Calling the curlew podcast series

Blog by Kerryanne Higgens, Community Engagement Officer

Our five-part ‘Calling the curlew’ podcast series takes you on an audio journey through the upland landscapes of Baldersdale and Teesdale. The podcast captures sounds of the upland breeding waders and the voices of local school children, farmers, and the conservation officers working with farmers to ensure they continue to thrive here in the uplands.

‘Calling the curlew’ has been developed as part of the Tees-Swale: naturally connected programme, a landscape-scale nature recovery programme led by the North Pennines National Landscape team and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, and funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. The programme works closely with farmers, land managers, and a range of delivery partners to restore, expand and connect habitats across the Tees-Swale uplands: enhancing these landscapes for wildlife. The programme also connects people to the natural and cultural heritage of these designated landscapes through a school education programme, a youth work programme, and range of public events.

As a Community Engagement Officer with the North Pennines National Landscape team working on the Tees-Swale programme, I have the wonderful job of engaging with school children and teachers from local primary schools. The education programme gives the school children opportunities to get to know more about their local landscape, to form a deep appreciation for the habitats and wildlife of the uplands, and to feel a sense of connection to nature. We’ve had some fantastic days out getting to know each other and some of the interesting landscape features and nature in Teesdale, like the rivers, rocks, and meadow plants. This year we wanted to focus on the bird species that live in the uplands. This is a wonderful place to explore with children as there are endless opportunities for learning from your surroundings, and the landscape can tell you so much about the history and the ecology of the place.

The uplands are a farmed landscape, which means there are some particularly interesting habitats and wildlife, especially the breeding waders. They are an animated group of birds, bringing the hills alive with the sound of their calls when they fly back here to breed through the spring and summer months . Their evocative display calls signal the start of spring, and their absence over winter is an unsettling reminder of how silent our landscape would be without them. Their return brings with it a sense of relief that the long harsh winter is ending, but not only this, that the birds have survived and will continue to make the uplands their breeding stronghold for another season.

Episode one: birds of Baldersdale

Three primary schools took a school trip to Balderhead Reservoir to explore the landscape and bird life through poetry and sound. You will hear the children experimenting with sound recorders with sound artist, Ben Freeth, tuning into their surroundings through their senses, recording bird calls, and speaking about their experiences. Storyteller and creative writer, Ben Holden invited them to go on a journey to wake up the spirit of the land capturing their experiences and turning them into a spell song as an offering to the landscape. Listen below.

Episode two: farming with nature in the uplands

In this episode, year nine students from Teesdale School and Sixth Form visit Herdship Farm in Harwood-in-Teesdale, interviewing farmer, Paul Johnson, to find out how the farm is managed to support nature. Charlie Parker talks about his farm in Baldersdale and how he has worked closely with the North Pennines National Landscape farm and nature officers to do nature recovery work creating scrapes to support the upland birdlife on his farm.

Episode three: thriving in the uplands

RSPB Conservation Officer, Janet Fairclough, reports on the upland breeding wader surveys that have been carried out in the North Pennines to monitor the breeding wader populations and how traditional farming practices are continuing to create the conditions they need to thrive.

Episode four: exploring the dawn chorus

This sound recording of the dawn chorus in early May features the unique bird species that you hear in Upper Teesdale. Adam Millington, Biodiversity Officer with the North Pennines National Landscape, explores this uplifting and intriguing natural phenomena, introducing us to the individual bird species that appear in this intense soundscape of birds. He explores how they use their song and calls to defend their territory and find their mates, and how he honed this impressive skill of deciphering the symphony of sounds.

Episode five: the Teesdale dawn chorus

Recorded at Park End Woods and Low Way Farm by Ben Freeth with students from Teesdale School and Sixth Form. The podcast begins with the night-time sounds of bats, owls, oyster catcher, and curlew. It transitions into the still calm of daybreak, when the pre-dawn birds will begin the chorus, slowly building to a symphony of sound. Slow down and really listen for the next 15 minutes.

Part of the Tees-Swale: naturally connected programme, a landscape-scale nature recovery programme led by the North Pennines National Landscape team and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, and funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.