January 31, 2024 • 30 mins
Welcome home everybody!
In this episode Rob and I lead our Sidestrand School group on a walk along the shingle and sand dunes of Blakeney Point, a spit of land on the North Norfolk Coast that is incrementally lost to the sea as it rolls out for 4 miles.
The point is a national nature reserve currently managed by the National Trust, and it gives protection for Blakeney Harbour and the surrounding salt marshes, which in turn provide habitats for a vast array of resident and migratory wildlife. The point is known internationally for spectacular displays of summer breeding Terns and also for its winter breeding colony of grey seals, which make up roughly 30% of the world’s total population, and giving birth this season to almost 5000 pups.
After a mile or so of labouring along the shingle we came across a small group of 8 to 10 adult seals. we didn’t want to get too close and instead decided to watch them through scopes and binoculars, and listen using parabolic and shotgun microphones.
In the end we weren’t able to make good audio recordings of the seals, partly because their calling can be infrequent and muffled by the roaring sea, but also because the thrill of seeing them spawned an almost constant excited chatter amongst our human troop. This didn’t mean the trip wasn’t worthwhile though. The effort of walking on shingle, the fun and challenge of being in a wild environment, and the positivity garnered from getting out of school, hanging out with your friends and experiencing something totally new gave the trip its meaning.
LINKS
NT Blakeney Point
Where to see Seals in Norfolk
Homesounds
HomeSounds Show Supporters Club
In this episode Rob and I lead our Sidestrand School group on a walk along the shingle and sand dunes of Blakeney Point, a spit of land on the North Norfolk Coast that is incrementally lost to the sea as it rolls out for 4 miles.
The point is a national nature reserve currently managed by the National Trust, and it gives protection for Blakeney Harbour and the surrounding salt marshes, which in turn provide habitats for a vast array of resident and migratory wildlife. The point is known internationally for spectacular displays of summer breeding Terns and also for its winter breeding colony of grey seals, which make up roughly 30% of the world’s total population, and giving birth this season to almost 5000 pups.
After a mile or so of labouring along the shingle we came across a small group of 8 to 10 adult seals. we didn’t want to get too close and instead decided to watch them through scopes and binoculars, and listen using parabolic and shotgun microphones.
In the end we weren’t able to make good audio recordings of the seals, partly because their calling can be infrequent and muffled by the roaring sea, but also because the thrill of seeing them spawned an almost constant excited chatter amongst our human troop. This didn’t mean the trip wasn’t worthwhile though. The effort of walking on shingle, the fun and challenge of being in a wild environment, and the positivity garnered from getting out of school, hanging out with your friends and experiencing something totally new gave the trip its meaning.
LINKS
NT Blakeney Point
Where to see Seals in Norfolk
Homesounds
HomeSounds Show Supporters Club
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:39):
Welcome home, everybody, and welcometo the Home Sound Show. My name
is Martin and I'm a field recordistand teacher. I'm the creator of the
Home Sounds Project and your co hostfor the show along with Rob. Hello
everybody. My name is Rob andI'm an educator and naturalist. I work
for the National Trust at Sheringham Parkin north As part of their Children and
(01:00):
Young People of The Home Sound Showinvites everyone to become active environmental listeners.
Each month we visit a different location, seeking out seasonal natural sound and focusing
on a different theme. In thisepisode, Rob and I lead our Sidestround
school group on a walk along theshingle and sand dunes of Blakeney Point,
(01:23):
a spit of land on the NorthNorfolk Coast that is incrementally lost to the
sea as it rolls out for fourmiles. The Point is a National Nature
reserve currently managed by the National Trust, and it gives protection for Blakeney Harbour
and the surrounding salt marshes, whichin turn provide habitats for a vast array
of resident and migratory wildlife. ThePoint is known internationally for spectacular displays of
(01:49):
summer breeding urns, and also forits winter breeding colony of gray seals,
which make up roughly thirty percent ofthe world's total population and gave birth this
season to almost five thousand pups.After a mile or so of laboring along
the shingle, we came across asmall group of eight to ten adult seals.
(02:10):
We didn't want to get too close, and instead decided to watch them
through scopes and binoculars and listen usingparabolic and shotgun microphones. In the end,
we weren't able to make good orderrecordings of the seals, partly because
their calling can be infrequent and muffledby the roaring sea, but also because
(02:30):
the thrill of seeing them spanned andalmost constant excited chatter amongst our human troop.
This didn't mean the trip wasn't worthwhile, though the effort of walking on
shingle, a fun and challenge ofbeing in a wild environment, and the
positivity garnered for getting out of school, hanging out with your friends and experiencing
(02:52):
something totally new gave the trip itsmeaning. Right, do you want to
gather around? Gather around for asecond. Gather around for a second.
(03:16):
I'll talk a little bit about whatwe're going to do so as as origin
earlier. My name is Rob andthis is Martin. You see Martin.
He's got lots of wapping equipment withhim that we're going to be using,
hopefully to record some sounds that wehear on our walk to day. So
we're at ply at the moment now. Something we call it cly. Some
(03:36):
people call it clay, but I'mgoing to call it cry most people call
it. And in that direction isthe ability. And so what we're standing
on now is what how are youdescribe what we're standing on there? Well?
