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On a beautiful early-autumn morning at High Ash Farm, after another 13 millimetres of welcome rain has turned the fields verdant once more, Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin begin at the farmyard entrance. A robin is singing again after its midsummer silence, rooks and jackdaws corkscrew down from the sky in display flight while a peregrine circles high above, and late swallows are still feeding young in the barn. On the flowering ivy they discover a new arrival: ivy bees (Colletes hederae), first recorded in Britain in 2001. These late-season solitary bees, with their orange thoraxes and wasp-like stripes, are gathering the last major nectar flow of the year.

A short drive to Greensides Loke reveals their nesting site — a west-facing sandy bank riddled with rabbit holes and thousands of tiny burrows. Females excavate straw-width tunnels half a metre into the soil, line them with saliva, and provision them with pollen and nectar before sealing them for the winter. Males hover at the entrances and pile onto females in frantic mating clusters. Though solitary, they nest in dense congregations wherever the habitat is right.

In Fox’s Grove the pair turn to fungi and trees. Chicken of the woods (sulphur polypore) glows on a sweet chestnut, while a 250-year-old ash — one of the farm’s giants — stands in its last hours. Ash dieback has rotted its roots to pulp; a trail camera is trained on the trunk, ready to capture the moment it falls. Chris reflects on the 1,500 ash saplings that died young, the black staining of Chalara, and the Norse idea of ash as the tree of life. Once down, the timber will feed beetles, woodworm and more fungi, returning at last to the rich leaf-mould of the woodland floor.

Listener letters bring a perfect comma butterfly displaying the white mark that gives it its name, recordings of a blackcap and a nightingale, and a precise reminder of the Game Act 1831.This episode is a poignant celebration of autumn’s dual nature — new life arriving with the ivy bees, and an ancient giant preparing to fall — ideal for savouring late pollinators, the first fungi of the season, and the quiet power of even the smallest organisms at High Ash Farm.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2432378/episodes/19791131-episode-2-89-ivy-bees-and-falling-ash.mp3?download=true

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On a grey but mild early-September morning at High Ash Farm, Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin slip through a gap in the hedge onto Hallback Lane and stand beside a remarkable hollow tree known locally as the Africa Tree. Around 500 years old and pollarded two centuries ago, its great cavity faces them in the almost exact shape of the African continent. The tree becomes the doorway into Chris’s childhood memories of Charlie Graver, a diminutive farm worker who left school at twelve, cycled daily from Stoke Holy Cross with his silent terrier Skippy in the front basket, and once took eight-year-old Chris “fishing” at dusk — assembling a long cane rod fitted with a rabbit snare to lift sleeping pheasants from the trees. Chris recalls the 1950s farm of 31 workers, ten-pound weekly wages paid in cash, straw stacks thatched with hazel broaches, threshing days, chewing tobacco, and a world of horses, binders and unguarded machinery that has now almost vanished.

A sudden roe deer in summer coat flashes across the ride before they climb onto the high northern fields. Here Chris explains why 250 acres were taken out of arable production in 2006: to protect the chalk aquifer a hundred metres beneath them. Rain falling on these grasslands now takes forty to fifty years to reach the glacial water stored in the chalk. From wells on and around the farm, Anglian Water abstracts some 16–20,000 cubic metres a day — water that supplies Norwich and the villages to the south. Historic applications of sewage sludge, pig and chicken manure have left the aquifer high in nitrates, yet the same fields have become a new harvest of bee orchids and pyramidal orchids.

Listener letters bring a photograph of thousands of green shield bugs turning brown for hibernation, a beautiful recording of a male tawny owl beginning its autumn courtship, and a delighted account from early-morning walkers who completed four miles of the farm and met Chris and Rat in person.

This episode is a rich weaving of living memory and hidden landscape — ideal for savouring an old pollarded tree, the vanished skills of a farm worker, and the invisible river of glacial water still flowing beneath High Ash Farm.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2432378/episodes/19759036-episode-2-88-one-tooth-charlie-and-glacial-water.mp3?download=true

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On a misty, humid late-August morning at High Ash Farm, with rain threatening after another dry month of just 17 millimetres, Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin stand on the farm’s poorest south-facing sandy field — the one exception still lush and green after the pollen-and-nectar crop was mown for fire safety.

