Episode 13: Winter Arrives, But Where Has Rat Gone?

Matthew Gudgin (00:06):

How lucky are we, Chris, to be back with another countryside podcast and as soon as we get out of your truck, there's a buzzard overhead


Chris Skinner (00:13):

Two buzzards Matthew one's just landed in the tree behind us. They're keeping in close contact with this woodland because there's been a hatching much earlier in the year of some goshawk in this woodland. Quite surprising. We're only two miles from Norwich and the two buzzards flew right over our head. They were just checking us out. So really confusing was 15 years ago - well not seen a buzzard before then, and it's suddenly changed completely. 


Matthew Gudgin (00:47):

And they nest in this wood. 


Chris Skinner (00:48):

Yes, they do. We've had three buzzards nest this year and rearing a total of six youngsters. And just as you got out of the truck, a green woodpecker flew over our head as well, the largest of the three native species. Anyway, we are just going to stroll into some brambles here. So careful you don't fall over. 


Matthew Gudgin (01:12):

Try my best.


Chris Skinner (01:12):

They're quite close to the ground. 


Matthew Gudgin (01:15):

We're in a fringe of the woods here and looking into the sun and everything is so beautiful this morning. How lucky are we in thatI it's all white, isn't it? We've had some very low temperatures overnight. 


Chris Skinner (01:26):

Yes it was about minus three here and our first proper frost of the winter. And I would say we're in winter now. Nobody really knows when winter begins. Some people say it's the shortest day around December the 21st. Some people say January the first is the beginning of winter, and I say it's no kind of fixed date. And as soon as really all the leaves are off the trees, the season then kind of changes for me. 


Matthew Gudgin (01:56):

Well I had to scrape my windscreen this morning, so that's winter. 


Chris Skinner (01:59):

Wow yes, there you go then. So we're into December now and there's always lots to look at and the farm is always busy right through the year, so there's no quiet time even though it's winter and Jackdaws flying over the top of us at the moment. Right in front of us are some plants which got a lot of history attached to them. Just left as stems at the moment about, oh, I'll pull one up out the ground. Completely dead and very snappy as well. And they've got hollow stalks, great for small insects like ladybirds to hibernate in and a plant with a lot of history. Socrates, the Greek philosopher, committed suicide by drinking a file of the liquid from this plant and it's called Hemlock, 399BC, it seems to stick in my head, a long time ago, and it's one of the tallest members of the carrot family. I think there's one larger taller member, which would be giant hogweed, but hogweeds all with those flat sort of umbellifer-type flowers over the top and it really does smell a lot. So when it's in full leaf and it's already sprouting. So here's some down on the ground. It starts the year very, very early. So we're in just into December. You can see it looks a bit like parsley leaves. 


Matthew Gudgin (03:32):

So are these dead? 


Chris Skinner (03:33):

These are completely dead. It's finished its season. The seeds have all dropped off. I'm looking at some of the plants. Oh, there might be a seed left right up on top of that one. That one's about seven feet tall and that's where most of the poison is. It's called canine and it's absolutely deadly. It sort of paralyses the respiratory system and you just can't breathe. So it is particularly deadly. So sometimes the world of nature is very confusing, Matthew. And if you're starting off, it's easy to be put off because you learn a name. And if I turn around and we look at the trees behind us, there's a very, very tall Scotts pine close to a hundred feet, just over 30 metres up there. And then the one behind it, we're going to walk back through the brambles because this will make you smile. Don't fall over. 


Matthew Gudgin (04:34):

Not planning to the scrunchy leaves really is crisp. Morning. Got minus two in the car on the way here. 


Chris Skinner (04:43):

Yes. Lovely. We'll soon warm you up. We're walking up the hill a little bit. And look at this tree in front of us 


Matthew Gudgin (04:55):

Tall and straight. That's a Scotts pine, isn't it?


Chris Skinner (04:57):

No


Matthew Gudgin (04:58):

Isn't it? 


Chris Skinner (04:59):

This is what makes me laugh in nature. This is a new worl Conifer comes from the west coast of the United States and is introduced by somebody called David Douglas, who was a Scottish botanist, really keen tree collector. And he brought some seed over and when they found it, they rubbed some of the needles on it and it smelt like the plant we just looked at Hemlock, so it's called Hemlock. 


Matthew Gudgin (05:36):

Oh. But that's nothing to do with what we've just looked at?


Chris Skinner (05:40):

No, they didn't know what to call it. So they called it Hemlock, and it's named Hemlock to this day. David Douglas was an amazing collector and he brought all sorts of seeds from various trees back. So a beautiful tree. 


