James Elliott AKA "The Canoe River Cleaner" is a local hero fighting for the natural world - his battleground is the River Freshney, and the enemy is litter. "It's all about the flow," says James. James took a walk along the river... he spotted discarded rubbish floating in the river... and he bought a canoe to clean other peoples' mess up! Why? So that he can make a difference.  There's no finger-pointing, no appointing blame - just action from James and he's on a single-minded mission to remove litter.  Today, James is known as the Canoe River Cleaner.  He turned misfortune into an opportunity. He’s changing the health of our local urban river by removing one shopping trolley at a time. He’s thinking a little bit more about the river and biodiversity than the average person and he's using that momentum to get the community involved. He's educating schoolchildren on the merits of making space for nature in an urban setting. But he's not an angry litter picker-upper! He's using his passion for nature to clean up others' rubbish.  James’s main objective is to shine a light on the importance of a river running clean: in James’s case, it’s the River Freshney, Grimsby, N E Lincolnshire. That’s where you’ll find him doing his work from his Canadian Canoe. If you see him. say hello! Or, better still, look him up online and support his efforts because the world needs more natural history heroes.  Haith’s bird food will be supporting The Canoe River Cleaner with his education programme and making fresh bird food available to encourage people to leave the bread in the bread bin (where it belongs!).  More about Haith’s: https://haiths.com/  More about The Canoe River Cleaner at https://thecanoerivercleaner.co.uk/  Campaigns: Say no to bread?? https://thecanoerivercleaner.co.uk/say-no-to-bread/  Not-for-profit community project: https://allthingsgoodandnice.co.uk/  Sponsors: https://sodafolk.com/collections/all-products and https://thecanoerivercleaner.co.uk/sponsorship/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecanoerivercleaner/  The Canoe River Cleaner merchandise: https://thecanoerivercleaner.co.uk/shop/ and https://thecanoerivercleaner.co.uk/education-video-for-schools/

Chris Snell is one of the best-known budgie breeders in the world today. He's a champion budgerigar breeder and President of The Budgerigar Society. Chris has been keeping budgies since his tenth birthday (16th June 1965) when he and his father clubbed together to buy some budgerigars and build some cages - a simple act that introduced him to a life with birds, and his endless search to breed healthy budgies.  "A bird's got to fly," says Chris - and he means it, which is why he shares his budgie breeding secrets and the rules he follows to keep his birdroom healthy. Chris reveals the struggle the hobby is facing and how he had to give up playing football to dedicate his life to his birds, and some 57 years later he remains hooked on budgerigars since his father whispered "We've won son!" after winning best junior baby budgerigar at the tender age of 10.  Chris explains that a healthy bird diet remains 100% important but that Haith's bird seed accounts for around 80% of his budgerigar's diet - Chris reveals what consists of the missing 20% and makes no bones about sharing his secrets.  Chickweed, for example, should be on every budgie-keepers list and Chris explains why grit should be available throughout the year to assist digestion by grinding the food in the bird’s gizzard.  Chris puts his birds' health first and makes a positive difference in the world of aviculture. Some of Chris's secrets will find their way into our bird foods to help captive and free-living birds thrive and not merely survive because birds are more productive when they are healthy and healthy food increases a bird's ability to survive plus be more productive and reduce health issues. Visit https://haiths.com/  for more from Haith's. 

I’m Simon King and this is Naturespace with Haith’s – a new podcast from a bird food company that’s on a mission to make a positive difference for nature. We may not realise it, but nature affects everything - our economy, social framework, health and existence. The natural world is infinite: the animals, rivers and oceans, the food we consume, even the rainwater that irrigates crops and the air we breathe. However, the natural world is on its back foot... (we watch David Attenborough too!). There is no Planet B for us or nature, which means making space for natural history in our busy lives at home or in a commercial setting. If you like what we’re doing and enjoy listening to the people we’re meeting on our journey, we hope you’ll spread the word about nature too.