Chris digs into the concrete-hard ground to reveal the secret: lucerne (alfalfa) and sainfoin sending wooden tap roots two to two-and-a-half metres down to moisture, while nitrogen-fixing nodules on their fine roots feed the plants without any fertiliser. Deer and hares graze the protein-rich growth, and the stems are plastered with black bean aphids that reproduce like Russian dolls — wingless females giving birth to clones already carrying the next generation inside them. Ladybirds feast on the aphids, ants milk them, and the plants already show the first tiny germinating seedlings from last month’s mowing.

The pair then walk an avenue of ancient oaks, where a colossal limb — perhaps three tonnes of timber and fifty feet long — has crashed down overnight with no wind at all. Chris explains the forestry term “self-pruning”: these giant trees shed huge branches unpredictably, creating both magnificent habitat (oaks support more than 350 insect species) and a serious safety challenge on a farm with daily public access. He reflects on their history as naval timber, the kestrel and barn owl boxes they still carry, and the careful ten-metre uncultivated margins left around each tree.

Listener letters add further colour: changing farmyard smells and fertiliser use, hobbies nesting in Yorkshire and the surprising origin of the game Subbuteo, rats and the risks of secondary poisoning, and a heartfelt visit from a listener who travelled from New Zealand to walk the farm she had only imagined.

This episode is a close-up celebration of hidden plant power and the raw drama of veteran trees — ideal for marvelling at drought-defying legumes, the astonishing lives of aphids, and the unpredictable grandeur of English oaks at High Ash Farm.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2432378/episodes/19715819

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On a fresher late-August morning at High Ash Farm, after just under ten millimetres of welcome rain has begun to tint the parched pastures with the faintest green, Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin begin at the duck pond. An extraordinary mallard mother who successfully raised nine ducklings earlier in the spring has now returned with a second brood of thirteen tiny balls of fluff. The youngsters form a tight “football” when geese approach, while the attentive mother keeps constant watch. Nearby, moorhens continue their own remarkable family life, with older chicks helping to feed the latest brood.

The pair then walk into Cantley Hill Plantation to examine the beech trees, here close to the northern natural limit of the species. Chris gathers the hard, hairy cupules of beech mast, explains their value to squirrels, birds and once to pigs during pannage, and recounts how the dry, scrunchy leaves were once stuffed into mattresses known in France as a “talking bed.” A remarkable horizontal beech that keeled over in the 1987 storm but re-rooted and sent up new vertical trunks illustrates the tree’s resilience, while drought is already forcing some leaves into early autumn gold.

In Barnwood they discover a deep clay pond — a vital woodland drinking hole. Trail-camera footage has already captured a female green woodpecker (the yaffle) and a great spotted woodpecker coming to drink, with hopes of adding the elusive lesser spotted. Dead trees and thick ivy stems provide further habitat, while Rat the terrier briefly becomes stuck in a bramble thicket.

Listener letters bring a perfect mossy wren’s nest (and a discussion of polygamy), a discarded whisky bottle posing a fire risk, stressed cattle and early silage use in Northumberland, a kidney-spot ladybird, a mysterious wood-pigeon nest containing four eggs, and a long list of sightings from recent walkers including nuthatch, treecreeper, clouded yellows and roe deer.

This episode is a gentle celebration of maternal devotion, woodland resilience and the quiet drama of late summer — ideal for savouring the determination of a mallard mother, the beauty of beech mast, and the vital role of a hidden woodland pond for Britain’s woodpeckers at High Ash Farm.