Matthew Gudgin (05:56):

It's a good host for the Ivy. 


Chris Skinner (05:57):

It absolutely is. The Ivy's up about 30 feet and the tree, there's no branches on it till about 70 feet. And that's a good 110 feet tall. The largest one is up in Strathclyde, up in Scotland. And that's 170 feet tall in one of the Arboretums there. That's the largest one in the uk. And this one's just about finished, but they always curl over at the top. The lead chute just curls over. So that's a hemlock. So we've got two plants. 


Matthew Gudgin (06:28):

So that's a hemlock down there, these little seven feet plants that have now gone over and this enormous seemingly a Scots pine but not a Scots pine. That's also a hemlock. 


Chris Skinner (06:38):

Yes it is. That's what I mean about nature. 


Matthew Gudgin (06:45):

It all makes sense! I expect there are Latin names for both. 


Chris Skinner (06:47):

Yes, Latin names are certainly different. The parsley-like one that we looked, that's got Canenium in its Latin name and this one's called Chusa as well. It's part of a family of new world conifers that were brought over. So an introduced species, however you go back and before the last ice age there were hemlocks, as we call them today, growing all over this country and they died out and they didn't kind of restock themselves before we were cut off from Europe. Now David Douglas, just as an aside, had some trees named after him and those long tall conifers right over there in the distance, they're Douglas... 


Matthew Gudgin (07:32):

Douglas Firs?


Chris Skinner (07:32):

Douglas Firs. 


Matthew Gudgin (07:33):

I've heard of them, yes. 


Chris Skinner (07:34):

Have you? Right. And their beautiful name and the Christian name of Douglas became very, very popular in the late 18 hundreds, early 19 hundreds. So you'd have some of the old farm workers that worked here that aren't here anymore. Sadly, they had Christian name of Douglas. It was very popular and it's still used today, long, tall, straight, and really useful. And that's what the farm workers were who worked here as well. But fancy that, having a tree named after you. Some people are really lucky. There's a species of grass that grows in this country called Timothy, and that was also named after a botanist, an American botanist as well. 


Matthew Gudgin (08:14):

I think we're going to have to get something named Skinner. 


Chris Skinner (08:16):

Yes. 


Matthew Gudgin (08:16):

You've had a cuckoo named after you. 


Chris Skinner (08:18):

I certainly have, yes. And Paul Skinner met his fate in the Congo Basin, so that's really sad. But nevertheless, I provided a lot of information. So there we are. Matthew. A little bit of confusion to start our visit off to High Ash farm this morning. But really we're celebrating winter. 


Matthew Gudgin (08:38):

It's the first one of winter. It's the Countryside podcast with Chris Skinner hosted from High Ash Farm on a beautiful crisp winter's morning. 


Chris Skinner (08:46):

Beautiful. 


Announcer (09:00):

Chris Skinner's countryside podcast with Matthew. 


Matthew Gudgin (09:21):

We've moved to another part of the woodland here on High Ash Farm and the low winter sun now with the leaves, a lot of them down coming very clearly through the woods and the trees here. And Chris, we've had a note about a fungi forage that happened recently at High Ash Farm, the Norfolk Fungus study Group, forayed here the other weekend, and Steve and Jill Judd did the recce for it. And they say there were sixty-nine field identifications and the final total was a hundred and ninety-nine different species of mushrooms and fungi. That's jolly good isn't it?


Chris Skinner (10:00):

Unbelievable, and four of those were new to Norfolk, Matthew. So I'm jumping up and down with excitement. I only know one of them. They're so rare and uncommon many of them, they've just got Latin names. This one is Ramularia Sarinthis, and the others I'd dislocate my jaw if I try to say them I think, so, they're long Latin names. And the fungus group were quite amazing. I met Steve Judd. He came out and introduced himself. And you know when you see Crufts at the dog show, the annual dog show in London, and many of the owners kind of looked like their dogs in a strange way. Well, the only way I can describe Steve is he did look like a fungus. He did make me laugh and I did tell him that. And he burst out laughing, a long grey beard and hair sort of all over the place. But the enthusiasm of the group, they all went off to different parts of this wood foraging away looking underneath bark and under old dead stumps and things and the amount of information and all the different host species that the fungi occupy in the woodland. And of course most people say they got nothing to do with us. We're not at all interested. But of course if you eat bread, yeast is a fungus. If you drink beer that's fermented, that's another fungus as well. 