(03:59):
Thank you shingle yes, because thisis a shingle fit and it runs
about four miles in that direction,and it's a bit like a closed punched
fist out into the sea, runningfrom the east to the west, and
we're going to walk along it andit's a really special geographical feature. And
(04:27):
you get quite a long way awayfrom everybody at the end of the point,
which is white. The seals likeit, I know, and they're
already we can spot a gouffle,can't we. There's two over there,
and there was a big one.I think a bull seal was just in
the water over here as well,because this is the time of the year
when the seals come out of thewater degree and not right here. You
(04:48):
have to walk quite a long wayto see them in big numbers. I
don't know how far we're going toget today, but hopefully we're going to
get a little way and I'm surewe're going to see I'm sure we're gonna
see plenty of Now, a fewthings about safety. Safety point number one,
the ball seals are big animals,and they can be a little progressive
(05:11):
firma because they're breathing, they're kindof they're territorial when they're out on the
beach. And the bottom line iswe're not going to go very close.
I have brought a telescope with meso we can we can look at them
in detail and a little way away. Okay. Now, who knows,
we might see some seals quite close, but we're not going to intentionally approach
(05:36):
them close. That's the first day. Okay. Second safety point is you
get all sorts of washed up stuffon the beach, all sorts of stuff.
Some of it is really interesting naturalstuff, some of it is interesting
artificial man made stuff, and someof it is dangerous stuff. Okay,
(05:57):
so falling into the dangerous too capnumber one dead creatures that might find some
dead creatures, maybe some dead birds. Is a dead I'll tell you what
that was. A I never noticedthis pretty much standing on the remains of
a deceased razor bill as we havebeen as we speak. So maybe take
(06:18):
one step back. The reason isat the moment we're still a bit worried
about bird clue, so we're notgoing to be picking up any bird dance.
And the second thing, man madestuff that could be dodgy. Well,
I can tell you the story aboutwhen I worked at home, which
is that way, several miles inthat direction. Anyway, we've had a
(06:38):
big metal thing on the beach.It's got a long story short. We
had a spade. We think itlug worms. At the time my mate
thought, oh, what's this andand hit it with a spade and it
made any don sound, and thenhe stood back. I reco this to
World War two mine, you know, and then for some inexplicable reason,
he's again with the spade. Iwas like, the thing needs a mind,
(07:00):
don't hit it with a spade.Anyway, turned out it was actually
annoying and they have to bring upthe bomb squad. They came out from
Portsmouth. They got just jumped ina car and came straight up and I
take they didn't actually explode it,but they did do something with it that
meant they could take it. Sothere we go. So hopefully we're not
going to find any unexploded ordinance onthe beak and all sorts of other stuff.
(07:26):
So if it looks here's the rule. If it looks dodgy, assume
it's dodgy and right start, let'sgo. Rob and I returned to Clay
(07:49):
a week or so later to reflecton the trip to Blakeney and take stock
of the work we've done so far. With the young people from side Strand
School, we also talked more generallyabout using environmental listening as an educational tool,
trying to pin down what works whereand when. Okay, so we're
(08:11):
at cly No. I think you'vecalled it Claie. I. Yeah,
so this is We're at Clyde,but this car park is Clye. I
it's where the Glaven reaches the seaessentially, yeah, or perhaps where the
(08:33):
glavin used to reach the sea.There's like a loop of the the river
where it comes up here, andso it's the beach car park essentially,
So it's the it's the place whereyou can access Blakeney Point on foot walk
up Blakeney Point. We'll come ona different day to the trip. And
(08:54):
that's partly because when we go onthe trips, we never know what we're
going to find sound wise, andalso because it's sort of becoming clear that
a lot of the benefits of thetrips are not necessarily about the wildlife stuff
(09:16):
and the you know, looking fora particular sound. In this case,
we were looking for the we're lookingfor the seals, but it's also the
experience of the whole day and theexperience of walking together and the experience of
(09:37):
listening together or trying to listen together, and yeah, and what that's what
that's offering. So it's it's sortof all the good stuff which a lot
of people know about being outside,with the extra element of trying to encourage
(09:58):
people to be quiet to listen.So maybe we should just talk a little
bit about this group. So howdo we set up the Sidestrand group?