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This podcast is brought to you by High Ash Farm. To support our efforts in creating this content, please consider making a small monthly or one-off donation. Your contributions help us with production costs, and after expenses, every penny goes towards conservation and maintaining free public access at High Ash Farm.
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On another scorching mid-August morning at High Ash Farm, the day after a spectacular partial solar eclipse, Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin reflect on an extraordinary evening. Around 500 well-behaved visitors and 250–300 cars gathered peacefully on one of the farm’s high points for the best view of Norwich and the setting sun. Dads fashioned pinhole cameras from cereal boxes and sieves; Chris shared his welding mask so everyone could watch safely. By morning the site was spotless — not a single tin can or crisp packet left behind — putting a huge smile on his face.The pair then visit a hay bale that has become a busy “takeaway” for two newly fledged buzzards. Parent birds watch peregrines make pigeon kills near the cathedral or on neighbouring pea fields, then dive-bomb the falcons and claim the carcasses (plus the occasional young rabbit). Trail-camera footage captures the young buzzards squabbling over their meal and tumbling off the bale. Chris celebrates the remarkable recovery of buzzards: once almost extinct in southern Britain, numbers have risen to around 50–55,000 birds, with three successful pairs now nesting on the farm.As dusk falls, Chris sits on his patio and watches a colony of pipistrelle bats stream from the old piggery roof and new extension. He explains their tiny size, delayed implantation, echolocation, and evening feeding routes over hedgerows and the duck pond, while noting the larger noctules that roost in a lightning-struck Scots pine. Later, in the welcome shade of Fox’s Grove, speckled wood butterflies patrol sunny patches on the woodland floor. Males vigorously defend their territories with aerial dogfights, using eye-spots on their wings to deter predators, before the pair discuss the grasses outside the wood that serve as their larval food plants.Listener letters bring further delight: a holiday photograph of barn swallows nesting on a balcony in Lesvos, reflections on churchyard wildflowers, and a gentle enquiry about rats on the farm (and the enduring popularity of Rat the terrier).This episode is a joyful celebration of shared wonder, recovering predators and the delicate night-time world of bats and butterflies — ideal for savouring an unexpected community eclipse gathering, the cunning of young buzzards, and the quiet magic that still thrives at High Ash Farm even in the depths of a prolonged heatwave.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2432378/episodes/19650899-episode-2-85-eclipse-crowds-and-buzzard-bales.mp3?download=true

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This podcast is brought to you by High Ash Farm. To support our efforts in creating this content, please consider making a small monthly or one-off donation. Your contributions help us with production costs, and after expenses, every penny goes towards conservation and maintaining free public access at High Ash Farm.
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On a breezy mid-August morning at High Ash Farm, with temperatures still high after another week above 30°C and only a fleeting six millimetres of rain quickly absorbed by the parched ground, Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin survey the aftermath of intensive fire-prevention work. The last of the waist-high pollen and nectar fields have been cut short, tedded to knock seeds to the ground, and baled — one bale per acre — removing the worst of the fire risk, though the stubble remains flammable. Chris reflects on a close shave with a takeaway barbecue in Successional Woodland the previous week and welcomes the temporary removal of disposable barbecues from supermarket shelves across the UK.

Standing among the Sahara-coloured fields, Chris openly shares three “cockups.” A two-year-old double-row hedge of 750 hawthorn and oak whips, planted to divide a large arable block, has largely failed in the drought despite tree guards; fingernail tests reveal most stems are brown and dead. He also recounts the ill-fated “Hideaway” bird-hide venture of twenty-five years ago, when paying visitors used the sound-insulated hides as toilets, ruining carpets and forcing him to sell most of the carefully built structures. Nearby, a carbon-offset acre planted in 2006 for Notre Dame School pupils’ flights to China prompts deeper reflection: one day’s emissions from Norwich Airport would require the entire farm to be wooded for a century, while recent pollution killed thousands of fish in the River Wensum after a short downpour.

Moving to Cantley Hill Plantation, they admire ancient, gnarled hornbeams marking the woodland corners — hard, slow-growing native trees at the northern edge of their range. Chris examines the hanging seed bracts containing twin nutlets, a favourite of bramblings and hawfinches, and digs tiny seedlings from the dry woodland floor to gift to a neighbouring bonsai enthusiast. Amid the dryness, swallows skim the cut fields, pipistrelle bats replace them at dusk, and a pied wagtail forages on horse-grazed pasture already being fed winter hay.

