Learn more about the wildlife and wild places in Kent and beyond.
Rob Smith heads to Moat Farm Kent to visit a farmer who's lucky enough to live in a stronghold of a rare and elusive bird species - the nightingale. Find out the facts about Nightingales, listen to their beautiful song and learn how Michael Bax makes sure they have the right habitat to keep coming back year after year.
On 19th May one hundred years ago, the first outdoors broadcast by the BBC was of professional cellist Beatrice Harrison playing to and with nightingales in the garden of her Surrey home. Around a million listeners tuned in to the midnight broadcast, and she performed for similar outdoor broadcasts over the next twelve years.
Now what's the difference between a weasel and a stoat? Well, of course one is weaselly recognised while the other one is stoatally different. But could you tell a pine marten from either of them?
Atlantic salmon are drifting towards extinction, but we can help them leap back from the brink.
This year, Kent Wildlife Trust, in collaboration with Wildwood Trust and Sussex Wildlife Trust, Ashdown Forest and Forestry England, is beginning to explore the social and ecological feasibility of reintroducing pine martens to Kent and Sussex, while co-developing a ten-year strategy with a wide range of stakeholders to restore the species in the South East.
Habitat fragmentation poses significant threats to biodiversity and climate stability. In our lifetimes, we’re witnessing dramatic changes in the landscapes around us and the species that inhabit them.
The writer H E Bates moved from Northamptonshire to Little Chart Forstal in 1931. His deep knowledge of the countryside coloured all his writing. In ‘Through the Woods’ (1936), with fine wood engravings by Agnes Miller Parker, he wrote in loving detail about the plant and animal life in Coldham Wood, which lies due west of the Extension section of Hothfield Heathland.
In episode 8 of Talk on the Wild Side, Rob Smith interviews George Cooper - a Thanet local with a passion for wildlife, who has been heavily involved in bird recording and ringing at Minster Marshes for many years. They talk about why Minster Marshes is so important for bird-life, the damage National Grid's Sea Link project will do to the area, and why he started the Save Minster Marshes campaign.
