The Plodcast

As the dawn sun blazes over the wide Loch Torridon below, birds stir in the sheltered, verdant glen that runs down to the shore. A strident song thrush, a soft cuckoo – and not a sound of human activity.
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 and introduced by Hannah Tribe.
Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com

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Professor Dave Goulson is one of Britain's foremost experts on bee ecology and conservation. And his Sussex garden is a magnificent example of how to create the perfect haven for our most precious pollinators.
Plodcast host Fergus Collins enjoys a tour of this mini nature reserve and meets some of our charismatic spring bee species – while Dave tells fascinating tales of the hidden world of these astonishing insects.
Dave Goulson's latest book A Bee Spotters Guide is published by The National Trust.
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A mid-spring morning on the heath. Showers scud through on a brisk breeze, chased by the sun and a steady trickle of southerly arrivals. Among the grey peel of silver birch, a willow warbler and a chaffinch sing their steady descent. A wistful melancholy as the gorse begins to glow.
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 Kevin Parr and introduced by Hannah Tribe.
Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of th...

We head into the city this week with urban naturalist Amanda Tuke. Amanda is a champion of the nature on your doorstep so Plodcast host Fergus Collins met her outside Cardiff Central station to begin a quest to find wildlife on a ramble through the busy city.
Listen on for a Plodcast full of surprises.
Amanda's book Wild Pavements: Exploring Britain's Cities with an Urban Naturalist is published by FLINT.
Photo by Lily Watts
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Late afternoon meets the first tendrils of dusk and the oakwoods are empty of people. Instead, birdsong fills the half-light beneath the trees: song thrush, great tit, chiffchaff and blackbird weave their spring melodies into an enchantment.
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 and introduced by Hannah Tribe.
Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com

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Head into a quiet, magical corner of Herefordshire to meet artists Jackie Morris and Tamsin Abbott who have collaborated to create Wild Folk: Tales From the Stones – stories of folklore, of nature, of landscape, love and sorrow.
Plodcast host Fergus Collins was lucky enough to meet the pair and hear their own wild tales – plus some enchanting readings from the book.
Wild Folk: Tales from the Stones is published by Chelsea Green and is out now.
For more on Jackie Morris' work visit: www.jackiemorris.co.uk
For more on Tamsin Abbott's work: www.tamsinabbott.co.u...

It's a hazy morning on the South-West coast. The sun's rays disperse across the silent waves, glittering over passing boats. A choir of birds greet you, as you sit and watch the world awaken.
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 Dobbs and introduced by Hannah Tribe. Photo by Lewis Dobbs.
Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com

Learn more abou...

Painter John Constable (1776-1837) is today one of the most celebrated painters of the English countryside. But in his lifetime his efforts to capture the true essence of nature and rural life were often rejected by his peers. What made him so special and why is he so revered now?
Now, on the 250th anniversary of Constable's birth, Plodcast host Fergus Collins meets art historian Susan Owen in 'Constable Country' on the Suffolk-Essex border to explore the great artists' world.
Susan Owens' brilliant new book Constable's Year: An Artist in Changing Seasons is published by Thames and...

A cool dawn, dew-dampened and soft air. In these folds of West Dorset, it will be another hour before the sun reaches above the sharp-edged ridge in the south east, but below, where the blackthorn blossom is almost spent, the birds are in full voice.
The familiar voices, blackbird, song thrush and robin, now joined now by visitors from further south, the blackcap, chiffchaff and garden warbler, all singing for space as beneath a spring sends a stream away upon its first trickle.

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside t...

Come metal-detecting in the Essex countryside with Ellie Bruce and Lucy Gray – who call themselves Roman Found. After taking up detecting during the first Covid lockdown, Lucy and Ellie have been sharing their exciting discoveries on social media and built up a huge following. Now they have written their first book: Thing We Found in the Ground (Harper North)
Plodcast host Fergus joined Ellie and Lucy for a morning's detecting – and to learn more about the world of detectorists. They even found something...
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A track winds up onto a bleak hill top – or it looks from afar. As you get closer, you realise the land is rich in bilberries, heather and small, stunted hawthorns. Soon you are in the skylark zone – with meadow pipits singing their hearts out alongside their more famous avian cousins.
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 and introduced by Hannah Tribe.
Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the...

This week we're in the Malverns in Worcestershire to try to find Britain's only venomous snake – the adder. Plodcast host Fergus Collins is guided by local adder expert Nigel Hand, who has spent much of his life working to protect these increasingly rare reptiles.
Discover the secret life of the adder and learn why we need to respect – and even love – this springtime jewel.
Photo: Steve Sayers
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A gentle walk at this time of year can suddenly throw up a surprise. A firecrest! The thin, accelerating song of Britain's smallest bird pipes among the robins, wood pigeons and blackbirds.
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 and introduced by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty
Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com

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Come with us through the high security gates of a flooded quarry in the Forest of Dean to explore Deep project. Here, in the deep waters of the quarry, DEEP is experimenting with creating habitats for long-term human existence underwater.
Plodcast host Fergus Collins meets Phil Short, DEEP's underwater research and training lead for a tour of this futuristic mission and its engineering wonders.
Learn more about DEEP at https://www.deep.com/
Photo: DEEP
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Watching ripples of river water swirl and overlap, you allow your mind to wander. The clear water’s constant stream is hypnotic as it makes the vivid green algae dance. The proud chirpings of birdsong send you into comfortable doze.
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 Dobbs and introduced by Hannah Tribe.
Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com

Learn...