Listener letters bring further notes: the return of chatty starlings after the departure of swifts, and a Dorset farmer’s shared anxiety over tinder-dry land and nearby open fires.

This episode is an honest, sun-baked reflection on drought, human error and the quiet resilience of native trees — ideal for savouring the hard lessons of extreme weather, the overlooked beauty of hornbeam, and the everyday wildlife that still thrives at High Ash Farm.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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This podcast is brought to you by High Ash Farm. To support our efforts in creating this content, please consider making a small monthly or one-off donation. Your contributions help us with production costs, and after expenses, every penny goes towards conservation and maintaining free public access at High Ash Farm.
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On a fiercely hot, windy late-July morning at High Ash Farm, Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin stand on one of the highest points of the farm as temperatures push into the 30s and a strong breeze turns the landscape into a tinderbox. Chris recounts a heart-stopping encounter with a group of people barbecuing in Successional Woodland — the smell of cooking meat leading him to intervene and then race to mow nearly 80–100 acres of pollen-and-nectar fields that had just finished flowering. The cut crop, now brittle and dry as hay the moment it hit the ground, will be baled for animal bedding, reducing the risk of a catastrophic fire that could have raced through ancient hedges, oak avenues and the southern half of the farm.

As the pair survey the newly opened fields they watch kestrels hovering and dropping on prey, a lightning-fast hobby streaking through the oaks after swallows and house martins, and a hare that would have been invisible only days earlier. They then drive the Teasel Walk, where a hummingbird hawk-moth feeds at close range, painted ladies nectar on thistle, and Chris explains the seeding of perennial sow thistle and creeping thistle — favourite food of goldfinches — alongside emerging sunflowers, flax (a crop his mother remembered from the year he was born in 1949), phacelia and borage.

A short journey takes them to the edge of the Roman town of Venta Icenorum and into Caistor St Edmund churchyard. Chris reflects on the quiet importance of churchyards as wildlife refuges — hoary mullein, nettles and wildflowers attracting pollinators — while walking among family graves and sharing memories of a lifetime lived within a few hundred yards of this peaceful spot. Listener letters bring further colour: advice on an unwanted ant hill, a remarkable close encounter with a young badger in Scotland, and a thoughtful discussion of Larson traps and countryside ethics.

This episode captures the raw tension of extreme summer heat and the quiet beauty that survives it — ideal for savouring the urgency of fire prevention, the dazzling insect and bird life of the farm, and the deep sense of place that runs through High Ash.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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This podcast is brought to you by High Ash Farm. To support our efforts in creating this content, please consider making a small monthly or one-off donation. Your contributions help us with production costs, and after expenses, every penny goes towards conservation and maintaining free public access at High Ash Farm.
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On a still late-July evening at High Ash Farm, Chris Skinner settles beneath a field maple in Fox's Grove as thousands of jackdaws and rooks gather overhead for their nightly communal roost. As dusk falls and the woodland fills with a remarkable chorus of calls, Chris reflects on the social lives of these intelligent birds and the peaceful spectacle that marks the close of another summer's day.

Returning in daylight with Matthew Gudgin, they explore the hidden world of seed production. From bluebells casting glossy black seeds across the woodland floor to towering foxgloves carrying thousands of dust-like seeds, Chris explains how these familiar plants ensure the next generation. The pair also harvest yellow rattle — the famous "meadow maker" that suppresses vigorous grasses and helps wildflowers flourish — before a welcome encounter with the year's first clouded yellow butterfly brightens the morning.

Listener questions range from the extraordinary wingbeats of hoverflies and the noisy gatherings of gulls to blackbird song, declining insect numbers and the importance of creating flower-rich habitats for wildlife.

This episode celebrates the remarkable journeys of birds and plants alike—from bustling evening roosts to seeds waiting for autumn winds—offering a fascinating glimpse into the quiet processes that keep the countryside renewing itself year after year. 

