Hirsute

It was Rogiet Countryside Park today - not sure why its called a countryside park as the site was fashioned from old railway sidings etc., maybe Rogiet Edgeland Park might have been more apt. To call something other than countryside in Monmouthshire would surely be grounds for gross misconduct. Either way the site is an interesting blend of ponds, herb rich grassland and tree planting with areas that are in urgent need of management. Of interest were a few hairy dragonfly, a single brimstone butterfly and around half a dozen brown argus, at least two reed warbler were also in song. 

Its carnage out there

Having spent last Sunday morning at Llandegfedd Reservoir hoping for a coastal stray but drawing a blank, I happened on this one at lunchtime today near the dam. Unfortunately this gannet was unable to find its way back to his more characteristic marine habitat.

Those of a nervous disposition........

Blackbirds, hedgehogs, rabbits and badgers are frequently encountered splattered on our road network, but its not often a stonechat becomes a victim of the motor car. This male was found on a hillside road in Blaenavon.  

Otter on the Ebbw

A late posting from earlier this week and its a report of a short visit to the former Marine Colliery and adjacent River Ebbw near Cwm. The colliery site has long since been reclaimed and plateaued in readiness for new sunrise enterprises but with the characteristic obligatory nod and a wink to its past with the incorporation of the collieries pit head wheel as an on site design feature.

The River Ebbw was interesting. A metal bridge spanned the watercourse where features of its industrial past could still be found in a cluster. A gated level with wooden way marker as if part of some newly branded tourist attraction, an attractive weir with evidence of recent shoal removal and structures such as riverside walls and gabion baskets to ensure the watercourse remains straight jacketed along its original route. Some decoration was provided by a long since dumped car in an advanced state of decay with various pieces of river detritus trapped within interior. That said the oak and beech woodland with attractive understorey covered the steep hillside nearby was a delight.

A short walk down the river bank was just enough to whet the appetite for another more time consuming visit one another day. A female mallard with young drifted down stream, a ringed grey wagtail probably part of Dave Cooksey's study put in an intermittent appearance, a fly by dipper. Overhead swifts and house martins had arrived en block while willow warbler, chiffchaff and blackcap sang heartily. A redstart could also be heard but in the distance. However the most noticeable ecological feature was the amount of fresh otter spraint that was clearly visible on a number of the larger in-river stones. 

Landscape features of heritage value

I've posted about vintage fence posts before (what I hear you say!) but they really are gems in an often featureless landscape. Those that run adjacent to the now disused railway cutting at Waun afon bog are a case in point adding structural diversity to an upland landscape sometimes bereft of focal points. Like sun bleached sentinels their variety in shape and form, age and quality are surely of contemporary cultural value. Like culturally modified trees they are temporary features but with few champions. There's no organised recording project that document these boundary features, so over time will be lost, all to the detriment of future generations. Its a shame that these historic features are made of a natural product; if of stone or metal the full might of CADW and the sliver haired members of local history groups would be crawling all over them.

These ageing fence posts provide excellent nature conservation value. Encrusted with lichen and mosses they offer feeding perches for raptors and smaller upland breeding passerines. At Waun afon recently posts were used by calling stonechat, meadow pipit and even a wren. Butterflies too enjoy alighting on these features.    

Dancing in the sunlight

It was an invert day in the Blaenserchan valley with a first of the year dingy skipper on view along with a number of small copper. Elsewhere amongst the herbage where several small-purple barred, widespread common heath and a dozen or so long horned moths (Adela reamurella) active in the sunshine around a small hawthorn tree. A lumbering bloody nosed beetle was on view along with many slightly more energetic green tiger beetles. Notable birds in song included redstart, wood warbler, tree pipit and garden warbler.

Magor meadowland

Called in to Magor Marsh on my way back from Bristol this afternoon in the hope of finding an odd male garganey or so. No garganey but Cetti's warbler, reed warbler and reed bunting were in song. In the grassland ley just outside of the reserve were 16 mute swan, 3 Canada goose and 3 greylag goose. Invertebrates included a slender ground hopper, a brimstone and the first odonata of the year in the form of several azure damselflies. 

Natural capital - urban street trees

Cut it, bash it, lop it, trim it, hit it, sever it, chip it, fell it and don't re-plant it, pin things to it, nail it, drive in to it, risk assess it, spray around it, strim it, carve it, pee against it, complain about it, neglect it.  Value it - not a chance!

One in a million (well a hundred at least!)

