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Nature, Wildlife and Countryside Living with Chris Skinner from High Ash Farm
Chris Skinner, a Norfolk farmer, takes a unique approach to farming, prioritizing biodiversity and wildlife conservation in every practice.
Tune in every Sunday morning as Chris, alongside broadcaster Matthew Gudgin, explores topics on nature, wildlife, and rural life.
Join them for strolls through High Ash Farm and beyond, spotting wildlife and addressing your queries about the natural world.
Email questions for Chris to answer to Chris@highashfarm.com
112 Episodes
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Send us a text Join Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin on a breezy mid-November morning at High Ash Farm, strolling along Boudica Way—a historic public footpath turned wide, welcoming trail—amid discussions on evolving access to the countryside, from ancient worker routes to modern stewardship schemes that transformed contentious paths into assets for health, education, and wildlife. Explore permissive walks offering panoramic views of rolling hills, self-seeded woodlands, and therapeutic spots...
Send us a text Join Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin on a mild mid-November morning at High Ash Farm, where autumn's unsettled chill stirs flocks of goldfinches into a dazzling display amid teasel heads and thistle margins, their yellow wing bars flashing as they feast on seeds in a biennial bounty perfect for butterflies and overwintering cover. Venture to the ancient Roman capital of eastern Britain on the farm's edge, pondering monumental shifts in agriculture—from wartime ploughing with h...
Send us a text Join Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin on a damp November evening at High Ash Farm for a nocturnal safari, starting in the bustling farmyard where torchlight reveals smooth newts feasting on wriggling worms amid leaf litter, their amphibian lives split between aquatic springs and terrestrial nights, alongside dusky slugs grazing on fungi and leaving slimy trails up mossy walls. Venture into pitch-black fields to spotlight hares congregating in open grasslands, leverets born furr...
Send us a text Join Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin on a blustery, rain-lashed Thursday morning at High Ash Farm amid Storm Benjamin's gales, retreating into the vast farm workshop where gleaming tractors, mowers, sprayers, and cultivators—worth fortunes in investment—await winter storage and servicing. Delve into the challenges facing young farmers, from soaring land prices and machinery costs to the need for diversification into school visits, livery yards, and public access, all while pon...
Send us a text Join Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin on a crisp mid-October morning at High Ash Farm, where autumn's gentle bite scatters colourful leaves across the woodland floor and Rat the terrier digs with unbridled enthusiasm. Venture into the bustling sparrow hide, alive with house mice thriving in a commensal harmony amid spilled grain and sparrow chatter, their musty scent and rapid breeding a testament to nature's opportunism. Explore the lush field margins teeming with harvest mous...
Send us a text Join Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin on a mild mid-October morning at High Ash Farm, where Rat scampers ahead amid grey skies and the vibrant blaze of autumn foliage—Norway maples glowing with reds and oranges from flavonoids and carotenoids, while elms, oaks, and beeches shed leaves in a seasonal symphony shaped by abscission layers and wind. Delve into the farm's fungal treasures in Foxes Grove, from dripping shaggy ink caps (lawyer's wigs) auto-digesting in real time to bir...
Send us a text Join Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin on a crisp October morning for an away day to the serene Forncett St Peter Low Meadows, an SSSI beside the River Tas, where frost lingers and fog clears to reveal plans for re-wiggling the river—restoring ancient meanders to slow flows, curb flooding, and revive oxbow lakes. Explore this unimproved grassland's biodiversity, from four orchid species and quaking grass to barn owls, kestrels, and otters, amid discussions on historical straight...
Send us a text Join Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin on a changeable September morning at High Ash Farm, where Rat eagerly explores hedgerows amid fleeting showers and sunshine. Discover the unexpected dominance of yellow foxtail in the overwinter wild bird seed mix, its delayed dormancy creating a seed bonanza for linnets, yellowhammers, and goldfinches, while swallows skim the crops on their southward journey. Witness dramatic aerial pursuits as kestrels hover and hunt along field margins, ...
Send us a text Join Chris Skinner for a twilight woodland wander at High Ash Farm, where the evening air hums with pipistrelle bats darting acrobatically overhead, serotines weaving through the canopy, and noctules launching into the dusk—accompanied by the rustle of roosting jackdaws, rooks, and the earthy scents of fox and fungi. Shift to a rainy morning in the farmyard, celebrating a bountiful mast year with thousands of acorns carpeting the ground beneath ancient oaks, as jays cache their...
Send us a text Join Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin on a crisp September morning at High Ash Farm, where the farmyard's ancient oak hosts a luminous display of sulphur polypore—known as chicken of the woods—its vibrant, edible brackets spilling like molten gold. Bid a heartfelt farewell to the swallows in the stables, with over 100 fledglings reared amid a frenzy of aerial feeds. Wade into sun-kissed fields of sunflowers and wild bird seed mixes, uncovering whorled wonders like aromatic fiel...
