The Plodcast

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.comVisit 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.comVisit 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.comVisit 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 natureContact 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

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 somewherebeautiful, 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.comVisit 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.comWrite to us:Plodcast, CountryfileEagle HouseBristol 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.comVisit 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.comWrite to us:Plodcast, CountryfileEagle HouseBristol 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 TribeEmail 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

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.comWrite to us:Plodcast, CountryfileEagle HouseBristol BS1 4ST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices