Phil Rudkin, interviewed by EMOHA (3)

Phil Rudkin, interviewed by EMOHA (3)

Wildlife Sounds

A sound clip of Phil Rudkin talking about the most memorable experiences

EMOHA

Interview with Phil Rudkin in 2007

25/07/2007

You may use this item in accordance with the licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/uk/

.mp3

English

Oral History

.mp3

2min 17secs

The grey seals at Donna Nook. Oh, fantastic. It was before the Wildlife Trust in Lincolnshire had to fence them off. It was just before then, they were not known to the general public. And they're on the bombing range at Donna Nook. It's a bombing range, but it's also managed by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust and the fallow deer would, they come... fallow deer! The grey seals, actually, come onto the sands to have their pups. Other places, you have to go in a boat and watch them on these islands, but in Lincolnshire they come on to the sands and they even come in to where the cars are parked, and they’re all having their youngsters. And of course, you've got all the bulls chasing each other and fighting for their harems. So, I went there one golden morning before the public got to know about it, and it was unfenced. The wardens okayed it with us. A couple of us went on with our recorders, and we actually walked in amongst these grey seals, and I approached two females with their youngsters and I got some wonderful recordings, and of course they’re mammals and they, and they’ve got these lovely big liquid eyes, and the females looked at you, and one actually charged me and stopped. Because I was getting near her pup. And she settled down, and then another joined her, and they both howled. Sang, if you like. And I recorded that, you could hear the pups calling like little babies. And then, but, you're, all the while you were looking around to make sure a bull was not coming up behind you. That was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Walking around amongst wild, quite dangerous mammals. But, somehow, when I was recording these two females and their youngsters, somehow they just seemed to, I don't know, this is anthropomorphic, I know, but they seemed to know that I wasn't going to do any harm, because they just looked at me, they settled down and they just sang. And I got this lovely recording, so I thought, well, I’ll bung it into the competition and I got this national award, it got put forward to the international. So, grey seals. So, that's just a few of my favourite species.

Colin Hyde

Phil Rudkin

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