What could be more festive than talking about the frozen North with snow, ice and the worlds largest species of owl?

In episode 4 we chat to Jonathan Slaght a wildlife biologist working for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) as their Russia & Northeast Asia co-ordinator and who is probably best known as one of the worlds foremost experts on the Blakiston’s Fish Owl.

I have tried to follow Jon’s work on this rare and elusive owl from afar here in the UK often picking up small articles with updates on this incredible species and his work. I was so excited when after 10 years of studying this species in the remotest parts of Russia Jon has published his first book titled ‘Owls of the Eastern Ice’ about his exploits attempting to understand the Blakiston’s Fish Owl. The book has been a huge success including winning The Times UK nature book of the year - it is a must read for anyone with even the slightest interest in nature, I couldn’t put it down.

In this interview I find out what its like trying to understand the ecology of a rare and poorly understood species in some of the harshest terrain with an eclectic mix of human characters. Hopefully you get a feel for being on the front line of real cutting edge conservation.

You can find out more about Jonathan Slaght and buy the book at

https://jonathanslaght.com/

Thank you for listening and have a great festive season & new year!

In epsiode 3 of Raptor Rambles I catch up with director of the Vulture Conservation Foundation Jose Tavares. The VCF have gone from strength to strength since Jose has taken the helm and we find out what it takes to lead a progressive forward thinking NGO.

Jose shares with us how the VCF came to be returning the Bearded vulture to the skies of Europe and how captive breeding and understanding the genetics has helped return this species to many of its traditional haunts.

VCF work to protect all European vulture species through practical conservation methods and collaboration across the world with fellow scientists and conservationists. It was great to hear from Jose how things are looking bright for European vultures.

You can find out more about the amazing work of the Vulture Conservation Foundation below

https://www.4vultures.org/

Ian Newton is widely regard as one of the leading ornithologist's of our time having spent a lifetime studying and writing about birds and their ecology.

His Sparrowhawk study which lead to the publication of one of his first books 'The Sparrowhawk' published by T&D Poyser is still recognised as one of the longest studies of a single species in the UK.

Ian's work has also included raptor ecology, bird migration, farm land and upland birds and if that wasn't enough he strangely knows a thing or two about apples!

He has supervised and/or examined many well known ornithologist's PhD's including a couple we have previously interviewed and has his name on countless scientific papers. His no nonsense and easily understandable writing style makes even the toughest scientific topic digestible to most readers.

His most recent book is titled Uplands and Birds as part of the Collins New Naturalist Range and can be found in all good book stores.

Thanks for tuning in!

In this Lockdown Live we are joined by a close friend of Raptor Aid, top nest finder and Honey Buzzard expert Steve Roberts.

Steve has been monitoring raptors for over 30 years and specialises in finding their nests to study a range of things. He is probably best known for his long term studies on one of Britains most elusive and rare breeding raptors the European Honey Buzzard. 

Every year Steve works across South Wales and the South of England monitoring this species and he has authored several papers on the species uncovering some fascinating insights into this shy elusive British migrant.

When Steve isn't working in his long term studies he can also be found behind the scenes on the BBC's nature series Springwatch as their chief nest finder - without Steve and the nest finding teams skill there wouldn't be a show as we know and love it.

He also loves travelling to find and observe rare birds in the wild and in 2017 Jimmi and Steve headed to the Philippines together to work with the Philippine Eagle Foundation.

Scott Mason is the pioneer behind the idea of Parahawking- flying with birds of prey. Parahawking started life out in Nepal where Scott took his passion of flying birds of prey as a falconer and took to the skies first with Black Kites and then a couple of rescued Egyptian vultures.

What Scott achieved by taking people on tandem paragliding flights with Kevin and Bob the Egyptian vultures shone an incredible light on the plight of these critically endangered birds. He has feature in National Geographic and the Discovery channel, carried Steve Backshall for Deadly 60 and reached millions of people with his footage and DVD's.

Now having moved to Spain after Nepalese officials turned their back on the great conservation work Scott was achieving Parahawking is born again with two American Black Vultures.

You can follow Scott on Facebook @theparahawkingproject or by visiting www.parahawking.com 

In South Africa there is an amazing charity working to save the most endangered group of bird the vultures. That charity is called Vulpro and in this episode we are joined by Ryno Kemp from the Vulpro team.

Every year Vulpro rescue and rehabilitate hundreds of vultures and other birds of prey from poisoning, collisions with power lines and other injuries. They have a breeding colony of Cape vultures made up of injured vultures which can't be released but who's off spring have every chance in the wild when released. They also work with local communities and students to monitor wild vulture populations.

We chat to Ryno to find out what its like to work for this amazing charity and an amazing group of birds.

www.vulpro.com

In this episode of Lockdown Live we are joined by one of the worlds greatest conservationist's! That might seem like a monstrous statement to make to anyone who hasn't heard of Professor Carl Jones but once you understand how many species he has saved from extinction and what makes this man tick you realise how special he is. 

Working all his professional life for the Durrell Institute Carl has probably saved more species from extinction than any other, the most notable or well known being the Mauritius Kestrel of which the population dwindled to less than 10 birds. Carl has won the Indianapolis Prize for his work, the highest recognition for conservationists.

In this chat we find out what makes this great mind really tick, how he brought species back from the brink and what the future holds for the conservation of species and ecosystems. 

https://www.durrell.org/wildlife/