On the margins of a SSSI

Who drew the boundary around the Blorenge Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)? Come on own up! Was it a task of a fresh faced, unsupervised, Youth Training Scheme operative with map and felt marker or was an informed judgement driven by Ratcliffe's criteria. Either way I scratch my head as to why the varied mosiac of regenerating coal tips of dwarf shrub heath and associated bog pools that occur on its western margins were excluded. In fairness this SSSI was designated in the 1970s at a time when coal was still king and the tips in question would not have had the vegetational development as today. Even so there was clearly a lack of vision in the drawing of this boundary. My view, and one that is only based on anecdote, is that unconscious bias played its part. There couldn't possibly be any nature conservation value in the spoils of industrial activity, lets play a straight bat and draw the boundary around land that's got none of them bloody horrible coal tips! Better to focus on the 'naturalness' of keepered moorland that was fashioned by the local iron masters for grouse and wader shooting.

With that off my chest, I made a couple of mid month visits to this second class habitat, one that's done its revision and is doing its best to be accepted by the SSSI, just like a working class student hoping to attend Oxbridge.  On the well worn footways that are outside of the SSSI but that eventually take you into the site are masses of flowering wild thyme. On this low growing herb the pollinators were plentiful, including honey bee, heath and bilberry bumblebees. Here too some of the thyme displayed the characteristic fluffiness of thyme gall mite Aceria thomasi.  Towards a part drained industrial reservoir a number of butterflies were on the wing. Notably, dark green fritillary, small pearl bordered fritillary, marbled white, small heath and the first grayling of the summer. At the waterbody good numbers of scarce blue tailed damselfly and emerald damselfly were present. On a patch of bare ground I found a dying horsefly that turned out to be the first county record for the golden horsefly, a specialist of upland bog pools.

Onto the nearby Balls Pond. This too is a product of Blaenavon's industrial heritage but still contains a substantial body of open water. Here some of the larger dragonflies were on the wing, including black-tailed skimmer and four spot chaser. 

Border country

From Garn lakes Local Nature Reserve follow the boarded cycleway northwards towards the border between the county boroughs of Torfaen and Blaenau Gwent. The habitat here is much the same as that of the rest of the Blaenavon World Heritage Site, post industrial but with impressive views of Waunavon Bog.

If you want to see nature, sticking to the well worn pathways and tracks has its limitations. My modus operandi is to drift into habitats and features that others may resist. A depression in the ground, a pond, a groups of trees are all far game. On this visit my rambles and scrambles through rank vegetation got me to a marshy depression in the ground. Along with an extensive stand of marsh horsetail I stumbled over one hundred adder's tongue fern. Having only found a few individual plants in this landscape before, this is by far the largest population. Further on, the creeping willow I found last year is still thriving.

At the top of the cycleway is an area of re-profiled coal spoil that was once a fly tipping hotspot. It was no surprise therefoe to find some well established garden plant refugees, including lady's mantle and trailing bellflower. Off the cycleway again to explore a bank of re-vegetating spoil and I a few plants of the hare's foot clover. This plant is on the rare plant register for the vice county of Monmouthshire,

Orthoptera recording

Some years ago I answered a call from the UK orthoptera recorder for volunteers to fill vacant county recorder positions. The vice county of Monmouthshire happened be without a recorder so I stepped up to the breach and put my name forward. I started with enthusiasm visiting sites across the vice county building my knowledge and developing a picture of local grasshoppers and crickets with the aspiration of organising and preparing a provisional county atlas. It eventually became apparent that taking on this task, whilst holding down a demanding job along with family obligations, was a challenge too far. My recording of orthoptera has therefore tapered off. I am still the county recorder and I still record where possible, so when a grassland site in Hollybush, Cwmbran showed promise I visited to see what was on offer.

First up was the now ubiquitous long-winged conehead, This a now one of the most widespread and expanding crickets in Monmouthshire. Another recent coloniser that was present at this site was Roesel's bush cricket this species is also expanding its range very quickly. 

A week of Odonata

A week off work and at last some quality time to out in the marvelous post-industrial landscape of the Blaenavon World Heritage Site. I've expressed my views about how important this area is as a wetland landscape previously, but as I've said its a landscape largely off the radar of most naturalists (but not all) and certainly doesn't have the same nature conservation profile as the Gwent Levels or the Wye Valley.

When out recording dragonflies and damselflies it helps to have some warm weather and for my visits this was certainly the case. My first excursion took me to the Canada Tips area, where a female four-spotted chaser and a male broad-bodied chaser obliged for photographs. Also recorded on this visit was a large red damselfly, a few blue-tailed damselfly and many common blue damselfly.

The following afternoon I took in the ponds of Garn-yr-erw and a few of the smaller ones at the top of Garn Lakes Local Nature Reserve. One particular pond supporting masses of flowering common cotton grass took up most of my time. Its a site off the beaten track and one that is only shared by motorbikers. Here several emperor dragonflies engaged in aerial sparring, others where busy ovipositioning. To my surprise I found a male black-tailed skimmer. This is not a species I've encountered in the uplands as its usually replaced by the keeled skimmer but there is some suggestion the range of this species is expanding.

At Garn Lakes there were too many people, pushing my social anxiety through its threshold, so I only took in a couple of smaller ponds on the margins. Here a number scarce blue-tailed damselfly laboured through the emerging common spike rush. Here too was a common darter, a common dragonfly but one I tend to associate as a late summer species.

My final visit was conducted in less favourable conditions. It was cold, windy with unpleasant showers, not ideal for odonata. Needless to say there were few about. That said, when scrambling down a bank to shelter from a sharp shower I found, by chance, a golden-ringed dragonfly perched motionless from the woody stem of a bilberry bush.