January 20th 2014

Last year I upgraded my old Blackberry and so I thought today there are a lot of photographs on there (as it turned out over 800) which were a wonderful record of a very busy but very enjoyable time in my working life. They needed downloading onto a hard drive. From 2009 to 2012 I worked on a Radio 4 series called Saving Species and this series had the ambition to broadcast live from the field into the studio every Tuesday morning.  These 4 photographs were from an amazing road trip I did on my own, 8 days in early June 2010, on the road into Scotland, to the very north of Scotland and back. Over 1600 miles round trip and to be honest solo-trips are my favourite, I can really attune myself to my environment in a way I can't when someone joins me. 

The photograph above was taken on some very steep cliffs on the Black Isle north of Inverness. What looks like a cream laptop beside me is a BGAN a satellite transmitter, with me recording the sounds of the sea back into the studio. Later I sent back an interview from this location which by a complete fluke coincided with a pod of dolphins swimming past, wildlife broadcasting doesn't get more immediate than this. The photos below are from the rest of the trip, notes below.

An almost perfect boat trip to the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth to record a couple of interviews with seabird experts, Sarah Wanless from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Mike Harris, a puffin expert, and Francis Daunt, a specialist in attaching underwater cameras to shags. With me was Michael Scott MBE as the reporter, ex chair of Scottish Natural Heritage. The trip there and back was picture postcard perfect with gannets, guillemots, puffins and a host of other seabirds diving into the sea around us as we sped to and from the Isle.

These two photographs are connected. The old cottage now a barn above housed (in 2010) what were thought to be the most northerly breeding pair of barn owls in mainland Britain. Bob Swann from the BTO was interviewed for Saving Species (from the location in the first photograph) and after we'd finished Bob said, would I like to see some barn owl chicks as he had to ring them. Climbing up into the roof space Bob handed each of the three chicks down to me which is when these photographs were taken. I shall remember that feeling of holding these puffball chicks for the rest of my life. I'm so lucky to have this job and be given access to such inspirational people.