A cold front has swept down from the north overnight but it's a bright morning over the frosty marshes. A breeze pushes ripples across a lagoon of deepest blue and then gently jostles the dead rushes and reeds. Nothing else stirs.

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.

Recorded by Fergus Collins and introduced by Hannah Tribe.

Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

And just a reminder, the BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is a media partner for the Speakies! The British Audio Awards from The Bookseller Magazine. The awards celebrate the best in audio books and the Plodcast is the partner for the non-fiction category.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plodcast regular Kevin Parr joins host Fergus Collins for a charming mushroom hunting walk in a wooded Welsh valley. Along the way, as the foraging basket with treats, they discuss Kev's extraordinary new book, An Unnatural History of Britain – his series of epic quests in search of animals that really shouldn't be here.

It's an unmissable audio delight. An Unnatural History of Britain is published by The History Press.

The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 & 2025 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.

If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected].

If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.

The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme tune was written and performed by Blair Dunlop.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After 36 hours of rain, the town floods and then the waters recede, surging down brooks such as this. You pause on a bridge above, hearing a stranger, bolder song in a stream you thought you knew so well.

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.

Recorded by Fergus Collins and introduced by Hannah Tribe.

Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

And just a reminder, the BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is a media partner for the Speakies! The British Audio Awards from The Bookseller Magazine. The awards celebrate the best in audio books and the Plodcast is the partner for the non-fiction category.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week, we're heading to the bleakly beautiful Essex marshes to meet historian and birder Michael J Warren – and thousands of waders and wildfowl in this stunning area of big skies, haunting calls and endless water.

Michael's celebrated new book, A Cuckoo's Lea (published by Bloomsbury) explores how our medieval ancestors included birds in so many of their places names (most of which survive today) and reveals how immersed in nature they were. It's a fascinating exploration, with the enchanting backdrop of wild Essex.

Also, the Plodcast is very proud to announce that it is media partner for the Speakies – the British Audio Awards from The Bookseller Magazine. These new awards celebrate the very best in audiobooks. The Plodcast is partnering in the non-fiction category.

Find the shortlists here: www.thebookseller.com/the-british-audio-awards

And now you can get in touch with the Plodcast team via:

The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast group on Facebook & BBC Countryfile Magazine's Instagram page.

The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 & 2025 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.

If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected].

If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.

The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme tune was written and performed by Blair Dunlop.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Deep in the Essex Marshes, you find solitude on a path that skirts marsh and lagoon. But you're not entirely alone – from the creeks and open water the fluting calls of waders and ducks and the deeper gutteral utterances of Brent geese create a haunting soundtrack of true wilderness. Wilderness, that is, a sole fishing boat chugs by on its lonely morning mission.

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.

Recorded by Fergus Collins and introduced by Hannah Tribe.

Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

And just a reminder, the BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is a media partner for the Speakies! The British Audio Awards from The Bookseller Magazine. The awards celebrate the best in audio books and the Plodcast is the partner for the non-fiction category.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join the Plodcast team of Fergus, Hannah, Jack and Lewis in a wild corner of the centre of Bristol for a long-awaited Plodchat – a round-up of our nature adventures plus listener emails, recordings and other funny moments we've had out in the countryside.

Photo taken from Ep. 312, where the team took on the Macmillan Mighty Hike (August 2025)!

Also, the Plodcast is very proud to announce that it is media partner for the Speakies – the British Audio Awards from The Bookseller Magazine. These new awards celebrate the very best in audiobooks. The Plodcast is partnering in the non-fiction category.

Find the shortlists here: www.thebookseller.com/the-british-audio-awards

And now you can get in touch with the Plodcast team via:
The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast group on Facebook & BBC Countryfile Magazine's Instagram page.

The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 & 2025 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.

If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected].

If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.

The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme tune was written and performed by Blair Dunlop.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's a still autumn morning and you've headed to the sea wall along the edge of the saltmarsh. A gentle rain falls as robins sing in the scrub on the landward side of the wall while occasional redshanks peep and lament from the marsh.

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.

Recorded by Fergus Collins and introduced by Hannah Tribe.

Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

And just a reminder, the BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is a media partner for the Speakies! The British Audio Awards from The Bookseller Magazine. The awards celebrate the best in audio books and the Plodcast is the partner for the non-fiction category.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we're in Hampshire, looking for dormice. These tiny, charming little mammals are hard to find at the best of times but numbers have been declining for decades mainly due to changes to how we manage our woodlands.

Plodcast host Fergus joins Ian White from the People's Trust for Endangered Species, Charlotte Rimmer who is Senior Countryside Officer for Test Vally Borough Council and Richard Genn who owns the woodland to find out more about the plight of Britain's dormice – and hopefully meet one of these 'fairy' creatures.

Image from Getty

Also, the Plodcast is very proud to announce that it is media partner for the Speakies – the British Audio Awards from The Bookseller Magazine. These new awards celebrate the very best in audiobooks. The Plodcast is partnering in the non-fiction category.

Find the shortlists here: www.thebookseller.com/the-british-audio-awards

And now you can get in touch with the Plodcast team via:

The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast group on Facebook & BBC Countryfile Magazine's Instagram page.

The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 & 2025 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.

If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected].

If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.

The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme tune was written and performed by Blair Dunlop.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A path winds on before you, running along the top of an ancient earthwork constructed over a 1000 years ago. To the west, the land falls away into a deep river valley, to the east, fertile farmland that this fortification once protected. Your feet crunch on this year's freshly fallen beech and hazel leaves while a wind blows up for the west, breaking over the dyke as an echo of an invading army.

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.

Recorded by Fergus Collins and introduced by Hannah Tribe.

Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

And just a reminder, the BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is a media partner for the Speakies! The British Audio Awards from The Bookseller Magazine. The awards celebrate the best in audio books and the Plodcast is the partner for the non-fiction category.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From the end of Saxon England last week, we head to the height of Saxon power in Mercia and the reign of King Offa (757-796). Plodcast host Fergus takes a walk along Offa's great work – a massive defensive earthwork that ran along much of the Welsh Borders and can still be encountered today.

What is Offa's Dyke and why and how did Offa build it? Listen on to find out more.

Also, the Plodcast is very proud to announce that it is media partner for the Speakies – the British Audio Awards from The Bookseller Magazine. These new awards celebrate the very best in audiobooks. The Plodcast is partnering in the non-fiction category.

Find the shortlists here: www.thebookseller.com/the-british-audio-awards

And now you can get in touch with the Plodcast team via:

The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast group on Facebook & BBC Countryfile Magazine's Instagram page.

The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 & 2025 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.

If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected].

If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.

The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme tune was written and performed by Blair Dunlop.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You've wandered down to the river to listen to its gentle song – but what's that strange birdsong? A metallic chirruping from the far bank... it's a dipper, it's while bib bobbing at the water's edge. And now a kingfisher zips past with a hoarse, high-pitched whistle. Moments of magic on an overcast autumn day.

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.

Recorded by Fergus Collins and introduced by Hannah Tribe. Image from Getty.

Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

And just a reminder, the BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is a media partner for the Speakies! The British Audio Awards from The Bookseller Magazine. The awards celebrate the best in audio books and the Plodcast is the partner for the non-fiction category.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices