The big three

The big three is a bit of a misnomer. These are the three medium sized waterbodies around Brynmawr that I once studied closely through weekly wildlife counts. The sites are Dunlop Semtex Pond (DSP), Beaufort Ponds, and Machine Ponds. These days with less time and energy counting for me has become more occasional and ad hoc. However, my son's new found photography hobby is generating some new found motivation to get out during the winter months. So this is just a brief account of last weekends (05/11/2023) wildfowl counts at the 'big three', complete with some site background notes.

1. Beaufort Ponds

Tucked behind houses off the Brynmawr to Ebbw Vale road this was once the feeder waterbodies for Ebbw Vale steelworks. Always holds a small number of wildfowl. The most significant species from many years of counting was three Bewick's Swan. Can also be useful for gull watching especially when during cold spells.

Mute Swan - 1 

Goosander - 12

Tufted Duck - 14

Wigeon - 2

Coot - 14

2. Machine Pond

This pond is behind the Lakeside Retail Park and has seen investment over recent years to improve access for walkers and anglers. It has a nice developing margin of phragmites and a floating island that sadly lacks vegetation.

Kingfisher - 1

Goosander - 3 (including 2 fly over)

Canada Goose - 2

Moorhen - 1

Mallard - 12

Tufted Duck - 11

Coot - 8

also a single Stonechat

3. Dunlop Semtex Pond

This site first came to my attention following an item in the Gwent Bird Report in the 1980's by Jonathan Avon highlighting a record of a smew at the lake. Then the pond was surrounded by the derelict Dunlop Semtex Factory with its distinctive concave roof. Around its northern margin was also an area of rough semi improved grassland that supported many hundreds of orchids such as southern marsh. Nowadays a regeneration project has resulted in the demolition of the factory for a new supermarket and a housing estate on the aforementioned grassland. Most notable changes in the assemblage wildfowl has seen pochard counts fall from a peak count of over 90 birds to zero, contrasting with an increase in wigeon numbers especially from the months of September and October. This species appears to be taking advantage of extensive rafts of Nuttell's pondweed that covers large parts of the lake in late summer early autumn.

Coot - 80

Mallard - 22

Mute Swan - 4 ( 2 ads, 2 imms)

Moorhen - 4

Tufted Duck - 40

Wigeon - 20

Canada Goose - 8

The whoosh of a wind turbine and hum of a bike.

 

High above The British, near to Talywain is a hillside road that takes you over Mynydd Llanhilleth and past St Iltyds church before descending into Llanhilleth itself. Its a road that was once a popular resting place for stolen cars. Vehicles were booted to the top of the hill then dumped by allowing them to free fall into the Cwmbyrgwm valley below. Crash, bang, wallop! On occasion the army were deployed to winch the stricken cars out, but they soon returned. Nowadays better vehicle security and a line of roadside blockstone has reduced the local notoriety of this valley above The British, to a fading memory, only resurrected when trawling through my equally opaque slide film collection.

So above The British is upland. Species poor rush pasture and sheep grazed acid grassland amply scarred by the actions of bikers. This is where cars and bikers race without fear of the law and where fly- tipping is as part of the modern day culture of this landscape as much as sheep and skylark. Here too the occupants of misted up cars rest to eat their takeaways or partake in something stronger. It was no different when I recently took the opportunity for an evening visit to look for early spring migrants. Cars were intermittently placed along the roadside, some were clearly radio enthusiasts defined by those large aerials stuck on top of their vehicles, some others appeared full of youths smoking weed. I parked well away, as getting too close only generates puzzling looks or immature comments when I pull out my binoculars and camera, let alone a sweep net.

There was a keen wind. Bikers could be heard in the distance and a whirl of the nearby wind turbines was occasional. Here the interface between upland and enclosed grassland is delineated by dry stone walls and a number of impressive beech trees. It seemed spring had sprung, meadow pipit were moving overhead and skylark were in full song. Walls and fence posts are great for bird spotting. So when in an upland setting tracking down these features is part of a naturalists field craft. A male stonechat alighted on a wall in the distance only to be joined by a male wheatear - the first of the year. In the distance a crowd of around 200 thrushes took flight from a field only to perch in a line of beech trees, on closer inspection they were fieldfare. I watched as they glided back to their feeding ground of the tight sward of a sheep grazed field.

Early morning urban birding

Cwmbran Boating Lake and its wider green space environment of sport pitches and kiddies play areas is an urban park and as such attracts a multitude of users. Fisherman, dog walkers, runners, model boat enthusiasts and swan protectors, they all jostle for a slice of this watery cake. Because of this I've not spent much time at this site over recent years, preferring to avoid crowds in favour of less populated locations and the solitude this brings. Nonetheless, a brief taster visit for work was just enough motivation for a Sunday sunrise visit.

Its unlikely Cwmbran Boating Lake will ever become a regular venue for die hard birders, but for local patchers such as myself its always worthy of a visit, albeit at a time that avoids the crowds. On this visit there was the usually crop of urban type water birds. The four grey lag goose were new site records for me merging with the every present growing number of Canada goose. The weather battered floating island supported up to four cormorant, some resplendent in breeding season regalia. A pair of little grebe and mute swan were also keeping close to this island. Around four goosander moved freely around the lake, among the growing number of coot, mallard and moorhen. 

Shortly after sunrise the gulls started to arrive with up to 100 black-headed gull along with single figure counts of lesser black-backed and herring gull. The black-headed gull are very approachable due to the availability for free food hand outs provided by the frequency of duck feeders. So this provides the ideal setting for ring reading. In amongst the gulls were three birds carrying single metal rings and one carrying a dutch colour ring. This bird was previously noted by Craig Constance earlier this winter. I will report the record in due course.

An hour or so after sunrise, the park was starting to get busy. With dogs often flushing the gatherings of birds, I left satisfied that I'd seen enough.