The Plodcast

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 mentors...

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 be...

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 b...

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...

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 avail...

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,...

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...

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 hel...

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 m...

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...

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...

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 somewher...

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 wi...

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...

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 Bridge...

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...

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 Plodcas...

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, intro...

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...

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 Do...

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 yo...

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 Soun...

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...

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 beau...

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...