October 23, 2025 • 39 mins
It's mid-autumn and Tom Pattinson’s making the most of the seasonal changes and preparing for Nature’s planting time.
Tom Cadwallender’s spotted a fabulous kingfisher and he's enjoying the incoming Vs of honking geese
Big Butterfly Conservation are here with an update on one of our most important nature counts…
Plus some top tips for the garden from Tom P.
You can follow Tom Pattinson, Steve and Tom Cadwallender and our wonderful guests and featured flowers, birds and projects on X via: @gardenersradio @TheNatureGarden and on Facebook: The Nature Garden.
And you can also tune in to our monthly live radio show on Saturdays at 11am on www.lionheartradio.com
Or email us: gardenersradio@outlook.com
Thank you for your support!
Music link: Gaia by Carl Cape Band on Amazon Music - Amazon.co.uk
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carl Stiansen (00:14):
Hello and welcome to the Nature Garden Podcast
with me, Carl Stiansen, and theWeekending Show team from
Lionheart Radio.
Thanks for joining us on acanny-wee wander down the garden
path and country lane with thebirds and the bees and the
flowers and trees in thisepisode.
It's mid-autumn and TomPattinson's making the most of
(00:38):
the seasonal changes andpreparing for nature's planting
time.
Tom Cadwallender's spotted afabulous Kingfisher, and he's
enjoying the incoming V's ofhonking Geese.
Big Butterfly Conservation arehere with an update on one of
our most important naturecounts, plus some top tips for
(01:00):
the garden from Tom P, allcoming up on the Nature Garden
Podcast.
(01:36):
It can be a great time to plantnew things.
And here's Tom Pattinson totell us more.
Tom Pattinson (01:46):
Hello.
I wanted to mention this weeknature's planting time on
bare-rooted planting and what anopportunity it is for us in the
garden to get out there andintroduce new items to our
borders.
Vegetables, fruit, andornamentals, most especially
(02:07):
woody, hardy, perennial plantswith no soil and the roots at
all.
Sounds like something shouldn'tbe done in the garden,
certainly not in the middle ofsummer.
But nature's planting timeallows us to take these
advantages of the plants thathave gone to sleep.
What are we going to put in?
Well, good question.
(02:28):
What's your choice?
There's two ways of looking atit for me.
Number one is I can ordersomething new.
I can pick up the catalogues,get a mail order, or better
still, I can go to the localgarden center, take a look
around.
I know for a fact there'll besome apple trees and possibly
(02:50):
some roses.
And they may well be in pots.
But that doesn't necessarilymean they've been grown in pots.
If they've been grown in pots,we'll say apple trees, they will
tell you they're pots grown.
And for a typical young appletree, you might pay something
like somewhere between 35 to 50pounds.
(03:11):
Straightforward.
Because it's been grown in thatpot, it will have a ball of
root.
You can buy them much cheaperif you buy a bare-rooted apple
tree.
Now it too will be presented ina pot, perhaps.
This is quite normal.
Don't assume it's going to havea ball of roots.
(03:32):
If it's much cheaper, and theycan be bought anything from
about £20 to £30 locally, I'vebought them.
And this is the way I prefer toplant my apples, coming
bare-rooted.
Similarly at this time of year,with roses, rose bushes.
(03:53):
When you receive them, quite ashock to the system.
You open the package, say it'sroses, maybe two or three roses
in one packet, large pack, andshock upon shock.
The roots, you can see them, nosoil on them.
They're sometimes possibly evendry.
Goodness knows how long they'vebeen travelling.
Hopefully they come directly toyou.
(04:15):
First job, get them into abucket of water and leave them
for several hours overnight ifpossible, and get them fully
charged with water before youplant them.
Similarly, the fruit trees.
Do the same with them.
When you're going to plantthem, and there's various roots
to success here, but this is theway I do it and it works for
(04:38):
me.
When you're going to plantthem, dig the hole first.
Prepare the hole.
And dig a hole that's twice thedepth and twice the width of
the root system that you see infront of you on the plant you
received.
Put your organic material in.
Composted material, somecompost from a bag even you've
(05:00):
bought, or well-rotted animalmanure.
Get that in.
Then water it.
Don't water afterwardsnecessarily.
The water needs to be aroundthe roots of the plant.
So water the compost before youput the plant in.
Now the plant will not havebeen lying out on the soil
waiting to be planted becausethe air, wind, it will dry out
(05:25):
the roots again, which defeatsthe purpose of soaking them in
the first place.
The stay in the bucket or thetub with the water until the
point of planting.
Then you get them in, then youbackfill the soil, making it
firm as you go until the wholething is planted.
Then you can water the surfaceas well if you wish.
(05:45):
It'll have to work its way downto the roots, but it'll keep it
moist.
And then I would like to putdown now a mulch on the surface.
It will keep the moisture in.
It retains a certain amount ofwarmth during the winter period,
which will come, and you've gotthe flying start with your
apple tree or your rose for thenext year.
Carl Stiansen (06:14):
Waterways can be wonderful places for wildlife,
and Tom Cardwallender's beenalong the owl nestuary to bring
us some tales from the riverbanks.
Tom Cadwallender (06:32):
The other morning I bumped into my good
old pal Tom Pat, the demongardener of Lesbury, and
colleague on the podcaster, he'sa good old lad.
Anyway, we bumped into eachother on um in Lesbury, and Tom
had his fishing rod with him.
And uh I didn't I'd forgottenTom was a fisherman.
(06:53):
But anyway, we got chattingabout um various things, and he
said he just he really enjoysgoing down to the river and just
well, basically standing still.
And there's a lot to be saidfor standing still.
And Tom is usually a veryactive person in his garden, and
as you well very well know,he's uh he's an amazing
gardener, he's so muchknowledge, but he's he's really
(07:15):
quite industrious in his garden.
So actually, he it's it's quitea good therapy therapy for him,
I think, to go fishing andactually just stand by a
riverside with his fishing rodand just watch the world go by.
And he might catch a fish ortwo, but anyway, that's that's
kind of uh sidetracking thestory.
Um when we got chatting and heand he was telling me that um
he'd just seen a family party ofotters just up by the 18 arches
(07:39):
on the River Aln up fromLesbury.
And yeah, that uh that is thecase.
I've I've seen them up therebefore, and I've seen one or two
other single animals furtherdownriver.
But also we got chatting aboutkingfishers, and that was quite
interesting that conversation,because yeah, the the standing
still on the riverside is meansthat a kingfisher would just sit
(08:03):
and watch you and watch theriver at the same time, uh, and
you really get some fabulousviews just by sitting still
anywhere, really, any bit anybit of habitat.
If you just settle down for alittle while and just think and
just watch what's going on therewithout many any making any
kind of serious movements,anything like that.
Just just take your time andjust sort of look around what's
(08:26):
going on there, and you'llgradually just blend into your
your surroundings and theanimals and birds and insects,
if it's the right time of year,of course, will actually come
around and have a look at youand just think it's quite
natural.
But it's it's amazing,actually, really, just sitting
still.
You don't have to be kind of umrushing around everywhere,
(08:46):
which I tend to do, um, butyeah, just to take your time and
and watch what's going on thenyou'll see all sorts of things.
But back to the kingfisher.
Kingfishers are just incrediblebirds.
It's a m huge family of birds,actually, kingfishers.
There's all manner of birds ofkingfish around the world.
Um, but in in Britain and inEurope largely, there's only one
(09:10):
species, and that's known asthe common kingfisher.
But they all have the same sortof kind of uh tendencies or or
kind of um characteristics, ifyou like, around the world.
They've all got them.
They're all brightly coloured,and they're all amazingly
coloured.
And the common kingfisher, orthe European kingfisher, as it's
called, wrongly, because thekingfisher that we have uh is
(09:33):
found right across throughEurope, into Africa, and even
into Asia.
So they're found right acrossthere.
