Pontypool Iolo's Great Welsh Parks


Pontypool

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In Wales, most towns and cities have a park,

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an area of green space for people to escape

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the hustle and bustle of modern life.

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But that's not all they are good for.

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In this series, I'm taking a look at four urban parks.

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Some are old family estates, others were once industrial sites,

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but all are now places for communities to enjoy.

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None are familiar to me,

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so I'll be enlisting the help of local people

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with knowledge to share.

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Together, I'm hoping we'll uncover their wilder side.

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Today I'm in Pontypool, a town that lies on the eastern edge

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of the South Wales coalfield and was at the heart of the iron industry.

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Pontypool Park is 150 acres of land that was once part

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of the estate owned by influential industrialists the Hanbury family.

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Their house sits on the edge of the park and is now a school.

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The majority of the park came into the hands

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of the local council in 1920 and is a valuable resource for the town.

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It's the end of winter

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and it's not the best time to come out looking for wildlife,

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but I've come to the park to get to know it better,

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see what the habitats are here and what they might have to offer for wildlife.

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The sun is out, so we might actually see something as well.

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I'm heading down to the river to meet music student

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and wildlife enthusiast Gavin Vella,

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a local lad who grew up ten minutes from the park.

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-Hiya, Gavin.

-Good morning.

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I didn't want to make too much noise,

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you're obviously busy down here. Which river is this now, then?

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This is called the Afon Llwyd, or Afon Lwyd.

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Afon Lwyd, the grey river.

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So what have you been looking for this morning?

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There's a pair of dipper that I think are nesting

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just up on the right of us here, so...

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-It looks like a good dipper river, doesn't it?

-It does.

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-All the banks, good places to nest.

-Plenty of places to nest.

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How about things like grey wagtails here?

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Yeah, we've got them just passing through as well now.

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Right, can we go and have a look at some

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of the other bits of the park,

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because it's a park I don't know at all.

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That's a nice little stream as well, isn't it?

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Yeah, it is lovely, it runs straight into the Afon Lwyd

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and goes right past our ponds up the top here now.

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These trees that are surrounding these ponds,

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the old sweet chestnuts are amazing.

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-They're cracking old trees, aren't they?

-They're very old.

-Oh, wow.

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It's got a nice little partially birch woodland here.

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It's a nice wood and it's a fair old climb up there too.

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It's a bit of a climb, right to the top is very steep.

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Another hill, if you keep coming up here now, we should,

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hopefully, if we're lucky,

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see the white buzzard on its usual perch.

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-A white buzzard?

-Yeah, we have a white buzzard.

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It's got a few favourite perches,

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one of which is a small tree in the middle of a field.

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-Yeah, he's right there.

-Oh, yeah, it doesn't half stand out.

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-Oh, wow, just a few dashes of brown.

-Just a few dashes of brown.

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So, it's not a full albino, but it's not far off.

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How long's that bird been here, then?

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I've been talking to some of the locals, they've known it being here for a least ten years.

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-That's got to be one of the highlights of Pontypool Park.

-It is, definitely,

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it's the most obvious bird people come down here to see.

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-Cracking. Right, onwards and ever upwards.

-Upwards, yeah.

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Not quite to the top yet, Iolo,

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but this is pretty much where the view happens

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of Pontypool Park now behind us.

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It's a shame about the mist, it would have been nice to see Pontypool...

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-It is a shame.

-..and the whole of the park more or less from up here.

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It's difficult to get a view of the entire park

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because it is situated in a valley as well as a sort of round mountain.

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I see you've lugged the camera everywhere with you,

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I would imagine it's a brilliant place for bird photography, particularly.

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Yeah, it is fantastic. It's surprising the amount of birds that are in here.

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It's part of a project that I have called Rhythm of Bird Song.

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-Oh, wow.

-The photography is all part of the research and part of showing

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my friends and my social network about the things

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that are on their doorstep, really.

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Armed with Gavin's knowledge of the park,

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I time my next visit for the start of April

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and the beginning of the nesting season.

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Now, when you are looking for early nesting birds,

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and by early nesting birds I mean birds like blackbirds,

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robins, song thrushes as well, you need to think the birds need cover.