Yeah, Well, so the NationalTrust has been working with Sidestrand School for
a number of years now. Infact, going back probably ten or fifteen
(10:22):
years really, and so Sidestrand isthis special school on the coast and they've
expanded over the years actually, butthey cover quite a range of ages that
some of them are residential. They'vegot sixth form, so lots of kids
go there, some stay there,others are busting sort of thing. And
(10:45):
they've all got various special needs essentially, some emotional, some behavioral, some
learning difficulties, all different sorts ofkids really, So we've been working with
them for a long while, andI guess one of the things that they
do study obviously the standard curriculum,but they do tend to have the ability
(11:07):
to get out of school to comeand do stuff, which in mainstream education
is very rare. So trying toget a group of you know, fifteen
fifteen year olds to come out ona from a mainstream school just there isn't
the the air. The curriculum justdoesn't allow it. It is not going
(11:31):
to happen. So they're always readyand willing, really, and so we've
done art projects with them, we'vedone conservation work with them, and so
when we had this idea of thisenvironmental sound listening project, they were sort
of my first port of call topick up some contacts there and see if
they had a suitable group that mightmight benefit from it. And so that's
(11:56):
how it started about a year agowith our first trip. We went to
halls he didn't we also listening forthe seals And so now obviously that that
that group, they've now left theschool, some of them have moved on
to the sixth form, others havegone on to college, and so ad
trip in December was with a newgroup of young people, the fun the
(12:24):
same school. Yeah, and soit's yeah, so it was it was
you never know what you're going togo see. We built a relationship with
the with the with the kids who'vebeen working with over the course of a
year and knew them obviously, startedto know them by names, started to
know them reasonably well really, andso this first session was kind of establishing
(12:46):
those starts to establish those relationships,wasn't it. And it's funny how quickly
those relationships can get established doing thethings they've been doing. Yeah, outside,
how easy it is to start tosort of build it. Everybody trying
(13:07):
to do things together. Right now, we're all together. I think we
might play a little game to learnnames. Does that sound like a plan?
Okay, this game, No onedoes. Don't like this game.
It's too garrets. They don't bebig. White birds are not seagulls.
They're garnets are They feed on fish? They hybrid with might see some might
(13:33):
see some feeding and something when okay, right, so just get round in
a circle, buddy. We're justtalking about the school. How relatively easiest
(13:56):
being to get a quick sort offeeling, get them to feel like they're
any Yeah, quite quickly, makeit, I mean yeah, getting the
group dynamic together. So what wetend to do, and I think we've
probably recorded it at the time,is that get your own names is quite
important, isn't it. Yeah,And so getting a handle on their names,
and obviously trying to learn twelve namesis always a bit of a challenge.
(14:16):
But once you've once you've kind ofgot that it, you know,
it's an important, important, justsocial thing, isn't it? I think?
But what gets what well with allthese all the groups, all the
kids we've been working with, isand it's actually this group it was particularly
noticeable is their reaction to being here, I think, And yeah, they're
(14:43):
immediately kind of quite excited, byit, weren't they really? And it
is. I think you can getquite sort of blase about about the location
really if you come here quite alot and I know what we're working here,
really, but if you haven't experiencedI don't think any of the kids
in that group had experienced really,you know, possibly even being in this
(15:09):
sort of essentially a wild environment.Really, wasn't it when you when you
walk two miles beyond the end ofthe road, you've got you're yeah,
you're you're basically you know, you'reyou're away from anywhere, aren't you really?
And they come with sort of likeyou know, they're not all kitted
out for people will go and dothat sort of thing a lot. With
the right shoes and the right trousersand the right of jackets and stuff.
(15:31):
They come with. You know,the well is they've got at home or
you know, if they've got theschool shoes and have to kind of deal
with it, you know. Andyeah, I think that that the buzz
of being here and excited to haveto be getting out of school, I
(15:52):
think as well, it's a bigfactor. So this group, so we
came to blatantly mainly because of theSeals want to do the seals seals,
but it ended up being walked quitefar for some of the thems, quite
far. Yeah, No, Ithink for one or two of them it
(16:14):
was the furthest they'd ever they'd everwalked. Actually, yeah, And it's
and it's it's tough going, isn'tit. On the shuttle it feels like
two steps forward one step back attimes walking on shingle, And so I
think they've got got a good senseof achievement of getting right out onto the
point. And you know, wedid see a few other people out there,
(16:34):
but largely we saw more seals thanpeople didn't we It's you know,
it's an amazing being out there withso many wild animals really and obviously the
seals we talked about before. It'sthis large seal colony on the point is
a new thing. It's only beenthey've only been there for the last thirty
years and numbers have been increasing yearon year to what is now a real
(16:57):
you know, it's an important colonyfor the worldwide. Actually, it's one
of the biggest seal colonies in theworld of this particular species of seal,
of the gray seal, and they'reeverywhere and it is. You know,
it's a bit like sort of walkinginto a Attenborough documentary type thing, isn't
it. It's it's much more likethe sort of wildlife that you more often
(17:22):
than not sea on the telly ratherthan experience in real life. Walking amongst
these these big animals, dramatic,there's a lot of drama, which is
captivating. Gather around, gather around, addressing here, gather around? Okay,
(18:03):
No, what we got here?A bit of wood? Is it
driftwood? First question? Well,what tells me what clues I've got here
that it's not just a piece ofdrift wood a bit of napple wood been
washed around? Not bad? Well, that's one thing, that's one possible
(18:26):
thing. Yeah, because I thinkthis bit of wood's telling us a bit
of a story. Anything else aboutyou can ex it before closely? Okay,
yeah, there's a nail in it, it's been burned. What else
do you heal? And they're notjust holes there, holes with other bits
(18:48):
of wood inside where stuff has beenjoined together. What about the shape of
this bit of wood. It's quitelong. Yeah, but ah ah,
you think that's what I think?I reckon This is a piece of an
(19:11):
old boat now there's a big stormhere about six weeks ago, maybe a
bit less than that five weeks ago, massive storm and the loads of stuff
that washed up that have been onthe seabed for years and years and years.