But they have this electricblue, um, black uh back plumage,
but they've got this orangeunderneath, and they tend to be
sort of in the uh in the in thebreeding season, they'll they'll
be up river a little way andthey'll find a a nice sort of
(09:56):
quiet spot just tucked away, andthey'll they'll dig a hole in
the in the nest in the uh theriver river bank, bit of exposed
bank, and they'll d dig a holeperhaps about um I don't know,
forty-five centimetres deep, andthey'll they'll lay their their
eggs in that that hole, uh andthey'll eventually they'll
hatch, and uh the young willcome and sit at the edge of the
(10:18):
um edge of the uh of the hole.
Uh it's amazing to see.
And it's if you see akingfisher, and if it's carrying
a fish with its head, with thefish's head facing out of its
mouth, it's destined to be fedto the young ones.
But if it's actually carrying afish the other way around, it's
(10:38):
going to be for itself, it'llswallow it.
It's easier to swallow headheadfirst straight down.
But if it's going to feed theyoung one, uh a young one, it
will go straight, uh it will beheadfirst, so it'll go straight
down the the um the young bird'suh throat.
Uh so yes, it's quitefascinating.
But up but uh but when it comesto the autumn and early winter,
we tend to see these kingfisheskind of come downstream and
(10:59):
they'll be in the estuaries.
I I where I like to sit, um inthe uh on the island estuary, I
regularly see kingfishers in themost strange places, right on
the on the estuary mouth, umjust kind of feeding on all
sorts of small fish coming upand down the and up and down the
estuary.
And really when the uh theweather gets a little bit harder
(11:19):
further into the winter, we seethem on rock pools.
So you fairly regularly see inin December and January, you'll
see um uh kingfishers feeding inrock pools.
Uh and that bright, bright blueflash as it goes past is
incredible.
But actually, I've got my eartuned to the noise of them as
well, and they'll make quite anexplosive chk as they as they
(11:43):
go.
It's not very good atimpersonation.
Again, as you know, I'm notvery good at making bird sounds,
but it makes this this quitedistinctive noise as they fly
upstream.
But I've seen a large number ofkingfishers around the world,
and there are kingfishers whichspecialise in uh being in
woodland.
You think, wow, that's not akingfisher, surely?
But actually, yes, it is.
And there's some reallybrightly coloured ones,
(12:05):
particularly out in Asia, uh,where I was in the in the
spring, I was out in Malaysia,and we were watching woodland
kingfishers, and they were allkind of hues of green and purple
and blue and orange, andincredible.
And when they're in woodland,they're not necessarily feeding
on um on fish, but they arefeeding on uh on other
(12:25):
invertebrates, quite largeinvertebrates.
They'll feed on frogs, they'llfeed on feed on uh on on
tadpoles and and and one or twoother things.
But they're they're much moreomnivorous than than the
kingfishers that we have in thispart of the world, uh, or the
the kingfisher that we have inthis part of the world.
But it's a great thing, and andthey're uh can be quite a big
size.
And there are one or twoexceptions to this brightly
(12:47):
coloured idea.
There are things like the piedkingfisher, which really hovers.
You go into Africa, NorthAfrica particularly, uh you'll
see these pied kingfisher, andthe uh and they'll they'll
hover, but it's it's kind ofreally black and white, uh, and
and it's quite distinctive.
But one of the the kind ofcraziest things I I've ever
(13:08):
seen, uh I was in India earlierthis uh last month, but that was
my second trip.
My first trip to India was in1981, and I have amazing
memories from that time.
And I remember watching aSmyrna kingfisher as they were
known.
Now they're calledwhite-throated kingfishers, and
they're really quite omnivorous,and they're a bit more sort of
(13:29):
um dryland specialists.
And this bird, I was sittingstill quite uh one one day, and
this bird was and it caughtsomething and it was bashing.
It was bushing, it hadn't inits bill, and it was bushing
this this thing on a branch, andit was kept sort of bashing,
bashing, bashing, and I couldn'tfigure out what it was.
I got my binoculars and I startI was watching it quite
intently, and then I realisedwhat it was.
(13:51):
It was a lesser white throat.
This was a kind of a uh a bushwarbler type bird, which and we
get them in the northernhemisphere, but actually the
winter down in and through Indiaand into into Africa.
But this kick this smurno, thiswhite-throated kingfisher, had
caught this bird and it wasbashing it and bashing it and
breaking its its kind of itsbones, and then eventually it
(14:12):
was small enough so and flexibleenough so it could swallow the
um this this bird whole and itjust gulped it down.
Incredible! I never really knewthat was the case, that these
birds could actually eat orwould eat small birds, but they
do, they'll eat anything.
So that was a lesson, asalutary lesson to me.
(14:33):
So this conversation with thedemon gardener of Lesbury, Tom
Patt, brought back fabulousmemories of of India in 90, you
know, almost 45 years ago.
Incredible, really, isn't it?
But I may have more tales ofIndia coming uh during the
course of this uh this winter inthe podcasts.
But anyway, that's enough ofme.
(14:55):
I'll speak to you at some pointin the near future.
Thanks very much, folks.
Bye.
Carl Stiansen (15:05):
Tom Pattinson's making the most of the autumn
calm and looking to well maybemove a few things around the
garden.
And he's got some greattechniques to share on how to do
this.
Tom Pattinson (15:21):
One of the things that appeals to me most about
nature's planting time is thelength of time it extends.
It begins now, now that they'rebare-rooted, can be lifted bare
rooted, the plants.
Uh evergreens as well, ofcourse, can be can be lifted
with the best ball of root youcan find on them and
(15:41):
transplanted.
The point is it extends waythrough the winter months up to
the point of spring.
So in the absence of frost,severe frost outside, it has to
be um a calm day, and if thesoil is not frosted, you can
plant it anytime or transplantat any time.
(16:02):
That's the good thing aboutplants being dormant and you
acting while they're asleep forthe winter.
If you're going to movesomething, which this is the
part I do love, I love to gointo the garden with my spade
and double check now which onesdid I say which plants or which
(16:23):
shrubs or which apple tree orwhich rose was taking up too
much space.
And quite aggressive can be theinner nature aggression of some
plants in terms of growth andcolonizing ground.
You can prune them, of course,but they'll fight back from the
pruning, they put on new growth.
(16:44):
Sometimes pruning um has theopposite effect, they send up
double the strength of growth inresponse to the pruning.
That's fine if you'rerejuvenating a plant, a
perennial plant.
But sometimes the main answeris moving that plant.
So if I say it's a shrub uh ora young apple tree, I've done
(17:05):
this several times before.
Uh move the apple tree.
How old is it?
How tall is it?
How big is it?
How large is the system ofroots going to be?
Generally with a tree, amassive tree, we say that the
area of the canopy is mirroredbelow ground by the roots.
(17:26):
So think about that.
You can't go lifting, say, a uma pear tree that's three meters
tall, digging it out and umtransplanting it.
Or can you?
This is something I've donebefore.
So, say it's an apple tree or abear tree, and it's probably
(17:46):
two meters tall, maybe eventhree.
If it's about f anywhere up tofive or six years old, it might
just be doable.
So, I prepare the hole I'mgoing to plant it in first and
foremost, to move to anotherpart of the um the border or
another part of the garden, andthen I start digging well away
(18:09):
from the main trunk.
So I'm going out first of allto assume there's going to be
quite a good root system.
Dig down, and then I digunderneath, horizontally way
down below where the roots willbe.
And once I got it loose in thehole, it's clearly going to be
too heavy to move or to carryanyway for one person, even two.
(18:32):
So what I do is, and this isquite feasible, I lever the root
ball out of the hole onto theside, and there I have waiting
for me some fabric, a largesheet of fabric that will slide
across the soil or the or thelawn to the new planting hole.
(18:54):
So I ease it onto that and Islide it across as if it was on
a sledge.
That's the way I transferred apear tree.
And I've done it with apples aswell.
And they recover.
Watering well off a sport witha couple of crisscross stakes,
support posts at the base, untilit gets that root system going
(19:18):
again with new roots and anchorsitself.
That is possible.
Similarly with herbaceousperennials.