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This time of year the leaves aren't out yet

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so they're going to aim for trees that are covered in ivy maybe,

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they're going to aim for bramble patches,

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nice thick patches like that

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or they're going to aim for somewhere where there's a tangle of branches.

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Just behind me here is a female blackbird sitting on her eggs

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and I've watched dozens of people walking past and nobody,

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absolutely nobody has taken any notice of her,

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so I reckon she's safe enough in there.

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Oh, wow, that's nice. Just watching a nuthatch.

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It's nesting in a little hole in this old sweet chestnut here.

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There it is, it's on the tree, there we are, look.

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It's just flown off.

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Let's go over and have a look, these are fabulous old trees.

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See this one here, it's got three holes quite low down.

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See the upper hole, the bigger hole,

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that's a natural hole, and then it's got two holes made by a woodpecker,

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great spotted woodpecker in this case.

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This is the interesting one, this one here.

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What the nuthatch has done

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is it wants the hole a particular size,

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so it gathers fresh mud and packs it in the entrance there.

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You can even see little beak marks there

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and that will eventually solidify like concrete.

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So they've more or less finished doing that now

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and what the birds are doing now is coming back and fore with

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nesting material.

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The birds are preparing their nest for a clutch

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of usually six to eight eggs

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which will take just over two weeks to hatch.

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They'll then feed the young for about three-and-a-half weeks.

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I'll try and catch up with them later in the year to see

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how they get on.

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I've got a rather larger animal to try and track down next.

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It's difficult to believe that you might see deer somewhere

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like this today because it's such an urban park and it's used by

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so many people, but there have been a few records and one of the most

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recent sightings came from this area here in broad daylight.

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One of the council workers saw it bounding away towards the woods over there.

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Tracking deer is really difficult and very time-consuming,

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so we've had a deer expert out all morning and I'm going to go

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and catch up with him now.

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I want to see what species are here and how they're using the park,

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so I'm hoping Steve Griffiths from the Deer Initiative has had

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a successful morning.

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-Steve!

-Hi.

-You had to pick the highest part of the park, didn't you?

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Well, it keeps you fit.

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I tell you what, easier to find you than to find deer.

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Big question I'm dying to ask you, have you found anything at all, any evidence at all?

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-There's a few little signs here.

-Oh, there are, are there?

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Yeah, there are.

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Are you looking for vegetation that's been nibbled

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or anything like that?

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We're looking at the type of plants that they like, holly, ivy, so we're

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looking for browse lines, you can sort of see on that tree quite well.

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So it's eaten all the leaves all the way up to about here?

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That starts to give you an idea of what species you're dealing with,

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is what height they are.

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So what do you think this is, fallow?

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I don't think it's fallow, I think it's roe.

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Roe deer, yeah. And how old is this?

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-That's last season's growth that they've taken off.

-Right

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So I don't think anything has been here for a while.

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-So by a while, you mean the last few months?

-The last few months.

-Right, OK.

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So I would think this is juveniles been pushed out of their main patch

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looking for somewhere else.

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This looks ideal to start off with,

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then they see there's too much activity here for them to settle in.

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Especially roe because they get stressed if there's a lot

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of people around, so they can never settle down to relax and that.

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They are always being moved off

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-so they move on again, find somewhere else.

-Right, right, right.

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This is typical bramble that they like

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and you can tell that's deer because deer have only got lower teeth.

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-Right.

-So they bite 95% through and then a little tear,

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whereas rabbits would bite straight through, and those again last season.

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One of the things I was hoping, if you found signs of deer,

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was to put out the little camera traps so I could actually

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film them and tell people, look, you've actually got deer in Pontypool Park,

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but it seems to me from what you say

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that it's pointless putting them out now, is it?

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I wouldn't put them out now.

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July/August is the rutting period for roe deer.

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The juveniles have been moved out of the established bucks' areas,

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so they're looking to establish their own area,

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that's when they would be moving to a place like this.

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-So, late summer into the autumn.

-Into the autumn.

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At the start of May,

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there's a real surprise waiting for me up near the stone circle -

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an insect I've not seen before.

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All of a sudden here, I've hit one small corner of the park

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and it is alive with bees.

