Red Squirrels were once a common sight in woodlands around the Uk but now, they’re one of our rarest Mammals. 

In this episode of Wild Tales, we head to Plas Newydd on the island of Ynys Môn in Wales, where a remarkable effort to bring them back is underway.

For the Welsh transcript of this episode please click here.
 

Red squirrel, Anglesey, Wales 
©National Trust Images/Rob Coleman

Production
Narration: Rosie Holdsworth
Producer: Nikki Ruck 
Sound Recordist: Marnie Woodmeade
Sound Design: Jesus Gomez
 
With thanks to Carol Thomas at Plas Newydd 

Find out more 

Visit the red squirrels at Plas Newydd:
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/wales/plas-newydd-house-and-garden/red-squirrels-at-plas-newydd

Learn more about Red Squirrel Conservation
The Red Squirrels Trust Wales is working to protect red squirrel populations on Ynys Môn and across North Wales. If you would like to read more about some of the points raised in this episode, look here.
https://www.redsquirrels.info/about/faq/


See red squirrels on Brownsea Island (Dorset):
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/dorset/brownsea-island/the-rare-red-squirrel-on-brownsea-island

Listen to our episode on pine martens (Wallington, Northumberland):
https://ntpodcasts.org/WT25

Follow us on Instagram @wildtalesnt

If you'd like to get in touch with feedback, or have a story connected with the National Trust, you can contact us at [email protected]

White-clawed crayfish are eco system engineers keeping rivers and streams clean and they also have amazing limb re growing superpowers. But they’re being outcompeted for food and habitat by the American signal crayfish and succumbing to a killer plague being spread by them. But, with a little help from Ranger Nick Allen and the team at Wallington estate in Northumberland, habitats are being created where white-clawed crayfish can thrive.

Join Rosie and follow the story and the lives of the plucky little characters fighting for survival in England’s Northeast.

Production:
Host: Rosie Holdsworth
Producers: Michelle Douglass and Katy Kelly
Sound Editor: Jesus Gomez
Contributor: Nick Allen  

Discover more:
Find out more about Wallington and their work with the white-clawed crayfish:
Saving the native white-clawed crayfish | National Trust 

Follow us @ wildtales Instagram account

If you'd like to get in touch with feedback, or a story idea, you can contact us at [email protected]

She’s joined by Dr Jeremy Lockwood, part of the original dig team and now casually known as a “namer of dinosaurs,” as they retrace how this once‑buried giant came back into the light. 

Production: 
Host: Rosie Holdsworth 
Producer: Claire Hickinbotham 
Sound Recordist: Nikki Ruck 
Sound Designer: Jesus Gomez 

As winter turns to spring , toads, frogs and newts across Britain begin their annual journey, making their way back to the ponds where they breed.

For many, that journey means crossing busy roads and not all of them make it to the other side.

In this episode of Wild Tales, we spend the night with the Charlcombe Lane Toad Patrol, discovering the dedication and determination it takes to give these remarkable animals a fighting chance.

 
 [Ad] Wild Tales is sponsored by Cotswold Outdoor, your outside retailer and epic guides to adventure. Quick breathers, calming walks or heart-pounding hikes. We feel better when we get out more.   Find quality kit and 50 years of outdoor wisdom. Plus, supporters save 15% in-store and online. Feel in your element, in the elements, at Cotswold Outdoor.  https://www.cotswoldoutdoor.com/  

Production: 
Narrator: Rosie Holdsworth 
Producer and sound designer: Nikki Ruck 

photo courtesy :  Charlcombe Toad Rescue Group 
 
With thanks to Mike Collins, Sheila Gundry, Lance, Lucy and Angela from the Charlcombe Lane Toad Group
 
Discover more:
https://www.froglife.org/what-we-do/toads-on-roads/how-to-become-a-toad-patroller/
 
 

It's hardly surprising: the swan’s epic migration is under pressure, and their numbers are dwindling. Can Ajay find them at their winter retreat of WWT Welney? 

Ajay speaks to fellow swan lover, artist and zoologist Dafila Scott and site manager Lizzie Bruce to aid his search for these hardworking swans. 

[Ad] Wild Tales is sponsored by Cotswold Outdoor, your outside retailer and epic guides to adventure. Quick breathers, calming walks or heart-pounding hikes. We feel better when we get out more.   Find quality kit and 50 years of outdoor wisdom. Plus, supporters save 15% in-store and online. Feel in your element, in the elements, at Cotswold Outdoor.  https://www.cotswoldoutdoor.com/  

Production:  Host and Co-producer: Ajay Tegala
Producer: Marnie Woodmeade
Sound Designer: Jesus Gomez
Music: Swan Song by Charlotte Eve
 
With thanks to: Dafila Scott, Lizzie Bruce and the staff and volunteers at WWT Welney 

Discover more:

Visit WWT Welney: https://www.wwt.org.uk/wetland-centres/welney 

Visit Wicken Fen: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/cambridgeshire/wicken-fen-national-nature-reserve 

Learn more about wetland swans: https://www.wwt.org.uk/discover-wetlands/wetland-wildlife/meet-the-family/swans-found-in-uk-wetlands

In this episode, wrap up warm and turn your eyes to the skies for a stargazing tour from the middle of Manchester.

Nature Fix Host Claire Hickinbotham joins astronomer and adventure enthusiast Nazanin Jahanshahi, to discover how there’s lots to see in the night sky wherever you live.

On this awe-inspiring city celestial voyage, you'll be wowed by a rare planetary parade, learn how to start navigating the stars, and hear top tips for hunting the northern lights.