I love at this time of year,the aggressive ones, digging
them up.
The heart of the plant is notwhat I go for.
I dig the whole plant up, putit on some fabric on the on the
lawn at the side, and then Ichop it into sections.
(19:38):
It's the outer sections which Igo for because they're the
vigorous ones, pieces with rootand stem ready to come, uh only
the stems are dormant, littleshoots there, and you get a
whole range of new plants fromthat single plant.
And then if it's been veryaggressive, you just plant maybe
one of them or three of themback and start afresh with that.
(20:01):
This is propagation, and it'sbased most basic.
And this opportunity isprovided by plants going into
dormancy and the fact that wecan move them with bare roots,
no soil on them at all.
Best part is they haven't aclue they've been moved.
Carl Stiansen (20:28):
In the warm days of summer, you may remember the
invitation to take part in thebig butterfly count.
Well, here to give us an updateon the results is Richard
Austin, recording schemesofficer at Butterfly
Conservation.
Hello, Richard.
Richard Austin, Recordin (20:47):
Hello, Carl.
The results of ButterflyConservation's Big Butterfly
Count 2025 have been published.
This year, over 125,000 peopletook part and submitted over
160,000 counts.
These are record numbers, andit is fantastic to see more
people engage with recordingbutterflies.
Over 1.7 million butterfliesand moths were recorded, with
(21:12):
the top five species being largewhite, small white, gatekeeper,
red admiral, and meadow brown.
Overall, participants spotted10.3 butterflies on average per
15-minute count.
This does compare favorablywith the data from last year,
when just seven butterflies werespotted per 15-minute count.
(21:33):
However, it is broadly averagewhen compared to the data across
the past 15 years and has donelittle to reverse longer-term
declines.
When looking at the data, wecan see that there are some
positive results for certainspecies.
The large white and small whiteboth recorded their best ever
big butterfly count result.
(21:54):
On the other hand, the smalltortoiseshell, which had its
worst big butterfly count resultin 2024, showed some
improvement but still recorded abelow average year and has
declined by 60% since 2011.
The Jersey tiger moth had arecord year.
The species was recorded morewidely and in higher numbers
(22:16):
than ever before, with over11,000 moths counted.
By contrast, Holly Blue had itssecond worst big butterfly
count result on record.
Common blue had its thirdworst, and Meadow Brown had its
fourth worst count result.
Last year, butterflies andmoths struggled with the weather
(22:38):
conditions.
A wet spring and cold summerhampered their activity to fly,
find mates, and lay eggs.
By contrast, in 2025, the UKrecorded its sunnier spring and
warmer summer, which is muchmore favorable for butterflies
as they are cold-blooded insectsand need warmth and sunshine to
thrive.
The 15-year big butterfly counttrends show that more than
(23:02):
twice as many widespread specieshave declined significantly
than have increased.
And while most species had abetter than average summer, one
third of species fared poorlyeven in the generally beneficial
weather.
So, how can we help butterfliesand moths?
A major impact to butterfly andmoth populations is down to
(23:24):
habitat loss.
But we can all do our part tocreate a wild space for nature.
Wild spaces can be onbalconies, patios, in gardens,
and community spaces such asallotments, public parks, or in
school grounds.
You can create a wild space byplanting nectarics, flowers, or
wild herbs in pots and planters,leaving a wilder area of leaves
(23:46):
and sticks in your garden, orplanting native trees or shrubs.
Have a look at thewildspaces.co.uk website for
more information.
Another major driver ofbutterfly population trends is
land management, and pesticideuse is having a considerable
effect on butterflies.
Butterfly conservation isasking people to sign its open
(24:07):
letter to retailers calling forthe removal of toxic synthetic
pesticides from sale fordomestic use.
There is no monitoring of theamount used, where they used, or
the impact that they have onthe wider ecosystem.
(24:29):
We need retailers to join ourrescue mission and lead the way
in switching to naturalgardening methods by removing
the synthetic pesticides fromsale.
We are in a nature crisis.
People want to help, and whichare providing them with the
tools to do so, not the meansfor destruction.
Please visit ButterflyConservation's website to add
(24:50):
your name to the letter.
A huge thank you to everyonewho took part in this year's Big
Butterfly Count.
Next year's Big Butterfly Countwill take place between the
17th of July and the 9th ofAugust.
Carl Stiansen (25:13):
Tom Cadwallander's scanning the
skies for skeins of Pinkfeet.
Over to you, Tom Cadwallander.
Tom Cadwallender (25:27):
Autumn winter.
Just you love it.
It's great.
It's the time when thePinkfeet, the pink footed goose,
is heading down through eastcoast of England from Iceland
and Greenland.
I don't know if you can hearthem.
There's skeins of them justgoing over me now.
(25:49):
I'm doing a bird survey up nearseahouses.
And it's I'm quite close to thecoast.
But the fields are kind ofstubbly and grazed by cattle,
and there's curlews in thefields, and there's kind of some
skylarks around and one or twoother things.
But the underlying noise thatis going on around me of pink
(26:11):
feet, oh man, isn't itabsolutely magical?
I don't know if you can hearthem, but they're just amazing.
There's skeins of, I don'tknow, several hundred here.
And there's three or four ofthem.
And you know how they fly?
They're flying around andthey're flying in sort of loose,
loose V's.
And the typical, you know, theclassic occupypal kind of uh
(26:33):
goose migration or goose gooseflock basically, and they'll
they'll take turns in leadingthis gang, you know.
They'll they'll kind of just umtake their turns in one go
front and and say, I know wherethe I know where the nearest
bait field is, lads, come on,come with me.
And then, oh we're tired now,so someone else will take over
and away they go.
But it's amazing actually.
(26:53):
They they're the it's it's thechange actually in in say say 15
years in Northumberland, it'sit's fantastic.
You know, they they used totravel over, yes, we used to see
them, we've seen them for fordonkeys, they've traveled
they've passed Northumberland umeons, during eons, and
normally, uh traditionally, theywould have been heading down
(27:14):
into the North Norfolk coastwhere they winter in really big
numbers, and uh the so they'vejust passed through.
But in the last sort of 15 oddyears, there's been a change in
behaviour.
The um what we're seeing now isthat some of these birds are
are overwintering in our part ofthe world, so it's a quite
significant change there.
(27:34):
And there must be sort of 15,20,000 pink feet kind of
wintering in uh inNorthumberland, and they're kind
of the they will follow thestubble fields around, but
they're largely around sort ofthe uh southeast corner Druidge
Bay, up towards Lindersfawn, andI think the ones I'm hearing
now are the are the Lindersfawngang, but also they they will
(27:56):
winter in land near uh Millfieldand the Middlefield Plain.
It's kind of nice and beingflat and quite open and the it's
it's it's quite secure.
Um but the uh they will kind ofjust move around those those
flocks, but uh th those fields,those areas.
But what we're seeing actuallyis when they see, particularly
at this time of year, whenthey've they're really just
recently in, because they'veonly been coming in this last
(28:17):
two and a half weeks, and uhthey're finding stubble fields
and they're moving around thosequite uh quite readily, and
they're kind of just movingaround.
But you just as a as a guy justgoing away from me quite high,
they'll they'll be going up thelintest farm, possibly.
It's quite exciting.
Those of you who know me willknow I haven't got very much
(28:37):
hair, but actually, the bit I'vegot it stands up on end
whenever I hear these pink feetgoing over, and I get I'm and
I'm I'm getting on a bit thesedays, and generally what happens
when you get on a bit, yourhearing goes.
And uh, but actually I've gotquite this yeah, I've got quite
good hearing for a man of myage, and actually I can hear
pink feet from quite a long way.
(28:58):
Um and don't get these pinkfeet mixed with the mixed up
with these other geese.
They are grey geese, and thetwo common grey geese that we
see are these pinks and the greylags.
But the grey lags have got bigorange bills, and these pink
feet have got really quitedainty bills, dark with a little
bit of flesh coloured uh tip tothe bill, but also they have
got pink legs, so which whichmakes them stand out a bit as
(29:21):
well, hence the name pink feet,of course.
But don't get them confusedwith the um with the uh the grey
lags, or indeed the raucousCanada geese, they're black
geese, and they're the oneswhich uh are kind of black and
white and they're quite big andthey're they're feral basically.
Um but we do have two otherspecies of geese which are
hanging around, um, a dentalfoam, basically, and we've got
(29:43):
brand geese there, and there's alight bellied foam, and they're
they're really quite a daintygoose.
Um they're they're dark apartfrom a light belly, uh as the
name suggests, but there's adark bellied foam as well, which
adds a little bit of confusion.
But they've got a little whitefleck on their necks, um, and
they're quite.
Quite small, not much biggerthan a Malamond.
And the and they're coming downfrom Svalbard, Spitzbergen, and
(30:07):
they breed up there.
And Lindesfahren is the onlyplace in the UK, and there's one
other place in Europe, inDenmark, but sometimes the the
two um European gangs jointogether at Lindersfawn.
And Lindersfawn is the onlyplace in the in the entire world
at that point where these bruntgeese will gather.
There's not a huge populationof them.
(30:28):
There's only about 10,000 orso.
But any but really makesLindersfawn exceptionally
important for these for thatspecies.
But the other change we'reseeing, and it's again with a
black goose, and it's thebarnacle goose.
And these birds again arecoming down from Spitzbergen,
and they're coming down.
But what they used to do is tocross the from a long way north,
(30:50):
they would follow down theNorwegian coast, hit the east
coast, across the North Sea, hitthe east coast of Britain and
mainly Scotland, and follow thecoast down until they got to the
Tyne Gap, the river Tyne, andthey'll cross over then to
winter on the Sulway, and that'swhere there's tens of thousands
of them wintering then, andthat's their traditional
(31:11):
wintering place.
But what we're seeing now isthat there's about 10,000 of
these bundle geese wintering nowat Lindersfawn.
So they're not actually makingthat journey, they're making
their way down to Lindersfawn,but they're not making the
journey across the um across thecountry.
And you know, the if the thetiny to call um across the the
through the tiny gap.
(31:32):
And that that little bit of ofthe of England is really quite
numbrow.
Um and um well it's actuallyEngland, Scotland, but it's
quite number there.
It's only been 80 months, soit's quite easy to cross.
In fact, if they're coming inhigh enough on the east coast,
they could probably see the westcoast.
But no, they're making thedecision to stay on the east at
Lindisfarne.
And again, it's another kind ofjewel in the crown of this
(31:53):
wonderful national naturereserve of Lindisfarne.
It's absolutely brilliant.
Um, but also the the uhbarnacle goose is uh is one of
my favourites, it's really quitea pretty goose, and it's it's
one of the black ones, but it'sgot a white face, and it really
is quite quite distinctive whenyou see them, and they're
feeding and feels and things,and it's uh and it's really
quite nice to see them that way.
(32:14):
Um but the it's quite charmingin a sense.
But we're seeing this change,this this kind of behavioural
change of um probably driven byclimate change, you know.
Um but anyway, we're benefitingfrom that.
But Northumberland is just oneof those magical places uh that
you could find all these birdsjust hanging around and just
(32:35):
anytime you go out.
Uh and it's really quitemagical.
I feel quite quite privilegedthat I'm in that sort of
situation, you know.
Uh anyway, that's me, that'sthat's my buzz back into
podcasting and back into uhbirding.
Well, in fact, I'm never out ofbirding, I'm birding every day.
But anyway, folks, I hopeyou're okay, and uh we'll catch
(32:57):
you next time.
Bye.
Carl Stiansen (33:07):
And so to the sound of Wor Blackbird, here's
Tom with some things to begetting on with in the garden.
Tom Pattinson (33:16):
So it's jobs for the week time, and I have lawn
on my mind at the moment.
I removed a shrub which hadoutstate its welcome, and uh I
need to patch that area byextending the lawn.
I've got two choices, eitherfrom seed or from turf.
(33:36):
Uh the seed will take a while,of course.
It's uh generally grass seed ifit's sown September, October.
It will take, will germinate,and uh a few months' time uh
it'll be by springtime, it'll beshowing itself in turning into
an extension of the lawn.
Whereas the turf is instant,much more expensive, of course,
(34:00):
by the square square meter,square yard, or whatever, uh
comes in a roll, and it's uhinstant lawn, really.
Um I'll make my mind which ofit is.
The third area using grass atthis time or extending or
repairing the lawn is worthconsidering.
If uh the edge of a lawn hasbeen trampled on, someone's
(34:22):
taken a shortcut or a car'sgoing over the edge and spoiled
it, it's a fairly simple matterof cutting out a turf, uh say uh
60 centimetres by 60centimetres, something of that
nature, and uh removing it andtwisting it round so that the
straight edge, which came fromthe inside of the lawn, is on
(34:44):
the outside now.
So you just have uh somethinginside the lawn to repair.
Get some compost into thatcompost or fresh soil and uh
sprinkle a little bit of grassseed on, and away you go.
A simple repair job for theedge of a lawn.
Beyond the lawn, I'm looking atthe apples big crop this year.
(35:06):
We have um some to storediscovery first early, it
doesn't last very long.
The the early one, it was readyby August.
Um, it's it will store tillabout November, then it starts
to uh go off.
Uh we have James Greevefollowing it, and then uh uh the
Brayburn is coming up uhshortly.
(35:28):
Brayburn will be ready.
That's the dessert apples wehave, and uh there's also the
Bramley seedling, uh which is acooker, of course, and uh it's
um to store.
Uh these apples are um comingoff, not all at the same time,
of course, some ripen before theothers, but we've got a stack
of trays in this over tower uhsituation, and because we have
(35:52):
so many apples, uh we don't wrapthem individually, that's far
too far too time consuming.
So just open on the tray, nottouching, but um in the trays in
the garage where it's cool, notfrosty though, and they'll be
fine in there.
So we're starting to storethose apples.
Grapes on the two grapevines,Madeline Angevin and uh Black
(36:15):
Hamburg, they're both ripe now.
Uh a lot of them, big cropagain this year, every year
there is.
Where some of them for dessert,um squeezing some of them for
the juice, which is brilliant aswell.
Of course, the other obviousoption is to make some wine, but
uh no time for that.
The juice is fine, uh andthey'll last for a while those
(36:38):
grapes.
I'm looking at the brassicasoutside, the winter brassicas,
Brussels sprouts, lovely, tallum Brussels sprouts at the
moment.
They're plumping up well uhfirst frost, apparently.
Um, it's best to taste them outfrom the first frost.
I taste them anytime, but uhthey're doing well, and so are
the um cabbages.
(36:58):
The problem is we have pigeons,everybody has pigeons, so we've
got a bit of a netting over tostop the pigeons um landing on
the top, picking away at thetops and leaving uh you know
what all over the foliage.
Um, we're also looking atgeneral salvage operations
outside.
It's really approaching time tobring some of the um half-hardy
(37:21):
items from outside, be the uhuh citrus trees and shrubs or
something of that nature, bringthem in for a bit of cover.
I have various things in theunheated greenhouse, like
streptocarpus, some uh coffeeplants, coffee arabica, a few of
those in pots.
I'll let find place frominside.
(37:43):
Generally uh looking afterthings, anything outside that
you think might not stand up tothe frost, um, put some straw
over it, keep some soil overthat if it's a herbaceous type,
say, for example.
Um I'm also looking at uhhardwood cuttings of shrubs,
general run-of shrubs, uhhardwood stem cuttings, and of
(38:05):
course the black currant, redcurrant, and gooseberry.
Just putting pieces of stem upto thirty centimetres long,
pushing them into the soil,burying them by about three
quarters the depth, just alittle quarter sticking up,
leave them and they'll rootwhere they are.
There's so many jobs.
Who said this wasn't a busytime of year?
Of course it is.
(38:25):
Whatever you're doing, enjoyyour gardening.
