What Comes Naturally Podcast

RSPB 100 Feb 1989 BBC Radio 4

Celebrating the RSPB's 100th birthday, the BBC put out this broadcast in Fenruary 1989.

Trevor Gunton on Black Cat Radio.

Trevor has been nominated for a lifetime achievent award becasue of his tireless efforts to turn people on to the joys of birds and wildlife and to get them to actively support nature conservation. This is just an extract from a longer interview with Clair Slade.

August at Paxton Pits Nature Reserve

Herons, egrets and wildfowl stalk the margins of the drought-shrunken pits. Meanwhile the late summer flowers are blossoming in the fields and verges. Join Ranger Jim on an August ramble. 

Hay-time

Making hay is an age-old process for gathering winter feed for livestock but it is also a great conservation tool if you are managing an area of grassland for its flowers and wildlife. Join Ranger Jim at Paxton Pits Nature Reserve to see how it all fits together.

 

Butterflies on a very hot day in June.

The summer solstice in June 2017 was probably the hottest on record. The grass turned brown before our eyes and butterflies were a bit elusive. However there was no wind, which made recording outdoors much easier than usual. 

This podcast mostly features Paxton Pits Nature Reserve, but also Brampton Wood in Cambridgeshire. Only days after this was recorded the temperature dropped a little and we had some thundery showers, then some new butterflies appeared, including a migratory painted lady and chalk-loving marbled whites.

Dragonflies at Paxton Pits.

Welcome to the June edition of What Comes Naturally. Join Ranger Jim on a visit to the Hayling Pit to see damselflies, demoiselles, dragonflies and all sorts of other wildlife. The star of the show, in terms of rarity, is the Norfolk hawker, but we think that the banded demoiselle is more beautiful.

Next time, we will be looking for butterflies. 

Red Squirrels and Bird's Eyes.

Hey-oop. Join Ranger Jim on the second part of his camping trip to Swaledale. Today we visit the Cumbrian Fells in search of red squirrels, birds-eye primroses and globe flowers.

Ideally these podcasts are recorded pretty much as you hear them, without too much editing. However, this time there was a lot of wind to contend with and quite a lot of the recordings had to be discarded or heavily edited.  To make up for this, I have used as many of the field recordings as I can but I have added some link passages afterwards. If you have good listening equipment you can hear all the joins so I recommend that you do the washing up or mow the lawn at the same time. That way you wont notice what a dog's breakfast I made of the recording.

Thanks for listening anyway. 

Look out for the next podcasts which will be about dragonflies at Paxton Pits Nature Reserve. 

 

Swaledale: return to springtime.

This is the first of two podcasts made in late May 2017 on a short camping trip to Swaledale in Yorkshire. Ranger Jim visits his roots to find that the dale is even better than he remembers. It's part of an annual pilgrimage that Jim makes to touch base and remember his grandmother who taught him all about wildflowers.

Nightingales

The spring of 2017 has been a disaster for nightingales but Ranger Jim still managed to find one to listen to and talk about.

Fenland birding in early May

Imagine a totally flat landscape with black, peaty fields and a patchwork of crops divided by deep drains. It's cool and windy but the sun is out and we are driving along a rutted farm track when suddenly..........

Another day out with Ranger Jim, doing what comes naturally.