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Can you see them all buzzing around here?

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They are called ashy mining bees or grey mining bees and this area is

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particularly good for them because it's mown, it's like a lawn, really.

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They're digging little holes like little volcanoes here

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and they then carry pollen and nectar into it,

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seal off a little chamber once they've laid an egg inside.

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The egg will hatch and the grub lives off that pollen and nectar

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and eventually it'll hatch out and it'll form the next generation

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of ashy mining bees.

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And if you've got them in your lawn, welcome them, because they

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are really important pollinators of fruit trees like cherry trees

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and apple trees and pear trees.

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The good news is, a lot of our bees are declining rapidly

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but these are actually on the increase. Hello!

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It really is an incredible sight to see,

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there are thousands of bees here

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and, for once, they're benefiting from our wish

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to keep the lawns mown and tidy.

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Here in Pontypool, it's not just the lawn mowing that is helping wildlife.

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There's a group who help to look after the park's habitats

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and carry out monitoring.

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I'm with Jeff Oates and Heather Bergstrom to find out more.

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So both of you, I see you're wearing tops with "Friends of the Park",

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what exactly does that mean?

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Yes, well, we're a volunteer group, a small group unfortunately,

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that, over the years,

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the park had fewer and fewer people looking after it

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so now we're retired we joined a group and the council provide

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all the utilities for us, all the tools, and we provide the manpower.

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We plant bulbs and work with the trees...

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Clean the river.

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Jeff and I are particularly interested in the reptiles and amphibians.

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Yes, last year we went on a course and learnt all about them.

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They think that they're reducing in numbers seriously. so we volunteered

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to survey the park, and the first site is just on the right here.

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Just up there.

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Oh, it looks good, doesn't it? Mixture of bracken, some trees around it.

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-Plenty of cover for them.

-Yeah, yeah.

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-Now, if I was a betting man...

-Go on.

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..I would reckon grass snake, maybe slowworm, maybe common lizard.

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-Found the first two, but no lizard.

-No lizards here, are there?

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-No lizards at all

-Oh.

-Maybe we've just been unlucky.

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We're going to have to be pretty quick here, aren't we?

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OK, three, two, one, go.

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-No.

-Plenty of ants.

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Yeah, lots of ants. OK, next one.

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Well, let's hope we have better luck at this one.

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No, quiet again.

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-No-one.

-At least it's dry.

-Yeah, it is nice and dry.

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-You do the honours.

-Here we go

-One, two, three, up she goes.

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-Yes!

-Grass snake. Oh, dear, she was straight away.

-Little scamp.

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Well, there was one there, she was straight in to cover.

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-There was, there was, honestly.

-Just saw the tail disappear.

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That doesn't matter, she's healthy and fine, that's the big thing.

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It's not just the reptiles that the group have been trying to help.

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They've also been creating a network of habitats allowing

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populations of amphibians to move about more easily.

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So this is an old pond, is it? It looks like it's got wall around it.

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I think it dates back to somewhere around 1780.

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It was found on an old map, 1780, shown as a duck pond.

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When we first discovered it,

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it was completely filled in, but we managed to get a digger up here

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to empty it out for us, but we've got a problem with a leak.

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Somehow we want someone to volunteer to bring some puddling clay

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up for us so we can create another feature for the park.

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That'd be nice, it'd be lovely, wouldn't it?

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In ten years, that'll look lovely, hopefully.

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Oh, it will, if we're still here.

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We'll be here with our Zimmers, looking at the view.

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Yeah, it'll be nice.

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I've come back to Pontypool Park after dark

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because the habitat here, the mature trees and the grassland, is ideal

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for one very large insect that's out in late April and throughout May.

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Now, unfortunately, it only comes out at night

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but it is attracted to light.

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Kevin Dupe from the local moth group has agreed to help me

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try and find May bugs or cockchafer beetles, which he often catches with his light trap.

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As a bonus, I get to have a close look at some of the more

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impressive moths as well.

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Well, I've got to say it's going pretty well so far.

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We've got a couple here, if I can hold them up to Graham here,

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who's got the macro lens. Can you see that?

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That's a pale tussock.