Carl Stiansen (38:36):
You've been listening to Gardener Tom
Pattinson, Birder TomCadwallander from the British
Trust for Ornithology, andRichard Austin, recording
schemes officer at ButterflyConservation.
Don't forget you can listenback to all our previous
programmes via the Nature GardenPodcast.
That's the Nature GardenPodcast.
(38:58):
I'm Carl Stiansen.
Thanks for listening, and enjoyyour gardening and time
outdoors with nature.
Bye for now.
Hello and welcome to the Nature Garden Podcast
with me, Carl Stiansen, and theWeekending Show team from
Lionheart Radio.
Thanks for joining us on acanny-wee wander down the garden
path and country lane with thebirds and the bees and the
flowers and trees in thisepisode.
It's mid-autumn and TomPattinson's making the most of
(00:38):
the seasonal changes andpreparing for nature's planting
time.
Tom Cadwallender's spotted afabulous Kingfisher, and he's
enjoying the incoming V's ofhonking Geese.
Big Butterfly Conservation arehere with an update on one of
our most important naturecounts, plus some top tips for
(01:00):
the garden from Tom P, allcoming up on the Nature Garden
Podcast.
(01:36):
It can be a great time to plantnew things.
And here's Tom Pattinson totell us more.
Tom Pattinson (01:46):
Hello.
I wanted to mention this weeknature's planting time on
bare-rooted planting and what anopportunity it is for us in the
garden to get out there andintroduce new items to our
borders.
Vegetables, fruit, andornamentals, most especially
(02:07):
woody, hardy, perennial plantswith no soil and the roots at
all.
Sounds like something shouldn'tbe done in the garden,
certainly not in the middle ofsummer.
But nature's planting timeallows us to take these
advantages of the plants thathave gone to sleep.
What are we going to put in?
Well, good question.
(02:28):
What's your choice?
There's two ways of looking atit for me.
Number one is I can ordersomething new.
I can pick up the catalogues,get a mail order, or better
still, I can go to the localgarden center, take a look
around.
I know for a fact there'll besome apple trees and possibly
(02:50):
some roses.
And they may well be in pots.
But that doesn't necessarilymean they've been grown in pots.
If they've been grown in pots,we'll say apple trees, they will
tell you they're pots grown.
And for a typical young appletree, you might pay something
like somewhere between 35 to 50pounds.
(03:11):
Straightforward.
Because it's been grown in thatpot, it will have a ball of
root.
You can buy them much cheaperif you buy a bare-rooted apple
tree.
Now it too will be presented ina pot, perhaps.
This is quite normal.
Don't assume it's going to havea ball of roots.
(03:32):
If it's much cheaper, and theycan be bought anything from
about £20 to £30 locally, I'vebought them.
And this is the way I prefer toplant my apples, coming
bare-rooted.
Similarly at this time of year,with roses, rose bushes.
(03:53):
When you receive them, quite ashock to the system.
You open the package, say it'sroses, maybe two or three roses
in one packet, large pack, andshock upon shock.
The roots, you can see them, nosoil on them.
They're sometimes possibly evendry.
Goodness knows how long they'vebeen travelling.
Hopefully they come directly toyou.
(04:15):
First job, get them into abucket of water and leave them
for several hours overnight ifpossible, and get them fully
charged with water before youplant them.
Similarly, the fruit trees.
Do the same with them.
When you're going to plantthem, and there's various roots
to success here, but this is theway I do it and it works for
(04:38):
me.
When you're going to plantthem, dig the hole first.
Prepare the hole.
And dig a hole that's twice thedepth and twice the width of
the root system that you see infront of you on the plant you
received.
Put your organic material in.
Composted material, somecompost from a bag even you've
(05:00):
bought, or well-rotted animalmanure.
Get that in.
Then water it.
Don't water afterwardsnecessarily.
The water needs to be aroundthe roots of the plant.
So water the compost before youput the plant in.
Now the plant will not havebeen lying out on the soil
waiting to be planted becausethe air, wind, it will dry out
(05:25):
the roots again, which defeatsthe purpose of soaking them in
the first place.
The stay in the bucket or thetub with the water until the
point of planting.
Then you get them in, then youbackfill the soil, making it
firm as you go until the wholething is planted.
Then you can water the surfaceas well if you wish.
(05:45):
It'll have to work its way downto the roots, but it'll keep it
moist.
And then I would like to putdown now a mulch on the surface.
It will keep the moisture in.
It retains a certain amount ofwarmth during the winter period,
which will come, and you've gotthe flying start with your
apple tree or your rose for thenext year.
Carl Stiansen (06:14):
Waterways can be wonderful places for wildlife,
and Tom Cardwallender's beenalong the owl nestuary to bring
us some tales from the riverbanks.
Tom Cadwallender (06:32):
The other morning I bumped into my good
old pal Tom Pat, the demongardener of Lesbury, and
colleague on the podcaster, he'sa good old lad.
Anyway, we bumped into eachother on um in Lesbury, and Tom
had his fishing rod with him.
And uh I didn't I'd forgottenTom was a fisherman.
(06:53):
But anyway, we got chattingabout um various things, and he
said he just he really enjoysgoing down to the river and just
well, basically standing still.
And there's a lot to be saidfor standing still.
And Tom is usually a veryactive person in his garden, and
as you well very well know,he's uh he's an amazing
gardener, he's so muchknowledge, but he's he's really
(07:15):
quite industrious in his garden.
So actually, he it's it's quitea good therapy therapy for him,
I think, to go fishing andactually just stand by a
riverside with his fishing rodand just watch the world go by.
And he might catch a fish ortwo, but anyway, that's that's
kind of uh sidetracking thestory.
Um when we got chatting and heand he was telling me that um
he'd just seen a family party ofotters just up by the 18 arches
(07:39):
on the River Aln up fromLesbury.
And yeah, that uh that is thecase.
I've I've seen them up therebefore, and I've seen one or two
other single animals furtherdownriver.
But also we got chatting aboutkingfishers, and that was quite
interesting that conversation,because yeah, the the standing
still on the riverside is meansthat a kingfisher would just sit
(08:03):
and watch you and watch theriver at the same time, uh, and
you really get some fabulousviews just by sitting still
anywhere, really, any bit anybit of habitat.
If you just settle down for alittle while and just think and
just watch what's going on therewithout many any making any
kind of serious movements,anything like that.
Just just take your time andjust sort of look around what's
(08:26):
going on there, and you'llgradually just blend into your
your surroundings and theanimals and birds and insects,
if it's the right time of year,of course, will actually come
around and have a look at youand just think it's quite
natural.
But it's it's amazing,actually, really, just sitting
still.
You don't have to be kind of umrushing around everywhere,
(08:46):
which I tend to do, um, butyeah, just to take your time and
and watch what's going on thenyou'll see all sorts of things.
But back to the kingfisher.
Kingfishers are just incrediblebirds.
It's a m huge family of birds,actually, kingfishers.
There's all manner of birds ofkingfish around the world.
Um, but in in Britain and inEurope largely, there's only one
(09:10):
species, and that's known asthe common kingfisher.
But they all have the same sortof kind of uh tendencies or or
kind of um characteristics, ifyou like, around the world.
They've all got them.
They're all brightly coloured,and they're all amazingly
coloured.
And the common kingfisher, orthe European kingfisher, as it's
called, wrongly, because thekingfisher that we have uh is
(09:33):
found right across throughEurope, into Africa, and even
into Asia.
So they're found right acrossthere.
But they have this electricblue, um, black uh back plumage,
but they've got this orangeunderneath, and they tend to be
sort of in the uh in the in thebreeding season, they'll they'll
be up river a little way andthey'll find a a nice sort of
(09:56):
quiet spot just tucked away, andthey'll they'll dig a hole in
the in the nest in the uh theriver river bank, bit of exposed
bank, and they'll d dig a holeperhaps about um I don't know,
forty-five centimetres deep, andthey'll they'll lay their their
eggs in that that hole, uh andthey'll eventually they'll
hatch, and uh the young willcome and sit at the edge of the
(10:18):
um edge of the uh of the hole.
