4.7 • 709 Ratings
🗓️ 13 December 2025
⏱️ 83 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
The Scottish Wildlife Trust has just acquired a piece of land which will double the size of one of its wildlife reserves. Rachel joins Reserves Manager Rab Potter at Gight Wood near Methlick to discover why the site is so significant.
A new survey has revealed that the number of peregrine pairs in the breeding season within Cairngorms National Park has declined by 56% since 2002. Mark meets Chief Executive Grant Moir near Grantown to discuss the pattern.
Cattle droving was once commonplace in Scotland, moving animals on foot to market and to higher fields for grazing. Rachel meets farmer and ecologist Richard Lockett near Dingwall to discover how he led a modern-day cattle drove across the Highlands.
The Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels team in the North East are working with specially trained dogs and their handlers to detect the last remaining grey squirrels in the city and surrounds. Mark visits a search and signal demonstration.
Rachel heads to the open air swimming pool in Stonehaven, host of the International Ice Swimming Association GB Championships. She gets pool side with Stephen Gould from IIS GB and Gillian Wood from Aberdeenshire Council.
Mark takes a wander in Aberdeenshire to consider the nuances in the colours of squirrels' fur.
Mark and Rachel are joined by Joanna Peaker of Montrose Basin Visitor Centre to chat winter wildlife behaviour.
Phil Sime and Morven Livingstone join Jonathan Caddy to discover how an extraordinary chain of events led to the founding of the world-renowned Findhorn Foundation.
Forestry and Land Scotland’s Newton Nursery near Elgin has recently opened a glasshouse which could more than double the number of trees they can grow. Mark explores with Glasshouse Team Leader Emma Ritchie.
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | My Christmas Mix is pure 90s festive nostalgia. |
| 0:11.1 | You know, the Christmas songs you listen to on repeat. |
| 0:14.0 | Ho! |
| 0:14.3 | Ho! Ho! No, no, no. |
| 0:17.5 | I'm all about the big hitting Christmas anthems. |
| 0:20.4 | Come on, guys. What about those tunes that really slay? |
| 0:23.7 | It's Christmas kitchen disco season, surely. |
| 0:26.4 | Give me hip-hip-hop Christmas bangers every day. |
| 0:28.6 | Those Christmas tracks that are straight out of Lapland. |
| 0:30.9 | Get all kinds of Christmassy. |
| 0:32.6 | Just search Christmas music on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.4 | This Scotland Outdoors podcast from BBC Radio Scotland |
| 0:40.4 | Hello and thanks very much for choosing to listen to this |
| 0:48.0 | We do a couple of Scotland outdoors podcasts every week |
| 0:51.1 | One of which is built on the live programme we do for BBC Radio Scotland, |
| 0:54.9 | which is called Out of Doors. |
| 0:56.3 | This week, some seasonal musings and wildlife watching at this time of the year. |
| 1:03.2 | Last night was the annual Christmas tractor run at Inveruri, |
| 1:07.1 | and they bring all the tractors and all the farmers bring the tractors and etc. |
| 1:09.8 | And they're decorated with lights and they've got generators and santas and somebody had a grinch and a jail on the front forks and that kind of thing was brilliant absolutely brilliant but the fire brigade from inverurie entered into the fund too and they brought the fire engine covered in lights and about an hour into the event they got a shout shout. And they had to scramble off. |
| 1:27.9 | And I'll say it to my wife, imagine what it's like, you know, you're watching your house burn to the ground, and all of a sudden Santa and Four Elves turn up. She says, well, better than them not turning up. No, it says a good point. Good morning. I'm Mark Stevens, sitting the other side of the fire, Rachel Stewart. Good morning. you just think, gee, they've gone a lot of effort. |
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