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By day, that will lie up on tree bark

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and you can see that'll blend in really well there.

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Kev's coming in with some more here now. What have you got for us, Kev?

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I've got a really nice moth here called a lime hawk-moth.

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-Oh, look at that.

-And we are actually under a lime tree here

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so that's what the caterpillars feed on.

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Oh, look at the size of it, first of all. That's amazing.

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-And that's a male, the females are a lot bigger than that as well.

-Bigger again?

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-Yeah, because they're full of eggs.

-Right, I'll put him back.

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This isn't a moth, this is what you've been hoping to find.

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-Oh, good man.

-This is a May bug.

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Now these, the adults feed on leaves?

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Yeah, leaves of oak trees and other broad-leaved trees, but the grubs

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live in the ground eating the roots of plants for three or four years.

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And birds love them. You get starlings sticking their beaks in looking for the grubs.

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Yeah, they're big grubs.

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And the adults then, of course, they're really important food for bats,

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for little owls, for all kinds of things.

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Now you're going to tell me there's a way to sex these.

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The males have got seven lamella on each antennae,

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-which is like a fan, if you like.

-Right.

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-And the female's only got six.

-I can't see.

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I think these are folded up, aren't they?

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Yeah, these are folded up.

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Let's see if he goes and eats the leaf, go on, get on there.

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We've got another one as well.

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-Oh, do you know, I think that's bigger again, that one, isn't it?

-Yeah, it is.

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That's a fantastic shot of it, so clear.

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And you can see the chevrons down the side,

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you can see the shape of the wing cases and everything

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and you can see the hooks on the end of the feet.

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You can just see the lamella there, can't you?

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It's like a fan opening out.

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Oh, here, look, count the one on the right.

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-One, two, three...

-I think that's seven.

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-Yeah, I think it is.

-So that's a male.

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Animals like these May bugs have fascinated me since I was a boy

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and I love passing on my passion about wildlife

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to anyone who'll listen.

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So I was delighted when Ena Morris got in touch to ask

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if I could introduce her to some of the wildlife in the park.

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In exchange, she promised to give me

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some background on the history of the place.

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Our first stop is the River Lwyd.

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You might wonder why I'm carrying a laptop around with me.

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Sit down here, look, I'll show you one thing on this first.

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I went out with a camera trap, I left it out overnight

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not far away from here, and I wanted you to see what we caught on it.

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Oh, wow! Ohhh!

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Nice, isn't it?

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It's a dog otter, have you ever seen one of these here before?

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No, never. I'm gobsmacked, I never realised there were otters here.

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We only had it out one night, and lo and behold, a dog otter.

0:17:020:17:06

To think how dirty and spoiled this river was years and years ago

0:17:060:17:09

-and now it's....

-Changed completely, isn't it?

0:17:090:17:11

-There's an otter here.

-It's changed completely. Now there's another thing.

0:17:110:17:15

-Dippers.

-Oh, yes.

-Do you see dippers on the river?

0:17:150:17:17

I do occasionally see dippers, yes.

0:17:170:17:19

Right, well, if you sit patiently and watch the far side of the river,

0:17:190:17:24

there's a pair nesting over there and I'm pretty sure they've

0:17:240:17:27

got quite old chicks, so they should be in and out fairly regularly.

0:17:270:17:31

-Oh, here he comes.

-There he goes.

0:17:310:17:33

-He's gone underneath the arch.

-See that?

-Yeah.

-It's nice, isn't it?

0:17:330:17:36

Just coming in, skimming in just above the water.

0:17:360:17:39

-So they're in and out, here we are, look.

-Here he comes.

0:17:390:17:43

With dippers raising young here, it's hard to imagine how

0:17:430:17:47

industrialised the river was during the heyday of the iron industry

0:17:470:17:50

with its nearby furnaces and forges,

0:17:500:17:52

but there are signs of that past to see.

0:17:520:17:55

-This is a nice path too here.

-This is an old tramway.

0:17:550:17:59

-Oh, is it?

-Yeah, that would bring the trams down to the forge in Pontymoile,

0:17:590:18:04

and these are the sluice gates, so this would control

0:18:040:18:07

the amount of water to run the water wheels in the forge.

0:18:070:18:11

So, you use the park regularly.

0:18:110:18:13

I use the park very often, I love Pontypool Park.

0:18:130:18:16

It's a real community park

0:18:160:18:19

and, of course, that's what the Hanburys wanted,

0:18:190:18:21

they wanted it used for local people to have pleasure and leisure.

0:18:210:18:25

The next thing I want to show you is just up here,

0:18:260:18:30

something I found first in April.

0:18:300:18:32

If you sit on that, you can have the posh seat

0:18:320:18:35

and I'll sit on the floor here.

0:18:350:18:37

-See the lower hole there?

-Yeah.

-That's a nuthatch nest.

0:18:370:18:41

The eggs have hatched and the youngsters are about ten days old.

0:18:410:18:44

So the adults should be coming back and fore, feeding them.

0:18:440:18:47

Oh, there he goes, see him?

0:18:480:18:50

Just landed on the hole

0:18:500:18:52

and off up again like a little mouse going up the bark.

0:18:520:18:57

So what would he feed the little ones, then?

0:18:570:18:59

Well, anything and everything, grubs mainly.

0:18:590:19:03

That's where it's useful to have a park full of these big old trees,

0:19:030:19:07

lots of holes in them, lots of food, lots of grubs,

0:19:070:19:10

lots of seeds here as well.

0:19:100:19:12

So it's got everything a bird like a nuthatch needs.

0:19:120:19:14

Well, we have got plenty of old trees here.

0:19:140:19:17

They planted a lot to be used as charcoal for the iron works.

0:19:170:19:21

It's lovely, isn't it?

0:19:210:19:23

It's really nice to be able to watch them like this at the nest.

0:19:230:19:26

It's now June and about a month since my visit with Ena.

0:19:320:19:36

The morning sunshine is definitely worth getting up early for.

0:19:360:19:39

Summer is a good time to take a closer look for smaller creatures.

0:19:490:19:54

An overgrown hedgerow tucked away in the corner of the park

0:19:540:19:57

has caught my eye.

0:19:570:19:59

Ah, this is nice stuff, it looks like spiders' webs, doesn't it?

0:20:010:20:04

But it isn't. Actually these have been created by a caterpillar,

0:20:040:20:09

the caterpillars of the peacock butterfly.

0:20:090:20:13

It's quite a common butterfly and it loves nettles,

0:20:130:20:16

so this nettle bed here is ideal for them.

0:20:160:20:18

What they do is, the female will lay

0:20:180:20:20

eggs on the leaves, they then hatch out into small caterpillars,

0:20:200:20:25

and they're the ones that spin this web and that protects them from birds.

0:20:250:20:29

You can see that then, between that point and when they pupate,

0:20:290:20:34

which means they are going to turn into an adult butterfly,

0:20:340:20:37

they shed their skins four times so that they can grow.

0:20:370:20:41

The first time is on there, there are some small skins there,

0:20:410:20:44

the second time will have been over here by the looks of things,

0:20:440:20:47

you can see that the caterpillars have got just a little bit bigger,

0:20:470:20:51

and then they will have come over here,

0:20:510:20:53

you can see some recently shed skins there.

0:20:530:20:56

The caterpillars themselves now, there's some there,

0:20:560:21:00

but the vast majority of them are over here.

0:21:000:21:02

Just look at that - a whole mass of them there.

0:21:020:21:05

And they have various defences as well,

0:21:050:21:08

they don't need that web now, so what they do is, if I tap,

0:21:080:21:11

they might start wriggling around,

0:21:110:21:13

one or two are sort of doing it here, and that'll scare off a bird.

0:21:130:21:16

But they also, because they eat this...nettle leaves,

0:21:160:21:20

they ingest some of the toxins from there and they'll secrete this

0:21:200:21:25

horrible greenish chemical which has got some of those toxins in it.

0:21:250:21:29

But all of this is on just one little bit of what most people would

0:21:290:21:33

think of as weeds, as wasteland right on the edge of the park.

0:21:330:21:36

It's late July and I'm heading to the woodland where Steve Griffiths

0:21:480:21:52

found deer signs back in April, as it's now the right time of year

0:21:520:21:55

to set up my cameras to hopefully capture any passing roe deer.