Uh it's amazing to see.
And it's if you see akingfisher, and if it's carrying
a fish with its head, with thefish's head facing out of its
mouth, it's destined to be fedto the young ones.
But if it's actually carrying afish the other way around, it's
(10:38):
going to be for itself, it'llswallow it.
It's easier to swallow headheadfirst straight down.
But if it's going to feed theyoung one, uh a young one, it
will go straight, uh it will beheadfirst, so it'll go straight
down the the um the young bird'suh throat.
Uh so yes, it's quitefascinating.
But up but uh but when it comesto the autumn and early winter,
we tend to see these kingfisheskind of come downstream and
(10:59):
they'll be in the estuaries.
I I where I like to sit, um inthe uh on the island estuary, I
regularly see kingfishers in themost strange places, right on
the on the estuary mouth, umjust kind of feeding on all
sorts of small fish coming upand down the and up and down the
estuary.
And really when the uh theweather gets a little bit harder
(11:19):
further into the winter, we seethem on rock pools.
So you fairly regularly see inin December and January, you'll
see um uh kingfishers feeding inrock pools.
Uh and that bright, bright blueflash as it goes past is
incredible.
But actually, I've got my eartuned to the noise of them as
well, and they'll make quite anexplosive chk as they as they
(11:43):
go.
It's not very good atimpersonation.
Again, as you know, I'm notvery good at making bird sounds,
but it makes this this quitedistinctive noise as they fly
upstream.
But I've seen a large number ofkingfishers around the world,
and there are kingfishers whichspecialise in uh being in
woodland.
You think, wow, that's not akingfisher, surely?
But actually, yes, it is.
And there's some reallybrightly coloured ones,
(12:05):
particularly out in Asia, uh,where I was in the in the
spring, I was out in Malaysia,and we were watching woodland
kingfishers, and they were allkind of hues of green and purple
and blue and orange, andincredible.
And when they're in woodland,they're not necessarily feeding
on um on fish, but they arefeeding on uh on other
(12:25):
invertebrates, quite largeinvertebrates.
They'll feed on frogs, they'llfeed on feed on uh on on
tadpoles and and and one or twoother things.
But they're they're much moreomnivorous than than the
kingfishers that we have in thispart of the world, uh, or the
the kingfisher that we have inthis part of the world.
But it's a great thing, and andthey're uh can be quite a big
size.
And there are one or twoexceptions to this brightly
(12:47):
coloured idea.
There are things like the piedkingfisher, which really hovers.
You go into Africa, NorthAfrica particularly, uh you'll
see these pied kingfisher, andthe uh and they'll they'll
hover, but it's it's kind ofreally black and white, uh, and
and it's quite distinctive.
But one of the the kind ofcraziest things I I've ever
(13:08):
seen, uh I was in India earlierthis uh last month, but that was
my second trip.
My first trip to India was in1981, and I have amazing
memories from that time.
And I remember watching aSmyrna kingfisher as they were
known.
Now they're calledwhite-throated kingfishers, and
they're really quite omnivorous,and they're a bit more sort of
(13:29):
um dryland specialists.
And this bird, I was sittingstill quite uh one one day, and
this bird was and it caughtsomething and it was bashing.
It was bushing, it hadn't inits bill, and it was bushing
this this thing on a branch, andit was kept sort of bashing,
bashing, bashing, and I couldn'tfigure out what it was.
I got my binoculars and I startI was watching it quite
intently, and then I realisedwhat it was.
(13:51):
It was a lesser white throat.
This was a kind of a uh a bushwarbler type bird, which and we
get them in the northernhemisphere, but actually the
winter down in and through Indiaand into into Africa.
But this kick this smurno, thiswhite-throated kingfisher, had
caught this bird and it wasbashing it and bashing it and
breaking its its kind of itsbones, and then eventually it
(14:12):
was small enough so and flexibleenough so it could swallow the
um this this bird whole and itjust gulped it down.
Incredible! I never really knewthat was the case, that these
birds could actually eat orwould eat small birds, but they
do, they'll eat anything.
So that was a lesson, asalutary lesson to me.
(14:33):
So this conversation with thedemon gardener of Lesbury, Tom
Patt, brought back fabulousmemories of of India in 90, you
know, almost 45 years ago.
Incredible, really, isn't it?
But I may have more tales ofIndia coming uh during the
course of this uh this winter inthe podcasts.
But anyway, that's enough ofme.
(14:55):
I'll speak to you at some pointin the near future.
Thanks very much, folks.
Bye.
Carl Stiansen (15:05):
Tom Pattinson's making the most of the autumn
calm and looking to well maybemove a few things around the
garden.
And he's got some greattechniques to share on how to do
this.
Tom Pattinson (15:21):
One of the things that appeals to me most about
nature's planting time is thelength of time it extends.
It begins now, now that they'rebare-rooted, can be lifted bare
rooted, the plants.
Uh evergreens as well, ofcourse, can be can be lifted
with the best ball of root youcan find on them and
(15:41):
transplanted.
The point is it extends waythrough the winter months up to
the point of spring.
So in the absence of frost,severe frost outside, it has to
be um a calm day, and if thesoil is not frosted, you can
plant it anytime or transplantat any time.
(16:02):
That's the good thing aboutplants being dormant and you
acting while they're asleep forthe winter.
If you're going to movesomething, which this is the
part I do love, I love to gointo the garden with my spade
and double check now which onesdid I say which plants or which
(16:23):
shrubs or which apple tree orwhich rose was taking up too
much space.
And quite aggressive can be theinner nature aggression of some
plants in terms of growth andcolonizing ground.
You can prune them, of course,but they'll fight back from the
pruning, they put on new growth.
(16:44):
Sometimes pruning um has theopposite effect, they send up
double the strength of growth inresponse to the pruning.
That's fine if you'rerejuvenating a plant, a
perennial plant.
But sometimes the main answeris moving that plant.
So if I say it's a shrub uh ora young apple tree, I've done
(17:05):
this several times before.
Uh move the apple tree.
How old is it?
How tall is it?
How big is it?
How large is the system ofroots going to be?
Generally with a tree, amassive tree, we say that the
area of the canopy is mirroredbelow ground by the roots.
(17:26):
So think about that.
You can't go lifting, say, a uma pear tree that's three meters
tall, digging it out and umtransplanting it.
Or can you?
This is something I've donebefore.
So, say it's an apple tree or abear tree, and it's probably
(17:46):
two meters tall, maybe eventhree.
If it's about f anywhere up tofive or six years old, it might
just be doable.
So, I prepare the hole I'mgoing to plant it in first and
foremost, to move to anotherpart of the um the border or
another part of the garden, andthen I start digging well away
(18:09):
from the main trunk.
So I'm going out first of allto assume there's going to be
quite a good root system.
Dig down, and then I digunderneath, horizontally way
down below where the roots willbe.
And once I got it loose in thehole, it's clearly going to be
too heavy to move or to carryanyway for one person, even two.
(18:32):
So what I do is, and this isquite feasible, I lever the root
ball out of the hole onto theside, and there I have waiting
for me some fabric, a largesheet of fabric that will slide
across the soil or the or thelawn to the new planting hole.
(18:54):
So I ease it onto that and Islide it across as if it was on
a sledge.
That's the way I transferred apear tree.
And I've done it with apples aswell.
And they recover.
Watering well off a sport witha couple of crisscross stakes,
support posts at the base, untilit gets that root system going
(19:18):
again with new roots and anchorsitself.
That is possible.
Similarly with herbaceousperennials.
I love at this time of year,the aggressive ones, digging
them up.
The heart of the plant is notwhat I go for.
I dig the whole plant up, putit on some fabric on the on the
lawn at the side, and then Ichop it into sections.
(19:38):
It's the outer sections which Igo for because they're the
vigorous ones, pieces with rootand stem ready to come, uh only
the stems are dormant, littleshoots there, and you get a
whole range of new plants fromthat single plant.
