The Plodcast

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.comWrite to us:Plodcast, CountryfileEagle HouseBristol 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.comWrite to us:Plodcast, CountryfileEagle HouseBristol 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.comWrite to us:Plodcast, CountryfileEagle HouseBristol 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 CullenThis 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.comWrite to us:Plodcast, CountryfileEagle HouseBristol 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.comVisit 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.comWrite to us:Plodcast, CountryfileEagle HouseBristol 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.comVisit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices