The Wandering Ecologist Podcast

In this bitesize episode I’m out in the field at the Wiston Estate with a team from the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust. They’re here to collect data as part of an exciting long-term study which, at the time of recording, has been running for 56 years.  This study is the world’s longest-running scientific monitoring project measuring the impact of changing farming practices on arable flora...

In this episode we shine the spotlight on the remarkable Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, one of Britain’s rarest and most secretive woodland birds. Join us as we hammer into the details of a pioneering survey with passionate woodpecker-philes, Ken and Linda Smith, who have been deploying innovative audio recorders to find out if these small woodland birds are more widespread than we thought. Ken and Li...

I head up to Norfolk to visit my pal Matthew Hay, at High Fen Wildland. This 292 hectare site was originally farmed for arable and daffodil growing but was too wet to farm commercially. So, in 2022 nature restoration company Nattergal purchased the site with a wonderful vision to recreate a mosaic of diverse fenland habitats, akin to how it might have looked before it was drained for farming in th...

In this episode I visit my friend Paul Stevens, just down the road from home, to gawp at a fantastic set-up on his house. His sidewall is bedecked in Swift nest boxes and House Martin nest cups, providing a beautiful bird metropolis where these declining red-list birds can thrive. Paul makes these boxes and nest cups from scratch himself, drawing on his experience he has gained from working with t...

Transport yourself to the beautiful mountains of northern Spain as we visit our lovely friends Katie and Luke at their Wild Finca – an old farm they are managing through agri-wilding, creating the most wonderful diverse habitat mosaics for nature and a refuge their young family.  This episode is a departure from the normal format with a long and wide-ranging discussion on how they manage the land...

Transport yourself to the beautiful mountains of northern Spain as we visit our lovely friends Katie and Luke at their Wild Finca – an old farm they are managing through agri-wilding, creating the most wonderful diverse habitat mosaics for nature and a refuge their young family.  This episode is a departure from the normal format with a long and wide-ranging discussion on how they manage the land...

Join me for a bit of autumn sunshine on the beach as I meet up with inspiring conservationist Henri Brocklebank, Director of Conservation at the Sussex Wildlife Trust. In this episode we hear about an uplifting conservation story happening just beneath the waves off the Sussex coast, in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.  The act of understanding the value of a healthy functioning marine e...

Episode 5 takes us on top of the South Downs at the Wiston Estate where I join awesome entomologist, Graeme Lyons, on some invertebrate surveys. We’re looking at the benefits of having wildflower strips along the arable fields, and how having a diversity of these conservation options on the farm are providing habitat for nature alongside food production. We talk about how the complex structure in...

Join me for episode 4 as I learn all about the return of Britain’s largest and most epic bird of prey to southern England…the White-tailed Eagle.  This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the launch of this podcast, at the Global Birdfair at Rutland, and I couldn’t have had a more apt guest to talk about this amazing project: Dr Tim Mackrill. Tim was a local boy captivated by Rutla...

Join me at Brighton’s Castle Hill National Nature Reserve for episode 3, where I’m hot on the trail of Britain’s most endangered insect: the Wart-biter Bush-cricket. They’re tricky to find so luckily I’m with my pal and brilliant entomologist, Alice Parfitt, who is leading on the species recovery programme of this impressive species through her work at Buglife and the Changing Chalk partnership. W...

It’s episode 2 and I’m high up on the South Downs to meet up with my chum and amazing field naturalist, Neil Hulme.  Today we’re focusing on the Duke of Burgundy, and how Neil’s life-long passion for this exquisite butterfly, and the knowledge he has accumulated from close observation and field work, has resulted in a huge turn around in its fortune. It has gone from being on the brink of extincti...

Join me on a trip to the Sussex coast for episode 1, where I’ll be meeting up with my good friend, Pete Hughes, Ecologist for the Chichester Harbour Conservancy. We will be learning all about the success of the Return of the Tern nature recovery initiative and how some nesting rafts are restoring the breeding populations of Common Terns to Chichester Harbour. These beautiful migratory seabirds nes...

Trailer for the forthcoming Wandering Ecologist Podcast!