Nature’s a Hoot Episode 13 – Job swap with Hannah and Tom

Here you can read more about Nature’s a Hoot, and access resources, photos and extra insights from episode 13, where our podcast hosts, Hannah and Tom, swap jobs at the Hawk Conservancy Trust for a couple of days!

Listen now to the Nature’s a Hoot episode 13 Job swap with Hannah and Tom. Don’t forget to subscribe!

Can you believe it’s been a full year since we launched our wildlife podcast, Nature’s a Hoot? To close our second season, in this month’s episode, Tom and Hannah spend a day in one another’s shoes. Hannah joins the Bird Team while Tom tries his hand at Conservation and Research – what could possibly go wrong? Listen in as Tom shares some big news in light of a recent eco-anxiety article, ‘The climate crisis makes me question whether it’s irresponsible to have children‘ by previous guest – Sophie Pavelle, and we reveal the winner of last month’s Matter of Fact Challenge.

Tom joined the Conservation and Research team for a day and spent the morning out with Hannah doing one of our bird of prey transects. Tom kept his eagle-eye out for raptors, and learned how we record different species we spot on a transect. Our walking transects are part of a project across southern England, and help us to understand how populations of birds of prey, such as Buzzards, Red Kites and Kestrels are doing in this area. Apart from a few teething problems with the range finder, Tom did an excellent job and spotted a good few Buzzards and Red Kites which were recorded, and will help towards future data analyses about the populations of both species in the landscape around us!

The next day it was time for Hannah to experience what it is like to be on the Bird Team. Hannah weighed our team of Hooded Vultures… well, she weighed Sundance three times… and Ennis, one of our Great Grey Owls. Hannah then got to experience the thrill of helping in one of our flying displays, Wings of Africa, feeding the Hooded Vultures from the balcony, and releasing our fantastic White Storks!

We both learned so much, and especially appreciated the different challenges we both face. It was brilliant to experience being on a different team for a day, and we will definitely make more effort in future to spend more time in each other’s shoes, but it also certainly showed how wonderfully suited we both are to the jobs we actually do!!

Find out more about the job swap by listening to our podcast here. Don’t forget to like and subscribe!