The Plodcast

Take a walk though the leafy suburbs of south Birmingham with historian Corinne Fowler. Corinne's studies of how the British Empire impacted rural Britain and her report into how some National Trust properties are linked to slavery drew a chorus of protest from some quarters. Here she explains her work to Plodcast host Fergus Collins and reveals why an honest understanding of rural history is so important. Corinne's book, Our Island Stories: Country Walks Through Colonial Britain is published by Allen Lane The Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme music was written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's a sound that seems more attuned to the uplands of the north and west: the deep haunting bellows of red deer. But we're on the edge of London, among the heaths and woods of Richmond Park. With a backdrop of rose-ringed parakeet chatter, it's a curious blend of wild and exotic. 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 Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Image from Getty Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Catherine Carr is a podcaster and creator of BBC Radio 4's famed 'About the boys' series on what it's like to be a teenage boy in 2024. Hear her insights on a wild walk through the Cambridgeshire Fens with Plodcast host Fergus Collins. Listen to Catherine's award-winning podcast Where are you going? www.whereareyougoing.co.uk And hear her ground-breaking Radio 4 series About the Boys https://bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001yshm The Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme music was written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Forbidding sheets of rain and flooding mean that outdoor adventures must be postponed until tomorrow. But there's something cosy and deeply comforting about being in the dry, listening to the torrent outside. And as you listen, the downpour eases and birds begin to sing with gratitude. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We've gone fishing! The Plodcast team of Fergus, Hannah, Jack and Lewis plus angler-writer Kevin Parr are given a unique opportunity to spend a day fishing at at lake where anglers are seldom allowed. Sutton Bingham Reservoir is a vast body of water just south of Yeovil in Somerset and is only usually open to flyfishers going after trout. So what else lives beneath the waves? Under Kevin's mentorship, the team enjoy an extraordinary day... Listen on for magic and drama. Huge thanks to Wessex Water and Rich the ranger for allowing us access to Sutton Bingham Reservoir. To find out more about fishing at the reservoir, visit: www.wessexwater.co.uk/visit-and-learn/fishing-at-sutton-bingham-reservoir Also to the Angling Trust for granting day rod licences to the team. Visit https://anglingtrust.net/ The Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme music was written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Walking in a wide vale of crumbling relics of a long-lost industrial age, you stumble across a small stream, caught in the act of tumbling over a waterfall. For a moment there is mesmerising movement and sound, then the water disappears down the brackeny slope. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nature writer Robert Macfarlane and singer-songwriter-actor Johnny Flynn take Plodcast host Fergus on a ramble along the River Lea in East London. Having collaborated on two albums, the two men are keen to talk about their new children's book of nature produced with illustrator Emily Sutton called The World to Come. Set among the wilds of the River Lea, The World to Come is a message of hope and beauty. And listen on for a live performance from Johnny of the song that inspired the book. The World to Come is published by Magic Cat Publishing. Photo by Peter Flude. The Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme music was written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's early afternoon after heavy rain and you've followed a small brook past waterlogged fields and a stand of willows. The trees' feet, submerged in the swollen water, are tickled by the current while their leaves are tousled by the wind's long fingers. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wildlife cameraman and TV presenter Hamza Yassin joins Plodcast host Fergus on a walk through an urban oasis deep in the city of Manchester. Hamza talks about his new book, Hamza's Wild World, and reveals the extraordinary determination and sacrifice he needed to get a break in the world of wildlife film-making. It's a piece of Plodcast magic. Hamza's Wild World is published by Macmillan and available to buy now. The Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme music was written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're in a small, steep sided valley with a clear stream fizzing through it. Sheep graze among anthills, and while buzzards and crows call from the clear blue sky, the grass is studded with parasol and waxcap fungi, revealing that autumn has swept in. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We welcome historian and BBC radio presenter Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough back to the Plodcast this week, with a walk through an ex-industrial landscape near Leeds in Yorkshire. With her historian husband John-Henry Clay, Eleanor looks for stories and echoes of lost lives in a landscape reclaimed by nature. The Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme music was written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're climbing a small mountain in the Bannau Brycheiniog – and it's hot. So hot, you stop early for your picnic. High on the peak, ravens, buzzards and a single red kite are enjoying the thermals, calling and mewing in the deep blue. From the moorland grass, meadows pipits peep and grasshoppers fizz. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plodcast host Fergus Collins enjoys an autumn walk by the River Avon near Bath with Emma Brisdion of the Rivers Trust to take part in a Big River Watch. This citizen science project hopes to make an important difference to the health of Britain's polluted waterways. But it's also a chance to pause, watch the world go by and see what wildlife characters might turn up. Join them for a marvellously mellow adventure. For more on the River Trust and to take part in the Big River Watch, visit https://theriverstrust.org/take-action/the-big-river-watch The Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme music was written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's late morning on a quiet autumn day and you're sitting on a welcome bench beside a small lane that winds between wooded pasture and a small estuary. Cheerful robin, chiffchaff and sparrow song blends with the distant laments of curlews, while the sea murmurs in the distance. Even the odd passing car seems strangely soothing. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Take a magical walk on the last day of summer to find a hillfort on the edge of the town of Brecon and the Bannau Brycheiniog. Plodcast host Fergus looks for ancient stories and nature along the way. The Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme music was written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're beside a canal, enjoying a few stolen hours fishing – but really it's an opportunity to relax alone beside the water after the busy summer. A September breeze jostles the weary leaves and the dark, damp, earthy smells of autumn rise with the songs of robins. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we return to our visit to the Global Birdfair in Rutland. In the second Plodcast interview of the festival, Plodcast host Fergus met wildlife expert, writer and TV presenter Ajay Tegala to talk about his extraordinary life as a wildlife ranger at legendary Wicken Fen nature reserve. Later join the Plodcast team for a round up of listener emails and messages – and updates on the latest wildlife news. Ajay's latest book Ranger Life and Rewildling Wicken Fen, published by The History Press, is out now in paperback. Special thanks to Charlie Bingham for organising the podcasting at the Birdfair and to Oscar Henderson for the onsite production. The Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme music was written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week, you're perched on a mossy bank, listening to a gentle stream pass through a Dartmoor forest. The water is crystal clear, revealing a microcosm of glistening stones and earthy weeds swaying along the bed. 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 Lewis Dobbs, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Will eagles return to Wales in the next couple of years? Sophie-Lee Williams of Eagle Reintroduction Wales is confident that mighty white-tailed eagles will be soaring in Welsh skies very soon, just as they are in southern England and western Scotland. But how realistic is her plan and how will she deal with the objectors? Plodcast host Fergus met Sophie-Lee at Kenfig Pool on the coast near Bridgend, where the eagles were last seen in Wales. For more on Sophie-Lee's project visit eaglereintroductionwales.com/. And to take part in a survey about what you think about reintroducing eagles, www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/WTEPublicOpinionSurvey/ The Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme music was written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's early morning and we're alone beside the River Towy estuary just downstream from the ancient town of Carmarthen. The tide is rising in mini surges, softly smothering the saltmarsh and tickling the feet of the sea defences. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Head out on a Highland road trip with Plodcast regular Kevin Parr as he explores the wildlife of some of finest peaks and glens of Scotland. A marvellously mindful meander. The Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme music was written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Walking through a lakeside woodland, you become aware of a shimmering, ghostly whisper rising snd swirling around you. A light breeze is gentle bewitching the leaves of a grove of aspen trees. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join folk singer and sound designer Alice Boyd in Epping Forest on the eastern edge of London as she explores the eerie, little-know soundscapes of ponds with creative sound recordist Action Pyramid, AKA Tom Fisher. Prepare for sounds of the countryside you'll have never experienced before. Find out more about Action Pyramid and his quest to explore and restore ponds: www.actionpyramid.com/ Image by Jon Rulton The Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme music was written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're walking along a seawall above a forgotten stretch of the Severn Estuary – a gentle tang of seaweed is a reminder that the open sea is not far – as are the waves that surge against the shingly shore. 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 Lewis Dobbs, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Plodcast team of Fergus, Hannah, Jack and Lewis jump on a little train from central Bristol to explore a wilderness of mudflats, saltmarsh and wildflowers looking for adventure – and new bird species for the Plodcast. Join them for an entertaining wildlife ramble… The Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. Music written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s early evening as you follow a long path that disappears into the woods. The trees create a green tunnel high above you. A recent downpour has left the air fresh and the leaves shining. A song thrush celebrates a break in the weather with a song. Invisible at the top of a tall pine, it’s accompanied by the gentle purr of a wood pigeon and the wind in the trees.  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 Rachael Stiles, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week, we look back at the amazing Global Birdfair in Rutland, which took place in July. Plodcast host Fergus was on stage to record some plodchats – and in this episode he meets birder and naturalist Nick Acheson to talk about Nick's passion for geese in his native Norfolk. And what's the best way to raise attention about the state of the natural world? Nick's book is called: “The Meaning of Geese”, published by Chelsea Green. Later, join the Plodcast team in the studio for a round-up of listener messages, nature chat and sounds of the week. The Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. Music written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's a hot summer's day and you're heading from the open slopes of a small mountain to the welcome cool of woodland in the valley below. But before you reach sanctuary, the mesmerising songs of yellowhammers rise with the heat haze from the gorse and bracken. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join Plodcast host Fergus on the Thames foreshore with legendary mudlarker Lara Maiklem searching for historical artefacts and oddities among the sand, shingle and mud. What will they find? Listen on for a thrilling treasure hunt... Read Lara's latest book: A Year of Mudlarking, published by Bloomsbury. The Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. Music written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we're striding out across a wider moorland ridge with bilberry, bracken and heather flanking the path. It's a rare calm day in the uplands and the meadow pipits and skylarks sing their wild songs. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we're exploring the Royal Botanical Gardens of Wakehurst in Sussex exploring why meadows filled with grasses, herbs and flowers are so vital for wildlife and for our own wellbeing. Annabel Ross is your host, exploring these all-too-rare delights with Wakehurst expert Iain Parkinson. Later, join the Plodcast team for a 'studio' chat in the meadows of Severn Beach near Bristol to hear your emails and sounds that you've sent in. Visit kew.org/wakehurst to find out more about Wakehurst, home to the Millennium Seed Bank. The Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. Music written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're walking an ancient tree-line lane up a hillside when a brief summer rain shower takes you by surprise. Sheltering under a kindly horse chestnut, you are lulled by the gentle patter of raindrops on the broad leaves. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week the Plodcast heads into the uplands of the Bannau Brycheinog to explore the summer wildlife that abounds there. Plodcast host Fergus is hoping to find and record the songs of yellowhammers, which dwell on the lower slopes. Or so it's said. These once-common bright yellow birds have suffered a steep decline in recent decades. Do they still live here? Join the quest – and enjoy numerous other encounters along the way. The Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. Music written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The anglers have departed, the dog-walkers have gone home. The lake is still. You are alone by a strip of woodland on the edge of the water, listening to a gentle melodies of song thrush, blackcap and chiffchaff. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Head into the deep dark wood with composer and pianist Alexander Chapman Campbell to hear about his quest to raise awareness of the perils of conifer plantations – and their impact on wildlife, landscape and the human spirit. Plodcast host Fergus Collins meets Alexander in one of Wales' larger conifer plantations, Hafren Forest in Powys, to talk about trees and listen to some of Alexander's music. Where Now A Dark Wood Stands - composed by Alexander (Chapman Campbell), featuring Alexander at the piano and vocals by Julie Fowlis. Lyrics written by Alexander (Chapman Campbell), and translated into Scots Gaelic by Raghnaid Sandilands. Beneath The Northern Stars - composed and performed by Alexander, from the album Journey To Nidaros. The music video for Where Now A Dark Wood Stands can be viewed, and more of Alexander's work discovered, on his website: www.alexanderchapmancampbell.com The Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. Music written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's evening, just after midsummer's day, and a walk has taken you down a winding lane to a tiny medieval church. In the churchyard, lichen-crusted gravestones emerge from what has been left to become a flower-filled meadow. Only a few goldfinches break the mellow stillness. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Plodcast heads to the dreamy surrounds of Richmond Park in south-west London to discuss the wonders of flights with author and conductor Lev Parikian. Along the way, Lev and Plodcast host Fergus Collins encounter a host of examples of strange and exotic winged creatures. Lev's book Taking Flight: How Animals Learned to Fly and Transformed Life on Earth is published by Elliott and Thompson The music Lev mentioned in the Plodcast was: Olivier Messiaen – Catalogue d'oiseaux Einojuhani Rautavaara - Cantus Arcticus  Igor Stravinsky - Right of Spring The Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. Music written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Morning has broken. A wood pigeon coos its lazy welcome to summer, surrounded by a chorus of chaffinches, blackbirds, wrens and chiffchaffs. The new green leaves of June filter the sunlight into watery pools on the forest floor and the tall tree trunks create an acoustic effect of ancient columns and buttresses. 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 Caroline Greene, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join an unusual Plodcast adventure in an urban car park with artist and author Anna Chapman Parker. Anna spent a year watching and drawing the wildflowers in her local town – plants normally dismissed as weeds. And she created an astonishing diary of overlooked beauty. Here she take Plodcast host Fergus Collins an urban journey of discovery to open our eyes to the magic in every crack in the pavement. Anna's book: Understorey: A Year Among Weeds is published by Duckworth Books. The Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. Music written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we're walking across the open grassland of Richmond Park in south-west London. While jets grumble overhead, rose-ringed parakeets can't resist a bit of back-chat from the fringing woodland. And in the brambly scrub, we hear the gentle mutterings of chaffinches and whitethroats. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Take an adventure with the Orchid Outlaw – a man braving danger and risking his freedom to rescue Britain's endangered orchids. Plodcast host Fergus meets Ben Jacob in the glorious meadows of the Stroud Commons to look for these incredible flowers – with a special quest to find the bizarre bee orchid. Read Ben's book: The Orchid Outlaw, On a Mission to Save Britain's Rarest Flowers (John Murray). If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. Music written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're walking in a summertime Narnia of dappled pathways, whispering leaves and the tall, smooth-skinned trunks of beech trees. This is the Blackwood Forest in Hampshire and as dusk falls on an evening in early June, a woodland choir marks the passing of the day. 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 Caroline Greene, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Savour the joys of foraging – this time in an urban green haven in the middle of Bristol. Plodcast host Fergus joins foraging expert Andy Hamilton for a journey into unusual flavours – and learns how to use wild plants to enhance everyday meals – and drinks. Andy's latest book is The First-Time Forager, published by The National Trust. Later, join the Plodcast team in the studio for a very special celebration! Listen to Episode 192. A quest for rare wildflowers in the Avon Gorge - with Mike Dilger: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3PhEIpZDJZftG3a0b4B4U0?si=c0920a1075504655 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-plodcast/id886112661?i=1000611378135 If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. Music written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's a hot midsummer day and sunlight sparkles along a stretch of gentle rapids on the River Usk. On the riverbank, floods have carved small cliffs enticing a colony of sand martins to create a stronghold. The birds sally forth to hunt insects – chattering as they go. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Should some animals be killed in order to protect rarer species or precious habitats? Everything from hedgehogs and mink to crows and deers has been targeted in recent years in order to 'save' something else and it's a controversial issue that has troubled conservationists and land managers in the UK for many years. Naturalist and hedgehog champion Hugh Warwick discusses the rights and wrongs of culling wild animals with Plodcast host Fergus on a late spring walk in a Welsh meadow. Hugh's book Cull of the Wild: Killing in the Name of Conservation is out now, published by Bloomsbury. Produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. Music written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Don't forget you can claim a free copy of BBC Countryfile Magazine – simply head to try.countryfile.com/plodcast and sign up for the latest edition. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dusk is falling after a busy bank holiday and a welcome peace is settling over the neighbourhood. The flowering clematis and roses seem to breathe a sigh of relief, exhaling a calming perfume. As you sit down on a garden bench, a blackbird sings his sultry love song from the gable of next door's house. 