0:21:550:21:59

There we go, that should do it.

0:22:050:22:07

We'll be keeping an eye on these over the next couple of months,

0:22:070:22:09

and with those set up I can indulge in an activity

0:22:090:22:12

I enjoyed doing as a kid, walking a stream looking for watery wildlife.

0:22:120:22:17

Steve Williams, an ecologist from Torfaen council, has joined me.

0:22:170:22:20

Oh, I got a couple of little things under the rock here.

0:22:200:22:23

-Oh, yeah.

-Is that gammarus, the freshwater shrimp, there?

0:22:230:22:27

That's correct, yeah.

0:22:270:22:28

-Well, it's a good sign it's very clean.

-It is.

0:22:280:22:31

Remarkably clean. Put him back again gently.

0:22:310:22:35

And that's key, isn't it,

0:22:350:22:37

when you are doing this, to put stuff back exactly as it was.

0:22:370:22:40

Absolutely, really important, because that's their environment.

0:22:400:22:43

I tell you what there is here, if we can catch it.

0:22:430:22:46

See him in there? A little bullhead. Oh, where's he gone?

0:22:460:22:49

-You got him.

-Oh, look at that! Nice little thing, isn't it?

0:22:490:22:54

-Fantastic.

-And another name for them - miller's thumb.

0:22:540:22:57

Absolutely, yeah.

0:22:570:22:59

Cos in the olden days the millers would get their thumbs battered.

0:22:590:23:02

-Absolutely.

-And it looks like a battered thumb, doesn't it?

0:23:020:23:04

That's right. I think this one is quite a young one, Iolo.

0:23:040:23:07

Here we go, miller's thumb back in, go on.

0:23:070:23:10

Big old rock here now.

0:23:160:23:18

Oh! I've hit the jackpot here.

0:23:200:23:23

Now that is something.

0:23:230:23:24

That's a freshwater white-clawed crayfish, Iolo.

0:23:240:23:28

-Wow. Here we are.

-Right, in the tray.

0:23:280:23:33

Well, I've got to say, Steve, that is a really lovely find, isn't it?

0:23:330:23:37

It is excellent, it is one of the jewels in the crown

0:23:370:23:40

of Pontypool Park, and it's good to see that the species is

0:23:400:23:44

still hanging on in the stream.

0:23:440:23:45

They are in decline and they are a protected species,

0:23:450:23:49

but they do need the right chemical composition in the stream to thrive,

0:23:490:23:52

so they won't occur everywhere.

0:23:520:23:54

What do you mean by that?

0:23:540:23:56

Well, they prefer streams with a good calcium content.

0:23:560:24:00

-So, you mean limestone streams?

-Limestone streams.

0:24:000:24:03

In this part of Wales we are right on the western edge

0:24:030:24:05

of their normal distribution, because that's where

0:24:050:24:09

the limestone is, around the fringe of the coalfield.

0:24:090:24:12

So this stream feeds out of limestone

0:24:120:24:14

and it's exactly what this species requires.

0:24:140:24:16

Well, well, well. And they've become really rare

0:24:160:24:20

because of this introduced American crayfish.

0:24:200:24:23

There is certainly an issue with signal or American crayfish

0:24:230:24:27

which were brought over for the pot.

0:24:270:24:28

It's important that where we find white-clawed crayfish,

0:24:280:24:31

we do what we can to make certain they are thriving and survive.

0:24:310:24:35

Steve had said they were here, but with them being in such decline

0:24:350:24:39

I was sceptical about actually finding one.

0:24:390:24:42

It's important to remember too that they're a protected species

0:24:420:24:46

so you need a special licence to catch and handle them.

0:24:460:24:49

By early autumn, the leaves of the trees in the park are turning.

0:24:580:25:01

The old sweet chestnut trees

0:25:010:25:03

are heavy with their characteristic fruit,

0:25:030:25:05

as are the unrelated horse chestnut trees.

0:25:050:25:08

And this is by far the best time of year to see fungi.

0:25:100:25:15

If you've got dead and dying trees, they're often festooned

0:25:150:25:19

with them, and all of this just adds to that natural harvest.

