Chris Skinner introduces Matthew Gudgin to his favourite bird at High Ash Farm. It's a game bird with a strong connections in history and a recipe in Mrs Beeton's cookery book.

The pair pause for a moment at an oak tree that fell victim to Storm Bert and observe the honey fungus growing under the bark.

Chris and Matthew get caught in the latest stormy weather and repair to the farm truck to answer listener questions and photographs.

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Chris Skinner begins the episode at dusk and captures the noisiness of the jackdaws, rooks and carrion crows circling the woodland before roosting.

In the morning, Rat is up to his usual mayhem and keen to steal the show. Chris takes Matthew Gudgin to the overwinter wild bird seed mix experiment site that we visited a couple of weeks ago and the results are in!

The pair traipse to a bird hide on the farm and enjoy a cocktail of birds visiting the feeders.

They retreat to the farm truck and read updates from across the pond and answer questions on how we can support birds and bees with small plots and they identify a mystery fungus.

Click here to download the MP3 file of this episode.

Click here to donate to the podcast.

If you have a question that you'd like Chris to answer on the podcast, send an email to: chris@countrysidepodcast.co.uk

Join the official Chris Skinner's Countryside Podcast newsletter

Chris Skinner's Countryside Podcast is produced by SOUNDYARD - a non-profit company on a mission to turn up the volume on under-heard voices.
Join the SOUNDYARD newsletter