Date/Time
Wednesday 7 May 2025
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Categories Performances, shows, and events
Book here now: £10 full price • £8 or £5 if you prefer – please pay what you can*
We always have three prices – pay less and come to more things 🙂
A quest to record all the calls of Scotland’s seabird species, travelling solo by sea kayak
In April 2024, Dartmoor-based adventurer Roland Arnison set off on an ambitious solo quest: to spend all summer on the hunt for all of Scotland’s seabird species, travelling only by sea kayak. His aim? To record the calls of each seabird species, to photograph, film and research them and to immerse himself in the perilous world of seabirds. Above all, Roland hoped to record the hair-raising ethereal call of the Great Northern Diver: the Call of the Loon.
As Roland paddled around the remote islands of the Hebrides, battling the worst summer weather for years, he experienced the joys of many seabird encounters but also witnessed for himself the shocking declines in their populations. And along the way he met some of the hidden army of seabird researchers, conducted his own field research, featured on BBC Radio 4 and almost drowned when trying to recover his lost kayak.
In this popular multi-media lecture, Roland will share his adventures with you, showcase some of the sounds, photographs and film he captured on the expedition and welcome you into the glorious, fascinating and diverse world of our precious, endangered seabirds.
Audience appreciation from Roland’s previous Call of the Loon talks:
“Highly recommended, we absolutely loved it and learnt SOOOO much.”
“Astonishing evening- highly recommend it.”
“It was brilliant, exciting story and wonderful films, photos and sounds of beautiful seabirds!”
The Call of the Loon website: https://rolandarnison.co.uk/call-of-the-loon-expedition/
“Save our Seabirds” episode on Radio 4, featuring Roland: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0020ph9
The Call of the Loon is sponsored by Sea Kayaking UK, Celtic Paddles, Reed Chillcheater, Whetman Equipment, Sennheiser and The European Nature Trust.
Roland Arnison is an adventurer, environmental consultant, film-maker and expedition leader based in Chagford, Devon. His work and his passion lead him to explore wild and remote places, to research wildlife, conservation and how humans and nature interact. He uses his films, blogs and lectures to share stories and lessons learnt from his explorations. Roland’s latest venture is his Call of the Loon project to inspire and inform people about our fascinating, precious and threatened seabirds. Roland plans to continue the Call of the Loon expedition in the summer of 2025, paddling to even more remote seabird colonies in Scotland on the search for Britain’s rarest seabirds.
Roland’s website is www.rolandarnison.co.uk and his blogs are at rolandarnisonadventures.wordpress.com
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See Access, Tickets & Finding Us for more about why there are three ticket prices, plus other useful info about coming to events at Ashburton Arts Centre: getting here, parking, loos, PA tickets, etc.
* We usually have three ticket prices – please pay what you can. If you can pay the full price, that’s great. If choosing a cheaper ticket allows you to come to more things, then please do! Ticket receipts are split between the artists (it’s usually their livelihood!) and the arts centre (keeps the place going). Except on the rare occasions when we have a sellout gig on our hands, it’s always better to have someone here in the audience than an empty seat, so genuinely, please pay whatever you can.