Production
Producer: Michelle Douglass
Sound Designer: Nikki Ruck
Contributor: Nazanin Jahanshahi

Get your Nature Fix
Follow Nature Fix on your favourite podcast app: https://podfollow.com/nature-fix
 
Discover the best National Trust spots for stargazing: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/outdoor-activities/top-spots-for-stargazing

Learn about night sky locations and activities:
https://gostargazing.co.uk/  

Orford Ness is well practiced at keeping secrets; in the 1940s it was classified military research, but now it is a brand new colony of grey seals. 

Countryside Manager Matt Wilson guides us around the bomb craters to try and find the newest and blubbery-est residences. We find out how they came to be on this moon-like beach and how they’re faring on this remote site. 

[Ad] Wild Tales is sponsored by Cotswold Outdoor, your outside retailer and epic guides to adventure. Quick breathers, calming walks or heart-pounding hikes. We feel better when we get out more.   Find quality kit and 50 years of outdoor wisdom. Plus, supporters save 15% in-store and online. Feel in your element, in the elements, at Cotswold Outdoor.  
https://www.cotswoldoutdoor.com/

Production:  
Producer: Marnie Woodmeade
Hosts: Rosie Holdsworth 
Sound Designer: Jesus Gomez
With thanks to: Matt Wilson and the staff at Orford Ness

Image © National Trust Images/Rob Coleman

Discover more:  

Visit Orford Ness, looked after by the National Trust https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/suffolk/orford-ness-national-nature-reserve

Find out more about the seals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6ti7BaNKpU&t=523s

These slinky, tree-dwelling predators had virtually disappeared in England and Wales by the turn of the 20th Century.

But pine martens are making a comeback.

We follow Ranger Dan Iceton at Wallington estate in Northumberland, as he tries to encourage pine martens to make these woodlands their forever home.

And we discover conservation success in other parts of Britain where the animals have returned.

Follow the story and secret lives of the mysterious mammal making a comeback in our forests.

[Ad] Wild Tales is sponsored by Cotswold Outdoor, your outside retailer and epic guides to adventure. Quick breathers, calming walks or heart-pounding hikes. We feel better when we get out more.   Find quality kit and 50 years of outdoor wisdom. Plus, supporters save 15% in-store and online. Feel in your element, in the elements, at Cotswold Outdoor.  https://www.cotswoldoutdoor.com/

Production:  Producer: Michelle Douglass
Hosts: Rosie Holdsworth and Dan Iceton
Sound Editor: Jesus Gomez
With thanks to: Dr Stephanie Johnstone and Vincent Wildlife Trust
 
Image © Caroline Legg  

Discover more:  Visit Wallington, looked after by the National Trust https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/north-east/wallington

Find out more about pine martens with Vincent Wildlife Trust: https://www.vwt.org.uk/species/pine-marten-2

Read about Martens on the Move: https://pinemartens.uk/

Report your sighting and help citizen science: https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/a8c5d8e084dc4ecb9b92c57c42769d1f  

However, it’s the Arctic Terns’ ability to fly thousands of miles during their migration from the Arctic Circle to the Antarctic Circle that really sets them apart.  

Join Rosie and Rangers Dan Iceton and Tom Hendry on Inner Farne as they spend time with the Arctic Terns and experience their dive-bombing tactics first-hand.  

 Just outside Belfast, lie the Mourne Mountains - a land of granite peaks and wide skies, but also a place of witches, fawns and lions.  Protected as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, an Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a UNESCO Global Geopark, this remarkable landscape is also a doorway to imagination. 

Join National Trust ranger Kate Martin as she journeys from the streets of Belfast to the Mourne Mountains, exploring the places that shaped C.S. Lewis’s childhood and inspired his creation of Narnia. Discover how city, story and landscape came together to form one of the most beloved worlds in children’s literature. 

(AD) Wild Tales is sponsored by Cotswold Outdoor, your outside retailer and epic guides to adventure.
Quick breathers, calming walks or heart-pounding hikes. We feel better when we get out more.
Find quality kit and 50 years of outdoor wisdom. Plus, supporters save 15% in-store and online. Feel in your element in the elements, at Cotswold Outdoor. www.cotswoldoutdoor.com

Watch a video of this podcast on the National Trust’s YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/_Smzdtsh_tM

Production
Presenter: Kate Martin
Producer: Pippa Tilbury-Harris
Sound Designer: Jesus Gomez
Contributors: Dr Sarah Waters, Director of the Sterling College C.S. Lewis Center
Lolly Spence, Blue Badge Tourist Guide and historian
James Fisher, Lead Ranger NI Castle Ward
Actor: Ethan Hughes courtesy of Prime Theatre

Thank you to The CS Lewis Company Ltd for permissions to use quotes from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis © copyright CS Lewis Pte Ltd 1950, in this episode.

Discover More
If you’d like to know more about visiting The Mournes, please visit  https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/northern-ireland/the-mournes

You can listen to more of Kate’s Northern Ireland adventures here: Northern Ireland Adventure | Beyond the Bridge - Wild Tales | Nature Podcast | Podcast on Spotify  Northern Ireland Adventure | Sea Safari at Rathlin Island - Wild Tales | Nature Podcast | Podcast on Spotify 

If you'd like to book a tour with Lolly Spence you can here: www.hiddenulstertours.com

If you’d like to read Dr Sarah Waters’ work on C.S. Lewis, you can do so here: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9681-3361
And you can learn more about the Sterling College C.S. Lewis Center here: https://www.sterling.edu/academics/cs-lewis-center 

If you’d like to get in touch with feedback, or have a story connected with the National Trust, you can contact us at [email protected]