Today everyone and their mother has a Podcast but back in the hazy days of 2011 Podcasts were rarer than Flame Brocade moths. And it was here, amongst this barren audio landscape, that three young men bravely fought their way through faulty wiring, primitive technology and microphone problems to deliver to the world their podcast, ‘The Natural History of Sussex’.

Michael was joined by esteemed soundtrack composer Mat Davison (https://www.matdavidson.com/) and ecologist extraordinaire Graeme Lyons (http://analternativenaturalhistoryofsussex.blogspot.com/) in an exploration of the weird and wonderful wildlife of Sussex.

Each month this troublesome trio reported on recent wildlife sightings and headed out into the dark depths of Sussex to visit some great wildlife sites and interview some of the county’s top naturalists. The original plan also involved solving some cold case crimes each episode – but that never actually happened.

(Dr Barry Yates, Mat Davison, Michael and Graeme Lyons not solving crimes in a bird hide at Rye Harbour)

Still, it was a right old laugh making it and there were plenty of highlights. Surely the pinnacle of our achievements could be found in Episode Two when we ourselves became the big news story. Our discovery of a colony of rare Flame Brocade moths near Eastbourne caused something of a media frenzy and, surprisingly, made headlines in all the UK tabloids and on news channels around the world.

I was surprised to find that all seven episodes of ‘The Natural History of Sussex’ are still available on the Apple Podcasts page – so if you want to hear the sound of three crazy naturalists let loose with a microphone, now’s your chance.