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. Image by Getty Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Portland Bill in Dorset is famous as a first landing site for thousands of migrant birds as they arrive to breed in the UK this spring and summer. Join Kevin Parr as he wanders this peninsular meeting these avian travellers – and he makes some extraordinary finds along the way. How many bird species can you hear in this recording? Produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. Music written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Don't forget you can claim a free copy of BBC Countryfile Magazine – simply head to try.countryfile.com/plodcast and sign up for the latest edition. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're walking on the white sands of Luskentyre on the Isle of Harris. A gentle line of surf teases the beach. Above, a common tern bobs by on its strangely buoyant flight before suddenly plunging like a downed paper aeroplane to catch small fish in the shallows. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Enter Rivendell – or what might as well be – a hidden valley on the edge of Eryri (Snowdonia) in North Wales. Plodcast host Fergus takes a nature ramble with the writer Julie Brominicks who lives off-grid with her partner here in a caravan beside a magical stream. Julie is a passionate advocate for the Welsh language and explains how it is interwoven with the landscape, nature and the rural culture of Wales. Produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. Music written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Don't forget you can claim a free copy of BBC Countryfile Magazine – simply head to try.countryfile.com/plodcast and sign up for the latest edition. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're on the edge of a settlement on the Isle of Harris - lochs and mountains flow from where the houses end. In the quiet of the morning, a willow warbler sings his descant; turning the music of a mountain stream into birdsong. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Explore a landscape of craggy mountains, turquoise seas and deep blue lochs on the Isle of Harris in search of rare wildlife – and especially golden and white-tailed eagles. Join Plodcast host Fergus on an epic search for these mighty birds – in a series of wild adventures in the Outer Hebrides. Produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. Music written and performed by Blair Dunlop. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's bright early morning in East Devon, the ground is still damp from the rains during the night but the light brings an optimistic view of the day ahead. You are between open farmland and a small woodland, sitting with your morning brew and drifting away into the morning soundscape of beautiful birdsong. 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 Jack Bateman, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new rewilding project has been announced in Somerset. Created by the charity Heal, the project aims to transform several hundred acres of farmland into wildlife-rich habitat that offers huge benefits for people, too. Listen on as Plodcast host Fergus meets with Heal CEO Jan Stannard to hear about the plans and what wildlife to expect – and they find some real wildlife surprises along the way. Find out more about Heal at www.healsomerset.org.uk Produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. Music written and performed by Blair Dunlop. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: www.countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After a healing night in a cabin beside a stream, you awake to a cup of tea and a glorious serenade from a song thrush. Wild garlic sweeps along the banks, the tang fresh and invigorating in the early morning. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plodcast host Fergus heads to deepest Herefordshire to meet Alice Sainsbury, who is championing greater access to the countryside for people with visible and invisible disabilities. Her own story is deeply moving – and offers powerful insight into the challenges so many people face in simply enjoying the outdoors. Plus, enjoy beautiful spring wildlife along the way... The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme tune was written and performed by Blair Dunlop. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hidden under the canopy of a Cumbrian forest, you sit, listening to the creaking of branches and snapping of twigs. Tiny closed-cup mushrooms are scattered across the brown-ish ground, shimmering in a gentle wash of rain. The dense evening fog descends and life beyond the wood is shrouded in mist. 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 Lewis Dobbs, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's dusk in the Forest of Dean and Plodcast host Fergus is on the trail of wild boar with author Chantal Lyons. Chantal has been studying these extraordinary mammals for 10 years. How did the boar get here, what impact do they have and will Fergus and Chantal ever set eyes on them? Chantal's new book is Groundbreakers: The Return of Britain's Wild Boar, published by Bloomsbury. The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme tune was written and performed by Blair Dunlop. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're sitting on a tree stump in a vast clearing, deep in the Forest of Dean. It's dusk and the rapidly failing light takes the last humans with it, leaving the stage free for the dusk chorus of song thrushes, blackbirds and robins. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Enter the mysterious Golden Triangle on the borders of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to discover one of Britain's glorious spring wildlife spectacle – the blooming of millions of wild daffodils through the woods and fields. Join Plodcast host Fergus for a special ramble to witness this rare wonder. Later, join the Plodcast team in the studio for nature news, listener emails and a rare countryside joke. Produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. Reading by Hannah Tribe. Music written and performed by Blair Dunlop. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we're relaxing to a delightful piece of writing about nightingales by Dominic Couzens accompanied by the birds themselves – and read by Fergus Collins. Nightingales is from a collection of BBC Countryfile Magazine articles published new book Countryfile: A Year in the Countryside introduced by John Craven and edited by podcast host Fergus Collins. 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. Read by Fergus Collins. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join Plodcast host Fergus and adventurer Phoebe Smith as they take a day-long pilgrimage across the Oxfordshire countryside to explore spring nature - and experience the healing power of walking with purpose. It's a beautiful experience among the skylarks and red kites. Don't miss Phoebe's fabulous new book about her life-changing experiences while on pilgrimage: Wayfarer: Life, Love and Loss and Britain's Ancient Paths If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're wandering beside a lake in early spring sunlight. A newly arrived chiffchaff sings from nearby willows while the plaintive calls from a scattered flock of Canada geese rise from the lakeside meadows. Celandines and marsh marigolds dance in the fringes. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Step out into spring with Plodcast host Fergus for a wander on his local hill to find who's up and about in the wildlife world on this early spring morning. Will we find the much longed for adders and merlins? Join Fergus for a mindful meander through woodland, moor and vale. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're beside a stream at the bottom of a wooded valley. You're nearing the end of a long walk so you pause to rest. But soon the rushing water whispers spells and ancient charms of such power that time drifts away. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to spring on the Plodcast and a new season of nature-themed episodes! But first, we have an exciting development! Musician Blair Dunlop and songwriter Duncan Haskell have created an utterly charming theme tune for the Plodcast – so host Fergus met them in a wild corner of Bristol to hear the music live and talk about the inspiration behind the songwriting. It's pure magic - with a natural accompaniment of wild birdsong. Discover more about Blair's music, his new album and upcoming tour dates on his website blairdunlop.com If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're on the edge of a the ruins of a Roman town lost in the Hampshire countryside. Only the crumbling outer walls remain, enclosing daffodil-fringed meadows. You plunge down an avenue of trees to emerge into a wide, oval space. You stop beathless, this is the amphitheatre. Half expecting the clash of weapons of ghosts of gladiators – you hear only the stirrings of spring. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we're spending the day on a waterway in Gloucestershire in search of a creature that has spawned a thousand myths and monster stories – we're hoping to meet the mighty pike, Britain's largest predatory freshwater fish. Angler and TV presenter Will Millard is joined by the Plodcast team of Fergus and Jack – and later Annabel – to see if they can get close to one of these beautiful and extraordinary creatures. Plus we discuss the ethics of fishing – is it cruel? Listen on for a truly extraordinarily tense end to this season of Plodcasts. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're beside a small pond where toads are thronging the margins, jostling and tootling as they prepare to spawn. Through the magic of a hydrophone, you can hear the extraordinary symphony of the toads' underwater world. 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 and introduced by Alice Boyd. Image by Getty Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we're off to the Roman town of Silchester deep in the Hampshire countryside. Plodcast host Fergus meets legendary broadcaster Matthew Bannister to talk about folk music and the British landscape and his own podcast: Folk on Foot. Plus, Matthew reflects on his astonishing career with the BBC – and has advice for the corporation and its future. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're in the Bannau Brycheiniog – and an overnight snowfall has dusted the hilltops. It's melting fast so we've headed to the nearest peak for a satisfying dog walk along snow-covered paths marred only by the footprints of foxes and pipits. A skylark rises and sings of warmer days. 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, and introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we're off to Epping Forest on the eastern edge of London on a night walk to hear from those who encounter barriers to accessing nature and the countryside because of their social class, race, gender or sexuality. We'll also be talking to organisations that are trying to change things for the better, for everyone. Our guide is folk singer and sound designer Alice Boyd – who joins the Plodcast for the first time. www.aliceboyd.info. Images by Getty. The organisations featured include William Morris Galley https://wmgallery.org.uk/ The Hive https://thehiveintheforest.co.uk/ Misery Party https://www.instagram.com/miseryparty/ If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Saturday in a suburb of gardens full of daffodils and crocuses - and the birds are awake long before the human population. House sparrows chatter in the hedges, a coal tit pipes from cherry blossom while goldcrests and jackdaws add their own joyful spring banter. 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, and introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join the Plodcast team of Fergus, Maria and Jack in the studio to chat about their latest wild adventures and discuss country matters and rural issues that have cropped up in recent Plodcast episodes. Plus, we share some brilliant emails and audio recordings sent in by listeners. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We've stopped in a forgotten, overgrown green lane on a hillside. A bright sun sears deep into the woodland. Winter's blanket is being unstitched by the songs of three birds – a great tit calls, insistently, to his new partner. A song thrush tries out his phrases, testing and repeating them. A goldcrest in the ivy giggles at the throught of spring. 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, and introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we're off to Sussex in the great company of Plodcast regular Maria Hodson. Maria heads to the town of Lyminster to hunt for a terrifying creature called the Sussex knucker. What is the knucker, you ask? Listen on to hear an extraordinary tale drawn from the British countryside. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we’re at Horsey Gap, a long and sandy beach in Norfolk. Over the roar of the North Sea, we can hear the moans and growls of a nearby colony of grey seals. These seals have made their home here, and can be spotted year round on the beach or swimming nearby. Today, they’re sunbathing in the February sun. 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 and introduced by Alice Boyd. Image by Getty. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Enjoy a walk and talk with documentary maker, writer and TV presenter Philippa Forrester. While exploring a flooded landscape between Bath and Bristol with Plodcast host Fergus, Philippa talks about her inspiring new book: Wild Woman – exploring the challenges and obstacles women face in the world of nature conservation. If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we're stuck in the greenhouse. We came up to check on the winter salad leaves, and the skies darkened. It’ll only be a short shower, the edges of the cloud are visible through the veil of raindrops on the roof. So, we’ll wait here for a bit, breathing in the rich smell of the earth and listening to the irregular rhythm of the drips off the guttering. 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 and introduced by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Between the villages of Purton and Sharpness on the River Severn, dozens of barges and ships lie on the riverbank, slowly decomposing into the landscape. But the reason why they're here will surprise you. Plodcast host Fergus takes a walk among the river with countryside writer Simon Heptinstall to learn the story of the Purton Hulks. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Deep in the Cambrian Mountains, just outside Wales' remotest chapel, a small stream flows out of the barren hills. Now, in the depths of winter, a skin of ice has formed but the water still runs beneath, a soft voice in an empty landscape. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join Plodcast host Fergus and countryside writer Professor Fiona Stafford in the curious hilltop village of Brill to learn how to find hidden history in the landscape around you. Fiona's new book, Time and Tide (John Murray) is a series of fascinating adventures looking at how our countryside is transformed over time - and how quickly things are forgotten. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're walking an old tram road in an abandoned quarry in the Welsh hills. It's been deadly cold for weeks and water that normally cascades off the high ground has frozen into dramatic icicles as it runs down rock faces and over cave mouths. But this morning's warm sun has started a thaw and there is a gentle music of water released. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week, Plodcast regular Kevin Parr explores a lost church in Dorset. St Luke's Chapel was built to serve the village of Sterte near Abbotsbury, in the 1240s. The chapel remained in use until the mid 16th Century when it was abandoned following the Act of Supremacy (1534) that gave Henry VIII the power to disband religious buildings. All that remains of the chapel (and the village) is a single wall and arch, which stands deep in the woodland of Ashley Chase, although a more recently constructed altar carries votive offerings and painted stones left by the handful of visitors who pick through the trees to pay homage. Kevin samples the atmosphere of this eerie place and looks for ghosts. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's an icy cold morning and you're walking through a once-waterlogged meadow now made crisp by frost. Low winter sun slants across the surrounding hills, picking out shadows and contours, silhouetting lone trees. As you descend into a shallow valley, distant rooks call from an ancient woodland. 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, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hidden in a peaceful corner of the Monmouthshire countryside is a site steeped in blood, treachery and revenge. Plodcast host Fergus and his son Owen set out one cold January morning to uncover the secret of medieval Castell Arnallt (Castle Arnold) - and track down what remains of this ill-fated and now forgotten Welsh castle. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are on high country farm road in the Hakataramea Valley in deepest South Canterbury, New Zealand. Skylark song pours from the heavens, cascading over paddocks of ewes with noisy lambs at foot. 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 Nick Allen. Image by Getty. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're beachcombing on Orkney this week. Plodcast regular Annabel Ross meets Martin Gray who has been finding curiosities on the seashore here for several decades. What will they find today? And what are the greatest treasures Martin has ever found? Listen on for more tales from the landscape. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're walking a muddy track beside a farm on the edge of a vast expanse of flooded land, the water perfectly reflecting a rare January blue sky. From the barns, a heady odour of sweat and dung rises from the cattle within. Across the marshes, swans sail, occasionally taking to the air on heavy, whoomping wingbeats. And from out of the ancient landscape, the eeries cries of cranes rise above tractor and quad bike engine. 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 – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Plodcast goes fishing this week with plodcast regular Kevin Parr and author and TV presenter Will Millard. Host Fergus meets them on his local waterway, the Monmouthshire and Breconshire Canal, to talk about why fishing matters to much to them. It's the perfect combination of gentle adventure, chat and humour. But will they catch any fish? Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're walking beside a stream swollen by rain, which tumbles through a wooded valley, crashing over rocks and weirs. Dippers chatter and dive for food, a heron hunts eels in the mill leat and watery sunlight breaks through the leafless canopy. A heavy scent of deep winter leaf decay fills the air. 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. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plodcast host Fergus joins historian and battlefield tour guide Julian Humphrys at the site of a Civil War battlefield in the hills just north of Bath. It's a dark winter's day and fog descends creating an atmosphere of 'gunsmoke' and eerie sounds. Listen on to hear about how the dramatic battle unfolded... Find out more about the Battlefields Trust of which Julian is a trustee at https://www.battlefieldstrust.com. And Julian's own website is full of great information:  http://www.julianhumphrys.com/ Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After weeks of rain, it's a clear, calm rosy sunrise. A pair of robins in neighbouring gardens welcome the early sun with wistful phrases as if chatting over the fence. It's a duet to warm the soul in the depths of winter. 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. Image by Getty Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plodcast host Fergus joins broadcaster, writer and, best of all, brilliant birder Stephen Moss on a wild stretch of the Somerset coast to look for winter birds on the marshes and mudflats. Stephen also talks about his time as a BBC Natural History Unit producer and his lifelong love of wildlife. But what did they discover today? Stephen's new book The Owl: A Biography is published by Square Peg. Link https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/455675/the-owl-by-moss-stephen/9781529908268 Image by Getty Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we're on the Ceredigion coast - a lonely cove of shingle with the Irish sea rolling with a soothing rhythm. No one else is around, no one that is apart from a seal bobbing just offshore. 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 Catrin Collins. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is it like to swim outdoors under a full moon in the depths of winter? Maria Hodson braves the inky waters of Clevedon Marine Pool with the Bristol Blue Tits to learn about what cold water swimming can do for you. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Where the Somerset Levels meet the sea, broad, marshy pastures and forgotten fields host gulls, rooks, crows and egrets, foraging for food stirred up cattle and horses wintering here. But the birds are ever watchful – there are hunters here, peregrines roving the overcast sky ready to strike. 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. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join Plodcast host Fergus and regulars Kevin Parr and Annabel Ross as well as editor Dan Kramer-Arden for a lighthearted look back at a year of recording nature – and take part in Kev's great Christmas quiz! Plus plenty more natural silliness to enjoy. Wild wishes from the Plodcast team and have a very merry Christmas. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're in a wintry valley following a boisterous stream high into the Welsh hills. After recent rain, the water boils and churns and the river's song is wild and free. Fighting against the current are huge salmon, leaping lightning fast through the rough waters to reach the calmer spawning grounds. 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 Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Come with us deep into the Welsh hills, to Gilfach Farm, a magical Radnorshire Wildlife Trust reserve in Powys. Here, in the tumbling River Marteg, salmon still leap waterfalls and rapids to reach their spawning grounds. Will plodcast host Fergus spot this incredible natural spectacle. With huge thanks to naturalist Megan Shersby and Radnorshire Wildlife Trust's head of conservation Sylvia Cojocaru for the wildlife insights and expertise. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s a chilly evening and you are gathered with a crowd of others next to a large bonfire. The warmth it provides is a welcome break from the chilly air and the glow lights up the faces of joy around the neighbourhood park. 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 Jack Bateman, presented by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Explore the magic and myth of the Ring of Brodgar – an astonishing neolithic stone circle on Orkney in the company of local ranger Sandra Miller and the Plodcast's own Annabel Ross. Enjoy a blend of history, mystery and folklore… Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're on the wild and windy beach of Orkney’s South Ronaldsay. You listen to the cry of turnstones, plovers, sanderlings and redshanks, competing for the lead solo part, as they take flight from the water’s edge with the grey seals peacefully watching on. 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 Annabel Ross, presented by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join Plodcast host Fergus and wonderful storyteller Duane Fitzsimons as they following in the footsteps of St Patrick along the coastline of Co Down. As they search for St Patrick's Well and his final resting place, Duane recounts tales of local folklore, shipwrecks and chilling ghost stories. This is the final episode of 4 in 2023 exploring St Patrick's Way in Northern Ireland. For more about Duane and the magical Lecale Peninsula see www.lecalepeninsula.com/ A huge thanks to Tourism Northern Ireland for making these adventures possible. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As the fluttering of pigeons' wings loosen the last beech nuts of the season, you stand under a gentle shower of nature’s crackles and pops, reminding us that autumn is in full flow. Majestic beech trees envelop you, offering up their fruits to passing wildlife. 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 Annabel Ross, presented by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Enjoy a night walk in an ancient forest in Gloucestershire with the Plodcast team of Fergus, Hannah and Jack. What is it like walking in the pitch black – and what stories and wild encounters will they experience? To help them in their quest, they deploy night vision scopes… The night vision devices used by the team were: Bushnell Equinox X650 Nightfox Corsac Night Vision Binoculars Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Where the Burn of Latheronwheel meets the North Sea, you sit silently on the ancient harbour wall soaking in autumn sun, The waves draw the pebbles back down into the the depths of the peaty water. Once home to fifty boats, where salmon was a regular catch, Latheronwheel is now a ghost of its past, with the voices of long gone fishermen whispering onto the shore. 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 Annabel Ross, presented by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week, the Plodcast tales are as ancient as can be. We’re in Dorset with Plodcast regular Annabel Ross hunting 500-million-year old fossils in the company of author and paelontologist Wolfgang Grulke, who has amassed an extraordinary collection of the strangest and rarest fossils on earth. Join them for a weird and wonderful adventure into prehistory. For more about Wolfgang Grulke, inclusing details on how to visit his collection, head to https://wolfganggrulke.com/author. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re in a little cottage deep in the Dorset countryside. The fire is lit. Steam swirls from a mug of tea. The curtains are drawn and we wait. Outside, there is a moment of calm as though the world is taking a deep breath. A storm is rolling in off the Atlantic, but before the wind comes the rain. Thudding into the brickwork and flicking off leaves and guttering. In the warm, we cosy up to listen. 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 Kevin Parr, presented by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meet the new boss of Countryfile and learn about what he has planned for the UK’s most popular countryside TV show. Plodcast regular Annabel Ross takes Mark for a walk in a wonderful Mendip vale in north Somerset – listen on for some fascinating insight into rural passion and programme making. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Magazine Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're following a narrow mountain path through thickets of inpenetrable birch. It's been a long, hot, footsore day and so you are easily seduced by the sound of a tumbling stream. From a rocky cleft, ice-cold clear water pours. You stop to bathe your feet and splash your face. It is delicious. 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. Image by Getty Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s dusk in a valley somewhere in Dorset. Plodcast regular Kevin Parr has joined a local deer stalker to talk about why – and how – he culls these large mammals. Join the Plodcast team later in the studio to discuss some of the issues raised. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Magazine Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're resting on a field gate. Late summer warmth spills into the autumn. The sun slow to rise but blazing when it does. The overnight dew clings on in the shadows, while the long grass of the field margins rattle with the chirrup of grasshoppers. Flies and bees buzz. A nuthatch bubbles from the hedgerow. A last hurrah before the first frost. 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 Kevin Parr, presented by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In our latest quest seeking tales from the British landscape, musician Tiny Leaves takes Plodcast host Annabel Ross onto a mysterious hill in Shropshire known as the Long Mynd. Here, Tiny Leaves has discovered a way of recording the songs of trees and plants and incorporating them into his music. But what do the ‘voices’ of trees sound like? Listen on to find out – it’s pure magic. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Magazine Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re on a small, wooded hill in Herefordshire. Sullen clouds gather over the trees, which cloak the brooding ramparts of an ancient hillfort. It’s silent now, its people long gone, replaced by birds and badgers. A gentle rain falls, pattering through the canopy of hazel and oak. 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 – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Come with us to a mighty hillfort, all but forgotten on a wooded hill deep in the Herefordshire countryside – and discover tales of dark deeds long ago. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Magazine, Eagle House, Bristol, BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s early autumn and the sunshine has brought bustle to a small harbour on the south coast. There is a light breeze and the air is soft. Families find fun with crab-lines, lowering baits between the fishing boats and dinghies. The sea a gentle swell beneath the sound of footsteps on the flagstones. 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 Kevin Parr, presented by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wander through a Sussex woodland with Julia Donaldson for a joyous mix of story-telling, mushroom foraging and Gruffalo-reenactment! Relive Julia’s journey to becoming one of the world’s most famous children’s authors as well as hearing the tales behind the Gruffalo and other family favourites, You’ll hear about her new book – The Oak Tree, illustrated by Victoria Sandøy who also joins the Plodcast along with Julia’s mushroom-hunting husband Malcolm. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re in the garden in a small village in Picardy in Northern France. The early evening warmth teases sweet scent from the lavender bushes and myrtles while a single cicada plays its eternal silvery zither, drawing down 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, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Fergus Collins, presented by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to a new season of Plodcasts, a new series of quests to explore overlooked corners of countryside where folklore and mystery create curious tales. And along the way, we’ll be encountering wonderful wildlife and fascinating human characters. In this first episode, Plodcast host Fergus and his son Owen wander out into a corner of the Bannau Brycheiniog lost to the ravages of the industrial revolution in search of lost standing stone. Here’s what they found. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Magazine Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What weather! At times like this you forget it can rain so hard; the clouds overturned and emptied like water buckets on the ground before you. You find a step in the porch of the old farmhouse and make yourself comfortable. The rain continues to cascade. Puddles sparkle. Leaves spiral down, caught up in the storm. 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 Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s the end of summer and the end of a season of Plodcasts. Join the Plodcast team of Fergus, Hannah and Jack in the studio for a look forward to what you can expect over the autumn and winter months – plus a fabulous listener email… and cake. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Magazine Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A late summer stroll through the shingle and sand of the south coast. There is warm sunshine between the cloud and a busy beach with families making the most of the holidays. Splash and laughter, ice-cream and sun-screen. And the gentle wash of the sea. 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 Kevin Parr, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Walk in the company of Jack and Fergus and they tackle Macmillan's Mighty Hike, a half marathon through the Wye Valley. Joining thousands of others, the Plodcast pair explore beautiful scenery, endure ferocious heat and hear the inspiring tales of cancer survivors and affected families along the way. A beautiful, uplifting adventure to end season 16 of the Countryfile Magazine Plodcast For more information on Macmillan Cancer Support Mighty Hikes, visit https://mightyhikes.macmillan.org.uk/ Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Magazine Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You’ve wandered into a fairy glen where pure clear water tumbles from pool to pool though mini-gorges of moss covered rocks. As your eyes adjust, you spot small trout swaying in the current, illuminated by soft sunlight that has been sieved by the tree canopy. 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 – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Talk a wander through a forest in the Ardennes region of north-east France with Plodcast host Fergus – and discover unfamiliar woodland sights and sounds in a land once torn apart by war. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Magazine Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Your path down through the meadow’s edge is transformed in late summer as thistles, comfrey and Himalayan balsam swallow up the human-made track. You push gently through, avoiding thorns and clouds of hoverflies while goldfinch song trickles down from ash trees. 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 – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s as close to a fairy glen you’ll ever experience. Plodcast host Fergus sets off into Tollymore Forest in County Down with local guide Vikki Canavan to find strange tales and curious wildlife along a river brimming with magic. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Magazine Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Your cool, shady walk through a riverside woodland is pierced briefly by a kingfisher's wheezed whistle. The water roars as you approach rapids, then subsides as you turn away deeper into the trees. A wren sings and a robin scolds the earthy smells that tell of autumn. 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 – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Be transported to the tranquil shores of the Cromarty Firth on the east coast of Scotland. Here, thousands of waders and wildfowl gather as autumn approaches, providing a magical spectacle for human visitors. Join Plodcast regular Annabel Ross and birders Fiona and Graham Reid so see what might turn up in this wild estuary. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Magazine Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After a sunny afternoon of exploring the rock pools you take a seat and listen to the waves crash gently against the rocky shorefront. Down the beach visitors enjoy a quiet lunch whilst enjoying the sea breeze. 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 Jack Bateman, presented by Brittany Collie. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Enter the wild worlds of Narnia and Game of Thrones as Plodcast host Fergus and local outdoorsman John Keating seek out the great Mourne Wall deep in the magical Mourne Mountains of Northern Ireland. What is this strange monument and why was it built? And why is this land associated with great fantasy epics? Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Magazine Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's early morning and as the sun breaks through the canopy of leaves and the wrens, blue tits, robins begin their cheerful chatter. A new day is coming to life and you're in the centre of it. 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 Jack Bateman, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Island poet Kenneth Steven reveals the wildlife marvels on his doorstep – the Isle of Seal in the Inner Hebrides – and introduces us to a range of avian characters. Plus, enjoy his wonderful poetry. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Magazine Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we're paddleboarding on the River Wye, Leave all your worries on the riverbank and be lulled by the gentle, rhythmic swish of the paddle blade. The water swirls around you, shoals of fish shoot away from your bow, birds peep from the stooping alders. 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 team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the second part of our exploration of the St Patrick's Way pilgrimage in Northern Ireland, Plodcast host Fergus Collins and guide Peter Rafferty walk south along the Newry Canal in Armagh. Abandoned in the mid 20th century, the canal is now a haven for wildlife – with whispers of history at every turn. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Magazine Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're in Beinn Eighe (Ben Ay) in the Scottish Highlands The mountains this morning are ill-manner; the trails rough, the gullies deep, the mist consuming. Winds elbow by like rushing commuters, and with them they bring rain. But such is the nature of summer in the Scottish Highlands that just as afternoon breaks the skies clear and a new day appears. Jubilant with the sparkling light, you pause by a high loch among even higher peaks to dry off and soak up the scene. 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 Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we’ve invited a former Plodcast guest to take the reins. Back in episode 199, I met James MacDonald Lockhart to hear the songs of skylarks in the Cotswolds. This week, we’re releasing him into his natural habitat – the wilds of Glenfeshie and surrounding Cairngorm mountain range – in a quest to meet one of Britain’s most unusual birds: the dotterel. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Magazine Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s night in a tent on the coast of Pembrokeshire. At some point during the dark hours, you stir. The rain is still falling, and there are layers to its sound. Great marbles of water fall from the beech tree above the tent; the wind throws buckets; then both become consumed by a deluge like no other, a shower so heavy that you could be in the raincloud itself. You’re grateful for your warm sleeping bag, and before you know it you’ve dropped once more into a deep, dreamless sleep. Recorded by Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team - and send your sound recordings of the countryside - to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we’re heading back to early spring in the Welsh hills. But for the second Plodcast in a row, we’re not on foot. Following last week’s paddleboarding on the river Wye, plodcast host Fergus takes to two wheels to explore the hills of his beloved Bannau Brecheiniog. Borrowing an electric bike, he follows an old railway line into the wild to see how far he can get on a single battery charge – and get home again. This is episode 13 of season 16: Get Active in Nature Thank you to Merida for supplying the Merida eBigNine model for this podcast. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Magazine Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Huddled between the urban brawn of Cardiff, Caerphilly and Newport is small woodland of spruce and birds and dank gullies. There is a stream in this woodland, the kind of you may not even notice, should your mind be elsewhere. Out of view beneath the path, it is the cool air welling up from its jostling waters that first alters you to it. You soon smell it, all earth and minerals, before finally reaching it with sight. Recorded by Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we’re out on the water – a two-day paddleboarding adventure on the Wye the great river that flows through the borders of England and Wales. Maria Hodson is our host, and with an enthusiastic raft of fellow paddlers she meets the river’s wildlife and explores some of the darker issues facing this troubled waterway. This is episode 12 of season 16: Get Active in Nature Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s a sunny evening in a wooded glade on quiet stretch of the Isle of Wight's northern shore. Just beyond the trees, the sea bustles. But here, jolly holiday makers, blackbirds, woodpeckers and even bees are celebrating the end of a fine day. 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 Jack Bateman, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week Annabel Ross ventures forth to the tangled rainforest of Wistman’s Wood on Dartmoor to meet poet Elizabeth Jane Burnett.But their mission isn’t to celebrate the revered twisted oak trees or the famous song birds – nor even the ferns and flowers. It’s the mysterious, magical and mesmerising… mosses – especially wonderful when heard through the words and verse of Elizabeth-Jane. Her new book, 12 Words for Moss champions these unsung heroes of the plant world. This is episode 11 of season 16: Get Active in Nature Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You spot a shelf of rock at the far end of the moon-shaped bay and make for it, the fine sand giving way to warm, angular, salt-rough ground. The scramble comes almost without thought, your bare feet gripping nimbly to the rock. You soon come to rest in a nook facing back to the shore. Kelp rolls in the mineral-blue waters at your toes; beyond that is the moon beach, your footprints already washed clean by the gently shelving waves. 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 Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plodcast host Annabel Ross is on a musical mission, discovering how nature and wild sounds can influence a modern composer – in this case, acclaimed musician Erland Cooper. Hailing from the Orkneys, Erland combines field recordings and environmental messages with electronica and classical motifs and we’ll be hearing some of his music later: Solan Goose and then Movement 5 from his new album Folded Landscapes. But first let’s go with Annabel to meet Erland to have a nature ramble at a studio just outside of bath –a studio belonging to that legendary music maker Peter Gabriel. This is episode 10 of season 16: Get Active in Nature Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com.If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's a still summer's evening on a beach on the Isle of Wight. It’s still very warm and the heat seems to affect the sea itself. Wavelets sweep lazily onto the beach and then flop and sink into the shingle. 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 Jack Bateman, presented by Fergus Collins. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Plodcast team of Fergus, Hannah and Jack explore the River Frome in search of kingfishers, which some of the team have never seen. Along the way, they discover delightful urban wildlife, glorious wildflowers and a series of curious encounters… but do they find complete their mission? Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we're heading deep into the Sussex countryside in the company of writer and angler Chris Yates. In this, the first chapter from his book The Secret Carp, Chris heads out on an eerie late summer's evening to find the perfect pool for fishing. The whole work is now available as an audiobook from merlineunwin.co.uk/products/” 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.Presented by Hannah Tribe.Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.comVisit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 about – bird of them all: the skylark. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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, wherever you happen to be.   Recorded by Daniel Graham, presented by Fergus Collins. Image by Getty   Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 16: Get Active in Nature. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Robert Ashington, presented by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 thanks to Ivan, Alice and all the team at Knepp. In next week's episode, we talk with Isabella Tree who, with her partner Charlie Burrell owns Knepp and has pioneered the rewilding project. Look out for her guide to bringing nature back to the land: The Book of Wilding, published by Bloomsbury. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Daniel Kramer-Arden, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Fergus Collins, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 Patrick. This is episode 3 of season 16: Get Active in Nature Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 connections to countryside. Later, Maria and Plodcast host Fergus test the power walking with a trip to the Mendip Hills near Bristol… This is episode 2 of season 16: Get Active in Nature Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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: Get Active in Nature Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 Collins, presented by Maria Hodson. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Fergus Collins, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Recorded by Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 first wonderful surge of spring nature… Image by Getty. This is the last of 12 episodes of season 15: Mindful walks in nature Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 happen to be. Recorded and presented by Margaret Bartlett. Image by Getty. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Daniel Graham. Presented by Hannah Tribe Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're in a wooden vale in the Black Mountains of south wales. It’s very late winter but recent bright and dry weather has crisped the autumn leaves – so while your feet crunch in the litter of oak litter, the first birds are singing and raven croaks rain down from the wide blue sky. 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 and presented by Fergus Collins Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join the Plodcast team as we go fishing with Plodcast regular Kevin Parr on the Bridgewater and Taunton Canal in Somerset. For Jack and Hannah it was the first time fishing – did we catching anything? Did we enjoy it? Listen on for a quite magical day in the countryside. Find out more about Kevin Parr's new book: The Quiet Moon: Pathways to an Ancient Way of Being This is episode 7 of season 15 of the Plodcast: Mindful Walks in Nature. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're high on the Wessex Downs. A long barrow broods on a lonely ridge – a tomb that has stood here for 5000 years. Caught in a storm while walking the Ridgeway, you are forced to shelter in the barrow's entrance, listening to the raindrops falling from the ancient stones. 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. Image by Oliver Edwards. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Back in January, a high court upheld an action brought by local landowners and ruled that there was no right to wild camping in Dartmoor National Park. In response, thousands of protesters headed to the moors to protest about access to the countryside – and the right to camp. Our own Maria Hodson was there to explore the issue for us. Later, Maria spoke to folk singer and right to roam campaigner Sam Lee about why so many people are angry at the court's decision. And you can hear one of Sam's songs at the end of this podcast. This is episode 6 of season 15 of the Plodcast: Mindful Walks in Nature. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Walking the coast path around Hartland Point after snowfall Winter’s cold brings many pleasures. Frost-enshrined thorns, glinting in the light of a low sun; nights so silent you could hear a snowflake drop; the lifting lilt of the robin song through icy dawn air. And snow underfoot, a so sound so evocative of being a child that you become one again… for a short while at least. 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 Daniel Graham. Presented by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cerys Matthews shares her love of nature, music and poetry on a wonderful walk in Kew Gardens with our own Margaret Bartlett. Cerys reveals her deep love from the words of Dylan Thomas and her own retelling of his great work, Under Milk Wood, for children.You can hear Cerys on BBC Radio 6 every Sunday from 10am. Catch up on previous episodes on BBC Sounds. This is episode 5 of season 15 of the Plodcast: Mindful Walks in Nature. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode we've travelled to the otherside of the world. It's late spring at the Karori Sanctuary near Wellington, New Zealand and the kakas – a large species of parrot – are singing their eerie dusk chorus.   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 Margaret Bartlett. Presented by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty.   Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com   Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're heading to Cemlyn Bay on the northern coast of Anglesey for a gentle walk around lagoons and quiet coves where birds rule and grey seals sleep. Podcast host Fergus voices a wildlife ramble around this remote haven on a beautiful Welsh island. Recorded in August 2022. This is episode 4 of season 15 of the Plodcast: Mindful Walks in Nature. Image from Getty. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're back on a farm deep in the Devon countryside. At some point in the night you stir, woken by the patter of hail on the slate roof. The barn is old, built hundreds of years before your time, and as the minutes pass by you think of the many stories made, and the many told, within these thick stone walls. It’s a comfort – from your warm, cosy bed – and you soon drop back into a deep, dreamless sleep to wake up to clear skies. 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 Daniel Graham. Presented by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty.   Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com   Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Head deep into Goatchurch Cavern in the Mendips with historian and artist Amy Jeffs and Plodcast host Fergus to hear ancient tales, myths and legends as we enter the bowels of the earth. Amy's new book, Wild: Tales from Early Medieval Britain explores how our ancestors viewed nature and landscape through their stories, poetry and song. Listen on as ancient magic is conjured deep in the earth. A huge thank you to Daniel Matthews from the Mendip Caving Group for leading the adventure. This is episode 2 of season 15 of the Plodcast: Mindful Walks in Nature Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the 100th edition of Sound Escapes, we're on a boat in the Outer Hebrides at anchor near a small island. An underwater microphone captures grey seals swimming around the hull of the small boat while a full moon hangs in the still night. Enjoy a specially extended audio experience to celebrate our 100th episode. Recorded by musician David de la Haye. 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. Presented by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty.   Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com   Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Take a wander along on of Britain's oldest roads: the Ridgeway. TV presenter, writer and archaeologist Mary-Ann Ochota is the patron of the Ridgeway National Trail, and takes host Fergus on a circular walk from the stone circle at Avebury onto mysterious Fyfield Down before walking along the Ridgeway to magnificent West Kennet Long barrow – where a big surprise is awaiting them in the prehistoric burial mound. Photograph by Oliver Edwards. This is episode 2 of season 15 of the Plodcast: Mindful Walks in Nature Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're in a large wildlife-rich garden on Gower, a small and beautiful peninsular in South Wales. At this time of year, the beech hedges are orange, the leaves are curled, crisp and dry. At their base, blackbirds turn over the ones that have fallen, looking for treasure. 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 and presented by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty.   Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com   Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our new season of mindful walks in nature explores the power of the green outdoors to bolster physical and mental health. In episode 1, Plodcast host Fergus transports you to his favourite haven of peace along the River Usk. It's early January and the river is high – but the wildlife is stirring on this magical Welsh waterway including a special guest right at the beginning of the recording… Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST PPA Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're sitting beside a log fire in a farmhouse in Devon. There’s something at once inconstant and rhythmic about fire. Each flame unlike the next, each ember on its own wild course, yet its heartbeat is as regular as yours. Perhaps that’s what lures you in, what comforts you; two beats aligning. Or perhaps the flames reveal a memory inherited from centuries prior. Either way, for those few precious moments, there’s nothing but you and the fire. 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 Daniel Graham. Presented by Fergus Collins. Image by Getty.   Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com   Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're at Hartland Quay, Devon. The day is late by the time you reach the Hartland coast and all you can do is run. Breathless, you reach the shore to see the sun sitting low amid a bed of coral clouds. You settle on a rock. A waterfall spills beside you, lit by the winter sun. Waves roll pebbles up and down the beach. The air feels cold on your cheeks. 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 Daniel Graham. Presented by Hannah Tribe   Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com   Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to our last Plodcast of 2022 – the Christmas special issue. Plodcast regular Kevin Parr joins author Patrick Galbraith and Brittany Collie in the studio with Plodcast host Fergus. We talk favourite moments of 2022, look ahead to the New Year and, best of all, invite you to join us for Kevin's special Christmas quiz. A lovely way to round off the Plodcast year. Image from Getty. Find out more about Kevin's book, The Quiet Moon And for more information on Patrick's Book One Last Song… Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST PPA Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're at Ham Wall in Somerset for the great starling murmuration. At first they come in small flocks, barely discernible against the winter sky. But as the light begins to fade, their numbers strengthen; a thousand here, two thousand there. They gather like mercury, then split and bind again, growing ever larger until soon there are half a million of them throwing forms across the sky. A strand suddenly breaks free, plummeting into the reedbeds, and the rest follow. The sound absorbs you. Image by Getty. 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 Daniel Graham. Presented by Hannah Tribe   Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com   Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this our last episode before Christmas – we are appropriately talking about partridges, one of the famous birds of the festive season. In Britain, our native grey partridge is not doing well – so met up with writer, nature lover and editor of the shooting times Patrick Galbraith to search for them in the Hampshire countryside and talk about what can be done to turn the tide. Find out more about Patrick's book: In search of one last song: Britain's disappearing birds and the people trying to save them Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Write to us: Plodcast, Countryfile Eagle House Bristol BS1 4ST PPA Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're beside the River Severn in South Gloucestershire on a cold, quiet, crisp, sunny winter afternoon. The air is fresh and still and your breath steams in front of you. A gentle breeze moves through the last remaining leaves on the hedgerows and few birds sing. The occasional dog walker potters past. 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 the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com   Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this week’s episode, we're discovering the joys of walking groups. Back in March Plodcast host Fergus joined up with a gang of hikers from the Crickhowell Walking festival to exploring the history and wildlife of the Black Mountains. We began our adventure at the medieval ruins of Llanthony Priory – under the wise instruction of walk leader Andy Johns… 2023's Crickhowell Walking Festival takes place 4-12 March. Click here for more information. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We may be in the depths of winter but in this episode we're giving you a little Christmas present of hopeful spring birdsong. We're outside the ruins of Llanthony Priory with the ridges of the Black Mountains of Wales rising on either flank. Robins and song thrushes are singing lustily… 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 – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com   Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Head to Dorset in the ever-amiable company of Plodcast regular Kevin Parr. Angler and nature writer Kev takes us up onto Eggardon Hill to explore its wildlife and its mysterious hillfort. On the way, he meets a local farmer with some stark insights into life in the modern countryside. Beautiful and thought-provoking… Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's rained for days but there's a gap in the cloud cover this late autumn morning. You wander down to the river to find it in full spate. Another 50cm rise and it will burst surrounding fields. Its voice, a whisper in summer, is a roar now – the surging water unleashed and cleansing. And if you listen very closely, you might even hear the peeping calls of kingfishers. 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 and presented by Fergus Collins   Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com   Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meet nature writer and campaigner Hannah Bourne-Taylor who hit the news in recent weeks after walking from Hyde Park Corner to the Houses of Parliament to call for urgent action to help our declining swifts. So what you might ask? Well, Hannah walked the two miles naked, covered only in paintings of feathers… We met up in a forgotten woodland in South Wales to about her extraordinary “Feather Speech” – and to go looking for wildlife. Find out more at Hannah's website. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You wake in the small village of Butterton in the Staffordshire Peak District. With the window of the cottage set ajar, you return to bed, rest your head on the pillow and listen as the village slowly wakes. The brook plays like the wind in the trees, which in turn mimics the brook. Blackbirds trill. A garden gate clunks. A milk truck crosses the ford. 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 Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe.   Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com   Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Explore a wild and craggy stretch of the Anglesey coast path with Plodcast host Fergus as he wanders in search of rare choughs and curlews. Later, in the studio, the team discuss the good, bad and ugly of Bonfire Night. Is this traditional UK festival of fire and fireworks a big problem for pets and wildlife? Image from Getty. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Come with us to the gentle pasturelands that link the summit of Y Fal with the bustle of Grwyne Fawr far below. Pause a while amid the patchwork of sheep field, farmyard and hedgerow, and a version of bliss envelopes you; a light wind picks hazel leaves from the hedge and sends them down the lane.   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 Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe.   Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com   Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com   PPA Podcast of the Year 2022 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we’re off to the Hebridean island of Tiree, a stronghold of one of Britain’s rarest and strangest birds. Naturalist James Fair heads out into the wilds to search for the corncrake with local expert John Bowler of the RSPB. It’s a bird not famed for its looks – but it’s voice – well, that’s a different matter. Back in the studio, the team enjoy a very eerie sound of the week – recorded deep in an ancient burial mound. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could win a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the southern flanks of the Usk Valley beneath the damp uplands of Mynydd Llangatwg are the remnants of an old limestone quarry. Paths slink between the stepped hillside, now a miscellany of meadow, scrub and tree. When rain falls, the stunted hazel and oak woods are a joy to be among. 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 Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year 2022 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now the clocks have gone back in the UK and we’re heading into the dark days of winter it feels like a good time to let a burst of light and song into our lives. So this week we’re heading back to spring and an adventure I took in the New Forest with naturalist Dominic Couzens. Dominic is brilliant at recognising birds by their song and he give some clever tips to help you learn them too – a neat trick for impressing friends and family on your next spring walk. Image by Getty. Look out for Dominic's new book An Identification Guide to Garden Insects of Britain Back in the studio, the Plodcast team 'interview' The British Cheese Awards Supreme Champion cheese and discuss how to cope with the dark nights of winter. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could win a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

To be in an autumn woodland after rain is a tonic for a great many ills. Perhaps it’s the simple joy of the leaves so lustrous with rainwater, or the way the mosses swell like lungs. Or the maybe it’s the scent of the Earth – of leaf litter and microbes and fruiting fungi – that seems to connect the ground with the air, and thus you with all of it. It’s certain that the streams appear contented. A short walk through woodland brings you to a small waterway, where you pause for a while and breathe it all in. 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 Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe. Image from Getty. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year 2022 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jenny Agutter has been a household name since her starring role in the 1970 film The Railway Children. This year, she reprises her role in The Railway Children Return, set 30 years later in 1940. Hear all about her connections to the countryside and her very surprising choice of favourite wildlife species. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could win a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You open the back door and look out into the garden. Rain streaks down, steady and hypnotic. From a bush a robin sparks up occasionally but nothing else stirs in the downpour. It's a day to cosy up indoors by the fire. 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. Image from Getty. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year 2022 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We return for a second episode at the Folk by the Oak Festival in Hertfordshire. Annabel Ross talks to Karine Polwart from Spell Songs and we hear their song Jay. We also meet nature guide and folklorist Sherloak as he leads a tour in Hatfield Forest and finish with an interview with the great Proclaimers – and listen to two of their most famous songs. We'd like to say a huge thank you to the organisers and the musicians for their time and beautiful music. Photo by Tammy Marlar Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could win a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Enjoy a relaxing experience paddleboarding on a stretch of the River Wye in Herefordshire, where a flock of about 300 Canada geese begin an extraordinary evening chorus. The gentle swish of the paddle and the evocative cries of the wildfowl create a haunting river music. Pure delight. 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. Image from Getty. Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year 2022 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Enjoy the delights of the Folk by Our festival In part one of two brilliant episodes, Annabel Ross visits the Folk by the Oak festival in Hertfordshire to meet musicians and hear music steeping in landscape, wildlife and countryside lore. In this podcast, you’ll hear Magpie by The Unthanks, Trouser Worrier by We are the monsters and The Same Land by Salthouse. But first Annabel talks to Caroline and Adam Slough who founded Folk by the Oak… We'd like to say a huge thank you to the organisers and the musicians for their time and beautiful music. Photo by Tammy Marlar Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could win a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Besieged by gales and restless sea, a rocky peninsula holds firm on the northern Anglesey coast, unchanged through many millennia of daily assaults. Meanwhile, seals sleep in the quiet bays that it protects. Beyond the breakers, the Skerries lighthouse keeps watch from the largest of a group of raw-looking islets. 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 and presented by Fergus Collins. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year 2022 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Catch up with writer, presenter, farmer, forager and campaigner Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, 20 years after his first adventures into smallholding which inspired millions to grow their own, keep chickens and live the good life.  