0:25:190:25:23

Autumn is a really interesting time of year

0:25:290:25:32

because all through spring and summer, our deciduous trees,

0:25:320:25:36

they've supported millions, and I mean millions of insects,

0:25:360:25:40

but now the leaves are dying back and they become far less palatable,

0:25:400:25:44

so most of the insects that were on them, they've either

0:25:440:25:48

laid their eggs and the adults have died or if they were caterpillars

0:25:480:25:51

they've pupated and they're waiting for spring to arrive.

0:25:510:25:55

So many birds turn their attention to the coniferous trees,

0:25:550:25:58

finding insects hiding away inside the cones,

0:25:580:26:01

and also to the cone seeds themselves.

0:26:010:26:03

There are three great spotted woodpeckers and they're

0:26:070:26:10

looking in the bark, any crevices in there might have insects,

0:26:100:26:14

but more than anything else they're looking in the pine cones for insects

0:26:140:26:18

and it's the perfect hiding place, full of nooks and crannies.

0:26:180:26:21

If you go bird-watching at this time of year,

0:26:210:26:24

then my advice is to make sure you pay close attention

0:26:240:26:28

to the park's huge variety of conifer trees.

0:26:280:26:31

My final task is to catch up with the deer

0:26:320:26:35

and Gavin Vella, who I met on my first day, has been helping the team

0:26:350:26:38

to monitor the cameras.

0:26:380:26:40

I'm meeting him now to find out what we got.

0:26:400:26:42

-Thanks for all your help.

-You're welcome.

0:26:420:26:44

Now the moment of truth, have we got any deer on the cameras?

0:26:440:26:47

Unfortunately not, Iolo,

0:26:470:26:49

we've managed to get squirrels and rabbits,

0:26:490:26:52

plenty of squirrels and rabbits,

0:26:520:26:53

and we did get some footage of a fox.

0:26:530:26:55

so we're happy about that, but no deer, I'm afraid.

0:26:550:26:58

We were quite optimistic,

0:26:580:26:59

speaking to quite a lot of the locals actually,

0:26:590:27:02

and one person in particular did manage to see and encounter

0:27:020:27:05

a male deer, a stag,

0:27:050:27:07

while walking her dogs, so we were quite optimistic.

0:27:070:27:10

-So, this is recently now?

-This was recently, she was quite shocked to see this male stag deer,

0:27:100:27:14

but, yeah, we didn't manage to get the footage, I'm afraid.

0:27:140:27:17

I did manage, however, to find a weasel, which I'm really happy with.

0:27:170:27:22

-I've got pictures if you'd like to see them.

-Yeah. Oh, fantastic.

0:27:220:27:25

Oh, this is in the wall down here.

0:27:260:27:28

This is in this wall running right next to us.

0:27:280:27:31

Oh, that's a fantastic shot.

0:27:310:27:32

So, that's the first time in Pontypool Park for me.

0:27:320:27:35

-Well, well, well, and that's right place, right time.

-Right place, right time.

0:27:350:27:39

And that's often the way with wildlife,

0:27:400:27:43

making any walk in the park an exciting one.

0:27:430:27:46

Pontypool Park was an important part of my childhood.

0:27:470:27:51

During the 1970s,

0:27:510:27:53

I used to watch out for the results of the great Pontypool rugby team,

0:27:530:27:56

and having come here now it's been a real eye-opener

0:27:560:28:00

because it's a fantastic place for wildlife.

0:28:000:28:03

We've got native crayfish here,

0:28:030:28:04

one of only a handful of sites in the whole of Wales now,

0:28:040:28:08

and the ashy mining bees.

0:28:080:28:09

I'll never forget lying down and having thousands of them all around me.

0:28:090:28:14

But more than anything else, I think,

0:28:140:28:16

Pontypool Park is about the people,

0:28:160:28:19

Ena and her knowledge of the history of the place,

0:28:190:28:21

Gavin and his enthusiasm and knowledge of the wildlife,

0:28:210:28:25

and that's what these urban parks should be about.

0:28:250:28:28

Yes, they should be great for wildlife,

0:28:280:28:31

but they should be great places for people too.

0:28:310:28:33

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