And then if it's been veryaggressive, you just plant maybe
one of them or three of themback and start afresh with that.
(20:01):
This is propagation, and it'sbased most basic.
And this opportunity isprovided by plants going into
dormancy and the fact that wecan move them with bare roots,
no soil on them at all.
Best part is they haven't aclue they've been moved.
Carl Stiansen (20:28):
In the warm days of summer, you may remember the
invitation to take part in thebig butterfly count.
Well, here to give us an updateon the results is Richard
Austin, recording schemesofficer at Butterfly
Conservation.
Hello, Richard.
Richard Austin, Recordin (20:47):
Hello, Carl.
The results of ButterflyConservation's Big Butterfly
Count 2025 have been published.
This year, over 125,000 peopletook part and submitted over
160,000 counts.
These are record numbers, andit is fantastic to see more
people engage with recordingbutterflies.
Over 1.7 million butterfliesand moths were recorded, with
(21:12):
the top five species being largewhite, small white, gatekeeper,
red admiral, and meadow brown.
Overall, participants spotted10.3 butterflies on average per
15-minute count.
This does compare favorablywith the data from last year,
when just seven butterflies werespotted per 15-minute count.
(21:33):
However, it is broadly averagewhen compared to the data across
the past 15 years and has donelittle to reverse longer-term
declines.
When looking at the data, wecan see that there are some
positive results for certainspecies.
The large white and small whiteboth recorded their best ever
big butterfly count result.
(21:54):
On the other hand, the smalltortoiseshell, which had its
worst big butterfly count resultin 2024, showed some
improvement but still recorded abelow average year and has
declined by 60% since 2011.
The Jersey tiger moth had arecord year.
The species was recorded morewidely and in higher numbers
(22:16):
than ever before, with over11,000 moths counted.
By contrast, Holly Blue had itssecond worst big butterfly
count result on record.
Common blue had its thirdworst, and Meadow Brown had its
fourth worst count result.
Last year, butterflies andmoths struggled with the weather
(22:38):
conditions.
A wet spring and cold summerhampered their activity to fly,
find mates, and lay eggs.
By contrast, in 2025, the UKrecorded its sunnier spring and
warmer summer, which is muchmore favorable for butterflies
as they are cold-blooded insectsand need warmth and sunshine to
thrive.
The 15-year big butterfly counttrends show that more than
(23:02):
twice as many widespread specieshave declined significantly
than have increased.
And while most species had abetter than average summer, one
third of species fared poorlyeven in the generally beneficial
weather.
So, how can we help butterfliesand moths?
A major impact to butterfly andmoth populations is down to
(23:24):
habitat loss.
But we can all do our part tocreate a wild space for nature.
Wild spaces can be onbalconies, patios, in gardens,
and community spaces such asallotments, public parks, or in
school grounds.
You can create a wild space byplanting nectarics, flowers, or
wild herbs in pots and planters,leaving a wilder area of leaves
(23:46):
and sticks in your garden, orplanting native trees or shrubs.
Have a look at thewildspaces.co.uk website for
more information.
Another major driver ofbutterfly population trends is
land management, and pesticideuse is having a considerable
effect on butterflies.
Butterfly conservation isasking people to sign its open
(24:07):
letter to retailers calling forthe removal of toxic synthetic
pesticides from sale fordomestic use.
There is no monitoring of theamount used, where they used, or
the impact that they have onthe wider ecosystem.
(24:29):
We need retailers to join ourrescue mission and lead the way
in switching to naturalgardening methods by removing
the synthetic pesticides fromsale.
We are in a nature crisis.
People want to help, and whichare providing them with the
tools to do so, not the meansfor destruction.
Please visit ButterflyConservation's website to add
(24:50):
your name to the letter.
A huge thank you to everyonewho took part in this year's Big
Butterfly Count.
Next year's Big Butterfly Countwill take place between the
17th of July and the 9th ofAugust.
Carl Stiansen (25:13):
Tom Cadwallander's scanning the
skies for skeins of Pinkfeet.
Over to you, Tom Cadwallander.
Tom Cadwallender (25:27):
Autumn winter.
Just you love it.
It's great.
It's the time when thePinkfeet, the pink footed goose,
is heading down through eastcoast of England from Iceland
and Greenland.
I don't know if you can hearthem.
There's skeins of them justgoing over me now.
(25:49):
I'm doing a bird survey up nearseahouses.
And it's I'm quite close to thecoast.
But the fields are kind ofstubbly and grazed by cattle,
and there's curlews in thefields, and there's kind of some
skylarks around and one or twoother things.
But the underlying noise thatis going on around me of pink
(26:11):
feet, oh man, isn't itabsolutely magical?
I don't know if you can hearthem, but they're just amazing.
There's skeins of, I don'tknow, several hundred here.
And there's three or four ofthem.
And you know how they fly?
They're flying around andthey're flying in sort of loose,
loose V's.
And the typical, you know, theclassic occupypal kind of uh
(26:33):
goose migration or goose gooseflock basically, and they'll
they'll take turns in leadingthis gang, you know.
They'll they'll kind of just umtake their turns in one go
front and and say, I know wherethe I know where the nearest
bait field is, lads, come on,come with me.
And then, oh we're tired now,so someone else will take over
and away they go.
But it's amazing actually.
(26:53):
They they're the it's it's thechange actually in in say say 15
years in Northumberland, it'sit's fantastic.
You know, they they used totravel over, yes, we used to see
them, we've seen them for fordonkeys, they've traveled
they've passed Northumberland umeons, during eons, and
normally, uh traditionally, theywould have been heading down
(27:14):
into the North Norfolk coastwhere they winter in really big
numbers, and uh the so they'vejust passed through.
But in the last sort of 15 oddyears, there's been a change in
behaviour.
The um what we're seeing now isthat some of these birds are
are overwintering in our part ofthe world, so it's a quite
significant change there.
(27:34):
And there must be sort of 15,20,000 pink feet kind of
wintering in uh inNorthumberland, and they're kind
of the they will follow thestubble fields around, but
they're largely around sort ofthe uh southeast corner Druidge
Bay, up towards Lindersfawn, andI think the ones I'm hearing
now are the are the Lindersfawngang, but also they they will
(27:56):
winter in land near uh Millfieldand the Middlefield Plain.
It's kind of nice and beingflat and quite open and the it's
it's it's quite secure.
Um but the uh they will kind ofjust move around those those
flocks, but uh th those fields,those areas.
But what we're seeing actuallyis when they see, particularly
at this time of year, whenthey've they're really just
recently in, because they'veonly been coming in this last
(28:17):
two and a half weeks, and uhthey're finding stubble fields
and they're moving around thosequite uh quite readily, and
they're kind of just movingaround.
But you just as a as a guy justgoing away from me quite high,
they'll they'll be going up thelintest farm, possibly.
It's quite exciting.
Those of you who know me willknow I haven't got very much
(28:37):
hair, but actually, the bit I'vegot it stands up on end
whenever I hear these pink feetgoing over, and I get I'm and
I'm I'm getting on a bit thesedays, and generally what happens
when you get on a bit, yourhearing goes.
And uh, but actually I've gotquite this yeah, I've got quite
good hearing for a man of myage, and actually I can hear
pink feet from quite a long way.
(28:58):
Um and don't get these pinkfeet mixed with the mixed up
with these other geese.
They are grey geese, and thetwo common grey geese that we
see are these pinks and the greylags.
But the grey lags have got bigorange bills, and these pink
feet have got really quitedainty bills, dark with a little
bit of flesh coloured uh tip tothe bill, but also they have
got pink legs, so which whichmakes them stand out a bit as
(29:21):
well, hence the name pink feet,of course.
But don't get them confusedwith the um with the uh the grey
lags, or indeed the raucousCanada geese, they're black
geese, and they're the oneswhich uh are kind of black and
white and they're quite big andthey're they're feral basically.
Um but we do have two otherspecies of geese which are
hanging around, um, a dentalfoam, basically, and we've got
(29:43):
brand geese there, and there's alight bellied foam, and they're
they're really quite a daintygoose.
