KATE MARTIN: Hello and welcome to the National Trust Podcast.
I'm Kate Martin, lead ranger in the Northwest. And in this
episode, I'm going to be picking up lots of tips about
birdwatching but as I discover some of these avian residents
have more metropolitan tastes when it comes to making their
home.
When you think of places synonymous with bird watching
and avian encounters, I usually think of the sort of wide open
wetlands, of Wicken Fen, or maybe the wooded valleys of the
Lake District or even some nice rugged coastline somewhere like
Cornwall. So when I was told I was making a bird watching
episode and the location was Central Leeds, I was more than a
little confused.
But I'm currently headed towards the city centre to meet Keen
bird watcher Paul Wheatley, who tells me he has the perfect spot
for the early morning twitching.
But to be honest, amongst the rubbish collections and the road
sweepers and the early morning deliveries that you can hear
going past as we speak, there's an odd pigeon and a gull bobbing
around, but bird life here is pretty non-existent.
And just ahead to me, though, there is a guy who just looks
completely out of place. He stood on the side of the road
with a puffer jacket and a flask of tea, I’m assuming that's got
to be Paul Wheatley.
So let's head over and see if it's him.
Hello. You must be Paul?
PAUL WHEATLEY: Hi Kate! Good to meet you!
KATE MARTIN: You weren't exactly difficult to spot. So at the
moment I can see a scope pointing at what appears to be
nothing, I can't see anything at all up there.
PAUL WHEATLEY: Actually, you've come to one of the best places
in Leeds for a bit of urban birding.
KATE MARTIN: Really?
PAUL WHEATLEY: Have a Look at the screen.
KATE MARTIN: Oh, my word! I Are they what I think they are?
PAUL WHEATLEY: Peregrine Falcon!
KATE MARTIN: Oh, that's amazing!
PAUL WHEATLEY: Fastest bird in the world.
KATE MARTIN: So why have they chosen to make Leeds their home?
PAUL WHEATLEY: So out in the countryside they'll nest on
cliffs and craggy areas. But over the last 10 or 20 years,
Peregrines have been moving into cities and towns where they've
got plentiful supply of pigeons to eat.
Here in Leeds at the University, we've got the clock tower here
up on the hill overlooking the city centre. It's the highest
place, and that's where the Peregrines have chosen to come
and nest
KATE MARTIN: I suppose for a Peregrine it just an inner city
crag.
PAUL WHEATLEY: That's the location to look for them high
up.
Good way to start is to just buy a pair of binoculars that gets
you straight into accessing what's out there to be able to
see the birds well.
To step up a little bit and go for a telescope, you can get a
decent scope for a few hundred pounds.
I'm really into phone scoping and I combine that with the
camera on my mobile phone.
So with a little adapter I can attach my phone to the scope and
then suddenly your iPhone's got a 70x zoom. And that really
transports you from ground level up to the level of the
Peregrine.
I've got a replay here.
KATE MARTIN: So vivid isn’t it when you can get that close. Oh
look at that.
You can see every detail of the feather and the colouration.
Absolutely wonderful!
PAUL WHEATLEY: Did you hear that?
KATE MARTIN: Yes, I did.
PAUL WHEATLEY: That's Falcon calling, falcon’s calling to the
tercel, to the male.
Can you see the falcon?
KATE MARTIN: I can. I can see her very clearly.
PAUL WHEATLEY: And this is what's fantastic about an urban
birding location. You can get really close. We've got the
falcon now, coming round now, making a fantastic shape, this
sort of jet fighter shape, swept back wings.
KATE MARTIN: They’re Unmistakable, aren't they?
PAUL WHEATLEY: If you've got the optics, obviously great to be
able to watch the Peregrines from the street. But there are
other ways that you can watch Urban Peregrines. If you come
with me, we can go and check it out.
KATE MARTIN: Oh, fantastic! Let's go!
So where are you taking me?
PAUL WHEATLEY: Just around the corner to the engineering
department.
Here we are.
Kate this is Les Arkless
KATE MARTIN: Hello Les!
LES ARKLESS: Hello!
KATE MARTIN: So I hear you're the person who's helped to make
these peregrines famous.
LES ARKLESS: Yes. Yes. Yeah!
KATE MARTIN: Oh, wow! A web cam! So this is live now?
LES ARKLESS: That's live!
KATE MARTIN: So we can see. I'm guessing this is the Falcon is
it on the nest?
LES ARKLESS: She’s sitting on four eggs. There’s another two
weeks and about three days before they hatch.
KATE MARTIN: Is she literally just laying directly onto those
gravels?
LES ARKLESS: They make a little scrape, they lay down on it and
kick the feet out backwards and just make a shallow depression.
KATE MARTIN: It must be a great relief when they hatch and you
can actually see the youngsters in there.
