Welcome to the Fern podcast as the season turns.

I'm Leah Lanedardt and I'm delighted to introduce this found sound for February, created by our resident sound artist Alice Boyd.

Found sounds are a new addition to as the season turns for 2024.

Brief, meditative episodes for listeners who wish to feel that little bit more immersed in the natural world as we move through the year,

grounding ourselves in nature and the rhythms our ancestors

have always followed. We hope that this month's Found Sounds, recorded in the Norfolk Broads,

help you travel in your mind, discovering a wild place beyond the rush of the everyday.

This episode will last a little under 10 minutes.

You may wish to pause the podcast here for a moment.

While you find somewhere warm and quiet,

to close your eyes, sit back and settle down

into this month's found sound. It's a sundaple day in the Norfolk Broads, the UK's largest protected wetland.

My journey begins at Strumbshaw Fenn, where I meet Ben Lewis,

an R.S.P.B. Warden in the Broads.

The whole of this area was a big forest that was growing on the floodplains

created by the last Glacial Age.

The Broads were dug, the forest was cleared and essentially the broads as we know it has

appeared. Over the last few weeks, I've been enjoying the steady crescendo of birdsong towards spring.

So I've come to Norfolk, one of the most renowned places to bird watch in the UK,

to learn more about the birds that live here. I'm going to I'm

here Any wetland like habitats in the broads, like a reed-bed, wants to turn into willow and alder car, which is wet woodland.

But here we have so many rare species that are linked with the broads habitats

...