Cracking sounds, retching notes and bill-snapping from a family of grey herons at a nest on a lake edge at Shearwater, near Warminster, Wiltshire, at 6.30 am on 5 June 1992. Wren song in background. Britain’s commonest and instantly recognisable heron is a colonial nester, preferring the company of their own kind as they nest cheek by jowl in the tops of tall trees found often in a river or lakeside location. Many herons return to the same locations year after year, some of which have been in use for centuries. Both male and female return to the site early in the year, but it is the male that stakes out its favourite tree by uttering far-carrying advertising calls with its head characteristically raised and bill pointing skywards. Away from the nest, a harsh cough-like flight-call is often heard, but it is at the colony that both male and female become far more vocal, uttering a range of harsh croaking noises. Non-vocal sounds include bill-snapping and rattling, but it is not until the single chicks reach an appreciable size that the cacophony in the colony reaches a crescendo. The huge chicks have such insatiable appetites that they feel compelled to call incessantly for their parents’ attention to ensure a ready supply of anything from fish to frogs and small mammals to snails.

Shelf mark
W Ardea cinerea R1 C19

Subjects
Birds

Recording date
1992/06/05

Recording locations
Warminster, Wiltshire: OS Grid Reference(387500,145500)

Recordist
Phelps, Howard

Species
Grey Heron, Ardea cinerea

Image reference pixabay.com/photos/heron-grey-h…nimal-bird-1779147/

British Wildlife Recordings

Grey Heron calls, Wiltshire, England, June 1992

A male and female shelduck calling, recorded at Axmouth, Devon. Shelducks are generally considered to be coastal birds that inhabit sandy shores, mudflats and estuaries. They can be seen along the coasts of England, much of Ireland and at a few locations in Scotland. Diet includes a range of aquatic invertebrates that are collected by sweeping the bill through sediment and extracting suitable food items. They possess highly distinctive features such as a bright red bill, green-black head and neck, and white body possessing rich brown areas. This species is not particularly vocal with the males occasionally producing a sweet whistle while the females emit low growls.

Shelf mark
W1CDR0001430 BD21

Subjects
Birds

Recording date
1960s

Recording locations
Axmouth, Devon: OS Grid Reference(325500,91500)

Recordist
Shove, Lawrence

Species
Shelduck, Tadorna tadorna

Image reference https://www.flickr.com/photos/nickpix2008/4709998484 (Nick Ford)

Shelduck calls, Devon, England, 1960s

Charlie Chaplin - The Dictator 
Kris Kristofferson - To Beat the Devil

Devil - Dictator

Conversation between Ashley and Terry (local father and son), Tom (XR), Kate (XR) and Jack Lowe (me), a clip from the full length recording in this playlist.

--

10th December 2022: What's it really like to be at an environmental protest? The divisions may not be as strong as the media and government would have us believe!

I travelled with Extinction Rebellion North East to join Friends of the Earth and other campaigners to protest about the proposed Cumbrian coalmine just outside Whitehaven, and made this recording as the conversations unfolded.

At the time of the protest, Secretary of State for Levelling Up Michael Gove had just given the green light for the coalmine to go ahead, the first time this has happened in over 30 years.

At the time of publication (January 2023), Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was seeking more ways to criminalise protest.

Listen carefully and you'll hear how the protest gradually moves from a 'classic' scenario of tensions between those 'for and against' the coalmine to constructive conversations between the two parties as they hammer out the issues.

Like me, you'll hear opinions that you do and don't agree with. But what did I learn that cold December day? That the two parties are actually more unified than we realise.

Our perceived divisions are often completely fabricated by the state to set people against one another. As Hazel Graham says in her speech, we would be so much more powerful and greater in number if we could overcome those false divisions and unite.

Perceived divisions were healed that day and it was very moving to be a part of it in some small way.

Cumbrian Coalmine Protest: Conversation No.2 [CLIP]

TEXT: https://medium.com/@samyoureyes/the-busy-workers-handbook-to-the-apocalypse-7790666afde7
PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H4n6g-fCD7qAiSVVd4mCLCAJvZAQxv55/view

Sam Hall - The Busy Workers Handbook To The Apocalypse

This chapter explains how energy systems have begun to degrade and the impossibility of maintaining current trajectories of energy consumption. It is a reality which undermines the 'ecomodern' story of maintaining consumer lifestyles through new technologies. Instead richer societies need to 'power down' - voluntarily or otherwise. 

Full audio book:
https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Breaking-Together-Audiobook/B0C8PTD9ZL
(or search Breaking Together in audible/itunes/etc in your country)

To read more about the book:
https://jembendell.com/2023/04/08/breaking-together-a-freedom-loving-response-to-collapse/

Good Works (GW) believes that critical thought and open debate are some of the most important contributions to ensuring we are able to create a fairer, balanced and harmonious world for all living creatures. The views expressed in this book are those of the author and do not represent the views of Good Works or The Schumacher Institute.

Breaking Together

Energy Collapse and Problems with Net Zero - Chpt 3 of Breaking Together

January is historically the busiest month of the year for holiday bookings. But if you've ever felt uncomfortable with the idea of being a tourist, you're not the first. Back in 1976, anthropologist Dean MacCannell theorised both our drive to see the world and its manipulation by capitalism in his book The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class. 

Travel has changed almost beyond recognition since then: staged authenticity is the norm, and the places you're most likely to visit are sourced from Trip Advisor and Instagram. Plus, tourism is now shrouded in environmental guilt – what the Swedish call 'flygskam'.

Fifty years after The Tourist, Novara Media contributing editor Moya Lothian-McLean speaks to MacCannell about disaster tourism, how sightseeing became sacred and our destructive search for authenticity.

Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

Novara Audio: Radio for a Different Politics

Novara FM: Escaping the Tourism Trap w/ Dean MacCannell

Apollo 11: That's One Small Step for (a) Man

A tour of an industrial estate reveals some surprising wilderness. 
My first recording of this kind, done on my phone, I apologise for the sound quality but I hope you will enjoy the content none-the-less.
(Gorse flowers by the way, smell of coconut and I confused Borage with Comfrey as for some reason I often do - it's a sort of wildflower dyslexia!)

Wilderness in surprising places.

A self-enriching attitude is so normal in Western society that we rarely question it. This is a frame of mind that permits, indeed encourages a entirely disconnected approach to other people and more importantly to the natural world.

Good for the meadow

Building lightly

TEXT: https://rupertread-80924.medium.com/an-open-letter-to-michael-mann-730205964d48

Rupert Read - AN OPEN LETTER TO MICHAEL MANN

Active citizen, very mindful of the crises we face. Endeavouring to shine a light on the greatness of humanity, not least by making The Lifeboat Station Project.

Cumbrian Coalmine Protest: Conversation No.2 [CLIP]

Jack Lowe

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