It's night in the woods deep in the Cotswold Hills. Plodcast host Fergus joins friend and environmental writer James Fair to see if they can witness the great spring toad migration, where toads leave their winter hideouts and head across land in huge numbers to find a pond or lake to breed in.
Have the daring duo left it too late? What will they find on this nocturnal ramble?
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As dusk falls and human activity finally slows in a small market town, a blackbird decides now's the time to release his latest album of lullabies. Slow, beguiling and wistful, his songs lifts the spirits of all within earshot.
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 and introduced by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty
Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com

Join the Plodcast team for a new fishing adventure, this time on the Kennet and Avon Canal in Berkshire. Writer, angler and naturalist Kevin Parr joins Fergus, Hannah, Jack and Lewis to see if they can catch an elusive but beautiful predator of the waterways. Better still, they've been given special access to a normally private stretch of this famous canal.
Listen on for a truly breathtaking encounter – and make sure you listen to the very end to hear the surprising finale to the adventure.
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A rare day of sun across the lake transforms late winter into a hint of spring. Canada geese stir and honk, a great white egret chitters overhead and excitable peeps, churs and hums from the reedbeds suggest nestbuilding and courtship among the waterbirds.
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 and introduced by Hannah Tribe.
Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com

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Award-winning countryside writer Nicola Chester joins the Plodcast this week in her home village of Inkpen in Berkshire to talk about her new book, Ghosts of the Farm.
In this amazing story, she weaves her own rural experiences with those of pioneering local farmer Julia White, who farmed in Inkpen in the 1940s and 50s and oversaw fundamental changes to agriculture and the landscape that have enormous ramifications today. Plodcast host Fergus Collins was lucky enough to venture out with Nicola to walk Julia's fields.
Nicola's book, Ghosts of the Farm, is published by Chelsea Green Publishing. <...

After a long day, green fingers are calling. Sat beside a quiet allotment, you take in the gentle breeze. Watching over the freshly sprouting veg and blooming bulbs, you're soothed by the murmur of fellow growers.
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 Jack Bateman and introduced by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty
Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com

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Could you go coldwater swimming in the depths of winter? James Fair attempts to do just that in lake deep in the Cotswolds. He joins his wife Louise and four of her friends to hear about how swimming in freshwater, whatever the temperature, has a hugely positive impact on physical and mental health. It's an inspiring adventure.
Later, join the regular Plodcast team of Fergus, Hannah, Jack and Lewis in the studio for a roundup of your messages, audio postcards and other nature nattering,
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Down a windy track in a small valley at the very point where Herefordshire meets Wales, you find a watermill, restored and still working. As water from the leat gushes onto the wheel, it slowly creaks into life. At first, you marvel at the throb of the wheels and gears within the mill before relaxing to the steady pulse of the wheel itself.
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 and introduced by...

After serious childhood trauma and a high-octane but destructive life as a model, Brigit Anna McNeill found solace and healing in the company of wild plants – and wise women.
Plodcast host Fergus Collins met Brigit in a peaceful corner of Devon to hear about her journey to become whole again – and her advice on how we can all rewild ourselves to improve our mental and physical health. It's an unmissable story.
Brigit's book, The Wild Within: What plants taught me about life, recovery and renewal is published by September, an imprint of Duckworth Books.
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Very little is stirring in the deep dark winter woodland. That is until you come to a wide clearing on the edge of the wood, with slumbering farmland beyond. Here, inspired by the light, a song thrush sings over the chatter of a small flock of chaffinches – while a gentle rain falls on the leaf litter.
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 and introduced by Hannah Tribe.
Email the Plodcast team – and...

Did you know that, even today, some of London's streets are lit by gas? Annabel Ross heading into the city's twilight zone to meet Aran Osman whose job it is to maintain these Victorian relics, which still illuminate much of Central London.
Annabel also talks to Annelie Whitfield, who is writing a book about artificial light and its effect on humans and animals.
Find Aran on Instagram @london_lamplighters
Find Annelie on Instagram @lighthumanuk
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What's normally a gentle brook, winding through a peaceful woodland, has been transformed by many days of rain into a breathtaking torrent. You get your feet wet crossing the ford but the stream's exuberant song more than makes up for damp socks.
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 and introduced by Hannah Tribe.
Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com

Did you know that the last battle fought on English soil occurred in the early years of Queen Victoria – out in the Kent countryside? Historical novelist Ian Breckon has unearthed the extraordinary tale of Mad Tom and his 'rising' in the late 1830s and what it tells us about rural life at the time. Ian spoke with Plodcast host Fergus Collins on a walk in London's Highgate Woods.
Ian's book Mad Tom's Rising: The Revolutionary Mystic Sir William Courtenay and the Last Battle Fought on English Soil is published by Icon Books.
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This week we're featuring a lost sound of the countryside – the curious melodies of clattering mills. These were wind-powered devices on tall poles that made a racket to scare birds from the crops – especially starlings plundering cherry crops.
Thanks to Sonke Prigge for collecting these incredible sounds, which will be  included in the British Library’s Very Rare and Lost Sounds collection. This is special strand within the Library's national sound archive dedicated to preserving audio that’s at risk of disappearing or already forgotten.
BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countrysi...