LES ARKLESS: While they’re incubating eggs it's like about
five weeks when not very much happens. And then three will
hatch within 24 hours. The last one will hatch a day later.
KATE MARTIN: This is the Peregrine folder is it?
LES ARKLESS: It is yes.
KATE MARTIN: These are great photos. aren’t they?
LES ARKLESS: One little hatch!
KATE MARTIN: They look like little white cotton wool balls
of fluff.
LES ARKLESS: As it is, it's only about the size of a chicken egg.
KATE MARTIN: So this is where they start to lose that white
fluff and start getting their proper feathers through?
LES ARKLESS: Well, when the fledging they'll get big enough,
they'll flap the wings, get stronger, they'll go off, and
then hopefully they'll fly off and make it a across to a
building or somewhere to land on.
KATE MARTIN: And if they don't?
LES ARKLESS: They end up on the ground!
KATE MARTIN: Oh, dear!
LES ARKLESS: So there's one time that really stands out.
I had Paul ringing me up...
PAUL WHEATLEY: So the first year they had breeding success was
back in 2018, but they laid their eggs really late in the
year.
So it was into July before the birds actually fledge from the
nest.
And it was at that point that I found myself on duty. Les
himself was unfortunate on holiday, and that was when the
first Peregrine fledged the nest.
On this occasion, the Peregrine ended up on a low building but
wasn't a fed by the parents.
The Peregrine tried to build its strength through the day and I
actually saw it take a second flight about five o’clock that
and it flew for the church spire just opposite the Parkinson
Building.
It got about halfway up, crashed right into the side of the
building, scrambled with its talons, wasn't able to catch
onto anything and fell all the way to the ground and
immediately was up on its feet and was running towards the main
road.
So straight away I grabbed my telescope, ran across the road,
just narrowly avoided getting knocked down and managed to get
between the Peregrine and the road.
And with quite a few other people, we sort of corralled the
Peregrine around the corner away from the road.
I knew that the Peregrine needed to go up on the roof. There's a
lot of urban foxes in the area, so it was a real sort of welfare
situation. Straightway I was on the phone and I talked to Les
and Les said... [
LES ARKLESS: On Phone] "There’s a box left with security throw
something over it’s head, calm it down, put it in the box and
get them to go up onto the roof and just let it out."
PAUL WHEATLEY: They were the words of encouragement I needed.
When we got up on the roof of the Parkinson Building, you want
to be really careful.
So the worst situation is to release the Peregrine from the
box and spook the bird and straightaway it's off the roof
and on the ground again.
Just try to really take our time to gradually open the box and
let the Peregrine just wander out, giving it lots of space,
and straightaway the bird, was up onto a perch on the side of
the building, at which point, you know, everything's okay.
LES ARKLESS: This is not things the public should be doing. It
should be getting a qualified person to do it.
It was just the welfare of the bird, the time, the location and
Paul, he was being guided by qualified people to actually do
it safely.
The camera is great thing really, because we don't have to
disturb them.
We can watch it all remotely where it is and great thing for
public engagement.
And it is the most popular university web page apparently.
KATE MARTIN: That doesn’t surprise me actually, there's
just something so wonderful about seeing wildlife like that.
And they're so beautiful aren’t they?
LES ARKLESS: Oh, yeah.
KATE MARTIN: They’re just beautiful birds.
Inspired by this morning's encounter, I've driven 9 minutes
north of the university to Meanwood Park to meet Linda
Jenkinson, who's an urban birder.
And I'm told she'll be able to open my eyes to a hidden but
thriving urban avian world. It's a beautiful park.
And the area in front of me, sort of grassy with paths
crisscrossing and looking over. there's a lot of really nice,
mature trees.
And behind that is a bank of daffodils that Wordsworth would
be very excited to see.
There's a lady standing over here by the cafe.
Hello. You must be Linda?
LINDA JENKINSON: I am. Hello, Kate.
KATE MARTIN: Lovely to meet you You too.
This is a glorious spot.
LINDA JENKINSON: It's absolutely wonderful. Lots of people use
the park here. People running, cycling, dog walking. But most
people don't realize how fantastic it is for
birdwatching.
KATE MARTIN: My day job's outdoors, so I know a little bit
about birds, but probably not as much as I should! So I'm hoping
you might be able to teach me something today.
LINDA JENKINSON: Okay, well, if we go sit over there, maybe I
can give you a whistle stop tour of one of my workshops.
KATE MARTIN: Great. Let's go.
LINDA JENKINSON: Okay, well, if you're a complete beginner,
there's four things I really need to advise people on to
start off with.
That's books, maybe get yourself a decent book.
KATE MARTIN: Yeah.
LINDA JENKINSON: Binoculars, of course, because you can see
birds flying around all of the time.
But you need to see the detail.
