It’s always a pleasure to hear from our listeners and on occasion people have asked for an episode dedicated purely to nature sounds. This is one such episode. It’s a compilation of ambient field recordings made around the coastline of the Hebridean island of Tiree. Slow radio indeed, and we recommend listening on headphones.

This is an energetic and vibrant landscape. You can immerse yourself in the elemental sounds of waves and wind, and experience a wide variety of birdlife. We begin the episode with the faint cry of sea eagles high in the sky, then move back to the seashore, plunging down to listen to the underwater sounds of a limpet steadily munching its way across a rock, and the popping and crackling of a forest of sea kelp. Back on dry land and a little way inshore a fulmar colony prepares for the 2024 breeding season on a small cliff outcrop, in the close company of nearby starlings. We also meet common gulls, oyster catchers and redshank going about daily life on the shore and as darkness falls pay a visit to a grassy shoreline field to hear the night-time activity of snipe and graylag geese, before finally returning to the waves.

A stone’s throw from the river in Hebden Bridge town centre Jill and Kathryn make a discovery under their eaves: House Martins have arrived. A summer of ups and downs follows and we track events over the year to learn more about the lives of these ‘epic’ little migrant birds, and how to love a ‘pile of poop’. We also find out more about Britain’s other Spring arrivals swifts, swallows and sand martins, and how to tell them apart.

What does rewilding in the British Isles mean, how do you start it off, and what happens when you do? In this episode we visit the 3000 acre Broughton Hall estate in Yorkshire with Rewilding Britain’s Alastair Driver to see how nature is bouncing back. A wide range of interventions and actions are now underway on land that was conventionally farmed for sheep and crops until very recently. Whether it’s tree planting, leaky dam construction, the introduction of ecosystem engineers (beavers), or just letting nature do its thing and embracing ‘scruffication’, the benefits for wildlife, the environment, the climate and people are compelling.

Nature Tripping recently featured in Feedspots Top 50 Nature Sounds podcasts at No.2! - Check the full list out at https://blog.feedspot.com/nature_sounds_podcasts/