conservation options on the farm are providing habitat for nature alongside food production. We talk about how the complex structure in the conservation headlands, wild bird seed mixes, fallow fields and nectar & pollen mixes offers opportunities for all sorts of beetles, bugs, spiders, bees, butterflies and moths, and in turn how these go on to provide food for farmland birds rearing their young. Join us as we celebrate the tiniest of wildlife that Graeme has spent his life studying and sharing his passion for. As we sweep-net through wildflower margins and suction sample around beetle banks, Graeme explains how the conservation options that have been put in place at Wiston – from flower-rich strips and tussocky edges to unploughed corners – are helping create vital habitats. Farmland covers huge swathes of our landscape so we need to consider how nature can thrive in these areas too.   Uplifting Skylark and Corn Bunting song provides the perfect summer backdrop to this episode.

Join me for episode 4 as I learn all about the return of Britain’s largest and most epic bird of prey to southern England…the White-tailed Eagle.  This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the launch of this podcast, at the Global Birdfair at Rutland, and I couldn’t have had a more apt guest to talk about this amazing project: Dr Tim Mackrill. Tim was a local boy captivated by Rutland Water’s Osprey reintroduction by Roy Dennis and Tim Appleton in the mid-1990’s. Inspired and mentored by these two conservationists Tim has gone on to complete a PhD in Osprey migration and works with the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation on species recovery projects including Osprey translocations, and the Isle of Wight White-tailed Eagle reintroduction.  We explore why this magnificent bird went extinct in the Middle Ages and why now is the right time to be bringing these apex predators back. We talk about the beginnings of the project back in 2019 and how the reintroduced birds have surprised everyone by breeding much sooner than expected, with six young successfully born in the wild to date. We also talk about the fantastic work of the Osprey Leadership Foundation to empower our next generation of conservation leaders.

Join me at Brighton’s Castle Hill National Nature Reserve for episode 3, where I’m hot on the trail of Britain’s most endangered insect: the Wart-biter Bush-cricket. They’re tricky to find so luckily I’m with my pal and brilliant entomologist, Alice Parfitt, who is leading on the species recovery programme of this impressive species through her work at Buglife and the Changing Chalk partnership. With the backdrop soundscape of Corn Buntings, Yellowhammers and Linnets we tune in to the distinctive sound of the stridulating Wart-biter, explore its complex habitat requirements and if climate-change might help or hinder conservation efforts. Plus why on earth are they called Wart-biters?!   Working with partners and landowners Alice is facilitating better habitat management of the chalk grassland it inhabits and raising awareness of this fantastic insect, and all the other species that benefit from this rare habitat. We talk about the importance of arming volunteers with the skills to help monitor this species in to the future and how to conduct a survey of an insect that doesn’t want to be seen.

It’s episode 2 and I’m high up on the South Downs to meet up with my chum and amazing field naturalist, Neil Hulme.  Today we’re focusing on the Duke of Burgundy, and how Neil’s life-long passion for this exquisite butterfly, and the knowledge he has accumulated from close observation and field work, has resulted in a huge turn around in its fortune. It has gone from being on the brink of extinction in the county to making an epic come back.  Working with landowners and the South Downs National Park Authority Neil has helped with huge areas of habitat restoration to provide just the right kind of chalk grassland that this fussy butterfly needs, Cowslips within a tussocky, humid structure and facing north-west.  Cattle grazing is key for the survival of this species and with Neil’s hard work and vision this butterfly appears to have a bright future in West Sussex.

Join me on a trip to the Sussex coast for episode 1, where I’ll be meeting up with my good friend, Pete Hughes, Ecologist for the Chichester Harbour Conservancy. We will be learning all about the success of the Return of the Tern nature recovery initiative and how some nesting rafts are restoring the breeding populations of Common Terns to Chichester Harbour. These beautiful migratory seabirds nest on shingle, but this natural nesting habitat can be severely affected year on year by a multitude of problems including high spring tides and storm surges, resulting in their nest sites being washed away. The floating artificial nesting platforms provide the Common Terns, and some noisy Black-headed Gull neighbours, with a secure shingle habitat whilst long-term solutions are being sought to create more stable natural nesting sites. We talk about the importance of 3D printers and fish surveys, and how to get hooked on Tern TV! Tune in to the sounds of the seaside and to hear about the amazing work Pete and his colleagues have been carrying out. 

Trailer for the forthcoming Wandering Ecologist Podcast!