It took a good ten minutes scruntinising the many noisy fornicating gulls in Brynmawr before I was able to find this single colour ringed lesser black back. I'll need to do a bit of forensic work on the image before I can confirm the number but first impressions suggest its one of Peter Rock's Bristol birds. Interestingly the herring gulls appear to be well into nesting with many sitting on eggs but the LBB gulls have only just started.

Shouting from the roof tops, lamp posts, car parks........

Richard Clarke's fine study of the breeding gulls in Gwent published in the 2007 Gwent Bird Report traces the extent these birds have colonised the urban heartlands of Newport and the valleys. A quiet late Sunday afternoon around the industrial estates and retail parks of the grey infrastructure was enough to convince any doubter of their adaptability and dominance of asbestos and asphalt.

Uskside buildings is a well known site for rooftop breeding Larus of both fuscus and argentatus. Birds called, preened, launched themselves into short wheeling flights and collected rooftop vegetation, while others sat on an early brood. One bird with a colour ring (Blue JE3?) drifted in and out of vision behind a building - its origin of marking likely to be a Gloucester landfill site. Elsewhere an opportunist argentatus pillaged a retail park bin of its KFC packaging finding sustenance in a few discarded barbecue sauce covered chips.  

Fifty shades of Farteg grey

Love them or hate them coal spoil tips polarise opinion. Icons of working class toil and natural resource exploitation, those tips that escaped the influences of gravel voiced civil engineers are now sites of ecological value and a resource for students of the discipline. Nonetheless coal recovery is still big business and the grubby hands of specialist companies continue to submit planning applications for open cast mining clothed in a cloak of patronising respectability as if a favour is being done for valley communities by removing 'eyesores'. The truth is left alone the actions of vegetational succession will soften the perception of harshness creating an open mosaic habitat that contributes to nature conservation and is faithful to its social history. Why should it be any other way?

One of the areas under threat of the public service 'big hole land reclamation' technique is the Varteg - or should it be Farteg? Here the tips remain a blend of various shades of grey, where the angle of repose is hostile to germination and water cuts the surface like the furrowed brow of a concerned local resident. These tips are a delight to scramble around. Bare solar heat absorbing shale sits cheek by jowl with dwarf shrub heath and marshy grassland, where the common lizard basks in the sunshine like a holiday maker on the beach in Benedorm before scurrying for cover at the first sight of a lumbering inquisitive naturalist.

I write this post after a morning pottering around this peri-urban environment. Here a cuckoo called and a couple of wheatear were in chase me mode. From the nearby ffridd skylark provided the background mood music, linnet skipped from gorse bush to gorse bush and a snipe was heard from the seclusion of some reed dominated marshy grassland. A green tiger beetle struggled to generate any speed across the spoil due to a keen chilly wind.

A call of nature

No sign of the Llandegfedd Reservoir osprey (s) so no need to worry about flushing - although if I disguise myself as a farmer collecting sheep I should get away with it. A harlequin ladybird was active on the frosted window of the anglers welfare facility. Following the recent EU assessment of invasive non-native species we should all be equipped with toffee hammers to deal with these little monsters on sight! Five species of butterfly were on the wing including comma, brimstone and orange tip. Good numbers of common ground beetles on the muddy bare ground and the first orthoptera of the year in the form of a couple of slender ground hopper.     

A Phylloscopus morning

An early morning visit to The British was greeted by a keen wind and some fresh fly tipping of plaster, broken bathroom tiles and plastic water pipes. Despite the leaden sky both willow warbler and chiffchaff were in fine voice. A couple of stock dove took flight from the now decaying stonework of the dewatered Big Pond dam wall. Another two tree pipit sang from the bracken covered slopes and to my surprise a pair of calling Canada geese appeared in flight from over the hillside heading eastwards. 

Good catch ol' boy

I've gone big on reminiscing lately. I suppose its something to do with my advancing years. Now I played a little compedivive cricket in my younger years, opening bat and a mean first slip to boot. Thankfully these sporting skills came in handy when on my lunchtime break visit to the dam at Llandegfedd Reservoir. When squinting to make out the latest pole dancing osprey something closer came in view. This in flight dung beetle Aphodius foetidus appeared and without a second thought I successfully pouched the labouring invert placing it on the dam wall for a root and branch examination.

Other stuff from the dam included the aforementioned osprey, a swallow, in song blackcap, willow warbler and chiffchaff.   

From Rumney to Riverfront

18 months after first reporting this colour ringed redshank to the BTO I've finally got a response, but it took another attempt via the Dublin Bay blog to get an answer. My thanks to Niall Burton for the information. Seems its not moved far as the bird was ringed at Rumney Great Wharf, Cardiff  as a first winter bird on 22 November 2010. At last this one is resolved.

Through the generations

Its walk number 23 in the Birdwatching Walks in Gwent (GOS 2013) book, but for me the Lasgarn Wood is more than just an ancient woodland with a characteristic community of woodland birds. Its part of my local patch, its where I cut my naturalist teeth and therefore part of my heritage. I remember with fond memories those outdoor activities that used to occupy the time of a youngster growing up within a bow and arrows distance of such a fine habitat. Losing yourself for half a day or more was easily done. Camp building, tree climbing, bird nesting and latterly girl kissing and cider drinking was boys own stuff but sadly is lost on today's Twitter generation. Stranger danger and the fear of accident from an unmanaged tree branch and other miscellaneous trip hazards conspire to rob the youth of natural play opportunities and the wonderment of exploration and discovery. Richard Louv's text Last Child in the Woods articulates this loss; a must read for those who understand the modern day disconnection from the wild.

        

To many the western valleys of Gwent are just about coal and the impact that industry had on both the natural and social landscape of the area. Yet its oft' forgotten that the south Wales coalfield is edged by a margin of carboniferous limestone akin to that in the Wye Valley and its this geological variety that provided the natural resources for the manufacturing of iron and steel. Now long gone its legacy adds to the rich current day ecology of this part of Gwent. 

Sitting on top of the limestone the Lasgarn Wood is pock marked with disused shallow workings, winnable stone that was transported during the Victorian era via tramroad across the valley to the ironworks at The British. Now reclaimed by secondary woodland the dingles of quarry workings take some tracking down. Once found however their tangled mass of dead wood, bryophytes, pteridophytes and ancient woodland indicator plants hide a world that few currently appreciate. 

   

Away from the features of economic exploitation, there are more subtle signs of the woodlands recreational value. I've talked before about tree carvings or culturally modernised trees. These etchings are widespread features of beech woodland in the valleys hinting at there accessibility and wider usage by past yet recent generations. Granted they're not as elaborate as those carved by prisoners of war on Salisbury Plain but nonetheless still culturally significant to valley communities, yet largerly ignored by local historians. They are ephemeral, lasting only as long as the tree stands with many becoming indecipherable by the actions of epidermic growth way before tree succomes.

Brambly hedge

Some local people are baying for its demise but the thick bramble scrub that dominates the view from my bay window is a nature magnet and I want it kept!!! Its worth to urban wildlife was once again demonstrated yesterday when having just visited the recycling box, I caught a glimpse of a female sparrowhawk alighting within the thicket. The predator remained long enough for me to return indoors grab a camera and take a number of shots through the infamous bay window hide. The worth of this green space goes unnoticed by those so detached from the nature that their only thrill is to see the patch trashed by a team of 'landscapers' armed with brush cutters.   

Later I thought a visit to check out the Brynmawr urban gull metropolis and maybe the tufted x pochard hybrid that was recorded on Dunlop Semtex Pond on Saturday was in order. Disappointingly the weak count of three tufted and a single pochard didn't include any sign of the cross. Otherwise nesting coot, mute swan and great crested grebe provided entertainment.

Regarding gulls the lichen clad asbestos pitched roof of the nearby industrial unit seems to have been vacated by its business tenant. This doesn't appear to be to the detriment of the gulls as 100+ noisy birds were gathered rooftop. Amongst the herring and lesser black backs were a pair of great black backs but only one with a colour ring this unfortunately too distant to read the number - i'll try again.      

Elsewhere, Machine pond supported 15 Canada goose, a single cormorant, three tufted duck, a pair of mute swan, and small numbers of coot, moorhen and mallard. A number of reed bunting were also calling.

View from the bay (window)

Although a beautiful spring morning I was obliged to engage in a modicum of domesticity. A bit of window cleaning, a brake light bulb change and a shop visit meant I was in and out a fair bit. Nonetheless this didn't stop me from touching base with the natural world. See I'm not one of those people who think nature is only for special places, where a convenient car park, a cafeteria, some swings for the little uns and a 'wildlife this way' finger post are pre-requisites. No sirree, when going about the mundane I'm always on the look out for an opportunity to weave living world well-being into my life.

Now most of you will have a good understanding of the remarkable population expansion of the Canada goose over the last few decades. However, whilst this bird is a banker for any small to medium sized waterbody, its regular local movements that can be witnessed at the top and tail of the county on a winters afternoon has to date escaped my humble abode here in the socialist heartlands of Gwent. That is until last weekend when changing a fiddly bulb on the motor I detected the distant 'honking' of two geese from the south east quarter, only to eventually witness a couple of loudly calling birds past directly over head destination north west. As soon as the reverberating calls had  faded away were they replaced by the less forceful tinkling song of my first chiffchaff of the year coming from within the liberal comfort of the mature landscaped gardens attached to the detached properties on the hill. With more house stuff filling the morning frequent glances out the bay window were rewarded with playful house sparrows, a male bullfinch and a high flying small tortoiseshell butterfly. All in all a very rewarding session of citizen science at home.  

A whoosh and a bubble

With the jet stream wobbling north to be replaced with a ridge of warmer high pressure over the southern part of the British Isles there was a slim chance of an early wheatear as I arrived in the (natural) heritage landscape. But it was those early Spring atmospheric sounds that took centre stage.

Overlooking the green baize that is rural Abergavenny and set against the mist shrouded flanks of the Sugar Loaf a rush of wind caused me to look skyward just in time to catch a couple of tumbling peregrine in pursuit of a frantic wood pigeon - yes, please note wood pigeon not racing pigeon! Alas and in a frenzy of aerodynamics all birds disappeared quickly out of sight over the county border into the grand duchy of Monmouthshire. There's a possibility that woody found refuse in a copse of trees just in the nick of time, but I fear not, he's almost certainly collected his last nest building stick. I pause for thought.

With heavy heart I plodded off to seek gainful employment as an amateur naturalist deep within the tightly clenched bowels of the now familiar post industrial peri-urban edgeland. In doing so I immersed  myself in stone turning and debris sifting in the hope it would erase the lingering mental images of peregrine-plucking-pigeon action. I searched for a biological gem. This was successful when a partly embedded hardboard kitchen drawer bottom, possibly of MFI vintage, was prised from its carboniferous substrate to expose at least four motionless common lizard to a shower of morning sunlight.

The rest of the excursion took the form of a geological photo essay all to the accompaniment of singing skylark. The hill and hollow features of colliery spoil deposition has produced a landscape of dry and wet habitats. In the many hollows were many frogs and during a momentary pause in background traffic noise the massed ranks of amphibians croaked in random unison. One frog was seen to repeatedly blow bubbles on the surface of the pond. 
          

News from the pit head

A brief visit to one of the best kept landscape secrets of Gwent. The Blaenserchan valley  near Pontypool was left to nature when the National Coal Board pulled out in the 1980's. A patchwork of grassland, mature trees and colliery spoil promotes a rich diversity of wildlife. That said its still a touch too early in the year to see this area at its best. A couple of calling nuthatch, a great spotted woodpecker and around half a dozen meadow pipit summed up the ornithological interest. Otherwise frog spawn has started to put in an appearance and this bloody nosed beetle (Timarcha tenebricosa) demonstrates the invertebrate world is starting to wake. Nonetheless the  most colourful thing in the valley was a collection of ladies knickers. These were not randomly scattered in an impromptu fashion but purposefully wired to trees throughout the valley. I counted eight in total and for those with an interest in the detail, they appeared to be mainly thongs ranging from black lace, to animal print and red with sequins!    

Naturalist - Dr. Mary Gillham

Last weekend saw the South East Wales Biodiversity Records Centre (SEWBReC) celebrate 10 years of collating the records of an army of dedicated volunteer recorders, at a jamboree in Tonypandy. Amongst an inspiring programme of speakers that included talks about the Silurian moth and colliery spoil (yippee!) was a tribute to the celebrated Cardiff naturalist Dr. Mary Gillham.

On arrival I was thrilled to find that some of Mary's extensive library was on sale to attendees for just an appropriate donation. I was therefore pleased to be able to pick up a little slice of the social history of the study of nature in south Wales including the book Swansea Bay's Green Mantle: Wildlife on an Industrial Coast (1982) which was a signed copy.

I was only able to meet Mary on one occasion, when at short notice Juilan Branscombe (former GWT Chief Executive) asked if I could take a party from Cardiff Naturalists' Society around Magor Marsh. My overriding memory of the walk was Mary's ability to identify a couple of stoneworts not just by their English names but Latin as well. The talk on Saturday was a fitting tribute to the life one of Wales' great modern day naturalists. 

