Before the hounds are set on me by my farmer friends I must say that I do have first hand experience of the damage stray dogs can do to livestock. So, I would strongly contest any notion that I'm a townie with a Beatrix Potter image of the countryside. I remember vividly witnessing the attempts of passers by to extract a bull terrier type dog locked on to the face of a sheep. The animal was eventually released but not before it had inflected some serious wounds to the poor sheep.
The old pit road from Waun afon bog along the lower slopes of the Coity towards the Varteg has become a very popular public thoroughfare. My walk along the very same tarmacadam route last weekend was punctuated by cyclists, runners, family walkers and off road bikes. So it's clear that local famers have had problems with some dog owners who have little respect for those eking out a living from this landscape. Even so, the spray painted message that loose dogs will be shot equally demonstrates an in tolerance to the public who also have the right to use this landscape legally. Surely not all loose dogs worry sheep so it cannot be fair or right to tar all dogs and their owners with the same brush. Its only those animals that have an unhealthy interest in sheep that should run the risk of being shot.
My excursion from Garn Lakes Local Nature Reserve through the ffridd habitat and enclosed grassland of the lower slopes of the Coity was notably for the variety of winter thrushes that were feeding on rowan and hawthorn berries. Small numbers of blackbird, song thrush were joined by redwing and fieldfare. A pair of stonechat were also present.
Where the natural upland to lowland flow of water has been interrupted by mine workings and farm tracks small pools occur. Here, typical wetland plants including bog pondweed and round-leaved crowfoot are still showing well.
In the distance I could see the Mile Pond a linear waterbody constructed by our industrial forefathers. Deploying my new Nikon Coolpix I picked out a single little grebe and 11 wigeon. Wandering around the disused Coity mine I found a large patch of stump puffball. It was the large landslide on bund that hides the mine from the nearby town, Blaenavon, that made the news during the heavy rain of last February. As I made my way around the mine there was further evidence of the impact of this weather through several substantial rock falls.
