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PROGRAMME INFO |
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Natureoffersa window on global natural history, providing a unique insight into the natural world, the environment, and the magnificent creatures that inhabit it.
nhuradio@bbc.co.uk |
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LISTEN AGAIN 30 min |
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PRESENTER |
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"Nature is full of surprises, so the programme can investigate fascinating and challenging areas in
our relations with the natural world without being too technical or preachy. My job is brilliant because, as a link between the listener and the subject, I can discover new information and ideas which help people make up their own minds on important issues."
Paul Evans |
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PROGRAMME DETAILS |
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| Dykes and ditches teeming with plants and wildlife at Wicken Fen. |
NATURE: Sounds of Britian - Wicken Fen
In the first of three richly evocative sound portraits, writer and naturalist Paul Evans, and wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson, capture the spirit and sounds of Natural Britain, the first being Wicken Fen.
The programme tracks the course of a single day on this ancient landscape from before dawn until after dusk. As the minutes pass, other birds join the cuckoo as the orchestra of the dawn chorus strikes up amongst the reeds. There’s the wren “For a bird which weighs as much as a hiccup, the wren has a ferociously powerful voice”, a songthrush, a blackbird and then the reed bed specialists; reed and sedge warbler, and perhaps strangest of all ”…What sounds like a rapidly winding fishing reel, or one of those clockwork toys which travels up a string, turns out to be a grasshopper warbler”.
As the sun rises and the dawn chorus fades, Paul explores the watery highways of the Fen in a flat bottomed green boat “like an upturned beetle”, in the company of Ralph Sergeant (a stalwart of Wicken Fen) and encounters a herd of Konik ponies, parachuting reed warblers, and a magnificent hissing swan. He then wanders round the reserve, intrigued by the poetry of place names and considers the history of the fens, their origin, and man’s abuse of our watery heritage.
As day turns to night, and the light fades, Paul clambers up the tall wooden tower which overlooks this fenland landscape, and listens to the churring of the insect night chorus, before heading off into the darkness with Ralph.
NATURE: the Sound of Britain – an absorbing evocative sound-rich portrait of one of Britain’s most iconic landscapes.
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