What happens when someone who listens for a living turns their ears to the natural world? Branwen Munn is a professional DJ, music producer, and multi-instrumentalist based in West Wales and a birder with an infectious passion for the outdoors. In 2024, she embarked on a Big Year alongside her parents, travelling the length and breadth of the UK in search of as many species as possible. In 2026, the National Trust chose her to front their year of community birding events across West Wales, leading walks, spotlighting a Bird of the Month, and building something genuinely special along the way.

In this episode, Chris sits down with Branwen to dig into the highs, the logistical headaches, and the beautiful messiness of planning a UK Big Year, plus her refreshingly honest take on what kind of birder she really is.

Episode Takeaways:

• How to plan a UK Big Year — Branwen breaks down her approach: start with habitats, cross-reference with the seasons, build a spreadsheet (or several), and don't underestimate the logistics of fitting it around real life
• The numbers game — She ended 2024 on 176 species, aiming for 200. Why the early months gave her almost half her total — and why motivation gets harder as the year goes on
• The Skye Christmas that wasn't — A week on the Isle of Skye in December to chase white-tailed eagles, a full week of rain, and a single beautiful day on the Sleat Peninsula that almost made it worth it
• Apps and tools for tracking your year — Why Branwen landed on BTO BirdTrack to log sightings, and how having the data in one place changed her relationship with the records
• The ethics of the tick — When does a bird count? Branwen talks through her decision to remove a snow goose from the list, the Pallid Harrier that keeps returning to Llanelli Wetlands, and why she's firmly not a twitcher
• Birding as a trans person — Branwen reflects candidly and warmly on her experience in the birding community, and why it's one of the most welcoming spaces she's found
• The National Trust project — How a talk about her Big Year at Dinefwr turned into a full year of community birding events across Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, and Ceredigion — complete with walks, crafts, a community species log, and a celebration disco in December

Episode Timestamps:

• 02:08 - What Is A Big Year
• 04:25 - Results And Birding Style
• 07:01 - Vlogging Origins
• 08:54 - Mindful Birding Moment
• 10:31 - Planning The Big Year
• 12:11 - Budget And Family Team
• 14:35 - Skye Setback Story
• 17:18 - Birding Then and Now
• 22:03 - Staying Motivated Midyear
• 25:03 - Tracking With BirdTrack
• 27:34 - Local Lifer Highlights
• 29:39 - Birding Community
• 32:30 - Identity and Inclusion
• 34:47 - Counting Questionable Ticks
• 38:45 - Fair Weather Birder Reflections
• 41:24 - National Trust Big Year

Important Links & Resources:

• Follow My Birding Life on Instagram
• Subscribe to My Birding Life on YouTube
• Follow Branwen on Instagram

Jon Mason has spent almost four decades as a geography teacher, an Opticron ambassador, and to a growing audience on Instagram, sharing early morning birding moments from Otmoor and beyond.

In this episode, Chris sits down with John to talk about a fascination with birds that started before he could walk, why he calls himself a birder rather than a birdwatcher, and how a heart attack a decade ago changed the way he spends his time. From spider's webs at sunrise to a nightingale nobody could see, this is a conversation about noticing more, rushing less, and why the simplest birds are often the best ones.

Episode Takeaways:

• A lifetime with birds — Jon traces his love of birds back to a highchair full of sparrows, and explains why for him birding has never been a hobby, it's just always been there.
• Birder, not birdwatcher — Why Jon relies on his ears as much as his eyes, and how an old LP called Bird Sounds in Close Up trained him to recognise calls as a boy.
• You are the lesson — Forty years of teaching geography taught John that you can't fake passion in front of students — you have to live it, out loud, on a chalk hillside with a telescope.
• The heart attack that changed everything — How a health scare ten years ago led Jon to step back from work, invest in time outdoors, and discover that nature does more for his blood pressure than medication.

Episode Timestamps:

• 03:00 — A lifetime of loving birds, starting with sparrows on a highchair
• 07:00 — Where "The Early Birder" name comes from, and a body clock tuned to the dawn chorus
• 11:00 — Sharing birding in the moment on Instagram, and the firecrest that stopped a photograph
• 13:00 — Forty years of teaching: "you are the lesson," not the one delivering it
• 24:00 — Titchwell RSPB and why it has everything
• 33:00 — Quality over quantity: spider's webs, nightingales, and not losing the point of the day
• 40:00 — The heart attack, the wake-up call, and why nature is better than medication

Important Links & Resources:

• Follow My Birding Life on Instagram
• Subscribe to My Birding Life on YouTube
• The Early Birder
• Follow Jon on Instagram

Suzy Buttress has been hosting the Casual Birder podcast for nearly nine years, built entirely around the idea that birding should be enjoyable, accessible, and welcoming to everyone.

In this episode, Chris sits down with a fellow podcaster to hear how a childhood dream of being Snow White with birds on her hand turned into a 1,085-species world list, a husband she's converted into a bigger birder than herself, and a gentle but very real competition over who gets to 191 first.

From a wooden spoon worm-feeding contraption to paradise riflebirds in Australia to a missed crane on Big Day that still stings, this is a conversation about finding your people, birding at your own pace, and why the casual approach might be the best one of all.

Episode Takeaways:

• Nine years of Casual Birder — How Suzy built a solo podcast from scratch, doing everything herself, and why the community it created changed her life more than she ever expected.
• The monster she created — Suzy started dragging her photographer husband along on birding trips. Now he's on 191 for the year and she's on 182. She calls it a monster of her own making.
• Getting serious about listing — How a women's birding challenge introduced Suzy to eBird, and why she won't count a bird unless she could identify it herself.
• The wooden spoon invention — Suzy's homemade worm-feeding contraption that got a robin coming in for slow-mo photography. Patented, apparently.
• Paradise riflebirds in Australia — The trip where live mealworms in the hand were suddenly worth the wriggle, thanks to a magpie-sized bird of paradise landing on her palm.
• The Big Day breakdown — How Suzy and her husband John approach the Global Big Day each year, why filming it adds chaos, and the crane she heard but couldn't bring herself to count.

Episode Timestamps:

• 03:00 — Nine years, 148 episodes, and doing everything solo
• 05:00 — How the podcast opened up Suzy's world and connected her to people globally
• 06:00 — Where the love of birds began
• 11:00 — Paradise riflebirds in Australia and the one time wriggly worms were worth it
• 13:00 — When birding got serious: binoculars at 15, a photographer husband, and the podcast
• 17:00 — Getting into listing, eBird, and an honesty rule that keeps the count clean
• 19:00 — 1,085 species worldwide and why it could be more if she wasn't so strict
• 21:00 — The black tern she missed while editing podcast episodes
• 25:00 — Binoculars, scopes, cameras, and who carries what
• 27:00 — Global Big Day: the logistics, the nightjar finish, and 79 vs 84
• 33:00 — 30 Days Wild, red kites in a thunderstorm, and mindful birding
• 39:00 — Target lifer: the crested eagle in Panama

Important Links & Resources:

• Follow My Birding Life on Instagram
• Subscribe to My Birding Life on YouTube
• The Casual Birder Podcast
• Hannah and Erik Go Birding Podcast
• Global Big Day