Matthew Gudgin (11:34):

You look at me when you say that. 


Chris Skinner (11:36):

Yes I did. Yes. And a big smile. And of course wine as well. They're all the result of fermentation in a funny way. So fungi do affect our lives in many, many ways. So we are standing right next to a drought stricken sycamore. It lost nearly all its bark. It died during the summer months this year because of the intense heat. And already around the base of the sycamore is quite a common fungus, but nevertheless quite interesting. I'll just snap a, oh, I'll have that twig you just snapped off. Just look down here. Easy to walk past. We're standing in amongst this year's fox gloves, Digitalis, purpurea, lots and lots of plants. 


Matthew Gudgin (12:21):

The frost is on their leaves here. But these are, these, what are these?


Chris Skinner (12:25):

These are puffballs. Ah. Now a few years back we did look at one of the species at the farm, giant puffballs, which are larger than a football and quite a bit bigger than that. And they're edible. This one, these are not edible, but nevertheless they're interesting. We've had a lot of rain in the last week or two. So the woodland floor is absolutely soaked. But these have a trick up their sleeves. When it rains, they spread their spores. How do they do that? Because the raindrops hit like that with the stick you found. They hit the top of the puffball like that. 


Matthew Gudgin (13:05):

There are clouds of green powder. 


Chris Skinner (13:08):

That's their spores, Matthew. That's how they recreate. Look, they're all doing it. And so I'm just mimicking raindrops hitting the top of the fungi and all of them, they've got a tiny little vent at the top and they're bone dry after all that rain. So stump puffballs that I won't try and say the scientific name. So quite a common species, but this is the time of the year that their fruiting bodies appear, which is these sending out the little spores, 


Matthew Gudgin (13:42):

Millions of them. 


Chris Skinner (13:43):

Yes, they'll go off any which way, depending on which way the winds blowing. And when it rains, the spores get trapped in raindrops drop down perhaps in an arable field, perhaps in somebody's garden. But occasionally the spores, there's so many of them, land in the right habitat and they start off another clump of these stump puffballs and their job is to break down. So stump Puffball, if we move all the leaves a little bit, we'll find an old...


Matthew Gudgin (14:12):

Oh this one's just Reinflated there. Can you see that? That was squashed by one of the leaves. And then just reinflated like someone blowing up a balloon. 


Chris Skinner (14:20):

Yes, exactly that. They're amazing. There's so much to learn. But the secret is they're there all year round, but in the fabric of the wood and the mycelium, the sort of fungal threads, they're in the wood itself don't fruit until particular times of the year. And they all have different times of the year to fruit. Some in the spring, some in the autumn. So here's the old stump, it's probably a windblown tree and there's lots of them and they will just inflate in a few seconds like that. And then they're quite capable. That one's just inflated. Look and off goes all these green spores. Fortunately it's blowing away from us. 


Matthew Gudgin (15:04):

There is the slightest breeze today, but barely noticeable. But those microscopic spores find the breeze and get distributed. 


Chris Skinner (15:12):

Yes. So we're on top of a hill here at the farm and Norfolk's certainly not flat. It's quite a tall escarpment coming up. The ground drops sharply away. And we're just going to walk over here. Before we do, I'm just going to, I've highlighted one or two of the fungal species that the fungus group found. 


Matthew Gudgin (15:35):

Oh, they've sent you a full list here of 190 odd. 


Chris Skinner (15:39):

They certainly have. So listen to these names. These are the common names. Wrinkled Peach, Yellowing Curtain Crust, Angel's Bonnet, Lilac Bonnet, Dew Drop Mottlegill. 


Matthew Gudgin (15:56):

They detected Dutch Elm disease, which I suppose is a fungus. 


Chris Skinner (15:59):

Yes, yes. Yeah. Turf Mottlegill, Fenugreek Stork Ball and Red Edge Brittle Stem. And that's just some of the names.


Matthew Gudgin (16:12):

Those are the popular names, but there are quite a few here that don't have popular names but are still listed. 


Chris Skinner (16:17):

Yes, and that's a fascinating thing about the world we live in. There's so much that, I mean, I'm ignorant on fungi. I know a dozen. And I recorded those to the fungus foray and they quickly found that dozen in the first 15 minutes of the fungal foray and just amazing. Anyway, the top of this hill is scientifically very, very interesting, and we're going to have to walk over here about 20 yards through the bracken and this year's foxgloves, well it'll be next year they all come into flower, they're biennials. Just be careful. There's a few rabbit holes on top. Terrible terrier went down a rabbit hole here last night. 


