Valley Naturalist

  Not so much of a naturalist outing more of a day out exploring a couple of the sleepy historic villages of borderland Monmouthshire. First...

    By the time my son and I had got our act together it was late morning and the heat of the day was beginning to bite. What motivates some...

  Well not literally, but they were in my hair and on my neck and arms. It seemed the current warm muggy weather had promoted their frenzied...

    Just an hour or so west is Kenfig Pool and Dunes National Nature Reserve (NNR), but it's not a site I've frequented. My last vis...

A late afternoon jaunt to the margins of Waunafon Bog on the outskirts of Blaenavon was intended as a raptor watching session. This large ex...

Nipped into this churchyard while waiting to pick up my son from his friend. Not visited this site before so was instantly struck by its dif...

Having visited this churchyard many times over the years, I'm reasonable familiar with its flora. However, I sense a decline in its valu...

Despite having no affinity to religion, churchyards are go to locations for me. For a naturalist they are often a refuge for nature squeezed...

The big three is a bit of a misnomer. These are the three medium sized waterbodies around Brynmawr that I once studied closely through weekl...

  High above The British, near to Talywain is a hillside road that takes you over Mynydd Llanhilleth and  past St Iltyds church before desce...

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 m...

  The walk to the Woodland Trust's Punchbowl Reserve was one of relative ease. All down hill through the golden bracken covered slopes o...

  A midweek walk around one of my many local patches ended up with an altercation with a person carrying a firearm. Foolhardy you may say bu...

The felling of a considerable block of oppressive conifers high above the A472 Cwm y Glyn between Crumlin and Pontypool has opened up the pr...

There's something very photogenic about wooden fence posts. Knaweled, pitted, weathered and colonised by lichens and bryophytes they sta...