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2432378/episodes/19548859-episode-2-82-rook-roosts-and-meadow-makers.mp3?download=true

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On a beautiful but still dry mid-July morning at High Ash Farm, Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin explore Woodcock Wood and a rarely visited blue clay pond — an old hand-dug clay pit that now serves as a precious watering hole in the drought-stricken north half of the farm. With the water table dropping and a hosepipe ban in force, Chris explains the pond’s history, the floating water fern (Azolla filiculoides) known locally as flamingo weed that turns bright pink, and its vital role for wildlife. Trail-cam footage reveals buzzards, tawny owls, barn owls, little owls, deer, badgers, foxes, and horses all coming to drink, while parent buzzards mew overhead from a nearby nest — one of three pairs on the farm this year.

The pair then move to a sun-drenched south-facing wildflower meadow alive with six-spot burnet moths and common blues feeding on knapweed and birdsfoot trefoil. Chris details the moths’ life cycle, their remarkable cyanide defence that once puzzled early collectors, the hairy green caterpillars that hibernate through winter, and the paper-like cocoons attached high on grass stems. Swallows sweep overhead gathering aerial plankton as the meadow pulses with summer insect life.

An early-morning interlude from Chris’s porch captures the fascinating swarming behaviour of black garden ants — first the winged males, then the larger females on a thundery morning — complete with observations on their social structure, mating flights, and colony life.

Listener letters add warmth and reflection: late-arriving house martins near King’s Lynn, the sad impact of early silage cutting on curlews, a remarkable painted lady migration witnessed from a kayak off Sicily, and Anna’s inspiring recovery story from a hip injury while enjoying butterflies and deer in the Wenning Valley.

This episode is a sun-baked celebration of drought refuges, dazzling meadow moths, and the hidden dramas of insect societies — ideal for savouring the preciousness of water, the resilience of summer wildlife, and the everyday wonders unfolding at High Ash Farm even in challenging conditions.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2432378/episodes/19511536-episode-2-81-flamingo-pond-and-burnet-banquets.mp3?download=true

Explore Azolla filiculoides ecology

Investigate UK chalk aquifers

Refine title to highlight ants

Think Harder

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This podcast is brought to you by High Ash Farm. To support our efforts in creating this content, please consider making a small monthly or one-off donation. Your contributions help us with production costs, and after expenses, every penny goes towards conservation and maintaining free public access at High Ash Farm.
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On another scorching July morning at High Ash Farm, Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin explore the extraordinary abundance of butterflies thriving despite the relentless heat. Among thistle-lined field margins they encounter meadow browns, green-veined whites, six-spot burnet moths, peacocks and a surprise brimstone butterfly, while Chris explains how drought, migration and nectar-rich wildflower crops shape the fortunes of Britain's summer butterflies.

The pair then visit a carefully managed patch of stinging nettles, where Chris reveals why he deliberately mows sections each year to produce fresh growth for caterpillars. From eggs and hungry larvae to chrysalises and adult butterflies, he follows the complete life cycle of species including the small tortoiseshell and red admiral, showing how thoughtful habitat management can make a remarkable difference to wildlife.

Along the way they admire brilliant blue chicory flowers glowing beside the farm walks, discuss their surprising culinary history, and enjoy yet more butterfly encounters among teasels and wildflowers.

Listener letters bring plenty to ponder, including brimstone butterflies, haymaking and wildlife, horse mushrooms after summer thunderstorms, roosting rooks and pipistrelle bats, organic wildflower strips, protecting swallows during heatwaves, and a dramatic crab spider feasting on a bumblebee.

This episode is a celebration of Britain's summer butterflies and the hidden importance of their humble food plants—ideal for discovering how nettles, wildflowers and careful conservation combine to keep the countryside alive with colour and life.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2432378/episodes/19479846-episode-2-80-butterfly-banquets-and-nettle-nurseries.mp3?download=true

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This podcast is brought to you by High Ash Farm. To support our efforts in creating this content, please consider making a small monthly or one-off donation. Your contributions help us with production costs, and after expenses, every penny goes towards conservation and maintaining free public access at High Ash Farm.
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