麻豆约拍

We hear how the Scottish Seabird Centre has been coping this year. For a large part of 2020 they haven鈥檛 been able to welcome the visitors that are vital to keeping the centre open. Susan Davies the chief executive tells Mark and Euan what they have been doing to survive.

One of the sounds of autumn is the honking of geese returning to spend the winter here. This week we find out more about one particular breed of goose, the Taiga Bean.

Throughout the programme we have recordings from Mark and Euan鈥檚 trip to the Bass Rock. The volcanic plug is about a mile and a half off the East Lothian coastline and is home to the largest northern gannet colony in the world.
Mark and Euan take a boat across with Maggie Sheddan, the Scottish Seabird Centre's Bass Rock landing guide, to see the gannet chicks or guga fledge by launching themselves off a cliff and hopefully flying!

Following National Poetry Day on Thursday 1st October, Euan tries his hand at some autumnal poetic musings.

Our archive piece this week features a fascinating jackdaw that Euan met last year.

As well as being home the largest northern gannet colony in the world, the Bass Rock also houses a castle turned prison and has a fascinating past. Ailsa Fortune is an author and local historian based in North Berwick and she joins us live to tell us more about the history of the island.

This week鈥檚 mystery bird casts a rather majestic shadow, but can you identify it from its call?

And we have an excerpt from Mark鈥檚 interview with folksinger and broadcaster, Jimmie MacGregor. As the West Highland Way turns forty, Mark chats to Jimmie about his connection with the long-distance route that he made a television series on and wrote a book about in the 1980s.