Matthew Gudgin (17:01):

Not the rat. 


Chris Skinner (17:02):

The rat disappeared. He was missing and it was just about dark. And I'd been working in the wood here all afternoon. My heart sank. I'd heard a strange bark about half an hour earlier and I couldn't find him when I went to look for him, I called him, normally he's very good - he comes straight away. I walked past a large bonfire with some holes in it, an old sort of pile of logs, certainly wasn't on fire. And then I walked heading back to the truck a bit dejected and I heard a muffled bark when I walked past the hole, and I put my head down the hole. I could smell fox down there and I heard a muffled bark. And he was about 20 feet down the hole on a steep bank with pine roots and oak roots. And I called and called and called, and eventually this dog came out, but it didn't look like Ratty was bright yellow in the sand. He left the fox. The terrier in him said, no, you can't leave that fox. He's got a touch of Chihuahua in him. And the Chihuahua kind of likes the warm fireside at night. So he decided the second part of his being.


Matthew Gudgin (18:15):

Did you have to give him a hose down? 


Chris Skinner (18:16):

I had to give him a bath and a hairdryer later on. Oh that dog.


Matthew Gudgin (18:23):

I think people love hearing his adventures, but I mean I suppose...


Chris Skinner (18:27):

...that was a bit dangerous, really 


Matthew Gudgin (18:28):

Very dangerous. And without hearing where he was, you wouldn't have known.


Chris Skinner (18:32):

No, I heard this muffled bark and he was a long way underground. Just be careful. There are several rabbit holes here. We're nearly there...


Matthew Gudgin (18:51):

Making our way through the woods. 


Chris Skinner (18:53):

Here we are. I've got a cane with us. Now, this part of the woodland, a hectare on top of this hill, has confused ecologists and scientists and geologists for decades. And they've done a special survey here because we are standing on two metres of peat and it's on top of a hill. And the question is...


Matthew Gudgin (19:20):

Peats are normally in bogs, aren't they? 


Chris Skinner (19:22):

Exactly that. And finally the question's been answered. And during the last ice age, all this valley in front of us prior to that, before the ice actually came, it was inland sea and probably 40, 50 feet deep water. And we are on top of the hill. And this hill would have been not covered by the water. So give you an idea, most of Norwich there would've been underwater. So how did the peak get here? And the answer is it floated and landed on top of the hill, the dry land. And it brought back an experience that I had as a teenager. I'd hired a boat with a friend and we were on Rockland Broad and we were doing a bit of fishing and we moored the boat up beside a reed bed only to discover the reed bed was actually floating across the broad. And we didn't know until we got back in the boat. And we were a good hundred metres from where we'd embarked on. 


Matthew Gudgin (20:29):

And the reeds were growing on...


Chris Skinner (20:31):

...on the peat and the peat was floating. You could actually jump up and down on it. We have an area of peat at the farm here in the bottom of the valley. And if I jumped up and down on that, you were 10 feet away from me, you would go up and down as well. It is is just a floating. But the only way this could get here was to float here and get left on top of this hill. It is incredibly deep. So I brought a cane, and first of all, what I'll do is scrape the top of the soil off of that for you because you can't believe what you're seeing. Look, it's good, rich. Look at this 


Matthew Gudgin (21:05):

Lovely soil. 


Chris Skinner (21:07):

We've been looking at some of the soils over previous weeks sand a few weeks ago. Some of the clays here at the farm last week, last podcast. And this week it's the peat, it almost pure organic matter and it just doesn't make sense. Now I can get the cane and I can push it down into the soil quite the depth, and it will go down two metres. And the further down you go, the blacker and more rich, the peat is just look at this, I've scraped off the top. 


Matthew Gudgin (21:40):

That's full of nutrients, isn't it? 


Chris Skinner (21:42):

Absolutely amazing stuff. So very valuable. But it's quite a fossil record because there's no oxygen down there in the deeper peat layer. It doesn't degrade, it stays there. There's nothing to it. There's just no oxygen can get in it. And that's what's happening to our fen soils, some of the richest land in our country where we grow lots of root vegetables. But because we're ploughing it and moving it each year gradually the peat reduces because you add oxygen to it when you move it. And gradually the layer of peat is sinking down lower and lower until you get to the clay level. And that causes difficulties with the vegetable growing. 


Matthew Gudgin (22:25):

Historically, peat was used for fuel as well. People used to burn it. And in fact, where we come from each week here is the county of Norfolk and Norfolk's famous for its waterways called the Broads.