What is an honesty box? And how did it help writer Lucy Brazier understand her husband's serious mental health issues and save her marriage? And all this against a backdrop of a quirky and often challenging rural existence in deepest Devon. Plodcast host accepted Lucy's invitation for a walk and deep and meaningful talk on one of those rare, crisp winter days.
Lucy's book The Honesty Box: the diary of a broken marriage, a mental health crisis and a large marrow is published by Bloomsbury.
The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest...

You awake to a strange silence, a deep calm. As you draw back the curtain, you are surprised to see a soft blanket of snow across the garden and beyond. This wasn't forecasted. But, like the boy in the Snowman, you quickly pull on warm clothes and dash out to explore – to be the first to lay down a trail of footsteps in the fresh snow. Sparrows, a gorgeous song thrush and distant barking hounds provide the commentary.
BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you so...

This week, Plodcast host Fergus sets out to find signs of spring in seldom-visited woodland in south Monmouthshire. Listen on for a mindful Plodcast full of eerie midwinter atmosphere. Later, Fergus returns to his garden to record a Big Garden Birdwatch for the RSPB.
The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 & 2025 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 Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: theplodcast@countryfile.com.
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The pipes and flutes of curlews, oystercatchers and redshanks rise occasionally above the rush and roar of breakers on this little visited haven along the Sussex coast. You walk along the high tide line, splashing through pools of cockle and limpet shells.
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 and introduced by Hannah Tribe.
Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countryfile.com

Hugh Crossley aka Lord Somerleyton has rewilded large parts of his estate on the Norfolk-Suffolk border. After initial success spreading his message across East Anglia – in what he and his rewilding partners called WildEast – Hugh is aiming to spread his 'Map of Dreams' across the whole of the UK.
Plodcast host Fergus Collins went for a wander with Hugh around his estate for an entertaining talk about his WildKingdom plans – and how he has needed to break convention and challenge tradition to make his voice heard.
For more about WildKingdom and the Map of Dreams, head to wildea...

After several days of intense cold deep in the Sussex countryside, a bright, warmer morning encourages a procession of birds to move through the garden in search of food – from rooks and jackdaws to dunnocks, robins and long-tailed tits. The resident sparrows seem to cheerfully welcome these visitors.
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 and introduced by Hannah Tribe.
Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: th...

Head to the Severn Estuary to meets curlews and other wild waterbirds in the company of singer-songwriter Merlyn Driver. Merlyn's music draws on nature and folk traditions and he talks to Plodcast host Annabel Ross about why he needs this magical connection.
Later in the Plodcast, Annabel and Merlyn meet with writer and conservationist Mary Colwell, who has done so much work to save the curlew in the UK.
Plus, listen on for the Plodcast team who meet for the first time in 2026 to read your messages and play your recordings of nature.
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Just a few miles from its source, the River Severn is already a dashing, tumbling river, full of youthful promise and energy. You meet it while walking in a small market town – listening to the river's winter song as it cascades over rocks and through mini gorges before heading out into wide pastures and down into the borders.
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 and introduced by Hannah Tribe.
Email the Pl...

The RSPB's annual Big Garden Birdwatch is one of the world's biggest citizen science projects and provides incredible insights into the populations of our common birds.
To find out more, Plodcast host Fergus meets the RSPB's Chief Operating Officer James Robinson in beautiful RSPB Nagshead Nature Reserve in Gloucestershire. As they listen out for winter birdlife, James explains to Fergus why the Birdwatch matters and how to get involved – and provides a fascinating insight into the work of this great conservation organisation.
You can find out more about this year's Big Garden Birdwatch here: https://www.rspb.or...

It's bright and sunny but it's an illusion: a gale is swirling through the treetops, the aftermath of last night's storm. Shielded among the trees, you enjoy a walk through piles of fallen leaves – even the most reluctant faller plucked from its twig by the wind.
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 and introduced by Hannah Tribe.
Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: theplodcast@countr...

Happy New Year and welcome to the first Plodcast of 2026. The Plodcast is a weekly adventure in the British countryside brought to you by BBC Countryfile Magazine.
In this episode, Plodcast host Fergus Collins sets out on a bright morning into a little known upland landscape in the Bannau Brycheiniog to search for the legendary Chartists' Cave. He is joined by friend and regular walking leader for the Crickhowell Walking Festival Andy Knifton. Listen on for an eerie walk into an atmospheric realm.
The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of...