Magpies, Dark Skies and Cairngorms Pride

Cairngorms Pride is a new nature-led organisation set up in Cairngorms National Park with the motto: “here for the planet, queer for the planet”. Rachel chats to Dan Cottam and Kath Pierce about the social enterprise.

Coinneach Rankin and Hamish Macleod are climbers and filmmakers who make the series Dàna on BBC Alba in which they capture their adventures in the outdoors. Helen Needham joins them in Lochaber to discuss their approach to adventuring, filmmaking and the Gaelic language.

The first grey seal pups of the season are at Forvie National Nature Reserve in Aberdeenshire. Mark meets Reserve Manager Catriona Reid to discover how to observe the seals without disturbing them.

Phil Sime and Morven Livingstone take to the Caledonian canal to speak to Robert Gordon from Inverness Rowing Club about how the club is making the sport more accessible.

A mother-daughter duo are co-authoring a memoir called Sea Legs. The book follows 11-year-old competitive para swimmer Oona Dooks and her mother Eleanor Thom in their travels across the UK coast and beyond. Mark joins the pair at Montrose Basin to discover what they’ve learnt about caring through the lens of the natural world.

Rachel meets Biosphere Dark Sky ranger Elizabeth Tindal at Crawick Multiverse in Dumfries and Galloway to find out how best to adjust our eyes to the dark and observe the stars.

The Woodland Carbon Code is the UK’s standard for woodland creation projects that aim to generate credible carbon credits. Mark and Rachel are joined by Pat Snowdon of Scottish Forestry to find out how to code is contributing towards Scotland’s net zero targets.

Mark discusses the often misunderstood magpie with author Esther Woolfson, who shared her home with a magpie for eight years.