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Join farmer Chris Skinner for another enchanting journey through the wilds of High Ash Farm in this week’s Countryside Podcast. As spring unfolds, Chris shares a magical early morning encounter with Roe deer—fairies of the wood—dancing through the undergrowth, their velvet antlers catching the first light. Back at the farm, the porch comes alive with tiny black garden ants, emerging from hibernation to feast on honey and prepare for their annual marriage flight, a spectacle that links them to the farm’s green woodpeckers, or yaffles, whose haunting calls echo through Fox’s Grove. Chris explores the delicate balance of woodland life, from the predation challenges facing the lesser spotted woodpecker to the potential for Beaver rewilding in the farm’s water meadows. The episode concludes with a soggy but rewarding visit to Burnt House Meadow, where primroses paint the banks in lemon yellow, heralding the first roses of spring. Along the way, listeners from Norfolk to California share their wildlife sightings, from fieldfares to white-tailed eagles, reminding us of nature’s global symphony. Tune in for a celebration of the small and the mighty, all thriving in the Norfolk countryside.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2432378/episodes/16828016-episode-2-12-deer-dances-and-ant-armies.mp3?download=true

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