KATE MARTIN: Yeah.
LINDA JENKINSON: And then one fantastic thing that you can get
now is a decent app. There are some that are very good for
reference, especially for things like birdsong as well.
And the last thing is, is you really need to know what to wear
because the last thing you want is to be freezing cold or
soaking wet. So gloves, scarves, hats, that kind of thing.
Okay. So I think I've just given you the heads up on what you're
going to need to get started. So shall we have a little walk?
KATE MARTIN: Oh yeah, let's!
LINDA JENKINSON: Fantastic.
With this particular park, we've got some conifers, Yew Trees and
some Pines and that means that we get even more diversity.
So things like Coal Tit, which got nice little stripe down the
back of it’s head and Goldcrest as well.
KATE MARTIN: And they’re teeny tiny aren’t they Goldcrest?
LINDA JENKINSON: They’re our smallest bird!
Very, very fidgety and fluttery and does lots of fly catching.
Oh did you hear the Blackcap then? It's the one that's
going [imitating bird call]
KATE MARTIN: Yes. Just!
LINDA JENKINSON: I cant do a very good impression. But it's
very, very, flutey very fast. And they've only just arrived!
Believe it or not, this is probably one of the best places
to find birds.
KATE MARTIN: There’s bramble, there’s lower sort of scrubby
stuff. There's obviously a bit of cherry in there. But it is,
It's really, really dense.
LINDA JENKINSON: This is what birds need in order to be able
to thrive. So these brambles, they contain lots of insects,
but as soon as you clear all away, then you're not going to
get birds.
This is Chiffchaff that’s singing here. This is one of our
earliest migrants.
You can just see it right above us.
That likes really tall trees. It sings this chip chip chip sound
Yeah Chiffchaff!
But it's actually nesting in this bramble scrub really low
down.
We're going to go walk over to the stream.
So this is one of the good places to see Kingfisher.
KATE MARTIN: Oh, wow!
LINDA JENKINSON: So we sit down on this bench here, we might be
lucky.
KATE MARTIN: To see that flash of blue!
LINDA JENKINSON: So kingfishers are potentially going to be on
this spot here because we've got some still water that you can
actually see the bottom.
KATE MARTIN: Yeah.
LINDA JENKINSON: It will sit on a little perch that's
overhanging the water to wait for the fish to come by and then
plop straight in and then out again.
Why don't we just have a few seconds of quiet and see if we
can see one flying by?
KATE MARTIN: Those Kingfisher seem to be eluding us.
LINDA JENKINSON: Why you might not see a Kingfisher unless it's
right in front of you is that they're not really blue.
There's no blue pigment in the Kingfisher feathers at all.
Wow!
The way that the feathers are made up, it refracts the light,
and you actually see the blue spectrum as you're looking at
them.
KATE MARTIN: That's amazing, I did not know that!
It's great to be able to come out to a park like this, but
obviously not everybody can get out to places like this.
So if you're stuck at home or you know, you're in a flat, is
there ways you can still get involved and watch the birds
that are local to you?
LINDA JENKINSON: If you just put up things like bird boxes, site
them in the right place so they're not going to get too hot
during the summer months. Have some nice, untouched areas where
birds can nest.
So a typical example of that is one of my urban birding
colleagues, Mary-Beth, who's managed to change a two meter
square piece of concrete into a fantastic wildlife haven.
KATE MARTIN: I've made my way to the other side of Leeds, and as
Linda suggests, I've come to meet Mary-Beth, and I'm assuming
this is probably her garden because it looks like a lovely
little haven for wildlife.
It's quite a small space, but there's loads packed into it.
There's trees and bird feeders everywhere, a little hedgehog
house, and it's absolutely gorgeous.
Hello Mary-Beth!
MARY-BETH WHITTINGSTALL: Hello, Kate!
KATE MARTIN: What a lovely, lovely garden you’ve got!
MARY-BETH WHITTINGSTALL: Thank you so much! In you come, would
you like a drink?
KATE MARTIN: Tea would be grand, thank you.
MARY-BETH WHITTINGSTALL: I'll put that on for you now!
KATE MARTIN: I have to say I absolutely love the décor of
your house. There's just nature everywhere. Bees and birds and
everything. It's absolutely amazing.
MARY-BETH WHITTINGSTALL: It's a back to back house, which is
quite a traditional house in Leeds, in Yorkshire. It's a
really small space and as a consequence we don't have like
lots of gardens in these houses. But as you can see with my
neighbours and myself, we make the most of the small space.
There you go, cup of tea.
KATE MARTIN: Perfect. Thank you.
It's lovely sitting here on your very comfy couch, but it's a
really perfect view you’ve got to set up of the feeders and the
birds outside. It does make you feel like you're in a sort of
cinema watching a wildlife documentary in front of us. So
what species do you get?