Um they're they're dark apartfrom a light belly, uh as the
name suggests, but there's adark bellied foam as well, which
adds a little bit of confusion.
But they've got a little whitefleck on their necks, um, and
they're quite.
Quite small, not much biggerthan a Malamond.
And the and they're coming downfrom Svalbard, Spitzbergen, and
(30:07):
they breed up there.
And Lindesfahren is the onlyplace in the UK, and there's one
other place in Europe, inDenmark, but sometimes the the
two um European gangs jointogether at Lindersfawn.
And Lindersfawn is the onlyplace in the in the entire world
at that point where these bruntgeese will gather.
There's not a huge populationof them.
(30:28):
There's only about 10,000 orso.
But any but really makesLindersfawn exceptionally
important for these for thatspecies.
But the other change we'reseeing, and it's again with a
black goose, and it's thebarnacle goose.
And these birds again arecoming down from Spitzbergen,
and they're coming down.
But what they used to do is tocross the from a long way north,
(30:50):
they would follow down theNorwegian coast, hit the east
coast, across the North Sea, hitthe east coast of Britain and
mainly Scotland, and follow thecoast down until they got to the
Tyne Gap, the river Tyne, andthey'll cross over then to
winter on the Sulway, and that'swhere there's tens of thousands
of them wintering then, andthat's their traditional
(31:11):
wintering place.
But what we're seeing now isthat there's about 10,000 of
these bundle geese wintering nowat Lindersfawn.
So they're not actually makingthat journey, they're making
their way down to Lindersfawn,but they're not making the
journey across the um across thecountry.
And you know, the if the thetiny to call um across the the
through the tiny gap.
(31:32):
And that that little bit of ofthe of England is really quite
numbrow.
Um and um well it's actuallyEngland, Scotland, but it's
quite number there.
It's only been 80 months, soit's quite easy to cross.
In fact, if they're coming inhigh enough on the east coast,
they could probably see the westcoast.
But no, they're making thedecision to stay on the east at
Lindisfarne.
And again, it's another kind ofjewel in the crown of this
(31:53):
wonderful national naturereserve of Lindisfarne.
It's absolutely brilliant.
Um, but also the the uhbarnacle goose is uh is one of
my favourites, it's really quitea pretty goose, and it's it's
one of the black ones, but it'sgot a white face, and it really
is quite quite distinctive whenyou see them, and they're
feeding and feels and things,and it's uh and it's really
quite nice to see them that way.
(32:14):
Um but the it's quite charmingin a sense.
But we're seeing this change,this this kind of behavioural
change of um probably driven byclimate change, you know.
Um but anyway, we're benefitingfrom that.
But Northumberland is just oneof those magical places uh that
you could find all these birdsjust hanging around and just
(32:35):
anytime you go out.
Uh and it's really quitemagical.
I feel quite quite privilegedthat I'm in that sort of
situation, you know.
Uh anyway, that's me, that'sthat's my buzz back into
podcasting and back into uhbirding.
Well, in fact, I'm never out ofbirding, I'm birding every day.
But anyway, folks, I hopeyou're okay, and uh we'll catch
(32:57):
you next time.
Bye.
Carl Stiansen (33:07):
And so to the sound of Wor Blackbird, here's
Tom with some things to begetting on with in the garden.
Tom Pattinson (33:16):
So it's jobs for the week time, and I have lawn
on my mind at the moment.
I removed a shrub which hadoutstate its welcome, and uh I
need to patch that area byextending the lawn.
I've got two choices, eitherfrom seed or from turf.
(33:36):
Uh the seed will take a while,of course.
It's uh generally grass seed ifit's sown September, October.
It will take, will germinate,and uh a few months' time uh
it'll be by springtime, it'll beshowing itself in turning into
an extension of the lawn.
Whereas the turf is instant,much more expensive, of course,
(34:00):
by the square square meter,square yard, or whatever, uh
comes in a roll, and it's uhinstant lawn, really.
Um I'll make my mind which ofit is.
The third area using grass atthis time or extending or
repairing the lawn is worthconsidering.
If uh the edge of a lawn hasbeen trampled on, someone's
(34:22):
taken a shortcut or a car'sgoing over the edge and spoiled
it, it's a fairly simple matterof cutting out a turf, uh say uh
60 centimetres by 60centimetres, something of that
nature, and uh removing it andtwisting it round so that the
straight edge, which came fromthe inside of the lawn, is on
(34:44):
the outside now.
So you just have uh somethinginside the lawn to repair.
Get some compost into thatcompost or fresh soil and uh
sprinkle a little bit of grassseed on, and away you go.
A simple repair job for theedge of a lawn.
Beyond the lawn, I'm looking atthe apples big crop this year.
(35:06):
We have um some to storediscovery first early, it
doesn't last very long.
The the early one, it was readyby August.
Um, it's it will store tillabout November, then it starts
to uh go off.
Uh we have James Greevefollowing it, and then uh uh the
Brayburn is coming up uhshortly.
(35:28):
Brayburn will be ready.
That's the dessert apples wehave, and uh there's also the
Bramley seedling, uh which is acooker, of course, and uh it's
um to store.
Uh these apples are um comingoff, not all at the same time,
of course, some ripen before theothers, but we've got a stack
of trays in this over tower uhsituation, and because we have
(35:52):
so many apples, uh we don't wrapthem individually, that's far
too far too time consuming.
So just open on the tray, nottouching, but um in the trays in
the garage where it's cool, notfrosty though, and they'll be
fine in there.
So we're starting to storethose apples.
Grapes on the two grapevines,Madeline Angevin and uh Black
(36:15):
Hamburg, they're both ripe now.
Uh a lot of them, big cropagain this year, every year
there is.
Where some of them for dessert,um squeezing some of them for
the juice, which is brilliant aswell.
Of course, the other obviousoption is to make some wine, but
uh no time for that.
The juice is fine, uh andthey'll last for a while those
(36:38):
grapes.
I'm looking at the brassicasoutside, the winter brassicas,
Brussels sprouts, lovely, tallum Brussels sprouts at the
moment.
They're plumping up well uhfirst frost, apparently.
Um, it's best to taste them outfrom the first frost.
I taste them anytime, but uhthey're doing well, and so are
the um cabbages.
(36:58):
The problem is we have pigeons,everybody has pigeons, so we've
got a bit of a netting over tostop the pigeons um landing on
the top, picking away at thetops and leaving uh you know
what all over the foliage.
Um, we're also looking atgeneral salvage operations
outside.
It's really approaching time tobring some of the um half-hardy
(37:21):
items from outside, be the uhuh citrus trees and shrubs or
something of that nature, bringthem in for a bit of cover.
I have various things in theunheated greenhouse, like
streptocarpus, some uh coffeeplants, coffee arabica, a few of
those in pots.
I'll let find place frominside.
(37:43):
Generally uh looking afterthings, anything outside that
you think might not stand up tothe frost, um, put some straw
over it, keep some soil overthat if it's a herbaceous type,
say, for example.
Um I'm also looking at uhhardwood cuttings of shrubs,
general run-of shrubs, uhhardwood stem cuttings, and of
(38:05):
course the black currant, redcurrant, and gooseberry.
Just putting pieces of stem upto thirty centimetres long,
pushing them into the soil,burying them by about three
quarters the depth, just alittle quarter sticking up,
leave them and they'll rootwhere they are.
There's so many jobs.
Who said this wasn't a busytime of year?
Of course it is.
(38:25):
Whatever you're doing, enjoyyour gardening.
Carl Stiansen (38:36):
You've been listening to Gardener Tom
Pattinson, Birder TomCadwallander from the British
Trust for Ornithology, andRichard Austin, recording
schemes officer at ButterflyConservation.
Don't forget you can listenback to all our previous
programmes via the Nature GardenPodcast.
That's the Nature GardenPodcast.
(38:58):
I'm Carl Stiansen.
Thanks for listening, and enjoyyour gardening and time
outdoors with nature.
Bye for now.
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