Swift Bricks, Palm Houses and Potholes
Scotland Outdoors
BBC
4.7 • 756 Ratings
🗓️ 7 February 2026
⏱️ 83 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The swift population has seen a significant decline in recent years. Now, Scotland has become the first country in the UK to introduce a legal requirement to install swift bricks in all new buildings. Rachel meets Cally Smith of North East Scotland Swifts to discover how the bricks will help to protect the birds.
The historic Palm Houses at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh are newly restored and the team are beginning to move the plant specimens inside, starting with the largest. Mark meets Glasshouse Manager Fiona Inches to find out what it takes to move hundreds of specimens.
Rachel is at the Herpetofauna Workers Meeting in Glasgow to find out about the work being done to help our reptiles and amphibians. She chats to volunteer Cally Ullman-Smith and his mum Janet of Saving Scotland’s Amphibians and Reptiles.
Recent stormy weather is causing puffins and other seabirds to struggle and many are being washed up on Scotland’s coastlines. Rachel and Mark are joined by Paul Reynolds of New Arc Wildlife Rescue, Aberdeenshire, to discuss the pressures seabirds face.
In this week’s podcast excerpt, Mark meets master wood carver David Robinson at his studio in East Lothian to learn more about how his work is inspired by nature.
Back at the Herpetofauna Workers Meeting, Rachel speaks to ecologist and survey volunteer Stephen Corcoran whose work is related to adders and restoring peatland.
Orkney based artist Anna Charlotta Gardiner is undertaking a month long residency in Aberdeen as part of the Royal Scottish Academy’s 200th anniversary. Mark meets Anna near Aberdeen harbour to explore how her work takes inspiration from the city’s maritime heritage.
Mark takes a wander in Aberdeenshire to check out potholes exacerbated by stormy weather.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:06.1 | Can I just say? |
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| 0:10.0 | It's such a wonderful listen. |
| 0:11.7 | So nice. |
| 0:12.5 | There are loads more like it on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:14.8 | Different paces, different heights, the roof is buckling. |
| 0:17.9 | Where you can also listen to live sports commentary. |
| 0:20.2 | It's right foot goes for goal. |
| 0:21.6 | Oh! |
| 0:22.7 | And then enjoy even more podcasts full of analysis and reaction to the big stories. |
| 0:27.7 | The stat that is astonishing is they ended with the lowest amount of possession. |
| 0:31.2 | And she's had to live with that. |
| 0:32.8 | So if you love sport, a passion, it's almost like a religion. |
| 0:35.8 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:37.8 | Sort of expecting that every week now. |
| 0:41.3 | This Scotland Outdoors podcast from BBC Radio Scotland. |
| 0:51.0 | Hello and thanks very much for choosing to listen to this. |
| 0:53.6 | We do a couple of Scotland outdoors podcasts every week, |
| 0:56.6 | one of which is brilliantly handcrafted from the live program we do for BBC Radio Scotland, |
| 1:02.3 | which is called Out of Doors. |
| 1:03.8 | And this week we're wittering on about the weather again. |
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