Footnote:- whilst browsing the Healthy Planet bookshop in Pontypool during my lunchtime earlier this week it was something of a coincidence to find a copy of one of Mary's early books Sub-Antarctic Sanctuary (1967), thereby adding to my mini collection of Gillham books.

Should you want to know more about the life and times of Dr Mary Gillham visit the Cardiff Naturalists' Society website via the link on this blog.  

Normal service resumed

For me photographing gulls is a bit like taking candy from a baby. These black headed gulls, with a selection of developing summer head plumage's, were happy to line up in single file. There were plenty of gulls along Newport riverfront but none with rings. Earlier at Tredegar House Lake an adult winter Mediterranean gull was picked out amongst the black headed gulls. This site is becoming something of a banker for Meds.

Iceland Gull?

Having succumbed to the odd embarrassing error recently I've now taken to going out on the world wide web to seek confirmation of my latest conundrum and to purge my new found identification insecurities. This bird was photographed yesterday amongst a gathering of over 100 gull on the roof top of an industrial building opposite Asda Brynmawr.

The photographs are not the best quality as they were taken looking into the sunlight and I only managed six shots before all birds took flight scattering to four winds never to return. Unless this is some leucistic jobbie I'm ticking the Iceland box. But you may think otherwise! 

Displacement

Cwmbran Boating Lake was a watery world of rushing river and murky ponds. The lake itself was pepper -potted with bird life, up to 75 black headed gull, 3 herring gull, 17 Canada goose, 6 coot, 8 moorhen and a water rail that was at home on the weather beaten wreckage of a floating island. This kingfisher, displaced from the nearby Afon Llwyd took advantage of the minnows trapped in the kiddies paddling pool, tree hopping to secure the best vantage point from which to exercise its pinpoint attack.

People are engaging

One tends to get some strange looks walking about in public places with binoculars and camera. This weekend a number of people stopped to share their recent experiences of flooding and high spring tides as if my only purpose for peering over the Riverfront railings was to survey the impacts of a rising tide. When I have chance to break from this dialogue of nods and yeahs I explain that my interest is in wildlife and in the case of Newport Riverfront this means gulls - better known as seagulls to most people. This often has the affect of cutting the conversation stone dead or at least introducing an extended pause before they change tack to tell me about the local heron. Nonetheless I enjoy engaging with passers by as it gives me an opportunity return the boredom by enthusing about the wonders of the natural world, but you do meet some genuinely interesting people. Take for example a couple of weeks ago on a wet and windy afternoon off the beaten track in woodland near Talywain. The only person I saw was a local photographer who after exchanging pleasantries revealed he was related to Newport birder Carl Downing. Its a small watery world.

As you may have noticed I've got my eye in with Mediterranean gulls these days. No need to bother with the hit or miss access arrangements to scan the gull roost at Llandegfedd Reservoir as these birds are more frequent in accessible urban locations. Nonetheless the adult winter bird present on the River Usk outside the Riverfront Theater was the first for me at this location. Also kicking around the muddy margins was that multi-ringed redshank - still no BTO response to this bird!





Seven wonders of the valleys: No.1. Acid grassland

Sheep grazed semi-improved acid grassland is the basis of subsistence farming in the south Wales valleys. The upland marginal landscape is littered with agricultural enclosures some with remnant drystone walls topped and gaped with makeshift fencing of wire, gnarled wooden posts, bailing twine and rusty corrugated sheets. Others are slightly more organised with publically funded modern fencing interspersed with lichen and berry clad hawthorn trees. In autumn and winter this is where the fieldfare and redwing ply their trade and where ring ouzel tag along for the sheer hell of it. Meadow pipit are at home in the herbage of the late summer upland meadow and the wheatear flies from fence post to wall and then to fence post again.   

A decent acid grassland often comes complete with the occasional yellow meadow ant mound, and some, such as the one pictured in the above photos at Talywain, are literally crammed with large mounds. For a naturalist these fields are rich pickings, topped with flowering bedstraw in summer the characteristic walking stick dropping of the green woodpecker is a common sight and if lucky the odd adders tongue fern can be found. With grasslands of all denominations under increasing pressure from development and agricultural improvement/neglect I fear that the sight of these quality acid grasslands complete with their 'ant cities' are vanishing as quickly as colony of breeding lapwing.