Chris Skinner (22:36):

Yes


Matthew Gudgin (22:37):

And the Broads, in fact are man-made, aren't they? 


Chris Skinner (22:40):

Yes, they certainly are. Just that peat digging. And that's from millennia ago. Again, no oxygen could get to that level of peat because it'd be covered by shallow layers of water most of the year. And so it never has a chance to decompose. So it's always there. It's just strictly vegetable matter. So it's an early form of coal if you like, and it will burn if you dry it, it will burn or so makes a great soil conditioner to mix with. If you've got clay soil or if sandy soil, it helps the sands retain moisture. It helps to break the clay soils up to make it more friable. And that's one of the soil types we'll look at next week, which are loams and silts and alluvial soils. So we'll look at those as that's one remaining soil type to look at for us in a future podcast. 


Matthew Gudgin (23:32):

So next week I can ask you for a loam. Can I? 


Chris Skinner (23:35):

Yes. I thought very good. Very droll. Yes. Anyway, just look at that. And the important thing is with the clay, you rubbed it between your fingers. This is the same, but it will stain in your fingers. Look, I'm just rubbing a piece out there and my index finger has gone kind of brownish yellow colour. And that's the residue of all that plant material from millennia ago. 


Matthew Gudgin (24:04):

The stored up energy allowed people back in mediaeval times to cut it into chunks and burn it. And the holes created, turned into big lakes.

Chris Skinner (24:12):

Yes, called the Broads in Norfolk. And that's exactly how they were formed. But they're huge. So the trading of the material, the dug from the peat at the base of the Broads was obviously very, very valuable as a source of fuel because we'd probably felled most of the trees back then. 


Matthew Gudgin (24:30):

We have many overseas listeners, and if you've never heard of the Norfolk Broads, listen to a record by David Bowie called Life on Mars. He mentions them in the lyrics. 


Chris Skinner (24:40):

Well done 


Matthew Gudgin (24:51):

Finally for this episode of the Countryside Podcast with Chris Skinner. We always enjoy reading your emails and letters and lots more coming in this week. And I talked about overseas listeners. Chris, we've got a lot of people listening to you in America. Sarah Murray. Hello Sarah. I live in San Diego, California, but I'm originally from the UK. I actually went to school at Ditchingham, all Hallows in Norfolk with the nuns there. 


Chris Skinner (25:20):

Wow. Not far from where we are today. 


Matthew Gudgin (25:22):

And she talks about some of the exotic bird life that visit her garden in San Diego, which is probably a little warmer than it is today. So it's lovely to know that you are along for the ride, Sarah. Also Lawrence Simon, who's from Sudbury Massachusetts, that's New England who says, my wife is a botanist who teaches at the native plant trust in our area. And someday if you come this way, we will show you around the trust's garden in the woods. It's only forty-five acres, but an important testing and demonstration project. There's a lot of science going on, isn't there? 


Chris Skinner (25:56):

Yes. That's incredible. Yes. An invitation to the States. Wow. 


Matthew Gudgin (26:01):

Have you got a passport?


Chris Skinner (26:03):

Yes I have. Yes. I get worried if I get to Stoke Holy Cross. The next village actually.


Matthew Gudgin (26:09):

And here's another one from John and Veronica, the Prices who listen in Somerset, which is wonderful to hear from you. They're talking about encouraging sparrows and they say they've been here in the past and they say, when we came to the farm in the summer, we saw a small row of sparrow boxes on the old cottage by the road. I'd like to have a row of about five or so on our property. I can't seem to find a plan for a group box, so I wonder if Chris could point me towards a plan. 


Chris Skinner (26:37):

Certainly that's not a problem. So I'll get in touch with you - you very kindly left a phone number and I'll draw you a plan out for a five-a-side sparrow nest box. And it says at the end, would painting the box, a bright colour, put them off. He's a bit worried about the sparrows sort of being deterred if you painted the box a bright yellow or something. But it's best not to do that. If you can have a natural colour, that helps a lot. It also doesn't attract the predators quite so much. Bear in mind, sparrows are red-list species. They're doing really well at the farm here this year. But anything you can do to encourage them, I'm right behind you. 


Matthew Gudgin (27:22):

I dunno if you're very big on country music. This is the Countryside Podcast, but Sue Hooper, can we say hello to Sue? She's listening in Nashville, in Tennessee.


Chris Skinner (27:32):

Tennessee, no less. Goodness me. 


Matthew Gudgin (27:35):

The home of Country and Western. 


