"The aspiration for [Species on the Edge] is to enable people to assist in discovering more about the region’s bats: to encourage the recording of data, or the step before – to kindle a love of bats that becomes a data point that then becomes an informed conservation action. One of the things that struck me is the enthusiasm of the converted – that once demystified, bats in the attic are a gift not a curse." - Stephen Rutt
In the Summer of 2025, we were delighted to commission writer and naturalist Stephen Rutt and audio artist Claire Todd to dive into Species on the Edge’s work for bats on the Solway coast. Our ask was to create an artistic piece exploring and evaluating our activity on the Solway coast – beyond that, Claire and Stephen were free to use their imagination and creativity.
And the result: a truly stunning and captivating six-part podcast delving into the mysterious and under-researched world of bats on the Solway coast. Titled ‘Echoes & Whispers’, the podcast captures the voices of the Species on the Edge Solway team, volunteers, and local partners to tell the story of our efforts to increase awareness and understanding of these extraordinary mammals.
The series is available on YouTube, Spotify, and available as a PDF. We encourage you to watch, listen, or read – immerse yourself in the Echoes & Whispers of the Common and Soprano Pipistrelles, the Daubenton’s, and the Brown Long-eared bats of the Solway coast.
YouTube
Spotify
About the creative team
Stephen Rutt
Stephen Rutt is a naturalist and the award-winning author of three books. Despite falling into a river when he was two years old, he has never learned to swim. But water has fascinated him ever since.
His books – The Seafarers: A Journey Among Birds (2019), Wintering: A Season with Geese (2019), The Eternal Season: Ghosts of Summers Past, Present and Future (2021) and The Waterlands – tell the story of our environment and the species we share it with. The Seafarers won the Saltire Society’s first book award, Wintering was listed by The Times as one of the best nature books of 2019 and The Eternal Season was shortlisted for the Saltire Society’s best non-fiction book award. He has also been shortlisted for the Anne Brown essay prize and won the Royal Literary Fund’s JB Priestley award. His writing has been published in The Guardian, The Scotsman, Granta.com and Caught by the River.
He lives in Dumfries, Scotland with his daughter and spends most of his time birdwatching in the rain.
Claire Todd
Claire Todd is a writer and audio and visual artist. Originally from Leeds, she now lives in the Scottish Borders. Her work explores the facets of grief, love and loss, and her love and connection to nature through the medium of words, imagery, film, sound and field recording. Her practice was born following the loss of her father in 2013 and her mother in 2015, where she found an outlet for her grief in creativity. Her work has developed from writing poetry and prose, to performing her writing as spoken word commentaries for a number of self produced films, featuring her own soundscapes. Her soundscapes are created using field recordings, photographed imagery converted to synthesised sounds, and self composed piano pieces. Claire recently began painting abstracts as a further expression of her research into the natural world and our emotional connections, which is a prevailing theme of her work.
Claire has had several works published on Caught by the River.
