The Balance near the Varteg is sandwiched between two areas of post war land reclamation where the rufty-tufty land forms of a proud coal mining community were smoothed over and set to agriculture with simplicity the governing criteria.
Following a well marked and maintained public footpath I recollect from my last visit some years ago, the presence of a pond and watercourse. These features are no longer visible suggesting some more recent civil engineering activity, which I suspect was executed outside the boundaries of regulation. Progressing beyond agriculture enclosure the path opened onto common land where diverse acid flushes contrast with the hard sun baked spoil.
A spring with associated sphagnum and common cottongrass was a hot spot for invertebrate activity. While a yellowhammer sang and linnet passed overhead I followed a golden ringed dragonfly patrol in a linear fashion looking for prey - in total I recorded four of these odonata during my visit. Here too was a keeled skimmer a species of dragonfly that appears to be more regularly encountered in the upland margins of the south Wales coalfield. However the most striking sight was that of flowering ivy-leaved bellflower once again a plant that is at home in acidic wetland habitats.
Moving upwards it became apparent it was going to be one of those iconic summer butterfly days. Marbled whites, ringlets, small heath and small skippers were numerous. These were augmented by a good population of grayling that were happy to alight on the well trodden path as I puffed uphill. Other less frequent species included a single gatekeeper and two rather worn small pearl-bordered fritillary.
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