Chris Skinner (27:37):

Thank you. She says, you have changed my heart just listening and learning about the flora and fauna in the uk. Wow, I see the world through different eyes now. So thank you very much. 


Matthew Gudgin (27:50):

Here's one from Ingrid, Ingrid Bain, who is a keen wildlife observer. We have an oak tree 30 feet away where we regularly hear Tawny owls. And at that time we never saw buzzards or red kites, but they've been resident in this area possibly in the last five years. But as part of the email, Ingrid sends a photograph and she's interested to know whether the image here on a tree could be either a Tawny or a buzzard. And let's just have a look at this colour image that's been sent through. There we are. Oh, it's on an outbuilding there. 


Chris Skinner (28:23):

It's right down the end of her garden. So I've used a special trick for this one to unsolve the mystery, which has been there for a number of years. So I re-photographed the bird, but in negative, so you then have just the image shape without any disturbance from the trees around it. And that helped a lot. So it actually turned out to be a female sparrow hawk, which is larger than the male. 


Matthew Gudgin (28:55):

So neither buzzard or owl.


Chris Skinner (28:56):

No. And so the negative immediately came up with Sparrow hawk. And the way you do it is you look at the outline of the bird. And early American fighters in using jet fighters in back in the second World War had to make very quick decisions about whether they were going to shoot at one of our UK Spitfires or a German Messerschmitt. So they used a very quick way of identification and they looked at the plane coming towards them, and if it had the GIS of a Messerschmitt, they would shoot. And GIS stands for general impression and size and it's still used today in bird watching, but it helps if the image of the bird's in negative. So that's what I did, and it came up straight away as female sparrow walk. So there we are. That's how you do it. 


Matthew Gudgin (29:50):

Pam Lloyd is listening in Bolton and she listens every Monday morning and it's the simple things in wildlife that make me smile. So thanks very much for the programme. And here's one from Oliver, Oliver Downs who says hello broadcasters of the countryside crew and rat as well. Of course, luckily rat is living to fight another day after the adventure we'd told you about, I've planted an RSPB approved hedge, 10 different native varieties, and I'm delighted that after all these years I finally have a nest inside. What is it likely to have been? I'm so looking forward to next year as it'll grow back even thicker. Now I've trimmed it down. I hope to encourage a few more birds and wild insects too. 


Chris Skinner (30:38):

And that's from Mr. Frisky, a spinster from the borough of Kringleford just a few miles away. So very kindly sent a photograph through. Very helpful. It's got his index finger there, so it gives you an idea of the scale. 


Matthew Gudgin (30:54):

Doesn't look like a nest to me at all. 


Chris Skinner (30:56):

It does to me. It's a cup shaped nest straight away. It tells me it's a goldfinch. So well done. It's lined with cobwebs and algae and lichen in there as well, all lined up, beautiful little cup shaped nest. There's his fingernail, so his fingernails perhaps half an inch across. And the nest cup is about what? 50 mm, about two inches across. So tiny little cup shaped nest almost certainly. It's in a fork of a branch, almost certainly Goldfinch right next door. And you wouldn't know they're there. They're all very secretive about where they nest. 


Matthew Gudgin (31:32):

Yes, thank you for that. Mr. Frisky email address then for future episodes, if you want to send in a message, a question, whatever you like, to Chris Skinner, the address is Chris at Countrysidepodcast.co.uk, but you will find a link to that along with this programme that goes out from Sunday morning each week, and you can listen to it well at your leisure. 


Chris Skinner (31:56):

Yes, and thank you very much for all the response and the compliments about the Programme as well. We absolutely love to have your comments. Good or bad. We don't mind. It just brings the whole Programme to life. Thank you very much. 


Matthew Gudgin (32:10):

Meanwhile, we've been here half an hour and the frost is melting away. Now that little magical hour this morning is all but gone, isn't it?


Chris Skinner (32:18):

Yes, beautiful. Just enjoy winter, our new season. Don't think of it as a dead time of year. Lots and lots of wildlife is being active. Birds arriving, birds leaving. We've got the winter visiting Thrushes coming in across from Scandinavia. They're using these northeasterly winds, which are bringing them straight here. And now the leaves are coming off the tree. It's a great time for walking through the Norfolk countryside. Don't talk too much, stay quiet, and you'll be entertained by where we are, anyway, with Norfolk's Wildlife.


Announcer (33:05):

This is a SOUNDYARD production music is by Tom Harris. To hear more episodes, head to Countrysidepodcast.co.uk. For More information. Visit Www.soundyard.com.