Plodcast regular Annabel Ross heads to River Cottage HQ on the Dorset/Devon border to walk around the farm and learn how Hugh's new book River Cottage Good Comfort offers healthier – and tastier – takes on classic country dishes. There are plenty of adventures along the way – including meetings with strange squashes, hungry pigs and a Hugh-special picnic. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could win a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Between the great, lumbering bulk of the Cambrian Mountains and Shropshire’s autumn-kissed hills there is a landscape of quiet repute. Here the ground rolls and tilts. Sheep graze the knolls, and between these there are cwms; pinched, deep and green. You make your way into one, leaving the low autumn sun for the coolness of a mossy, earthy woodland. At its bed is a stream, so vibrant and cheerful that not even the end of rain could quell its tune. 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 Daniel Graham and presented by Hannah Tribe. Image from Getty. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year 2022 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode podcast host Fergus Collins heads to a wild island off the coast of Scotland. Called Handa, it is managed entirely for wildlife by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and is an enchanting, sometimes haunting place to explore. The main quest was to witness the massive seabird cities – but there were plenty of other wildlife surprises along the way. You’ll also hear the voices of fellow explorers Joel Burden and Gavin Meredith. So come us for a very privileged wander into a truly wild place. Image from Getty. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com. If read out on the show, you could win a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife or countryside themed book chosen by the team. Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's a lazy September afternoon on a Somerset canal. You've found an enchanted place to rest beside a bridge – where a robin's wistful song sweetens the stillness. Even the dragonflies are dawdling. Clouds puff in the blue sky, perfectly reflected in the water and the last of summer's house martins are hawking for small insects high above. Nearby, a pair of anglers are catching small fish. 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 and presented by Hannah Tribe. Image from Hannah Tribe. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year 2022 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to a new season of mindful escapes into the green outdoors in search of wildlife and wild people. As well as heading out into beautiful landscapes as autumn stretches into winter, we’ll be enjoying some episodes that the team and I recorded over the spring and summer – so expect some soothing escapism at this dark time of the year. Our first episode is one such adventure. Plodcast regular Annabel Ross heads to a fabulous meadow in Oxfordshire with a remarkable young botanist Leif Bersweden to meet some of the wildflowers and talk about the importance of allowing more nature into our lives. Listen on for an absolute treat. Image by Trevor Ray Hart. Leif's new book is called Where the wildflowers grow: my botanical journey through Britain and Ireland – Hodder and Stoughton Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Deep in a wooded cwm in Powys, there’s a spot down by the brook, half in the trees, half out, where the sunlight falls in ribbons onto the water. You go to it and settle on the pebble bank. Somewhere above, hidden among the broken canopy that staggers up the steep valley, a robin reels out its morning song. 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 Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe. Image from Graham. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year 2022 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Season 14 of the Plodcast is all about mindful explorations of wild places – so you can get close to nature and feel like you're walking in wild places, even if you're stuck at work or on the commute. Come with us to the wild islands of Seil, Tiree and Anglesey as well as the New Forest and the Welsh Borders. Plus we have special guests including Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall and Leif Bersweden as well as music from The Unthanks and the Proclaimers. So join the Plodcast team of Fergus, Jack and Hannah for a brief preview of the wonders to come. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com The Plodcast is the nature and countryside podcast from BBC Countryfile Magazine Visit the BBC Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's early morning in a secretive bay on northern Anglesey. You're walking on a shingle bank that separates a serene, reed-fringed lagoon from the restless rising tide. The pipes and skirls of oystercatchers, redshanks and curlews rise over the wash of the waves but above them all, the sulphurous scents of beached seaweed. 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 Kevin Parr, presented by Hannah Tribe. Image from Getty. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year 2022 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We return to gin makers Warners in the Northamptonshire countryside to roam the gardens and grounds with conservation and sustainability officer Johnny Easter. Planting a huge variety of herbs, aromatics and fruits has the knock-on effect of attracting extraordinary numbers of insects and other life – so enjoy this magical safari and learn about how gins are flavoured using natural ingredients. Later, join the Plodcast team in the studio where they test a special bottle of Plodcast host Fergus's home-made wine – is it better than cheap shop-bought red? Listen on for a very entertaining discussion. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's a sultry summer's night on a lowland heath in southern England. A warm waft of heather and the gentle chirrup of a cricket break the stillness. And then, as the moon rises, the mechanical churr of a nightjar. 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 Kevin Parr, presented by Hannah Tribe. Image from Getty. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year 2022 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Head deep into the Northamptonshire countryside to visit the Warners Gin distillery near Rothwell, Northamptonshire. Warner’s Gin was set up by Tom and Tina Warner on their family farm in 2012 with an emphasis on natural, locally grown ingredients. Since then, things have taken off – especially the transformation of much of the farm for nature. Hear Tom’s fascinating insights into why "booze made humanity" and explore the history and lore around gin. Later we meet Rachel Sutherland, who has the enviable job of tasting the gins for quality – and for devising new flavours. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're in Dorset and it's dusk beside a lily-strewn tench pool. The light fades, moths begin to flutter and the martins and swallows cede the sky to the dance of pipistrelle baits. These are the curious calls of these nocturnal flyers as picked up on angler Kevin Parr's bat detector. 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 Kevin Parr, presented by Hannah Tribe. Image from Getty. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year 2022 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Head to the garden of England – the country of Kent – to visit family run Terlingham vineyard. Jackie Wilkes only moved to the UK from South Africa in 2007 but since then she and her family have converted the land to grow vines and they farm without herbicies and pesticides. This is their story of their journey and why they farm in harmony with nature. Recorded in June 2022. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's a warm summer's evening and after a tiring day you relax by the crackling campfire. The damp wood from the previous day's storm sizzles from the heat and the popping of twigs fills the peaceful space. You look up at the bat fluttering around plucking insects from the air. With a warm drink in hand you stop and reflect. 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 Jack Bateman, presented by Hannah Tribe. Image from Getty. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year 2022 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Film-maker Peter Byck (left) reveals how cattle can be farmed to enhance the soil and biodiversity – and offer solutions to climate change. Annabel Ross interviewed him at a special screening of his films Roots So Deep at The Lost Gardens of Heligan with environmentalist Tim Smit. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The two-day spell of rain is reaching its conclusion. You've settled in your tent for the night listening to the final drops of rain bounce off the top of the canvas. The gentle rumble of late-night traffic accompanies the flourishes of water falling from the trees, drumming onto the fabric above you. All is quiet. 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 Jack Bateman, presented by Hannah Tribe. Image from Getty. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year 2022 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this extraordinary episode, we head to the edge of the New Forest to meet Debs 'Totty' Cruttenden – a self taught beekeeper who rescues wild swarms of honeybees. She’s a quite magical person and her deep knowledge of the lives and behaviour of honeybees. We begin in the garden of neighbour who has spotted a swarm in a conifer tree. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

High above the summertime bustle of Pembrokeshire’s south coast, the lanes are quiet. No people here, just wind and hedge and crops for miles. It’s now noon, and after several hours of walking you look for a place to rest a while. A corn field beside a reef of yellow and white chamomile catches your eye. Here you sit, the corn stems crowding around you, their leaves rustling against themselves. 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 Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe. Image from Getty. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year 2022 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wilfred Emmanuel Jones shares his gripping story of his life's journey – from arriving from Jamaica and living in inner city Birmingham to owning a farm on the Devon-Cornwall border. His brand – The Black Farmer – has been a huge success and now he wants to encourage other children from ethnic minority or deprived backgrounds into finding careers in the countryside: The New Face of Farming. Listen on for more understanding of town vs country attitudes, race in the countryside and the two things you need to make a success in business. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's a welcome cool, overcast day by the River Usk – there is rain in the air. The water is clear and bubbling through a small set of rapids in a gently calming series of swirls and eddies. A dipper flies upstream low over 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 Fergus Collins, presented by Hannah Tribe Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year 2022 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Head to the sleepy hamlet of Shepton Montague in Somerset to meet Oliver Dowding – dairy-farmer-turned-cider-maestro. Discover the magic of apple trees and their different characters and learn the lore of Somerset cider making. Plus, Oliver reveals a novel – and natural – method of rodent control. Annabel Ross is your host. Later the Plodcast team discuss cider vs beer, taste a Dowdings tipple and hear a rare Sound of the Week. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s summer, yet the bruised skies and pulsing winds don’t seem to know it. As if blown over by the squalls; a farm gate clunks. After walking the fields, you drop into a deep sunken lane and a version of quiet hits you, the wind no longer on your skin, in your ears. You sit on the grassy, furrowed lane and take breath. Around you now are tall hedgerows of hawthorn and blackberry. A wren sings from a tree above.  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 Daniel Graham. Image from Getty. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is it possible to farm profitably and have abundant wildlife on your land? George and Elaine Morris take us on a tour of their mixed farm in Buckinghamshire where they raise cattle, Wiltshire horned sheep as well as oats and barley but where over 10 per cent of the land is devoted to wildflowers, insects, birds and other creatures. Due to a deal with Jordans Cereals, the Morris's are, essentially, paid to farm wildlife, too. Does it work? Listen on for a magical insight into how our farmland should look – and sound! The Jordans Farm Partnership (JFP) represents a coming together of specialists to create a holistic model for long term farm sustainability. Within the partnership, the Wildlife Trusts help create bespoke farm wildlife plans & consumer understanding and LEAF bring a whole-farm sustainability approach, supporting the integration of business planning and delivery of environmental benefits with farmers. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com PPA Podcast of the Year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Boarding a small passenger ferry at Tenby, you set sail for Caldey Island through a swell that rocks the boat like a toy in the bath. Before long, you reach the holy island. A 1,000-year-old Catholic monastery sits hidden within its wooded heart, but your first instinct is to walk the beach that stretches east from the tiny harbour wall. The sand is soft, warmed by the summer sun, and the breeze gentle. You find a spot to sit, down by the waves. 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 Daniel Graham. Image from Getty. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's a glorious summer's day in Dorset and Plodcast regular Kevin Parr heads to the village of Cerne Abbas to visit the local brewery. Meet Vic, Jodie and Matt who run the brewery hear their wonderful tales. Kevin also meets local farmer Will who grows barley for the brewing process and shares his deep love of the wildlife that thrives on his farm. Later, Kevin joins the Plodcast team in the studio to discuss beer, Dorset eagles, Chesney Hawkes and what's the best food to pack for a country walk. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're climbing an oak tree and its rough, weathered branches reach down like the arms of an aiding grandfather to pull you up. The coarse, lichen-dusted bark coats your hands, your nostrils fill with the subtle scent of decay and before you know it you’ve emerged through the dark-leaved canopy to a scene of wind and light. Carmarthenshire’s pastoral hills fold out to the west. Cattle on the move. A dog barks. A wren sings. And all the while the wind whips through. 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 Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe. Image from Getty. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Could hydroponics be the future of farming? Ex-chef Antonio Paladino welcomes Annabel Ross onto Bioaqua Farm, his smallholding in the Somerset Levels, where he farms trout and vegetables within a mutually supportive system that has very few costs, produces no pollution and creates delicious nutritious food. Is this a blueprint for more sustainable farming or an unattainable dream? Listen on for a fascinating adventure into food. Plus, the Annabel joins the Plodcast team to reveals some secrets from the day at Bioaqua Farm and the team discuss the big issue of: what's the best food to pack for a country walk. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You hear the waves on Eigg’s rocky shores, a distant breeze, perhaps. But lazing silently on one of the tiny island’s floating in the tiny harbour there a seals; two eiders rise and fall on the turquoise swell, so loyal to one another it’s as if they’re tethered by an invisible thread. A cloud drifts by; a fishing boat nods. All is silent, save the lapping waves that meet the rocks. 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 Daniel Graham. Presented by Hannah Tribe. Produced by Jack Bateman Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Explore a magical wildlife haven tucked in a fold on the edge of Dartmoor. Meet Tony Bayliss of the Langaford Farm Charitable Trust who manages the site; soil scientist Tim Harrod (pictured) and Hannah Bowley of the British Society of Soils Science – and hear how the more we understand about soil, the better we can plan farming to be both profitable and sensitive to wildlife. Plus we hunt for the magical marsh fritillary butterfly and wander through meadows of stunning orchids. Back in the studio, the team celebrate their recent PPA Podcast of the Year award by testing English sparkling wine and French champagne. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're in a canoe, paddling slowly upstream against a gentle current. The sounds of the oars dipping and sweeping is mesmeric – while birds sing from the tangles of scrub, willow and reeds that flank the waterway. Recorded by Annabel Ross, presented by Hannah Tribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Every year, the British Pie Awards judges meet for one day in Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire to taste hundreds of pies in order to crown a supreme pie champion. The Plodcast's Maria Hodson was invited to be a judge in 2022 and in this episode she meets the judges, tastes the pies and discovers the long and rather marvellous history of what has now become a staple of British cuisine. The Plodcast is the PPA Podcast of the Year. As ever, you can contact the Plodcast team at editor@countryfile.com with your thoughts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Enjoy an audio escape into the British countryside, wherever you are. It's a summer evening in a Dorset coomb near the coast. The shadows are long but the dusky sun will be short-lived as clouds threaten. For several days the earth has baked and leaves have sagged. But behind the plume of heat is a wall of electricity – a mighty storm. Building over the English Channel to the south, a distant rumble and faint patter builds into tempest. Recorded by Kevin Parr. Image from Getty. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Smell the hay, meets the cows and hear the skylarks on Quicke's farm in Devon where they produce award-winning cheddar cheese using traditional methods. Tanya Jackson meets farmer and cheesemaker Mary Quicke and discovers that some of the secrets to producing great-tasting cheese lie in the way Mary works with nature and her landscape. Image from Getty. Later in the Plodcast, the team test whether Devon's method of eating scones (cream first then jam) is superior to that of Cornwall (where the jam goes on first). And we hear from folk singer Original Spruce who has written a song celebrating the wild wonders of Martin Down and we include some of this sweet song in the Plodcast. To listen to the whole song and see the video of Martin Down, visit You Tube. As ever, you can contact the Plodcast team on editor@countryfile.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wandering deep into the oak wood, you find yourself serenaded by a magical trinity of birds. First a wood warbler, then a redstart and finally a pied flycatcher. All three have migrated here from Africa for a brief season of courtship and nesting among the ancient trees. Recorded by Fergus Collins, presented by Hannah Tribe. Image from Getty. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Plodcast team head to Assynt in Sutherland in the far north of Scotland to fish for brown trout on remote lochs and forage for edible treats on wild beaches. To a backdrop of cuckoos and black-throated divers, Plodcast host Fergus Collins tries his hand at flyfishing and, with friends, enjoys a feast of wild trout before a few less palatable food samples from the nearby coast. Back in the studio, the Plodcast team sample a Scottish legendary food – and we hear a wonderful Sound of the Week. Image from Gavin Meredith Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Be transported to the wild cliffs of Handa, off the coast of Sutherland, and the swirling whirling city of seabirds. It's the beginning of the breeding season and guillemots, razorbills and fulmars jostle for the best spots to nest while puffins makes themselves at home in borrows at the top of the sea stacks. The noise is constant as birds constantly commute between cliffs and the wider ocean to feed. Recorded by Fergus Collins, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Image from Getty. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Introducing a new season of plodcasts exploring food and farming across the countryside. We'll be foraging in northern Scotland, meeting farmers who work alongside nature to produce fabulous cheese, honey, wine and wheat. We'll be learning about the importance of soil, learning how gin is made and even discovering the winner of the Great British Pie awards. The team will also be sharing their own grow-your-own experiences throughout the season… The Plodcast is hosted by Countryfile Magazine editor Fergus Collins Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mid May in Wales largest ancient woodland – Wentwood in Gwent – and the birds are singing in the morning sunshine. Enjoy the excitable song flight of the male tree pipit as he flies from his perch at the top of a tree high into the air before circling down like a paper aeroplane, singing all the while. Recorded by Fergus Collins, presented by Hannah Tribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Beavers are being spotted more frequently in the wild in Britain. In this adventure, Annabel Ross joins beaver expert Bevis Watts at dawn on the River Avon near Bath in north-east Somerset to paddle a canoe in search of a small population of beavers that have mysteriously appeared on the river. Enjoy fabulous birdsong and curious encounters. Bevis is also CEO of Triodos Bank UK and has written a book River Journey about his adventures with beavers on the river. Image from Getty. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Be charmed and relaxed by a few minutes on a blissful shore in Arisaig, Scotland. The road to the Isles squeezes between Lochaber’s high mountains like a burn in spate, bending this way and that past stone byres and pine woods and tortuous lochs. It’s not long before the road delivers its promise. Islands. Eigg and Rum, and the hazy, elevated profile of Skye. Yet despite the drama of the horizon, it’s the peace and humility of the foreshore that tempts the senses. The lapping waves, the piping oystercatchers, and the scent of crushed bladderwrack and seashells, and driftwood drying in the sun. Recorded by Daniel Graham and presented by Hannah Tribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Once upon a time, millions of fish would migrate up the River Severn to spawning grounds – including the beautiful twaite shad or mayfish. But weirs built for navigation meant that fish routes were blocked and fish numbers have declined drastically. Now the Unlocking the Severn project has built fish passes around the biggest obstacles. Jenny Hermolle and her team reveal how things are already improving for the river and its fish – plus, we get to explore the astonishing window into the fishes' world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As the scrubby hillside hawthorns burst into burst into bloom, the musky vanilla perfume of the white mayflowers encourages a male garden warbler into his fluted song. This little-known migrant's song is often overlooked (or overlistened) so take this chance to get to know a charming, if rather frenetic, spring song. Recorded by Fergus Collins, presented by Hannah Tribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Enjoy a delightful wander around one of the naturally richest corners of the New Forest in early spring with naturalist and writer Dominic Couzens. Discover how to identify common birdsongs with Dominic's clever and very simple guides – and enjoy a couple of encounters with birds of prey that surprise Dominic himself. Dominic also talks about his latest book with Gail Ashton: Identification Guide to Garden Insects of Britain and North-West Europe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A still morning on the hill, the strange aniseed scent of cow parsley rises as the lane to the woods is warmed by the sun. Among the ancient, twisted oaks, the wood warblers have arrived, the male's song dripping from the canopy like molten silver and offering competition to a resident song thrush. A redstart chortles in the background. Recorded by Fergus Collins, presented by Hannah Tribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wrap up warm, wear your softest clothes and step out into the night with folk singer Sam Lee and violinist Anna Phoebe to listen to nightingales singing in a Sussex woodland. Sam and Anna Phoebe sing and play while the birds respond with bursts of incredible natural music. A spellbinding experience. Presented by Tanya Jackson with Maria Hodson. Photo by Maria Hodson Find out more with Sam's superb book on Nightingales Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A damp and dank May morning. Mild and mizzled. A robin feeds its young while the song of blackbird, song thrush and chiffchaff fills the air. There is a gentle buzz of insects, the chatter of house sparrows and goldfinches. While from the faint mist of the valley comes the unmistakable call of a cuckoo. Recorded by Kevin Parr and presented by Hannah Tribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the cusp between winter and spring, Plodcast regular Kevin Parr meets his friend and legendary angler-naturalist Chris Yates to explore a little visited but wild corner of the Wiltshire and Dorset downs. Here, at Chris's favourite spot, they attempt to find one of Britain's most beautiful and controversial birds of prey: the hen harrier. Plus unmissable discussions about tea, harrier poetry, adders and warbler song. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s an hour after dawn when the sun finally rises above the head of the valley. There’s an eagerness to the light, keen to get going after its slow start, and within moments the entire valley – the trees, the river and the banks of snow-white blackthorn – is a cauldron of light and life. Birdsong bubbles from the woods, the conversation of herons and their newly hatched young staccato from the melodious tones of wrens, great tits, and blackbirds. Recorded by Daniel Graham and presented by Hannah Tribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the first of a new season of Plodcasts celebrating audibly beautiful landscapes – the songs of Wild Britain, Plodcast host Fergus takes us into a little visited valley near his home in the Brecon Beacons to explore oak woods and meadows off the beaten track – and meet spring birds in full voice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An inviting path winds through an oak woodland high on the slopes of a hill in the Brecon Beacons. As morning sun slants into the valley below, a host of birds sing lustily and seem to stir the ancient trees into life. Chiffchaffs, great tits, coal tits, goldcrests, song thrushes, blackcaps, robins, chaffinches, redstarts and even a green woodpecker provide the chorus. At the bottom of a valley, a stream sings its soft backing vocals. Recorded by Fergus Collins, presented by Hannah Tribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Plodcast team introduce Season 12 of the Plodcast: The Wild Sounds of Britain. This is an opportunity to capture audibly beautiful landscapes, gorgeous birdsong and the wise words of nature lovers as explore glorious countryside in spring and summer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Deep in a Wiltshire vale, the comforting tang of woodsmoke hangs over a slumbering village. It's 5am and still dark but a magical chorus of blackbirds, robins, dunnocks and great tits greets the coming dawn. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a gentle postcard from the British countryside each week that allows you a soothing few minutes escape into the wild, wherever you are. Recorded by Tanya Jackson, presented by Hannah Tribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How natural flood defences can prevent flooding and increase biodiversity. Annabel Ross takes a walk with the Chair of the Environment Agency Emma Howard Boyd and Tom Dauben who is the Environment Agency’s lead for the natural flood management scheme. The Dartmoor Headwaters Natural Flood Management project aims to reduce flood risk to communities on and around Dartmoor using natural solutions. It is a partnership between the Environment Agency and Dartmoor National Park Authority, working in collaboration with many community, landowner groups and other partners. Annabel also explores the subject of river pollution in England and the Environment Agencies role in tackling it. Please do send comments and questions to editor@countryfile.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's a sunny Sunday afternoon on the allotment with a cool, gentle breeze. You can hear the murmur of allotmenteers at work with a backdrop of birdsong and the occasional barking dog. As the smell of cut grass raises the spirits, you can hear that the new season has given everyone a spring in their steps. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a gentle postcard from the British countryside each week that allows you a soothing few minutes escape into the wild, wherever you are. Recorded by Jack Bateman, presented by Hannah Tribe. Image from Getty Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In part two of our special angling adventure on the Rivers Isle and Parrett in Somerset, Kevin Parr and plodcast host Fergus continue their gentle meander along the water chatting about wildlife and occasionally catching a fish. Later, Kevin joins the plodcast team in the studio to talk pike, adders, otters and other wildlife joys of spring. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It hadn’t rained for a week, but just as the garden was beginning to show its thirst, a single drop falls. Then two more. The sky releases a long, slow rumble then spills open like a long-held breath finally being freed. The sound of the rain is most satisfying down by the pond, somewhere to sit a while and enjoy the gentle patter of the year’s first spring shower.  Recorded by Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Angler and writer Kevin Parr leads a gentle day's angling on the River Isle. Plodcast host Fergus joins Kev to learn the art of coarse fishing in the peaceful surrounding of the Somerset Levels. Listen on for a marvellous day in very early spring with birdsong, fish and the voice of the river. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Where the heath meets the woods by a pool, deep in the New Forest, the warm spring sun stirs many birds into song. A marsh tit sings and then a stock dove repeats its prudish crooning to a backdrop of blue tits and robins. A Forest pony comes closer to investigate. Recorded by Fergus Collins and presented by Hannah Tribe BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a gentle postcard from the British countryside each week that allows you a soothing few minutes escape into the wild, wherever you are. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Head for a wander around RSPB Otmoor in Oxfordshire in late winter with Rebecca Wrigley from Rewilding Britain argues the case for huge change across the countryside to provide space for nature and opportunities for local people. Annabel Ross is your host. Later the Plodcast team discuss how to rewild a city plus the power of the urban peregrine. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's high tide on the northern coast of mainland Shetland – a bitterly icy day but the sun is out, puffins are on the water offshore and fulmars are scouting breeding sites on the nearby cliffs. In a small, seldom visited cove, the waves surge up and down the shore. Recorded by Megan Shersby and introduced by Hannah Tribe. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a gentle postcard from the British countryside each week that allows you a soothing few minutes escape into the wild, wherever you are. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alix Chiddley-Uttely helps run her family's 100-acre farm in the stunning Shropshire Hills. In this episode, she invites Plodcast host Fergus to meet her ewes and newborn lambs as well as a host of other colourful animal characters during the morning rounds of feeding and checking. She reveals how it's still possible to make a good living from a small family-run farming business and tells some wonderful stories about local legends. Plus, everything you need to know about sheep. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A day of rain has left the river running high and fast. The path on the bank is muddy. The air dank and cold. It could be deepest winter, if not for the riot of dusk birdsong spilling down from the trees beside the track. Gulls, blackbirds, wrens, great tits, and at one point a buzzard. There’s something about chatter of a heron – perched on his huge nest in the trees – that brings the greatest joy. Recorded by Daniel Graham and presented by Hannah Tribe. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a gentle postcard from the British countryside each week that allows you a soothing few minutes escape into the wild, wherever you are. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why eBikes can make a huge difference to how you explore the countryside. Plodcast host Fergus enjoys a day's cycling in the Forest of Dean in the depths of winter with Tom Marvin from BikeRadar to talk about the joys of mountain biking and the magic of riding the woodland paths on an electric bicycle. Plus, later, the Plodcast team meet to discuss the day out, enjoy listeners' emails and the Sound of the Week. Image from Getty. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The happy, mesmerising chirping of a colony of house sparrows. As crocuses bloom in a small front garden, a dozen sparrows bubble with an incessant chatter full of infectious excitement – a sure sign that this little colony is turning its thoughts to the breeding season. Recorded by Fergus Collins. Introduced by Hannah Tribe. Image from Getty Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meet Angela Williams and Jenny Barlow who are helping the people of Langholm in south west Scotland make the most of their purchase of 5,200 acres from the Duke of Buccleugh. Rob Yorke walked some of the moors and woodlands to talk about what plans the community has to provide renewable energy, local jobs, wildlife habitat and an attractive destination for tourists. Recorded in autumn 2021. Image by Rob Yorke. More on the Lanholm Initiative and the creation of the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Relax to the gentle trilling of a party of greenfinches. Walking an old footpath on the edge of a town, you stumble across a ruined farmhouse. Trees and scrub have invaded the farmyard creating a haven for birds including a group of 10 greenfinches. As the first warmth of spring stirs the air, the males chatter and wheeze their songs, while the females forage. These birds have undergone a decline in the UK in recent years so their once-familiar songs are harder to find on a country walk. Image from Getty. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Enjoy a wild winter's walk around the town of Mossley in Greater Manchester where the surrounding moors, woods and crumbling industrial heritage inspire two local artists. Meet Liz Ackerley and her partner Hugh Winterbottom to hear how the ever-changing seasons and atmospheres influence their very different styles of work. You can see their work in an exhibition called: Landscape Inside Out, Gallery Oldham, Oldham, Greater Manchester from 5 March to 4 June. For more information, see their You Tube videos: Later, the Plodcast team talk about artistic inspiration, video games based on the British countryside and listen to a chilling Sound of the Week. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After a cold and wet day in the hills, you light a fire in the stove and make a welcome cup of tea. You settle into a favourite armchair to watch the dancing flames and relax to the crackle of the wood. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a gentle postcard from the British countryside each week that allows you a soothing few minutes escape into the wild, wherever you are. Image from Getty Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Poet and BBC Radio regular Kenneth Steven takes us on a gentle winter's walk through the lanes and fields of his home island of Seil in the Inner Hebrides. Enjoy meetings with kestrels, buzzards and robins, plus a special poem A Winter Light. Later join the Plodcast team for some Sounds of the Week and the latest from the Plodcast Postbag. Image of Seil from Getty. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A horde of starlings descends on a dairy farm in the Vale of Pewsey to forage among the piles of gently steaming fodder and manure while cattle shelter inside the barns. The birds' voices create a waves of soft chatter to warm up this bitter winter's day while tractors come and go. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a gentle postcard from the British countryside each week that allows you a soothing few minutes escape into the wild, wherever you are. Recorded by Tanya Jackson and presented by Hannah Tribe. Image from Getty Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Setting out to give voice to forgotten lowland landscapes of Monmouthshire overlooked by visitors, plodcast host Fergus instead get lost as the little-used footpaths have disappeared or been blocked. With ravens and skylarks for company, he finds that the countryside can sometimes be a frustrating place to explore on foot. Back in the studio, we meet Jack Cornish, Head of Paths for the Ramblers, to discuss what can be done when footpaths go missing… Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's a cold, clear day with frosted grass and glass. You're walking beside the very-full Kennet and Avon canal and water rushes noisily through a loch. But soon, this serene waterway leads you past moored boats and out into the wider Wiltshire countryside. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a gentle postcard from the British countryside each week that allows you a soothing few minutes escape into the wild, wherever you are. Recorded by Tanya Jackson and presented by Hannah Tribe. Image from Tanya Jackson Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Take a wander in wooded coombe near Bristol with the Jane Lomas, series producer of the Countryfile TV show. The Sunday evening programme is one of the most important voices on countryside matters in the UK and Jane, talking to our own Annabel Ross, reveals some valuable insight into the ethos of the show and how it is put together. Photo by Oliver Edwards Don't forget you can catch up on any recent episodes of Countryfile on iPlayer. We'd also like to thank Radio Lento for their help with the recording of muntjac deer in this podcast. Radio Lento a podcast of immersive everyday beautiful soundscapes with no music or talking to get in the way. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Be soothed by the gentle rise and fall of waves. On the north coast of Devon, where the high cliffs of Hartland plunge into the Atlantic Ocean, is the small village of Buck’s Mills. The road in is steep and winding, flanked with white-washed cottages and banks of deep-green ferns and bare trees. You have to walk the final stretch down to the sea, but it’s worth it. Winter beaches are quiet, and down here, among the boulders and churning waves, there isn’t a soul in sight. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a gentle postcard from the British countryside each week that allows you a soothing few minutes escape into the wild, wherever you are. Recorded by Daniel Graham and presented by Hannah Tribe. Image from Getty Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Discover how the British countryside has inspired great composers over the centuries – and how their music helps us evoke landscapes and their wildlife. BBC Music Magazine's Jeremy Pound takes our own Fergus Collins for a walk over Leckhampton Hill to meet his countryside musical heroes, from Delius to Vaughan Williams and from Holst to Elgar. Image from Getty. Enjoy listening to the music discussed on this podcast on our Spotify playlist Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ravens call over the stark winter landscape of farmland in deeply rural Monmouthshire. Robins sing and, from a distant barn, cattle low. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a gentle postcard from the British countryside each week that allows you a soothing few minutes escape into the wild, wherever you are. Recorded by Fergus Collins and presented by Hannah Tribe. Photo from Getty Images. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the first episode of the new season, Voices of the Countryside, plodcast host Fergus heads to the wild marshes of WWT Steart on the Somerset coast with author and naturalist Ben Hoare. The two old friends recount the joys of walking in nature and have a surprise encounter with one of Britain's great wildlife spectacles – a swarming flock of small wading birds called dunlin. With a backdrop of curlew and lapwing song, this is a podcast to transport you into the wild. For more on Ben's new book, visit here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're walking up a old green lane carved into a frosty hillside, and your feet sink deep into the waterlogged leaf litter. Early January sunlight is driving off a cold mist, encouraging roving parties of blue tits and goldfinches to forage in nearby oak trees. High above, redwings call softly from the canopy. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a gentle postcard from the British countryside each week that allows you a soothing few minutes escape into the wild, wherever you are. Recorded by Fergus Collins and presented by Hannah Tribe Photo from Getty Images. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join the Plodcast team of Fergus, Hannah and Jack to hear about upcoming adventures in the countryside in season 11 of the Countryfile Magazine Plodcast: Voices of the Countryside. From the sounds and songs of wild creatures to the wise words of farmers, conservationists, artists and writers, we're heading out for 12 joyful episodes celebrating the wonders of the land. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On a winter's morning in Dorset, a song thrush starts up its first practise songs of the new year in preparation for the coming breeding season – to a backdrop of sparrows and other garden birds. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a gentle postcard from the British countryside each week that allows you a soothing few minutes escape into the wild, wherever you are. Recorded by Kevin Parr and presented by Hannah Tribe Photo from Getty Images. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dusk falls on a still, winter's day at Steart Marshes WWT on the Somerset coast. On a lagoon near the mouth of the River Parrett, a host of wading birds is settling down to roost. You can hear the strange murmur and wheeze of lapwings, the fluting cries of redshanks and the occasional plaintive notes of curlews as the darkness falls. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a gentle postcard from the British countryside each week that allows you a soothing few minutes escape into the wild, wherever you are. Photo from Getty Images. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Enjoy part two of our plodcast Christmas party where we make plans for wildlife adventures in 2022, play a Christmas bird spotting game and remind ourselves of Fergus's worst countryside jokes of 2021. With guests Kevin Parr and Annabel Ross and regular team members Hannah Tribe, Jack Bateman and Fergus Collins Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Relax to the exquisite song of a robin singing in a country garden at dawn on Christmas Eve – with a chorus of next door's chickens for company. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a gentle postcard from the British countryside each week that allows you a soothing few minutes escape into the wild, wherever you are. Presented by Hannah Tribe, photo from Getty Images. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join the Plodcast Christmas special where the team gather in the studio to discuss favourite episodes, guests and wildlife moments from 2021. We talk bitterns, beavers, badgers and nightingales. Part 1 of 2. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You've clambered down from a Peak District ridge to take shelter in a silver birch woodland. The wind, the tail end of Storm Arwen, whooshes through the stark winter canopy - a deeply calming rise and fall of sound. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a gentle postcard from the British countryside each week that allows you a soothing few minutes escape into the wild, wherever you are. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Robert Macfarlane is one of the foremost British nature writers. His recent collaboration with Jackie Morris, The Lost Words, was a celebration of nature words and has since inspired two albums of music: The Lost Spells. In this podcast, Annabel Ross meets Robert at Anglesey Abbey in Cambridgeshire to explore a living celebration of the books and songs and talk about the power of nature to inspire us all. Photo by Jon Cartwright Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wander through a hidden valley in the Welsh Borders listening to a pair of buzzards mewing to each other as they stake their claim on the territory in preparation for next year's breeding season. In the background, a mountain stream gushes. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a gentle postcard from the British countryside each week that allows you a soothing few minutes escape into the wild, wherever you are. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Come for a wander through the Somerset marshes in late autumn with author and historian Amy Jeffs. Amy has written Storyland, a retelling of the ancient and medieval myths and legends of the British Isles. Here she retells some of them against the wild and evocative backdrop of the wetlands of Avalon. She's also illustrated the book with her own linocuts – you find out more about these here. Photograph by Oliver Edwards Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Be calmed by the relaxing giggle of a stream tumbling off Sugar Loaf mountain in the Brecon Beacons near Abergavenny. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a gentle postcard from the British countryside each week that allows you a soothing few minutes escape into the wild, wherever you are. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Learn about the magic and mystery of fungi with expert mushroom hunter John Wright. He joins our own Kevin Parr for a ramble in a hidden corner of Dorset. John's book A Spotters Guide to Countryside Mysteries is out now. Later in the plodcast, the team talk about the etiquette of saying 'hello' (or not!) to strangers on a country walk – and we capture on tape a strange bird singing in the depths of November. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Enjoy an autumn dog walk through a beech and oak woodland and listen to feet crunching on leaves while the wind seethes through the canopy. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside giving you a taste of the season wherever you are – and a chance for a few minutes mindful reflection. Recorded by Fergus Collins and presented by Hannah Tribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hear about the big issues facing the English countryside from and Chair of Natural England, Tony Juniper. The conservationist and environmental campaigner reveals the actions being taken to protect our landscapes and wildlife – and some of the challenges we all face in the coming years. Rob Yorke asks the questions – at Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Slow down the pace of your day with this short audio postcard from the countryside – waves swooshing and swirling around rocky outcrops of a rugged Gower coastline. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes give you a chance to relax to the sounds of the countryside – wherever you are. Recorded and presented by Hannah Tribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A plodcast special – in two parts. Rob Yorke meets conservationist, environmental compaigner and now Chair of Natural England Tony Juniper at Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire to talk about how England's wildlife and landscape can be better protected and enhanced in the face of development and pressure from agriculture. Enjoy part one of this special interview. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's 3am on an autumn night in West Dorset and an oily blackness beneath a moonless sky. There's a hush in the cold still air but the atmosphere is thick with testosterone. A fallow buck is staking his claim, warning off rivals and guarding his does. A guttural bellow that bursts the quiet and echoes through the combes and hills. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are postcards from the countryside to give you an inspiring taste of nature wherever you are. Recorded by Kevin Parr. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Take a wander through the wild tors and misty valleys of Dartmoor in the company of Tom Cox. Tom has gathered dozens of stories of folklore and the supernatural and he shares some of them with our own Annabel Ross in a hugely entertaining walks across the moors. Find out more about Tom's writing here And please do send your thoughts about the podcast to editor@countryfile.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this brief adventure in the countryside, you're walking along a stretch of shingle beside the River Usk in South Wales – the water has risen after recent rain and will son cover this little beach. Just upstream, rapids gurgle and swirl hungrily. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes give you a chance to relax to the sounds of the countryside – wherever you are. Recorded by Fergus Collins Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The London Mudlark – Lara Maiklem – spends her free time combing the River Thames foreshore for fascinating objects that each have a story to tell. From buttons and beads to shoes and coins, her finds help build a picture of the people who have lived along the river for the past few centuries. Listen on to hear about this curious hobby. And you can see more of Lara's finds on Instagram, Twitter and facebook – search for the London Mudlark. If you are tempted to go mudlarking yourself, check tide times and weather conditions. And, on the River Thames, you need permission from the Port of London Authority. Image by Jon Cartwright Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Take a moment to enjoy the gentle chorus of wild birds and foraging insects on a still autumn day. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a short postcard from the British countryside for you to relax to wherever you are. This week's episode is recorded by Fergus Collins and presented by Hannah Tribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join the Plodcast team as they explore the magical Malvern Autumn Show and meet world record giant vegetables, noisy steam engines, champion bulls, chuckling chickens, the National Rabbit Council and a host of great country characters. A wonderful celebration of the best of British countryside. Find out more at Malvern Autumn Show Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Enjoy the drama of an autumn storm hitting a Dorset cottage while the garden sparrows – and a robin – bravely sing through the tempest. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a short postcard from the British countryside for you to relax to wherever you are. Recorded by Kevin Parr and presented by Hannah Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sitting on a small hill above the River Severn, St Arilda's Church has a magical churchyard full of old gravestones – and each one tells a curious tale. We meet with Sarah Williams of Who Do You Think You Are magazine to decipher some of the stories in the stones in this Gloucestershire village and learn how to trace our own rural ancestors. Please do leave feedback and likes – and send messages to editor@countryfile.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Be charmed and soothed by the ebb and flow of waves on a pebble shore. It's an overcast autumn day at Pwll Du on Gower – a hidden smugglers' cove where you can find deep peace. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes offer you a chance to take a few minutes with nature, wherever you are and whatever you are doing. Recorded and presented by Hannah Tribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Roam Gallows Down on the Witshire, Hampshire, Berkshire border and hear tales of ancient and modern history – as well as the battles to defend the precious natural wonders of the area from new roads, American air bases and nuclear missiles. Author and activist Nicola Chester introduces Annabel Ross to the wonders of the North Wessex Downs. Nicola's brilliant new book On Gallows Down is available now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ease yourself into the day with the song of robins from a riverside woodland in South Wales. Enjoy the background swirl of the River Usk in the latest calming Sound Escape from BBC Countryfile Magazine. Recorded by Fergus Collins Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Enjoy wonderful folk music beside the River Wye and listen to the story of campaigners "Walking with the Wye" to raise awareness of the river's sad plight due to pollution. Recorded by Maria Hodson. With thanks to the Plump Hill Band, Tracey Dixon, Rob Swannack, Dick Brice and Rob Barnaville for allowing us to use their music in this podcast. Please do leave likes and reviews and you can contact the podcast team at editor@countryfile.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shelter from autumn rain in a wooden bird hide and listen to the exotic cries of terns at RSPB Hodbarrow nature reserve in Cumbria. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a postcard from the countryside every week, offering your a chance to relax to the sounds of nature. Recorded by Martin Maudsley, presented by Hannah Tribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There are tales of mysterious black panthers from almost every corner of the land – so we head out with writer and naturalist James Fair to look into one particular story: the Cotswold Cat. Could large felines really be on the loose in the modern British countryside? Don't forget to leave likes and reviews and you can contact the Countryfile Magazine team on editor@countryfile.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Listen to the calming sound of a gentle rain on the leaves of beech and hazel trees while you shelter in a green lane in the Cotswolds. Recorded by Fergus Collins, introduced by Hannah Tribe. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes offer a soothing postcard from the countryside to help you relax, wherever you are in the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Relax to the gentle tones of poet Kenneth Steven as he explores the history and magic of Iona: likely birthplace of the ancient Book of Kells, resting place of Scottish kings and queens and sanctuary for the endangered corncrake. Find our more about Kenneth’s work at his website https://kennethsteven.co.uk/ And join the team at the end for the Podcast Postbag and discussions about wild swimming, hedgehogs and sparrowhawks. Image by Getty Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Relax as you walk beside a stream at the bottom of a valley of beech and oak woodland in the Brecon Beacons – known as St Mary's Vale. This is episode 30 of BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound escapes – your chance to escape into nature and relax to the wild sounds of the countryside, wherever you are. Recorded by Fergus Collins and presented by Hannah Tribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Poet Hugh Dunkerley explores mysterious Kingley Vale in the South Downs of West Sussex in search of a bunker created to house resistance fighters in the event of the Nazis ever invading Britain. Along the way he enters the dark and eerie yew woods and reveals tales of Viking massacres and other chilling local legends. With poems from Hugh and Vicki Feaver plus wildlife expertise from Natural England's Steve Walker, this is a joyful summer's adventure in the countryside. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Listen to gulls as you sit on a headland overlooking the sea on the south Gower coast. Nearby a tractor bales hay as the last rays of afternoon sun light the fields. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes give you a gentle, relaxing postcard of the countryside for you to enjoy when you can't get there yourself. Recorded and presented by Hannah Tribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Suilven is one of Scotland's most impressive peaks. Fergus Collins joins two old friends for an expedition to climb this magnificent mountain in Assynt and discover some of the intriguing and sometime brutal history of the region. Along the way they encounter fantastic wildlife in stunning wild surroundings. Image Gavin Meredith Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Atop the Iron-Age hillfort known as Pen y Crug high above the edge of Brecon, you can relax to the calls of the last of summer's swallows. Wind and sheep sigh in the bracken and holiday traffic makes its way home on the main road in the Usk Valley below. Sound Escapes – from BBC Countryfile Magazine – are your chance to catch an audio postcard of the countryside and be soothed by the sounds of nature wherever you are. Recorded and presented by Fergus Collins Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Legendary walker and writer Christopher Somerville joins our own Annabel Ross to explore the ruins of Old Sarum near Salisbury in Wiltshire and tells the curious tale of the dark forces at work that led to the medieval town being abandoned. A charming summer adventure in the countryside with a backdrop of skylarks and corn buntings. Find out more in Christopher's book Ships of Heaven: the private life of Britain's cathedrals Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Relax to the rustle of a summer breeze through the leaves of an ancient ash tree in the Brecon Beacons. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes offer a mindful few minutes of escape into nature – a few minutes of restful sounds of the countryside to enjoy wherever you are. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lost on a lonely, trackless mountain lies Pwll Gwy-Rhoc – the Pool of Witches – a mysterious lake that is the source of strange tales. Come with us on a quest to find the stories hidden in this untamed, ancient landscape. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Enjoy the gentle drama of a narrowboat passing through a lock on the Peak Forest Canal on the western edge of the Peak District. This slow radio is the latest Sound Escape from BBC Countryfile Magazine. Each one allows you to be soothed by the sounds of nature. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Explore the extensive earthworks or Knowlton Circles in Dorset and the eerie ruined church at their centre. Archaeologist, anthropologist and broadcast Mary-Ann Ochota looks for answers in this ancient landscapes and meets local people with tales of strange encounters within the circles. Find out more in Mary's new book: Secret Britain: Unearthing Our Mysterious Past Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cool off beside a babbling brook on the border of Cheshire and Derbyshire. In Countryfile Magazine's latest Sound Escape, it's early afternoon on a hot summer's day and you find yourself on the banks of a tiny but lively stream – a calm place for cooling off. Recorded by Andrew Griffiths, image by Getty. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join archaeologist, anthropologist and broadcaster Mary-Ann Ochota on the Dorset downs as she ventures across an ancient landscape of mysterious pathways, burial mounds and unexplained earthworks. She's on a quest to explore the secrets of enigmatic Knowlton Circles - a little-known neolithic henge. Mary-Ann is the author of Secret Britain: Unearthing Our Mysterious Past. Afterwards, join the Plodcast team to talk about the adventure and a very special listeners' Sound of the Week. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chill out to the hum and buzz of a summer meadow. In Sound Escape 24, you find yourself waist deep in glorious midsummer wildflowers in a meadow in the Gwent Levels in South Wales. Crickets and grasshoppers chirrup and sing, bees bumble by, while blackcaps, chiffchaffs and a reed bunting sing from the nearby hedges. A lazy aeroplane dones overhead. Recorded by Fergus Collins and presented by Hannah Tribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join us for 13 thrilling adventures of discovery as we head out into the countryside to explore ancient sites, hear haunting tales and enjoy atmospheric walks in strange and beautiful places.Guests includes archaeologist Mary-Ann Ochota, walker and writer Christopher Somerville, nature writer Nicola Chester, treasure hunter Lara Maiklem, writer Tom Cox and many Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Enjoy the delights of Dovedale in this mindful walk through one of the Peak District's most beautiful valleys. Deeply relax to the gentle melodies of nature – including summer blackbirds and robins – in the latest Sound Escape from BBC Countryfile Magazine. Recorded by Andrew Griffiths and presented by Hannah Tribe. Image from Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sit back and relax to soothing birdsong on a gentle summer’s morning on the allotment. In this Sound Escape, a meditative short podcast that celebrates the seasonal melodies of nature, relax to the tinkling song of a charm of goldfinches as they forage on the edge of the veg plot while gulls drift over on a lazy breeze. Recorded and presented by Hannah Tribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Relax to the song of the Peak District's most beautiful river. Sit on the banks of this gentle bubbling stream with delightful birdsong raining down – in this short Sound Escape: mindful moments of nature brought to you by BBC Countryfile Magazine. Recorded by Andrew Griffiths and presented by Hannah Tribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hear how a massive tree-planting project will transform the Black Mountains peak of Bryn Arw in the Brecon Beacons. Woodsman and writer Rob Penn explains how the Stump Up For Trees project has convinced local farmers and landowners to embrace nature and reveals how making the hill more nature-friendly will benefit the visitors and the local community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Presenter of "Breakfast" on BBC Radio 3 Petroc Trelawny talks about his week of live shows following a Yorkshire river from source to sea. Petroc reveals how the show will blend the evocative sounds of nature with chosen pieces of classical music including local composers and performers. In this podcast, Petroc also shares his favourite pieces of music – and those works that best evoke the British countryside. A Yorkshire River Journey runs from 12-16y from 6.30-9am. And you can catch up on BBC Sounds. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the last of the current series, we head to the far north of Scotland to explore a remote loch and its wildlife – plus we attempt to fly-fish for brown trout in the beautiful waters while serenaded by cuckoos and buzzards. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Sound Escapes from BBC Countryfile Magazine: your chance to relax to the seasons sounds of nature wherever you are – and however busy your day. In this episode, it's a warm June evening on a hill in the Brecon Beacons and the strange churring of a nocturnal bird called the nightjar rises above the heady scent of honeysuckle and foxgloves. Presented by Hannah Tribe and produced by Jack Bateman. Image from Getty Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Extinct in England, the chequered skipper has been reintroduced to a secret site in Rockingham Forest in Northamptonshire by the Back from the Brink project The plodcast's Megan Shersby tells this heartening story and explores the forest in the hope of seeing one of these jewel-like butterflies. Listen on also for our podcast chat and Sound of the Week. The plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and the image is from Getty. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Sound Escapes from BBC Countryfile Magazine – your chance to relax to soundtracks of glorious nature wherever you are and whatever you are doing. In this episode, take a break in the shade at the bottom of the garden, and let nature do all the hard work . Image from Getty. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Take a springtime wander up a Peak District valley called William Clough in the company of angler and naturalist Andrew Griffiths. Meet some of the aquatic residents as Andrew tries his hand at stream dipping and hear tales of battles over access on nearby Kinder Scout. Plus, the delightful songs of skylarks, meadow pipits and curlew Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Sound Escapes from BBC Countryfile Magazine – your chance to relax to soundtracks of glorious nature wherever you are and whatever you are doing. In this episode, we're beside a sleepy lake deep in the Brecon Beacons. Wind rustles through the golden reedbed as reed warblers sing their charming songs. Image from Getty. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, Megan Shersby heads to the East of England to one of Britain's oldest nature reserves, the wetland wonder of Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire. Here she meets Professor Nick Davies of Cambridge University, an expert on the lives of cuckoos, to talk about these remarkable birds and how they use foster parents to raise their young. Later, Megan joins the regular plodcast team to talk cuckoos, sounds of the week and other nature news. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Sound Escapes, your chance to relax to the sounds of the British countryside no matter busy you are. In this episode, enjoy the song of one of our migrant birds, the redstart, plus backing singing from chiffchaffs, blackcaps, song thrushes and blackbirds. A gentle, calming delight. Hosted by Hannah Tribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meet the spring wildlife of one of Britain's rarest habitats – lowland heaths. Roam the heath-clad landscape in search of rare reptiles including the elusive smooth snake in the company of Owain Masters and Nick Dobbs from the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust. Plus a host of rare insects, plants and the gorgeous Dartford warbler. Plus, a special guest appearance from plodcast favourite Kevin Parr. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Sound Escapes, your chance to relax to the sounds of the British countryside no matter busy you are. In this episode, you're on a path rising up a steep-sided wooded valley in South Wales. The endless May rain has stopped and a male wood warbler is singing his extraordinary song from the emerald canopy of tangled oak trees. The air is fresh, the leaves are fresh and there is a sense that spring can begin again in earnest. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Somerset artist Lucy Pendrick gets up early to listen to the whole of the dawn chorus of resident and migrant birds in a deciduous woodland on the edge of the Somerset Levels. Revel in this incredible spring orchestra of natural music that most people sleep through. Plus, Lucy also captures the dusk chorus as the birds wind down at the end of the day. Pure magic. Find out more about Lucy's work at her website The Whispering Wild Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Sound Escapes – your chance to relax to the sounds of nature no matter how busy you are. In this episode, we take you to Bickley Wood on the River Avon the outskirts of Bristol where bluebells are freshly in bloom. A gentle rain is falling. Recorded by Daniel Graham and presented by Hannah Tribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join poet Kenneth Steven for an early spring adventure in an ancient hazel wood, a mysterious glen and a beautiful loch on his home island of Seil in the Inner Hebrides. Along the way Kenneth recounts tales of history and mystery – and finish with one of his own marvellous poems. Find out more about Kenneth's work Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes offer you a short meditative journey into the natural world this spring to find peace, beauty and relaxation. In this episode, you're transported to an oak woodland on a small hill in the West Country. It's 5am and the weather is cool and dry. Bluebells carpet the woodland floor while blackbirds, wrens, robins and goldcrests lead the dawn chorus to welcome the new day. Recorded by Lucy Pendrick. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Explore the lagoons, reedbeds and woodlands of Somerset Levels with two of the regular podcast team as they try to hear the mournful yet powerful boom of the bittern. This waterbird was once critically endangered but has made a dramatic comeback with 30 pairs in what is known collectively as the Avalon Marshes. But will the team hear it? Listen on for gorgeous spring birdsong, history, mystery and even slithering snakes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes offer you a short meditative journey into the natural world this spring to find peace, beauty and relaxation. In episode 13, you are transported to a woodland on the edge of a lagoon and reedbed deep in the Avalon Marshes of Somerset where the spring birdsong is in full voice. Sit back and let your mind wander into nature. Recorded by Jack Bateman and presented by Hannah Tribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join naturalist, writer and angler Kevin Parr as he explores the little-known coastal scrublands near Chesil Beach in Dorset to encounter Britain's only venomous snake, the rare and beautiful adder. Along the way, he meets many other wildlife inhabitants of this lost world. Later, Kevin joins the podcast team to talk about the adventure and share more of his stories. We would also like to invite you to take part in a very short survey about your podcast listening habits. Everyone completing the survey will be entered into a prize draw to win one of seven £100 Voucher Express Gift Card. Terms and conditions are available in the survey link. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes – your chance to enjoy a delightful few minutes of spring wildlife no matter how busy you are. In this episode, we're sitting in an oak woodland mid April, listening to the songs of many species but the star performance is the drumming of the lesser spotted woodpecker. The location is the RSPB's Ynys Hir reserve near Machynlleth in mid Wales, famed for its Celtic rainforest. Recorded by Fergus Collins and presented by Hannah Tribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Explore a fabulous spring day among the atmospheric woods, meadows and salt marshes of RSPB Ynys Hir on the Dyfi Estuary in mid Wales. Containing a magnificent example of Celtic rainforest, Ynys Hir is home to a fabulous arrays of birds, insects, wildflowers and reptiles. Fergus Collins met manager David Anning for a magical day, culminating in a mystery wildlife encounter deep in the woods. We would also like to invite you to take part in a very short survey about your podcast listening habits. Everyone completing the survey will be entered into a prize draw to win one of seven £100 Voucher Express Gift Card. Terms and conditions are available in the survey link. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Sound Escapes from BBC Countryfile Magazine – your chance for a relaxing escape into nature no matter how busy you are. In this episode, it's evening at Alners Gorse, a nature reserve in Dorset run by Butterfly Conservation. As the dew falls, the extraordinary song of nightingales rises from the thickets. Recorded by Martin Maudsley and presented by Hannah Tribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the second episode of our Spring Across Britain series, we meet Countryfile's farmer Adam Henson. Adam farms in the Cotswolds and he reveals the extraordinary burgeoning of life on the farm – from serenading skylarks to bleating newborn lambs. Plus, we discuss the role of farmers in creating a sustainable and accessible countryside. Adam's new book, A Year on Adam's Farm is out now. Plus, enjoy listeners' sounds of the week in our Podcast postbag and a beautiful poem by John Clare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Sound Escapes from BBC Countryfile Magazine – your chance to sit back and relax to the sounds of nature wherever you are and whatever you are doing. In this episode, we're sitting on a wooded promontory above the Dyfi Estuary in the RSPB's magical Ynys Hir reserve. It's early April, there's a chill in the air but the wind has dropped allowing the gentle murmuring of Canada geese to rise over the salt marshes. In the distance, the Tarren mountains of southern Snowdonia glow in the sun. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the first of the new season: Spring Across Britain we meet with RSPB expert Damon Bridge and author and curlew champion Mary Colwell. Listen on as they explore spring wildlife in the fabulous RSPB reserve of Swell Wood and West Sedgemoor – in the hope of hearing the enigmatic curlew on the eve of World Curlew Day. Later, we meet singer-songwriter and nature champion David Gray. David talks about his own curlew experiences and how wild places have influenced his new album Skellig – of which you can hear the title track in this podcast. Annabel Ross is your host. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Sound Escapes from BBC Countryfile Magazine – your chance for a relaxing escape into nature no matter how busy you are. In this episode, it's late afternoon in early April 2021 and we're at a rocky escarpment in the southern Brecon Beacons. It's a clear sunny day and a pair of peregrine falcons are prospecting for a nest site on the crags of old quarried cliff faces. Their cries and calls can be heard above the early evening chorus of robins, blackbirds and sheep. Presented by Hannah Tribe and recorded by Fergus Collins. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to season 9 of the BBC Countryfile Magazine Podcast. Your chance for a weekly escape into the wild and beautiful countryside. Season 9 is our most ambitious project yet – capturing Spring Across Britain as it unfurls in 12 different wild landscapes.  From mountain to heath and coast to meadow, we’ll be sharing the joys of the new season with you and encountering some wonderful wildlife and marvellous people along the way. In this trailer, the podcast team get excited about the upcoming episodes and special guests. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes – your chance to relax into nature for a few precious moments. In this episode, it's late afternoon and we've arrived at a small cove on the South Gower coast to hear waves rising and falling on an empty beach. Recorded and presented by Hannah Tribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes, beautiful short episodes of natural sound from the British countryside. They're your chance for a burst of wild freedom when you can't get out there yourself. In this episode, it's a crisp morning in mid March and we're sitting beside a dark pool in a pocket of ancient woodland called Goytre House Wood. Celandines and wild daffodils brighten the damp woodland floor while a male mistle thrush, great tits and wrens provide beautiful song. Presented by Hannah Tribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Follow a sparkling stream through a hidden valley on the Gower Peninsular in South Wales to arrive at a smuggler's cove. Along the way, the podcast team hunt for treasures in the stream, meet the local wildlife and encounter a very mysterious fish. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to our latest Sound Escape, a chance to relax to the calming sounds of nature. In this episode, we’re pausing beside a hedgerow on the edge of a small field in Gower, South Wales. It’s a bitterly cold and overcast Sunday morning but the house sparrows and hedge sparrows (dunnocks) are busily chatting at the beginning of their nesting season.   So sit back and be transported into the delightful soundscapes of spring. Recorded and presented by Hannah Tribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Storyteller Martin Maudsley meets wildlife photographer and countryman Jim Brown on Jim's local river, the Axe, which flows from Somerset into East Devon. They discuss otters, swans, folklore and farming – and the dedication wildlife photographers need to catch their quarry. Their delightful conversation is set against the bubbling backdrop of the Axe and its tributary, the Yatty. Otter image by Jim Brown Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Countryfile Magazine Sound Escapes – your chance to spend a blissful five minutes in the countryside however busy you are. In this episode, ramble along an ancient track through a steeply banked holloway down into a wild valley. Enjoy the sounds of robins, song thrushes and wrens above the babble of a mountain stream. Presented by Hannah Tribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Enjoy listening to the delightful songs of song thrushes, robins and treecreepers as we wander along the towpath of the Monmouth-Brecon canal high up in the Brecon Beacons. Listen out for an extremely early chiffchaff and encounters with narrowboats and a very strange duck Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to our latest Sound Escape, a chance to relax to the calming sounds of nature. In this episode, it is dusk on a flood-swollen River Avon on the outskirts of Bristol and the melodies of robins and song thrushes soothe the watery twilight. So sit back and be transported into the soundscapes of early spring. Recorded by Daniel Graham and presented by Hannah Tribe. Photo credit: Geograph Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Annabel Ross wades through floodwater in the Severn Valley near Tewksbury to meet Andrew Kerr of the Sustainable Eel Group and talk about the astonishing serpent-like eel and its still unexplained life story. We meet a traditional Severn Elver fisherman, hear a glorious eel poem by Hugh Dunkerley and cap it all off with folk singer Kitty Macfarlane's delightful song Glass Eel. Listen on for a perfect podcast. Image by students of Plymouth University as part of the the Eel Suitcase project, which raises awareness of the plight of the European eel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to theSound Escape from BBC Countryfile Magazine – a chance for a few minutes relaxation as you listen to the sounds of nature and the countryside. In this episode we head along the sea defences of the Ribble Estuary in Lancashire on a bright February morning. Big skies dominate the low-lying marshes and farmland. The birds you can hear are mostly wigeon and skylarks. Presented by Hannah Tribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dee Dee Chainey has been collected stories and legends about folklore from around the world during her Folklore Thursday sessions on social media – in this episode she reveals tales of ghosts, monsters, spirits and superstitions that abide around our waters. Listen on if you dare. Dee Dee and Willow Winsham have a great book on the subject: Treasury of Folklore: Seas and Rivers. Plus, a brilliant Sound of the Week from Texas and we introduce our new Sound Escapes podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the second Sound Escape from BBC Countryfile Magazine, a short meditative journey into the countryside right now to immerse yourself in the sounds of nature. In this episode, we take an icy dawn walk along the frozen Mon-Brec canal in Monmouthshire to hear song thrushes, siskins, tits, a great spotted woodpecker and even a brief burst of treecreeper. Plus, we meet the first of this year's lambs. Presented by Hannah Tribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Angler and writer Andrew Griffiths takes us for a charming summer's ramble around his local waterways on the Cheshire-Derbyshire border. He chats to passers-by, goes pond-dipping with children and meets a man hoping to catch the first salmon on the River Govt. Plus, don't miss the latest Listeners' Sound of the Week Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the first Sound Escape from BBC Countryfile Magazine – five minutes' blissful peace in the countryside as we wind down for the weekend. Every week, we'll upload some beautiful and relaxing sounds of nature. We will capture the spirit of the moment to give you a perfect audio snapshot of what's going on in the countryside right now. This week, we are escaping to a little wooded valley on the Gower Peninsula in South Wales to hear robins, mistle thrushes, great tits and a great spotted woodpecker proclaiming early spring. The sound of the sea blends with a gentle breeze in the treetops. Hannah Tribe is your host. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After the heavy rain and floods of mid January, we head out on a cold, clear morning into the waterlogged woods and farmland along the River Usk in Monmouthshire to discover how the landscape has changed and how the wildlife and livestock are coping. Listen on for an evocative walk in the countryside accompanied by the very first stirrings of spring. Plus don't miss the Podcast Postbag and two wonderful sounds of the week sent in by listeners. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We return to the island of Seil in the Inner Hebrides to spend a day with poet Kenneth Steven exploring the wildlife and wild waters that swirl around his island home. He tells of terrifying power of the nearby Corryvreckan whirlpool and recounts the tale of a prince and his ship lost beneath the writhing currents. Plus, join us for nature sound of the week and the Plodcast postbag Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join angler and writer Kevin Parr as he spends a day at a local lake in Dorset explaining the joys and frustrations of angling. His quarry is the predatory perch, a fish that become more solitary and elusive as it grows larger. Kevin also enjoys some gentle wildlife encounters along the way. Plus, don't miss the Plodcast postbag and sound of the week… Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lucy Pendrick is an artist and nature lover who is a keen listener to the Countryfile Plodcast. In this episode, she takes us to her local river to explore how nature's calming power – especially moving water – can bring peace and mental clarity to our lives. She also reveals how she finds inspiration for her art in her wild surroundings. A delightful, personal and uplifting podcast – and you can see her work at Whispers of the Wild. Plus listen on for how you can send in your own audio recordings to feature in future Countryfile Plodcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Holy wells are a magical feature of the Welsh landscape – places where people have found dependable clean water and made offerings since ancient times. But over time, many have been forgotten or overlooked in the modern landscape. So in this episode, we head into the hills north of Pontypool to try to track down a well that has been used since Roman times – and trace its fascinating story through history. If you enjoy the podcast, please do leave feedback and ratings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meet the Severn Bore – a dramatic tidal wave that surges up the River Severn on rare occasions each year. Plodcast host Fergus joins local resident and naturalist James Fair for a wander along the river just before the Bore struck. A fantastic audio adventure with some great wildlife and surprise guests… Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Explore rivers, lakes and canals in this special season of podcasts. From meeting the Severn Bore and climbing remote hills in search of holy wells to finding treasure in streams and reflecting on the healing power of water, we enjoy the magic of our waterways over the next 12 episodes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join the Countryfile Magazine plodcast team as we celebrate how the natural world has helped us – and you – through 2020. Plus, we reveal the podcast highlights of the year and what to look forward to in 2021. So pour yourself a warming drink, find a comfy armchair and enjoy a gentle chat and ramble through rural Britain. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jules Hudson has been helping people find their rural dream for over 13 years as host of the BBC's show Escape to the Country. Now he's written a book full of practical advice on how anyone can make the leap from urban stress to country retreat. Fergus Collins met Jules at his home in Herefordshire to discuss the dos and don'ts… Find out more in Jules's Escape to the Country Handbook, published by the National Trust. Plus don't miss our bonus Plodcast Postbag feature where we answer our listeners' letters and emails Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Star of The Office, Detectorists and several blockbuster films, Mackenzie Crook has also written, directed and starred in a new adaptation of Worzel Gummidge. Christmas 2020 sees the third episode in the series and Mackenzie joins Maria Hodson to discuss why he loves this countryside character and how nature infuses his life. Plus, we introduce the Plodcast postbag – our listeners reviews and comments on recent podcast episodes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Come with us to a narrowboat on the Kennet and Avon canal to talk to Nick Hayes, author of the The Book of Trespass, about how little of the English countryside is open to walkers, riders and canoeists. Learn how our landscapes came to be owned by so few people – and how it might benefit the nation's health to open them up to the public Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

20 years ago, the RSPB bought Hope Farm in Cambridgeshire to explore how best to farm sustainably and profitably while also creating a home for nature. Meet lapwings, linnets and wildflowers as we wander the farm in the company of manager Georgie Bray to discover that it is possible to create wildlife habitat and make a living from the land. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join Maria Fernandez-Garcia as she walks the riverbank and woodlands of Conham River Park on the edge of Bristol in search of autumn edibles. From ruby rosehips and hawthorn berries to lush lichens and nettle seeds, Maria discusses the many medicinal plants that can be gathered in autumn and used to make herbal medicine. Expect seasonal jams, root-based coffees, and hot, healing teas. Find out more about Maria’s work as a herbalist at Healing Weeds Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We escape back to summer in this podcast to explore a forgotten peninsula near the town of Caernarvon in North Wales. Enjoy beachcombing, plus a ramble over salt marshes and wildflower-filled sand dunes accompanied by curlews, oystercatchers and other seabirds. Pure wildlife delights! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Horrible Histories, Ghosts and Detectorists star Simon Farnaby talks to Maria Hodson about his new book for children – where a Dark Age wizard turns up in the 2st-century countryside. Funny and thoughtful, Simon reveals his own rural childhood and his hopes for a wilder childhood for his own family. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Storyteller Martin Maudsley takes a walk along Blood Lane and other ancient Dorset tracks telling tales old and new that celebrate the countryside and its people. Prepare to be thrilled and chilled as Martin explores the twilight world of spirits, strange events and weird wildlife. Find out more at https://martinmaudsley.co.uk/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices