BBC Springwatch 2022 - Bee-eaters Breeding In Norfolk

Between The Ears - Flight Of The Monarch

BETWEEN THE EARS - FLIGHT OF THE MONARCH (320kbs-m4a/67mb/29mins)
BBC Radio 3 broadcast: 3rd January 2021

Composer and sound artist Rob Mackay traces the migratory route of the monarch butterfly, from the Great Lakes in Canada to the forests of Mexico, via the shifting coastal landscape of the eastern shores of Virginia.

Along the route of this sonic road-movie Rob meets people working to protect this extraordinary species: Darlene Burgess, a conservation specialist monitoring butterfly populations on the shores of Lake Eerie; Nancy Barnhart, coordinating the monarch migration programme for the Coastal Virginia Wildlife Observatory at Kiptopeke State Park, where we also encounter composer Matthew Burtner, whose sonifications of data from the local seagrass beds help track changes in the monarch's environment; and butterfly expert Pablo Jaramillo-López giving a tour of the Sierra Chincua and Cerro Pelón reserves in Mexico. We also hear reflections from the late Lincoln Brower, the American entomologist whose legacy has inspired many of today's research and conservation efforts.

The programme features Rob Mackay's binaural field recordings, and audio from live stream boxes, set up in partnership with the ecological art and technology collective SoundCamp to monitor the monarch's changing habitats. Plus Rob’s own flute playing, recorded in the Mexican forest meadows with David Blink on handpan and trumpet, alongside poetry in Spanish about the monarch by Rolando Rodriguez.

Between The Ears - The Lark Descending

BETWEEN THE EARS - THE LARK DESCENDING (320kbs-m4a/66mb/28mins)
BBC Radio 3 broadcast: 29th May 2022

Half environmental warning, half re-imagining of a classic work - The Lark Descending features the premiere of Hinako Omori's new electronic arrangement of Ralph Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending.

When Vaughan Williams wrote his most famous work in 1914, the skylark would have been a ubiquitous presence in the British countryside, but today the skylark is on the "red list" of conservation concern. This bird may have inspired one of the most famous pieces of classical music ever, but now we're facing an increasingly silent sky.

Between The Ears explores what we have lost, presenting The Lark Ascending in a new light, with a fresh, electronic arrangement. Here, the soloist is the skylark itself - captured by sound recordist Chris Watson in Northumberland this spring.

Naturalist and broadcaster Lucy 'Lapwing' Hodson explores the relationship between The Lark Ascending and the birds disappearing from our skies. Along the way, Lucy meets concert violinist Jennifer Pike at Vaughan Williams's childhood home, producer and nature beatboxer Jason Singh, and writer and conservationist Laurence Rose.

150 years after Vaughan Williams was born, the contrast between the popularity of his most famous work and the steady decline of skylark numbers in the UK has never been as stark. Composer Hinako Omori's electronic re-imagining of the piece explores this contrast, in the premiere of her new arrangement Conversation With A Lark.

Produced in binaural sound, immerse yourself in the skylark's world by wearing headphones for the best listening experience.

Credits
Producer: Rebecca Grisedale-Sherry
Mixing Engineer: Marvin Ware

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Sable Island - A Dune Adrift

SABLE ISLAND - A DUNE ADRIFT (320kbs-m4a/64mb/28mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 13th November 2021

100 miles east of Nova Scotia lies a 30 mile-long sand dune: Sable Island, population, two, who work in the weather and research station - and 300 wild horses.

Sean Street reveals how this remote place, this dune adrift in the Atlantic, is providing information vital to us all, and has gained a powerful presence in the imagination.

In the middle of the world's worst weather systems, held tentatively in place by ocean currents, it's the perfect place to monitor climate change, and air and sea pollution.

More than 500 ships have been wrecked here. There have been several attempts at colonisation, by the Portuguese, the French (Sable is the French word for Sand) and even a group of prominent Bostonians, and all have failed.

Thomas Raddell, Nova Scotia's finest writer, was a radio operator on Sable for a year, and this inspired his novel The Nymph and the Lamp. Poet Elizabeth Bishop visited and wrote about the island.

Sean examines wreckage from some of over 500 ships that came to grief here. There is a poignant baby's crib made from wreck wood. He meets artist Roger Savage who battled to capture the landscape. And he meets a man who dedicated years to studying the rare Ipswich Sparrow, which nests only here.

What emerges is that Sable Island is for the Canadians what the Galapagos are for the people of Ecuador, or Easter Island for Chileans. It is important scientifically and historically, but more than this it is important culturally, as part of their identity.

Producer: Julian May.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2009.