MARY-BETH WHITTINGSTALL: I'm really lucky, actually. I get
lots of different birds visiting. I have like a little
colony of House Sparrows that visit, and I’ve got the
Blackbirds, the Robins, the Great Tits.
So quite common really, but still very much appreciated.
I've also had a Common Whitethroat visiting, which I
never expected to see, and I've also had a flock of Redpolls
visiting which are really striking little finches.
Then again, I never expected to see those in my, you know, my
little Leeds yard.
For the last couple of years. It's really had a very profound
effect on me having this small green space. The first lockdown
in 2020, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
When you've kind of been presented with something like
that, you really do start to consider your mortality a lot
more. And in doing so, you start to really think about what
matters to you the most and what what you want to do with your
life.
And for me, what mattered to me the most was being outside and
being around nature. But I couldn't do that because we were
in a lockdown.
I had my first of two surgeries, followed by a few months of
chemotherapy and then followed by radiotherapy.
So I kind of lost that year to cancer treatment, which meant
that there was days when I physically was so unwell I
couldn't really move off the settee.
But I had my birds visiting. So, you know, it was so important to
me to have that view.
My mum actually was the one who got me my window bird feeder
because she said, While you're on the sofa, you know,
recovering from surgery, you can watch the birds more clearly
when they're right there on the windows.
Me, and my mum have our shared passion for birding and that was
a present from her that was very appreciated and her way of
connecting back with me as well because we couldn't see one
another and that was very, very tough.
Straight away, It was kind of really obvious to me that if I
continue to get out as much as I could on my good days and be
around nature, that would keep me, keep me going and keep me
kind of feeling positive.
And then even on those days when I was too unwell to move really,
I could still see the birds in the garden.
KATE MARTIN: It was a hard time for everyone then to add
something like that on top of it and then as you say, then not
being able to connect with your real family, for want of a
better word I suppose having a sort of little avian family was
kind of the best thing you could have in that situation when you
can't actually physically meet your human family.
MARY-BETH WHITTINGSTALL: The birds in my garden, these sorts
of feel like family in a way. You know, I was seeing them
every day. I was putting food out for them. We had that
relationship. It's that connection with nature, it does
feel very personal.
Every night, I would be up sometimes very late making sure
the hedgehog had visited. Things like that. It's so silly. It's
like, I need to go to bed now, but I want to make sure the
hedgehog has had it’s tea.
KATE MARTIN: It is, it’s just such a nice thing to have
literally so close to home right outside your doorstep.
So, can you give me a tour of your garden?
MARY-BETH WHITTINGSTALL: Of course.
KATE MARTIN: What have you got?
MARY-BETH WHITTINGSTALL: The favourite food here is usually
the sunflower seeds. All kind of the birds really enjoy those,
particularly the Blue Tits and the Great Tits.
There’s also the suet feeders for the Robins and the
Blackbirds. I also put mealworms out.
We have the little suet bowls here which the Long-Tailed Tits
really like.
I've also got a little bee house.
KATE MARTIN: Oh yeah!
MARY-BETH WHITTINGSTALL: Just over there.
KATE MARTIN: For solitary bees?
MARY-BETH WHITTINGSTALL: Yes, my favourite type of bees. I even
have some Red Mason Bees in some of the brickwork. A couple more
weeks and they'll start to emerge as well.
KATE MARTIN: It's amazing what you can do in such a small
space.
MARY-BETH WHITTINGSTALL: It really is. Yeah. I would never
have imagined we could have all of what we have here in this
little, little concrete box.
KATE MARTIN: Mary-Beth, thank you so much for showing me
around this beautiful little oasis of calm.
MARY-BETH WHITTINGSTALL: It’s been lovely meeting you, an
absolute pleasure.
KATE MARTIN: Oh, you too.
MARY-BETH WHITTINGSTALL: Take care.
KATE MARTIN: Thanks very much.
When I was told I was coming to Leeds for the day, you don't
really think about it as somewhere to come to see
wildlife. But what's been really special today is meeting people
who not only are really passionate about the city that
they live and work in, but are really passionate about the
nature that's here.
From seeing the peregrines, to listening to the black caps and
the chiffchaffs, and then obviously coming out with
Mary-Beth and listening to her talk about how important that
connection with nature has been to her personally, and the very
difficult journey that she's been on the last few years.
It really makes you appreciate that no matter where you are,
nature is literally at your fingertips. If you make a home
for it, you make space for it. If you take the time to look for
it, you'll find it. And that connection with nature is just
so important to all of us.
Thanks for listening to the National Trust Podcast. If
you've been inspired by this podcast, and would like to find
out more about bird watching, or ways to encourage wildlife into
your garden, follow the links in our show notes.
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And until next time from me, Kate Martin. Goodbye.