Send us a text In this captivating episode of the Countryside Podcasts, Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin wander through High Ash Farm’s breezy late August pastures, where September’s dawn heralds autumn’s subtle arrival. Autumn hawkbit carpets the hillside with dazzling yellow blooms, its serrated leaves hiding antioxidants and vitamin C, a medicinal marvel for eyesight once mistaken for hawk bites, thriving in close-grazed grass amid drought. The month’s changeling nature unfolds with Norway...
Send us a text Join Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin on a sun-drenched late August morning at High Ash Farm in the Norfolk countryside. This episode explores the serene beauty of the farm’s lake, where a majestic young mute swan is moulting amid darting swallows, vibrant kingfishers, and upending mallards. Discover the perils of lead poisoning for swans and the thriving aquatic plants like gipsy wort and flag iris. Venture to bountiful hedgerows laden with hawthorn berries, blackthorn sloes, ...
Send us a text In this breezy episode of the Countryside Podcasts, Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin confront August’s slate-grey skies at High Ash Farm, where autumn’s approach stirs poignant reflections. The grey partridge, a red-listed farmland icon, haunts Chris’s memories—once shot in coveys of 50, now vanishing due to habitat loss, early harvests, and predator control, despite biodiversity plans. Chris’s experiment with bird scarers mimics shooting’s toll, revealing an 80% drop in bird n...
Send us a text In this breezy episode of the Countryside Podcasts, Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin witness High Ash Farm’s summer crescendo, where flocks take flight. Mixed groups of goldfinches and linnets—up to 250 strong—swarm over chicory fields, their silvery undersides gleaming as they devour seeds, evading kestrels and peregrines in a dazzling display of survival. Clouded yellow butterflies, migrants from southern Europe, flutter over lucerne, their orange wings a rare treat in this d...
Send us a text In this gusty episode of the Countryside Podcasts, Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin embrace August’s wild turn at High Ash Farm, where autumn whispers through the breeze. Rowan trees (mountain ash) dazzle with orange-red berries, a thrush feast and historical charm against witches, while blackthorn hedges yield a bumper sloe crop, ripe for Chris’s granny’s sloe gin recipe. A thriving wasp nest nestled in railway sleepers showcases nature’s paper artistry, balancing pollination ...
Send us a text In this tender episode of the Countryside Podcasts, Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin greet August’s first whispers at High Ash Farm, where summer fades into autumn’s embrace. Migratory swallows—juveniles from the north—sweep overhead in chattering flocks, while Barnfield’s wild bird seed mix bursts with flax, its Wedgwood-blue blooms echoing 1950s harvests, alongside thistles, mustard, and sunflowers yielding oil-rich seeds for winter’s hungry gap. A rare meadow clary, its deep...
Send us a text In this vibrant episode of the Countryside Podcasts, Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin revel in a glorious late July morning at High Ash Farm, where nature dons its finest. Over a purple knapweed sea—its hard heads buzzing with bees—six-spot burnet moths dazzle with jet-black wings and crimson spots, emerging from reflective cocoons after a cyanide-rich diet of birdsfoot trefoil. Parasitic wonders like yellow rattle and lesser broomrape thrive, their seeds hinting at future life...
Send us a text In this captivating episode of the Countryside Podcasts, Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin explore High Ash Farm amid its third heatwave, where nature’s cycle thrives. In Fox’s Grove, bluebell stalks release shiny black seeds, their retractile roots pulling bulbs deeper into gravelly soil, a silent promise for 2026’s bloom. Along the hedgerows, large bindweed’s bell-shaped flowers—white with pink stripes—curl anticlockwise in a thigmotropic dance, feeding moths, while hogweed’s ...
Send us a text In this enchanting episode of the Countryside Podcasts, Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin embrace a damp July morning at High Ash Farm, where a farm miracle unfolds. By the lake, tens of thousands of froglets and toadlets leap from their tadpole origins, abandoning the water in a breathtaking exodus, their tiny forms navigating metre-high grass to escape herons and owls. Half a mile away, a kingfisher’s azure brilliance—cobalt wings and halcyon hues—dazzles from a crafted perch,...
Send us a text In this vibrant episode of the Countryside Podcasts, Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin revel in High Ash Farm’s sultry July heat, where nature pirouettes in a stunning display. The red admiral’s dance unfolds as this migrant aristocrat flutters over an oak tree’s amber sap, its orange-and-black wings a vivid spectacle, while common centaury’s pink blooms nod to ancient healing myths. A butterfly bonanza—peacocks, meadow browns, small whites, speckled woods, and a ragged-winged c...
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