Puffins, Parks, and Podcasts: A Summer Roundup

I'm writing this on the eve of what is essentially the first day of the new academic year. Tomorrow, I'll be swapping the culture-steeped streets of Edinburgh for the wild and rugged coastline of Millport, a small island which lies just 6 kilometres off the west coast of Scotland. I'll be staying there for the next 10 days, collecting and analysing all manner of weird and wonderful aquatic organisms and conducting shoreline surveys as part of one of my second year university modules in marine biology.

Diving into the depths of the Clyde Sea (metaphorically speaking—it is Scotland, and it is September, so I can assure you that there'll be no sea swimming on this trip), isn't something I've had the opportunity to do before. Aside from the short-lived obsessive spell I developed over deep-sea creatures when I was about 5 or 6, the underwater world has somehow managed to remain a very alien territory to me.

That's exactly why I'm so excited for what's to come this month—learning about something brand new, especially when it sits within a broader area of interest, is always a thrill. I've already begun working my way through lecture notes and doing some preparatory reading, but the real hard graft isn't due to begin until Wednesday. That said, I thought it'd be nice to close out my summer break by reflecting on the months gone by and sharing snippets of some of the more exciting things I've gotten up to through June, July, and August with you all.

I'll begin with the exciting news that in the first week of August, I moved into my own little pad in my university town. I've been working hard to put my own stamp on the place this past month and was excited to discover an enormous National Trust woodland just around the corner a few weeks ago. Having my own place is certainly going to be helpful when it comes to focussing on university work as well as other upcoming media projects—more on that in a few weeks' time!

This summer, I was involved in a number of digital productions, one of which was my own creation and something I'd been wanting to make happen for a while. Over the last year and a half, many of us have found solace in and connected with nature—and more specifically, the nature living right on our doorsteps—in a way we could never have imagined prior to the start of the strange year that was 2020. I wanted to celebrate this, as well as give myself an excuse to find out as much as I could about the plants and animals living on my own doorstep, in my parents' garden and local park...

And so, along came Lucy's WildLIVE, a three-part, family-friendly live stream featuring special guests, interactive quizzes, night-vision camera footage, citizen science and, of course, a whole host of fascinating species, some very familiar and others, not so much. Below is a picture of one of the show's strangest stars, a larvae of the drone fly, Eristalis tenax, known colloquially as the rat-tailed maggot, which I discovered lurking in my garden pond one afternoon)... 

With the help of Butterfly Conservation's Head of Volunteering and Education, Kate Merry; naturalist and birdsong enthusiast, Sathvika Krishnan; wildlife photographer, filmmaker and surrogate squirrel mum, Dani Connor and more, WildLIVE covered everything from top wildlife photography tips to the cultural significance of birdsong and the secretive, nighttime life of the humble garden snail. You can catch up on all episodes here.

Lucy's WildLIVE was a three-part, live streamed series created to celebrate some of the wild delights Greater London has to offer

I took a week-long break from broadcasting WildLIVE to work on another show which made a welcome return to our (laptop, phone and tablet) screens this summer: Skomer LIVE. With restrictions eased, this year the show's presenters could actually get onto the island and broadcast live from there, alongside the wonderful resident warden team. As always, live producing the show was an absolute blast. I must give a huge thank you to Glyn, Gina, and Madi for doing such a fantastic job behind the scenes, and of course to the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales for inviting me to be a part of the project for yet another year. All episodes are available to stream here.

Behind-the-scenes of Skomer LIVE! I used a three-monitor set-up and Open Broadcaster Software to stream each episode live to Facebook

A lot of people assume I've spent quite a lot of time on Skomer given my work but, in actual fact, I paid my first visit to the island only three weeks ago. At that point, all the puffins had already abandoned its shores to begin their journeys to their autumn and winter feeding grounds out in the Atlantic. Despite the lack of puffins, it was still fantastic to finally explore Skomer and enjoy some other exciting wildlife encounters along with my friend and fellow sloth advocate, Lucy. We spotted kittiwakes, oystercatchers, swallows, linnets, lesser black-backed gulls and gannets, as well as what we think was a short-eared owl pellet (pictured below) lying in the middle of one of the footpaths. As we sailed back to the mainland, I was treated to a *very* close encounter with one of the friendly, local herring gulls when it decided to test out my head as a novel perch...

Could this be a pellet left behind by one of Skomer Island's resident short-eared owls?

(The other) Lucy soaking up some sea views from Skomer's coastline

My Skomer Island trip was part of a wild weekend spent camping over in Pembrokeshire. The weather wasn't really in mine and Lucy's favour and after almost being blown off a clifftop by some fresh-off-the-sea north-westerlies during our first night, we decided to change tack and take up a kind offer to go and stay at a nearby (and far more sheltered) farm campsite instead. Our new base—Springfield Farm—is a working farm just inland of North Haven beach: its eco-friendly campsite comes complete with a wild meadow, stunning views over the Irish Sea, and the cleanest, fanciest compost toilets I ever did see... 

Undeterred by the dull, drizzly weather that set in on Saturday night, that weekend saw Lucy and I heading out on a long hike around the mainland's coastline. We clambered up rocky crags through thick mist; had a couple of close encounters with some local seals, choughs, and swallows; and even discovered a beautiful secret, sandy beach where we stopped to take a dip in the sea. Stove-less, hammer-less and seriously lacking in tent pegs though not so much in tent leaks, we soon realised our status as the world's worst campers (pretty ironic, considering we're both National Geographic Explorers)...

Our idyllic clifftop campsite on the Pemrbokeshire coast. Not pictured are the gale force winds that came along with the gorgeous view...

As we dined alfresco on the first night of our trip, Lucy and I were treated to this glorious seaside sunset!

Another digital event I was thrilled to be asked to take part in this summer was Atlas of the Future's Fixing the Future festival, an online event that gave activists, scientists and environmentalists from around the world the chance to come together to examine humans' relationship with the natural world and discuss how we can work to tackle the biodiversity crisis. As part of the festival, I joined Reserva: The Youth Land Trust's in-country partner (whom you may also remember as my trusty Ecuador expedition guide), Javier Robayo, to share more about what we do and why we both feel it's so important to empower young people in conservation. The session was recorded, and is available to listen back to here.

If sloths are more your thing, then you might want to check out the latest episode of the Into the Wild Podcast, where I chat to host, Ryan Dalton, about these strange but savvy creatures. We cover everything from their odd pooping habits and vocalisations (yes, they do make sounds!) to how their slow-mo superstar status can help inspire the protection of entire tropical ecosystems.

The... slowest... start... to a.... podcast... ever

Finally, I must finish up with a mention of just how excited I am about the turning of the seasons. For any of you that know me or have been following this blog for a while, you'll know that I'm a huge fan of autumn, and every year its return fills me with so much joy. The shift seems to have set in far earlier up here in the north—the tips of many a branch are tinged with gold and in some places, leaves have already started gathering in small piles upon the pavements.

I won't be leaving Scotland until 21st September, which also happens to be the day of the autumn equinox. I look forward to watching my favourite season unfold up here, before returning home to celebrate the harvest festival and enjoy plenty more slow, wild moments amidst another busy term filled with lectures and study sessions.

Until then—happy autumn!