So there are no I'm no archaeologists, but I reckon this is going
to be part of a very veryold boat. Yeah, a shift possibly,
(19:38):
and obviously it has been birthic alltop. Now, going back in
history, there were hundreds of sailorships that used to go down here.
They used to do all sorts ofbees. A lot of the time they
were taking goods back and forth likecol down the east coast. Also there
are battleships there as well. Sowho knows who knows how this got burned?
(20:02):
Who knows how old it is?You could make a story of,
couldn't. It's all about it,So yeah, maybe it's an old piece
of sacrifice. What do you thinktaking back from Tudor thoughts it's not It
could be, isn't it broad?We know it could be. It's definitely
(20:26):
a bit of ship anyway, andwe can see where the ship we got
put together there isn't no but alsoquite making a whole and then banging up
another bit of wood into peggy everythingtogether. That's how they used to do
it. So there we go.Right now, we're allering it. Some
of the advantages or the things thatit might offer to young people would be
(20:51):
in terms of getting time to sitquietly and listen and spending time together and
having to listen together as a group. And to be honest, a lot
of the things that ice we've sortof imagined would be the case are turning
(21:14):
out to be to be the casewhen you kind of find out a lot
about a group dynamic when you askeveryone to be quiet, and how capable
they are of being quiet or notor not being quiet, and how some
people really want to sit and listenfor a long time, some people really
don't. And it depends very muchon where you are. So when we
(21:38):
came to when we came to Blakeney, one thing I noticed it was very
hard to be quiet, and Ithink part of that was the shingle.
Yeah, with the shingle is constantlyrustling and making a noise which you'll hear
along the recordings from here. It'salso that we had quite a way to
walk and it's kind of without muchto listen to other than the shingle.
(22:03):
I think it's not like there we'reit's wildlife popping up everywhere. It's not
like walking through a woodland where there'slots of different things around. It's essentially
to see the wind and the shingleand that that kind of because it's a
constant, people feel it's nicer tochat, basically easier nicer to chat.
(22:29):
And then but that also made itmakes it in comparison to like somewhere,
Well, we've tried to talk aboutabout showing a park and until we didn't
walk and showing in the park andthere, well, the main thing was
the jets, which we would justtalk about. Suddenly came up from just
talking about the jets, and thejets have so dominant. There must have
(22:56):
been our own discounts of ten tofifteen fly paths when we were there on
that day for the showing the book. And it made it made have It
made conversation difficult, and it madehaving to It made listening almost impossible,
especially when you had microphones, becauseall you could hear was just a rumble.
And in a way it kind ofoverloaded everybody's senses and kind of made
(23:18):
everybody a bit grumpy actually, Ithought on the day it certainly made mean
grumb people, and I thought itwas quite hard to get the group dynamic
going on that day. But whenwe come to Blakeney there was much more
of a lively conversational film, whichis different to if we went to a
quiet and when we've done this withwith the bits before, whether there is
(23:38):
there's more of a willingness and akind of interest in sitting quietly, being
able to listen with expectedly when you'vegot the equipment and your hearings and hard
stuff little bit. So it's beeninteresting to think about the different settings and
how they impact how the groups work, you know, how the dynamics work.
(24:03):
So but yeah, and even whenwe saw the Seals, when we
were walking along here, we triedto have these sessions where we're getting put
down the mic and listen, butit's too exciting and all the shiggles cranling
underneath your feet and you want totalk and share your share your experiences.
You're walking as a group along thislong split of land, whereas when we've
(24:26):
done in the woodland ones and youcould go off on your own or maybe
go off on a pair and high, hind a tree or sit get out
of sight of everybody else. Thenthat was a much easier location to sort
of feel like you could sit quietlyand listen. So some interesting It's interesting
(24:47):
how much of a role the placeplays as to how successful, okay,
or how easy it is to engagewith the with the more deeper listening aspects
of what we're trying to do.Yeah, I must say the couple of
the take home things of the projectso far is firstly, and this has
happened quite early on, I wasquite surprised with how willing the group were
(25:14):
just to do the sitting and listeningthing. This idea of getting a sit
spot where you take someone, sitthem down and leave them to listen,
but the wrong an extended period oftime, ten or fifteen minutes, you
know, it tend it works reallywell with the ad arts doing it,
but with children it can be reallydifficult. And so when we plan that
(25:41):
as part of the one of theactivities we planned to do, and we
thought, yeah, okay, we'llgive them ten minutes listening to home,
see how that goes. I wasn'ttoo confident that it was going to be
successful. And you know, thewhole point of it, is you,
is that they're they're on their own, they can't really see another person,
(26:04):
and then it's just sitting down andjust you know, just starting to It
takes a little walk before the justthe sort of novelty of sitting still kind
of wears off and then they canactually just get down into the process of
actually doing some listening. Come on, what about ten of them up there?
(26:38):
And to having a fight? Nowthey fighting big ones? Okay,
out he can shows down there,but to having to fight? Is it
(27:03):
on the recording? It wants thething that really disgusting? They really disgusting?
(27:27):
What is it? You think?It's one dead thing and a lot
of live things. If you're starlingand look at all the maggots there,
look at the loads, look atall those That is like Christmas dinner for
(27:49):
a maggot, isn't it. Yeah? Yeah, Well that's kind of the
surf of life, is it droppIn some ways? It's kind of the
bird died, but then the flylives on. So that's the way it
works. Now, what we're goingto say is, well, I think
we'll probably just leave it, leaveit here, because the maggots are doing
(28:11):
their lifestycle't they really. But aswe walk on the strandline, you find
something interesting, just pick it upand pocket and put it in your pocket.
Okay, I'm not with the exceptionof maggot ridden dead birds. Okay,
So if it looks safe to pickup, find so it, put
(28:33):
it in your pocket. Because here'sthe thing. Who's over there, Bethany
Porsche, Porsche, here's the thing. Come over here you've been listening to.
If you'd like to keep listening,visit homesounds dot org, where you
(28:57):
can find all previous episodes of theWhole Sounds Show, as well as many
more opportunities to actively listen and numerousways to support and get involved with the
Home Sounds project. Alternatively, visitPopylandradio dot co dot uk and look for
the Home Sounds Show, which isbroadcast every Wednesday at one pm, or
(29:17):
the Riverlands Show, which broadcasts livesounds from Woodland and Felbrig and the Silver
Gate Stream in Blickling every Wednesday eveningat ten pm. Links relating to this
episode can be found in the descriptionWe'll be back again next month. Welcome
home, everybody,
Welcome home, everybody, and welcometo the Home Sound Show. My name
is Martin and I'm a field recordistand teacher. I'm the creator of the
Home Sounds Project and your co hostfor the show along with Rob. Hello
everybody. My name is Rob andI'm an educator and naturalist. I work
for the National Trust at Sheringham Parkin north As part of their Children and
(01:00):
Young People of The Home Sound Showinvites everyone to become active environmental listeners.
Each month we visit a different location, seeking out seasonal natural sound and focusing
on a different theme. In thisepisode, Rob and I lead our Sidestround
school group on a walk along theshingle and sand dunes of Blakeney Point,
(01:23):
a spit of land on the NorthNorfolk Coast that is incrementally lost to the
sea as it rolls out for fourmiles. The Point is a National Nature
reserve currently managed by the National Trust, and it gives protection for Blakeney Harbour
and the surrounding salt marshes, whichin turn provide habitats for a vast array
of resident and migratory wildlife. ThePoint is known internationally for spectacular displays of
(01:49):
summer breeding urns, and also forits winter breeding colony of gray seals,
which make up roughly thirty percent ofthe world's total population and gave birth this
season to almost five thousand pups.After a mile or so of laboring along
the shingle, we came across asmall group of eight to ten adult seals.
(02:10):
We didn't want to get too close, and instead decided to watch them
through scopes and binoculars and listen usingparabolic and shotgun microphones. In the end,
we weren't able to make good orderrecordings of the seals, partly because
their calling can be infrequent and muffledby the roaring sea, but also because
(02:30):
the thrill of seeing them spanned andalmost constant excited chatter amongst our human troop.
This didn't mean the trip wasn't worthwhile, though the effort of walking on
shingle, a fun and challenge ofbeing in a wild environment, and the
positivity garnered for getting out of school, hanging out with your friends and experiencing
(02:52):
something totally new gave the trip itsmeaning. Right, do you want to
gather around? Gather around for asecond. Gather around for a second.
(03:16):
I'll talk a little bit about whatwe're going to do so as as origin
earlier. My name is Rob andthis is Martin. You see Martin.
He's got lots of wapping equipment withhim that we're going to be using,
hopefully to record some sounds that wehear on our walk to day. So
we're at ply at the moment now. Something we call it cly. Some
(03:36):
people call it clay, but I'mgoing to call it cry most people call
it. And in that direction isthe ability. And so what we're standing
on now is what how are youdescribe what we're standing on there? Well?
(03:59):
Thank you shingle yes, because thisis a shingle fit and it runs
about four miles in that direction,and it's a bit like a closed punched
fist out into the sea, runningfrom the east to the west, and
we're going to walk along it andit's a really special geographical feature. And
(04:27):
you get quite a long way awayfrom everybody at the end of the point,
which is white. The seals likeit, I know, and they're
already we can spot a gouffle,can't we. There's two over there,
and there was a big one.I think a bull seal was just in
the water over here as well,because this is the time of the year
when the seals come out of thewater degree and not right here. You
(04:48):
have to walk quite a long wayto see them in big numbers. I
don't know how far we're going toget today, but hopefully we're going to
get a little way and I'm surewe're going to see I'm sure we're gonna
see plenty of Now, a fewthings about safety. Safety point number one,
the ball seals are big animals,and they can be a little progressive
(05:11):
firma because they're breathing, they're kindof they're territorial when they're out on the
beach. And the bottom line iswe're not going to go very close.
I have brought a telescope with meso we can we can look at them
in detail and a little way away. Okay. Now, who knows,
we might see some seals quite close, but we're not going to intentionally approach
(05:36):
them close. That's the first day. Okay. Second safety point is you
get all sorts of washed up stuffon the beach, all sorts of stuff.
Some of it is really interesting naturalstuff, some of it is interesting
artificial man made stuff, and someof it is dangerous stuff. Okay,
(05:57):
so falling into the dangerous too capnumber one dead creatures that might find some
dead creatures, maybe some dead birds. Is a dead I'll tell you what
that was. A I never noticedthis pretty much standing on the remains of
a deceased razor bill as we havebeen as we speak. So maybe take
(06:18):
one step back. The reason isat the moment we're still a bit worried
about bird clue, so we're notgoing to be picking up any bird dance.
And the second thing, man madestuff that could be dodgy. Well,
I can tell you the story aboutwhen I worked at home, which
is that way, several miles inthat direction. Anyway, we've had a
(06:38):
big metal thing on the beach.It's got a long story short. We
had a spade. We think itlug worms. At the time my mate
thought, oh, what's this andand hit it with a spade and it
made any don sound, and thenhe stood back. I reco this to
World War two mine, you know, and then for some inexplicable reason,
he's again with the spade. Iwas like, the thing needs a mind,
(07:00):
don't hit it with a spade.Anyway, turned out it was actually
annoying and they have to bring upthe bomb squad. They came out from
Portsmouth. They got just jumped ina car and came straight up and I
take they didn't actually explode it,but they did do something with it that
meant they could take it. Sothere we go. So hopefully we're not
going to find any unexploded ordinance onthe beak and all sorts of other stuff.
(07:26):
So if it looks here's the rule. If it looks dodgy, assume
it's dodgy and right start, let'sgo. Rob and I returned to Clay
(07:49):
a week or so later to reflecton the trip to Blakeney and take stock
of the work we've done so far. With the young people from side Strand
School, we also talked more generallyabout using environmental listening as an educational tool,
trying to pin down what works whereand when. Okay, so we're
(08:11):
at cly No. I think you'vecalled it Claie. I. Yeah,
so this is We're at Clyde,but this car park is Clye. I
it's where the Glaven reaches the seaessentially, yeah, or perhaps where the
(08:33):
glavin used to reach the sea.There's like a loop of the the river
where it comes up here, andso it's the beach car park essentially,
So it's the it's the place whereyou can access Blakeney Point on foot walk
up Blakeney Point. We'll come ona different day to the trip. And
(08:54):
that's partly because when we go onthe trips, we never know what we're
going to find sound wise, andalso because it's sort of becoming clear that
a lot of the benefits of thetrips are not necessarily about the wildlife stuff
(09:16):
and the you know, looking fora particular sound. In this case,
we were looking for the we're lookingfor the seals, but it's also the
experience of the whole day and theexperience of walking together and the experience of
(09:37):
listening together or trying to listen together, and yeah, and what that's what
that's offering. So it's it's sortof all the good stuff which a lot
of people know about being outside,with the extra element of trying to encourage
(09:58):
people to be quiet to listen.So maybe we should just talk a little
bit about this group. So howdo we set up the Sidestrand group?
Yeah, Well, so the NationalTrust has been working with Sidestrand School for
a number of years now. Infact, going back probably ten or fifteen
(10:22):
years really, and so Sidestrand isthis special school on the coast and they've
expanded over the years actually, butthey cover quite a range of ages that
some of them are residential. They'vegot sixth form, so lots of kids
go there, some stay there,others are busting sort of thing. And
(10:45):
they've all got various special needs essentially, some emotional, some behavioral, some
learning difficulties, all different sorts ofkids really, So we've been working with
them for a long while, andI guess one of the things that they
do study obviously the standard curriculum,but they do tend to have the ability
(11:07):
to get out of school to comeand do stuff, which in mainstream education
is very rare. So trying toget a group of you know, fifteen
fifteen year olds to come out ona from a mainstream school just there isn't
the the air. The curriculum justdoesn't allow it. It is not going
(11:31):
to happen. So they're always readyand willing, really, and so we've
done art projects with them, we'vedone conservation work with them, and so
when we had this idea of thisenvironmental sound listening project, they were sort
of my first port of call topick up some contacts there and see if
they had a suitable group that mightmight benefit from it. And so that's
(11:56):
how it started about a year agowith our first trip. We went to
halls he didn't we also listening forthe seals And so now obviously that that
that group, they've now left theschool, some of them have moved on
to the sixth form, others havegone on to college, and so ad
trip in December was with a newgroup of young people, the fun the
(12:24):
same school. Yeah, and soit's yeah, so it was it was
you never know what you're going togo see. We built a relationship with
the with the with the kids who'vebeen working with over the course of a
year and knew them obviously, startedto know them by names, started to
know them reasonably well really, andso this first session was kind of establishing
(12:46):
those starts to establish those relationships,wasn't it. And it's funny how quickly
those relationships can get established doing thethings they've been doing. Yeah, outside,
how easy it is to start tosort of build it. Everybody trying
(13:07):
to do things together. Right now, we're all together. I think we
might play a little game to learnnames. Does that sound like a plan?
Okay, this game, No onedoes. Don't like this game.
It's too garrets. They don't bebig. White birds are not seagulls.
They're garnets are They feed on fish? They hybrid with might see some might
(13:33):
see some feeding and something when okay, right, so just get round in
a circle, buddy. We're justtalking about the school. How relatively easiest
(13:56):
being to get a quick sort offeeling, get them to feel like they're
any Yeah, quite quickly, makeit, I mean yeah, getting the
group dynamic together. So what wetend to do, and I think we've
probably recorded it at the time,is that get your own names is quite
important, isn't it. Yeah,And so getting a handle on their names,
and obviously trying to learn twelve namesis always a bit of a challenge.
(14:16):
But once you've once you've kind ofgot that it, you know,
it's an important, important, justsocial thing, isn't it? I think?
But what gets what well with allthese all the groups, all the
kids we've been working with, isand it's actually this group it was particularly
noticeable is their reaction to being here, I think, And yeah, they're
(14:43):
immediately kind of quite excited, byit, weren't they really? And it
is. I think you can getquite sort of blase about about the location
really if you come here quite alot and I know what we're working here,
really, but if you haven't experiencedI don't think any of the kids
in that group had experienced really,you know, possibly even being in this
(15:09):
sort of essentially a wild environment.Really, wasn't it when you when you
walk two miles beyond the end ofthe road, you've got you're yeah,
you're you're basically you know, you'reyou're away from anywhere, aren't you really?
And they come with sort of likeyou know, they're not all kitted
out for people will go and dothat sort of thing a lot. With
the right shoes and the right trousersand the right of jackets and stuff.
(15:31):
They come with. You know,the well is they've got at home or
you know, if they've got theschool shoes and have to kind of deal
with it, you know. Andyeah, I think that that the buzz
of being here and excited to haveto be getting out of school, I
(15:52):
think as well, it's a bigfactor. So this group, so we
came to blatantly mainly because of theSeals want to do the seals seals,
but it ended up being walked quitefar for some of the thems, quite
far. Yeah, No, Ithink for one or two of them it
(16:14):
was the furthest they'd ever they'd everwalked. Actually, yeah, And it's
and it's it's tough going, isn'tit. On the shuttle it feels like
two steps forward one step back attimes walking on shingle, And so I
think they've got got a good senseof achievement of getting right out onto the
point. And you know, wedid see a few other people out there,
(16:34):
but largely we saw more seals thanpeople didn't we It's you know,
it's an amazing being out there withso many wild animals really and obviously the
seals we talked about before. It'sthis large seal colony on the point is
a new thing. It's only beenthey've only been there for the last thirty
years and numbers have been increasing yearon year to what is now a real
(16:57):
you know, it's an important colonyfor the worldwide. Actually, it's one
of the biggest seal colonies in theworld of this particular species of seal,
of the gray seal, and they'reeverywhere and it is. You know,
it's a bit like sort of walkinginto a Attenborough documentary type thing, isn't
it. It's it's much more likethe sort of wildlife that you more often
(17:22):
than not sea on the telly ratherthan experience in real life. Walking amongst
these these big animals, dramatic,there's a lot of drama, which is
captivating. Gather around, gather around, addressing here, gather around? Okay,
(18:03):
No, what we got here?A bit of wood? Is it
driftwood? First question? Well,what tells me what clues I've got here
that it's not just a piece ofdrift wood a bit of napple wood been
washed around? Not bad? Well, that's one thing, that's one possible
(18:26):
thing. Yeah, because I thinkthis bit of wood's telling us a bit
of a story. Anything else aboutyou can ex it before closely? Okay,
yeah, there's a nail in it, it's been burned. What else
do you heal? And they're notjust holes there, holes with other bits
(18:48):
of wood inside where stuff has beenjoined together. What about the shape of
this bit of wood. It's quitelong. Yeah, but ah ah,
you think that's what I think?I reckon This is a piece of an
(19:11):
old boat now there's a big stormhere about six weeks ago, maybe a
bit less than that five weeks ago, massive storm and the loads of stuff
that washed up that have been onthe seabed for years and years and years.
So there are no I'm no archaeologists, but I reckon this is going
to be part of a very veryold boat. Yeah, a shift possibly,
(19:38):
and obviously it has been birthic alltop. Now, going back in
history, there were hundreds of sailorships that used to go down here.
They used to do all sorts ofbees. A lot of the time they
were taking goods back and forth likecol down the east coast. Also there
are battleships there as well. Sowho knows who knows how this got burned?
(20:02):
Who knows how old it is?You could make a story of,
couldn't. It's all about it,So yeah, maybe it's an old piece
of sacrifice. What do you thinktaking back from Tudor thoughts it's not It
could be, isn't it broad?We know it could be. It's definitely
(20:26):
a bit of ship anyway, andwe can see where the ship we got
put together there isn't no but alsoquite making a whole and then banging up
another bit of wood into peggy everythingtogether. That's how they used to do
it. So there we go.Right now, we're allering it. Some
of the advantages or the things thatit might offer to young people would be
(20:51):
in terms of getting time to sitquietly and listen and spending time together and
having to listen together as a group. And to be honest, a lot
of the things that ice we've sortof imagined would be the case are turning
(21:14):
out to be to be the casewhen you kind of find out a lot
about a group dynamic when you askeveryone to be quiet, and how capable
they are of being quiet or notor not being quiet, and how some
people really want to sit and listenfor a long time, some people really
don't. And it depends very muchon where you are. So when we
(21:38):
came to when we came to Blakeney, one thing I noticed it was very
hard to be quiet, and Ithink part of that was the shingle.
Yeah, with the shingle is constantlyrustling and making a noise which you'll hear
along the recordings from here. It'salso that we had quite a way to
walk and it's kind of without muchto listen to other than the shingle.
(22:03):
I think it's not like there we'reit's wildlife popping up everywhere. It's not
like walking through a woodland where there'slots of different things around. It's essentially
to see the wind and the shingleand that that kind of because it's a
constant, people feel it's nicer tochat, basically easier nicer to chat.
(22:29):
And then but that also made itmakes it in comparison to like somewhere,
Well, we've tried to talk aboutabout showing a park and until we didn't
walk and showing in the park andthere, well, the main thing was
the jets, which we would justtalk about. Suddenly came up from just
talking about the jets, and thejets have so dominant. There must have
(22:56):
been our own discounts of ten tofifteen fly paths when we were there on
that day for the showing the book. And it made it made have It
made conversation difficult, and it madehaving to It made listening almost impossible,
especially when you had microphones, becauseall you could hear was just a rumble.
And in a way it kind ofoverloaded everybody's senses and kind of made
(23:18):
everybody a bit grumpy actually, Ithought on the day it certainly made mean
grumb people, and I thought itwas quite hard to get the group dynamic
going on that day. But whenwe come to Blakeney there was much more
of a lively conversational film, whichis different to if we went to a
quiet and when we've done this withwith the bits before, whether there is
(23:38):
there's more of a willingness and akind of interest in sitting quietly, being
able to listen with expectedly when you'vegot the equipment and your hearings and hard
stuff little bit. So it's beeninteresting to think about the different settings and
how they impact how the groups work, you know, how the dynamics work.
(24:03):
So but yeah, and even whenwe saw the Seals, when we
were walking along here, we triedto have these sessions where we're getting put
down the mic and listen, butit's too exciting and all the shiggles cranling
underneath your feet and you want totalk and share your share your experiences.
You're walking as a group along thislong split of land, whereas when we've
(24:26):
done in the woodland ones and youcould go off on your own or maybe
go off on a pair and high, hind a tree or sit get out
of sight of everybody else. Thenthat was a much easier location to sort
of feel like you could sit quietlyand listen. So some interesting It's interesting
(24:47):
how much of a role the placeplays as to how successful, okay,
or how easy it is to engagewith the with the more deeper listening aspects
of what we're trying to do.Yeah, I must say the couple of
the take home things of the projectso far is firstly, and this has
happened quite early on, I wasquite surprised with how willing the group were
(25:14):
just to do the sitting and listeningthing. This idea of getting a sit
spot where you take someone, sitthem down and leave them to listen,
but the wrong an extended period oftime, ten or fifteen minutes, you
know, it tend it works reallywell with the ad arts doing it,
but with children it can be reallydifficult. And so when we plan that
(25:41):
as part of the one of theactivities we planned to do, and we
thought, yeah, okay, we'llgive them ten minutes listening to home,
see how that goes. I wasn'ttoo confident that it was going to be
successful. And you know, thewhole point of it, is you,
is that they're they're on their own, they can't really see another person,
(26:04):
and then it's just sitting down andjust you know, just starting to It
takes a little walk before the justthe sort of novelty of sitting still kind
of wears off and then they canactually just get down into the process of
actually doing some listening. Come on, what about ten of them up there?
(26:38):
And to having a fight? Nowthey fighting big ones? Okay,
out he can shows down there,but to having to fight? Is it
(27:03):
on the recording? It wants thething that really disgusting? They really disgusting?
(27:27):
What is it? You think?It's one dead thing and a lot
of live things. If you're starlingand look at all the maggots there,
look at the loads, look atall those That is like Christmas dinner for
(27:49):
a maggot, isn't it. Yeah? Yeah, Well that's kind of the
surf of life, is it droppIn some ways? It's kind of the
bird died, but then the flylives on. So that's the way it
works. Now, what we're goingto say is, well, I think
we'll probably just leave it, leaveit here, because the maggots are doing
(28:11):
their lifestycle't they really. But aswe walk on the strandline, you find
something interesting, just pick it upand pocket and put it in your pocket.
Okay, I'm not with the exceptionof maggot ridden dead birds. Okay,
So if it looks safe to pickup, find so it, put
(28:33):
it in your pocket. Because here'sthe thing. Who's over there, Bethany
Porsche, Porsche, here's the thing. Come over here you've been listening to.
If you'd like to keep listening,visit homesounds dot org, where you
(28:57):
can find all previous episodes of theWhole Sounds Show, as well as many
more opportunities to actively listen and numerousways to support and get involved with the
Home Sounds project. Alternatively, visitPopylandradio dot co dot uk and look for
the Home Sounds Show, which isbroadcast every Wednesday at one pm, or
(29:17):
the Riverlands Show, which broadcasts livesounds from Woodland and Felbrig and the Silver
Gate Stream in Blickling every Wednesday eveningat ten pm. Links relating to this
episode can be found in the descriptionWe'll be back again next month. Welcome
home, everybody,
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