Talking Naturally

In a Talking Naturally Special we talk to the chair of the Hawk and Owl Trust, Phillip Merricks. The Hawk and Owl Trust (often referred to as HOT) are currently alone amongst conservation groups in supporting a Hen Harrier brood management scheme to take place without a recovery in the Hen Harrier population to take place first. This highly controversial decision resulted in the resignation of their president Chris Packham and put them at odds with many professional conservationists as well as everyday wildlife and birding enthusiasts. This is the first in-depth interview with the chair of the HOT and gave him the opportunity to explain the rationale behind the decision and how they would see a brood management scheme working.

Recorded in the run up to Hen Harrier Day 2015 we have a wide ranging interview with naturalist, conservationist and broadcaster Chris Packham. Chris has been heavily involved with Hen Harrier Day since its inception and in this interview, recorded at his home in the New Forest, he discusses Hen Harriers, his sense of injustice at wildlife crime, Mark Avery's latest book, Inglorious: Conflict in the Uplands, for which Chris wrote a particularly powerful forward as well as the recent killing of Cecil the lion. Chris also tells us about the time he still makes to observe and enjoy wildlife and how he wishes he could do more for conservation.

In a seamlessly themed episode we talk with RSPBs Senior Investigations Officer. Mark Thomas. Mark tells us exactly what goes into protecting some of Britains rarest birds from disturbance and wildlife criminals such as egg collectors. Mark also discusses how the RSPB and RBA work together to ensure the safe release of news on these rare breeders. We follow that with a chat with Tim Mackrill, Senior Reserve Officer for the Lincolnshire & Rutland Wildlife Trust and who leads the Osprey Project which recently celebrated the hatching of its 100th chick. Lastly we talk about restoring Red-billed Choughs to Jersey with Glyn Young and Liz Corry of Birds On The Edge who are celebrating the first successful breeding attempt by these charismatic corvids in the Channel Islands since the 1920s. As we said, seamlessly-themed.

In this episode we talk with Mark Avery, former RSPB Conservation Director, and now one of the leading figures in efforts being made to stop the persecution of Hen Harriers on driven grouse moors, about his latest book 'Inglorious, Conflict in the Uplands'; with Dr Andy Clements, Director of the British Trust for Ornithology on how scientific data is crucial to tackling illegal bird killing, and how important it is that organisations work together to tackle global conservation issues; and with Bardsey Island warden Steve Stansfield on THAT Cretzschmar's Bunting and how his euphoria was almost immediately followed by a realisation that visitor numbers to his patch were about to skyrocket.

In another packed podcast Charlie looks at the threat to the EU Nature Directives with the RSPB (far more interesting and certainly far more important than you might think). We kick off a new, occasional series on '100 Iconic Birds' with an interview with Mehd Halaouate, a conservationist living in Indonesia who works on the Bali Starling. We've a four minute 'podcast within a podcast' from Bo Boelens, better known perhaps as the FatBirder. And we have a Finders in the Field interview with Marcus Nash...what did he find? Oh, just a small greenish-yellow finch on the Norfolk coast that has only been recorded once before in Britain...

In a packed podcast we speak to Dominic Dyer from the Bagger Trust and hear, amongst other subjects, his thoughts on the badger cull in post-election Britain. From Korea we speak with Dr.Nial Moores on the decline of the Yellow-breasted Bunting in East Asia. Buglife's Jamie Robins talks Horrid Ground Weaver and the upcoming week long Peterborough Wildlife Festival. Author Simon Barnes chats to Charlie about his latest book Ten Million Aliens and we sit down with Mark Golley and hear about the challenges of writing RBA's birding roundup week in, week out.

A special episode of Talking Naturally following the announcement by the RSPB on 6th May that three male Hen Harriers disappeared from active nests in the Forest of Bowland, Lancashire. It is almost certain that the Hen Harriers were deliberately targeted and killed, but as yet there is no evidence and no proof. An investigation by the Police is currently underway and the RSPB have offered a large reward for any information which leads to a conviction.

Whilst at a meeting (scheduled long before the Bowland news broke) to discuss, of all things Hen Harrier Day 2015, Charlie spoke with Tim Melling (Senior Conservation Officer for Northern England at RSPB), Tim Birch (Conservation Manager at the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust), Mike Price (Peak District Raptor Monitoring Group), and Phil Walton (Birders Against Wildlife Crime), to get their thoughts on the devastating and tragic news. The cover image for this episode, of a male Hen Harrier, was kindly provided by Andy Hay/RSPB-images.com.

In the first episode of this new series of Talking Naturally we talk to the finder of Britain's 3rd ever Hudsonian Godwit, Tom Raven. His terrific find caused hundreds, probably over 1000 people, to descend on Somerset on Sat 25th April. We also speak to David Lindo as his campaign get Briton's voting for a national bird comes to a close at the same time as the general election on May 5th. Tom Brereton from Butterfly Conservation talks to us about over-wintering Scarce Tortoiseshells and we sit down with Bernard Bishop, warden at the Norfolk Wildlife Trust reserve at Cley in Norfolk about an extraordinary 18 months for the famous North Norfolk reserve.

In episode five of Talking Naturally we have natural history royalty in the shape of Sir David Attenborough's and his speech at the opening of the Simon Aspinall Wildlife and Education Centre at the Norfolk Wildlife Trust Cley reserve in Norfolk. We have a chat with Rachel French, who works at Mull Eagle Watch (that's White-tailed Eagle Watch of course), and with YOLObirder - a 'mystery birder 'who designed and then sold what he named the Hen Diagram t-shirt to raise money for Hen Harriers...Yes, we wander about the place here on Talking Naturally!