The Call of the Wild

Footprints

This month we celebrate wildlife enthuiasts.

It’s springtime and we thought we’d bring the outside in and isten to the call of the wild.

We start the show at Bath city Farm and meet Ribin the Robin. Naturalist Mike WIlliams tells us his story.

Staying at Bath City Farm, Bathscape's Lucy Bartlett surveys newts and we hear how the newt population is doing in the farm's ponds.

Catherine Turner takes us on a walk towards Englishcombe and hunts for for spiders.

Alan Rayner is a specialist in mosses, lichens and liverworts of which there are over 1000 species in the UK and more than 100 in Smallcombe cemetery where we find him.

Helen Hobbs is the patrol manager for the Chalcombe toad patrol. For 6 weeks of the year toads migrate across Chalcombe Road where, every evening, 40 volunteers take it in turn to help them keep safe.

Finally we hear from one of Bath and North East Somerset Council’s ecologists Karen Renshaw. We find out about Adders Tongue ferns and what the Council is doing to improve biodiversity in the city.

Resources

Newts

How to identify newts

Amphibian and Reptile Conservation - newts

Spiders

Natural History Museum - spiders

Britain's Spiders: A field guide, Lawrence Bee, Geoff Oxford and Helen Smith, WILDGuides

Mosses, Lichens and Liverworts

A Guide to Finding Mosses In Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, Peter Creed and Tom Haynes. Pisces Publications

Toads

Froglife Toad Patrols - search for Chalcombe toad patrol

Biodiversity

Bath and North East Somerset Council: Ecology and Biodiversity

Credits

Music: Audionautix

Photography: Mike Williams

Produced by Pommy Harmar

Links

www.bathscape.co.uk

www.naturalbristol.wordpress.com