A mid-spring morning on the heath. Showers scud through on a brisk breeze, chased by the sun and a steady trickle of southerly arrivals. Among the grey peel of silver birch, a willow warbler and a chaffinch sing their steady descent. A wistful melancholy as the gorse begins to glow.
BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.
Recorded by Kevin Parr and introduced by Hannah Tribe.
Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

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We head into the city this week with urban naturalist Amanda Tuke. Amanda is a champion of the nature on your doorstep so Plodcast host Fergus Collins met her outside Cardiff Central station to begin a quest to find wildlife on a ramble through the busy city.
Listen on for a Plodcast full of surprises.
Amanda's book Wild Pavements: Exploring Britain's Cities with an Urban Naturalist is published by FLINT.
Photo by Lily Watts
Get in touch on Facebook! Search "BBC Countryfile Magazine - Plodcast Community" or join the discussion here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/countryfilemagazineplodcast/?ref=share
The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 & 2025 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.
If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected].
If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.
The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme tune was written and performed by Blair Dunlop.

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Late afternoon meets the first tendrils of dusk and the oakwoods are empty of people. Instead, birdsong fills the half-light beneath the trees: song thrush, great tit, chiffchaff and blackbird weave their spring melodies into an enchantment.
BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.
Recorded by Fergus Collins and introduced by Hannah Tribe.
Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Head into a quiet, magical corner of Herefordshire to meet artists Jackie Morris and Tamsin Abbott who have collaborated to create Wild Folk: Tales From the Stones – stories of folklore, of nature, of landscape, love and sorrow.
Plodcast host Fergus Collins was lucky enough to meet the pair and hear their own wild tales – plus some enchanting readings from the book.
Wild Folk: Tales from the Stones is published by Chelsea Green and is out now.
For more on Jackie Morris' work visit: www.jackiemorris.co.uk
For more on Tamsin Abbott's work: www.tamsinabbott.co.uk
Our Facebook page is back! Search "BBC Countryfile Magazine - Plodcast Community" or join the discussion here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/countryfilemagazineplodcast/?ref=share
The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 & 2025 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.
If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected].
If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.
The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme tune was written and performed by Blair Dunlop.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's a hazy morning on the South-West coast. The sun's rays disperse across the silent waves, glittering over passing boats. A choir of birds greet you, as you sit and watch the world awaken.
BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.
Recorded by Lewis Dobbs and introduced by Hannah Tribe. Photo by Lewis Dobbs.
Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Painter John Constable (1776-1837) is today one of the most celebrated painters of the English countryside. But in his lifetime his efforts to capture the true essence of nature and rural life were often rejected by his peers. What made him so special and why is he so revered now?
Now, on the 250th anniversary of Constable's birth, Plodcast host Fergus Collins meets art historian Susan Owen in 'Constable Country' on the Suffolk-Essex border to explore the great artists' world.
Susan Owens' brilliant new book Constable's Year: An Artist in Changing Seasons is published by Thames and Hudson.
Our Facebook page is back! Search "BBC Countryfile Magazine - Plodcast Community" or join the discussion here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/countryfilemagazineplodcast/?ref=share
The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 & 2025 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.
If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected].
If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.
The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme tune was written and performed by Blair Dunlop.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A cool dawn, dew-dampened and soft air. In these folds of West Dorset, it will be another hour before the sun reaches above the sharp-edged ridge in the south east, but below, where the blackthorn blossom is almost spent, the birds are in full voice.
The familiar voices, blackbird, song thrush and robin, now joined now by visitors from further south, the blackcap, chiffchaff and garden warbler, all singing for space as beneath a spring sends a stream away upon its first trickle.

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.
Recorded by Kevin Parr and introduced by Hannah Tribe. Image from Getty
Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Come metal-detecting in the Essex countryside with Ellie Bruce and Lucy Gray – who call themselves Roman Found. After taking up detecting during the first Covid lockdown, Lucy and Ellie have been sharing their exciting discoveries on social media and built up a huge following. Now they have written their first book: Thing We Found in the Ground (Harper North)
Plodcast host Fergus joined Ellie and Lucy for a morning's detecting – and to learn more about the world of detectorists. They even found something...
Our Facebook page is back! Search "BBC Countryfile Magazine - Plodcast Community" or join the discussion here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/countryfilemagazineplodcast/?ref=share
The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 & 2025 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.
If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected].
If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.
The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme tune was written and performed by Blair Dunlop.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A track winds up onto a bleak hill top – or it looks from afar. As you get closer, you realise the land is rich in bilberries, heather and small, stunted hawthorns. Soon you are in the skylark zone – with meadow pipits singing their hearts out alongside their more famous avian cousins.
BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.
Recorded by Fergus Collins and introduced by Hannah Tribe.
Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we're in the Malverns in Worcestershire to try to find Britain's only venomous snake – the adder. Plodcast host Fergus Collins is guided by local adder expert Nigel Hand, who has spent much of his life working to protect these increasingly rare reptiles.
Discover the secret life of the adder and learn why we need to respect – and even love – this springtime jewel.
Photo: Steve Sayers
Our Facebook page is back! Search "BBC Countryfile Magazine - Plodcast Community" or join the discussion here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/countryfilemagazineplodcast/?ref=share
The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 & 2025 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.
If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected].
If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.
The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme tune was written and performed by Blair Dunlop.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices