Episode 2 The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams

The beauty of the Brecon Beacons

rivals any other landscape in the whole of Britain.

While much of it may look like upland wilderness,

it's in fact land that's been tamed,

lived on and worked for thousands of years.

And the Beacons are not just mountains and open moorland.

There are spectacular waterfalls,

ancient woodlands,

reservoirs and forests,

farmland and lakes.

I'm Iolo Williams, and I've been working with wildlife,

particularly birds, all my life.

I was an RSPB warden in Wales for 15 years,

and the Beacons was on my patch.

It's an extraordinary national park,

as it's a cultural landscape shaped and influenced by people

who live, work and come here for leisure,

while at the same time,

wild areas still exist and have incredible wildlife.

I'm following the Beacons over 12 months to see

how both wildlife and human life change and adapt to the seasons,

from mountaintop to deep underground,

to every landscape in the Brecon Beacons.

The Brecon Beacons National Park is located north of Swansea

and Cardiff in South Wales. It has four distinct areas.

The Black Mountains in the east near the English border

the central Beacons near Brecon,

further west, Fforest Fawr

and in the extreme west, the Black Mountain.

It's to the northern foothills of this area

that I'm heading first.

SHEEP BLEAT

Come on, then. Come on.

Come on, Jess. Come, boy.

It's summer, and Emyr Williams and his son, Morgan,

are gathering sheep off the mountain.

The last week in June means it's sheep-shearing time.

There are over 1,000 farms in the Brecon Beacons,

and many of them are dependent on sheep for their survival.

-Hello.

-How are you, all right?

-Not too bad, yourself?

Nice to see you gathering sheep on horseback.

Aye, there's not many doing it now.

No, I'll tell you what, I walk the hills and you see them all on quads.

-I just don't see people on horseback

-any more. No.

But this is the way it would've been done for years, isn't it?

That's right, yeah. My father before me, that's all I remember, really. We do use a quad, obviously, but...

-And this is getting them off the hill now to go down for shearing.

-Down for shearing now, yeah.

-I bet the horses and the dog love it!

-They enjoy it, yes.

The sheep appear to know their way. I'll walk down with you.

-That's right, yeah.

-So, you're saying your father

-and your grandad have done this before you?

-That's right, yeah.

And I see you've got your son with you. Is this your son?

-Yeah, he comes along. He enjoys it, yeah.

-Are you enjoying it?

-Yeah.

Ah, good boy, da fachgen. Well done you. Well done you.

You go on, I know you've got a lot of work.

I'll try and catch up with you down the bottom here now.

What's the advantage, then, if most people go out on a quad

and you still go on horses?

What's the big advantage of using a horse?

Well, because it's quieter.

Personally, I think it's more thorough.

You tend to miss the odd ewe and lamb hiding in nooks

and crannies, whereas you can look around as well on these.

Horse is dying to go! Absolutely loving it, absolutely loving it!

SHEEP BLEAT

Thank you very much for that, cheers! Good luck with the shearing!

-Thank you very much.

-Ta-ra, now!

One of the most stunning locations in the Black Mountain area

the Carmarthen Fan, with the lake of Llyn y Fan Fach at their base.

This is the wildest and most remote part

of the Brecon Beacons National Park.

It's a perfect place to raise a fox family.

I spent so much time, when I was a youngster,

out on the hill and in the woods around my home in Mid Wales,

looking at foxes, especially on a lovely summer's evening like this.

And there's a fox's earth - I say fox's earth, it's actually

an old badger's set - that's quite common with foxes,

especially out on a hill like this, and there's three cubs.

One of them is a bit of a bully. That's probably the most dominant

cub, it's jumping on the backs of all the others and sending them

back down underground.

This is a really good time to come and watch them,

cos they don't wander far from the earth.

The cubs are at least two months old now

and the parents will be out looking for food somewhere

and they'll hunt right up onto the high tops if they have to

and earlier on in spring they will have been feeding on carrion.

There'll be a lot of dead lambs, a lot of dead sheep up here.

They'll be picking up now, I'd imagine,

mainly things like mice and voles, especially in these wetter areas.

That'll be full of mice and voles now, and beetles

and, when it's wet, earthworms as well.

That actually makes up most of their food, and the cubs will just

hang around and play by the den.

They'll work out a kind of hierarchy, they'll fight,

they'll play-fight and that, of course, will be useful

later on in life when they themselves are learning how to hunt.

Then the adults will come back, probably after dark

and they'll regurgitate the food for the youngsters to eat.

But it's a pretty idyllic life for these youngsters at the moment.

When they grow up, of course, come September time, they'll get

kicked out, and then life becomes quite a bit more dangerous for them.

These are the gentle slopes of Mynydd Myddfai,

in the extreme north west of the Brecon Beacons.

It's a location that's been claimed to be the birthplace

of modern medicine.

During the 12th century, legendary physicians

lived in this beautiful part of the national park.

They were famous for identifying healing properties

in the plants growing in the area.

They were known as the Physicians of Myddfai.

The Physicians of Myddfai, remarkably, we've got

their manuscripts, so we've got their recipes.

Not only do they tell us the plant and what they're used for,

but they tell us how they made it.

Lara Bean grew up in Myddfai

and the local heritage in medicine inspired her to become a herbalist.

So, we're looking at a hedgerow here - what are you looking for?

Are you just looking for common hedgerow plants?

Yeah, anything, basically - anything that has a medicinal value.

So, here, for instance, we've got one of the most popular herbs

that's used traditionally in this area, which is elderflower.

This one is one you might have come across it talking to elderly folk,

they'd talk about it for winter ills.

-You come across that?

-No, is that colds and things like that?

Completely, yeah, yes. So, they'd make it into a wine.

The white of the flower tells you that it's got flavonoids in it,

which are anti-inflammatory.

The berries, which we'll be coming on now, those are purple,

which tells you that they have antioxidants, anthocyanin,

which are those strong antioxidants.

So basically a superfood,

but also, really remarkably, they've recently found this

particular constituent in elderberries that's called antivirin

and it basically stops the virus from reproducing in the body.

Scientists, these days,

are looking in great detail for its antiviral properties.

-Wow!

-And particularly for some of the super-flues.

And this is a common hedgerow plant?

I see you've got meadowsweet -

we've got meadowsweet growing in the hedgerows.

Common plant now, of course, in high summer.

Meadowsweet's an interesting one, because it shows the connection

between orthodox medicine and plants.

So, one of the plants that they extracted the active

constituent, aspirin, and now it's just synthetically made.

But interestingly, one of the main uses of meadowsweet, a very safe

home use for meadowsweet, is for digestive problems.

I would use it in my practice for stomach ulcers.

I have now moved to Penwyllt, in the Fforest Fawr area.

Penwyllt is Welsh for wild headland, and it describes it perfectly.

It's a terrain littered with outcrops

of limestone and grit stone.

The Beacons' Way footpath, which runs the entire

length of the national park, passes through this upland.

It's worth venturing off the path just above Penwyllt here

to come and have a look at this area of limestone pavement.

It's worth coming here in summer because it's botanically very rich.

You can see wild thyme with its lovely purple flowers.

Bird's-foot-trefoil here as well. But you'll also get these

quite rare limestone specialists growing here.

And this is one of them, lily of the valley.

A plant that you often see in gardens,

but it's actually a wild flower.

And it's amazing to think that it grows here, nearly 1,500 feet,

that's almost 500 metres, above sea level on the calcareous soil.

But that's where these grikes come in, these splits in the rock

because it provides the shelter that it needs from the wind and the rain

and the harsh conditions that you get up here, even sometimes

in the middle of summer.

This is a great place for common lizards as well.

It's a good place for a variety of reasons, really.

First of all, look at the rock - it's full of holes,

it's full of cracks, so the lizards can tuck away in there.

They can go underground as well over the winter months.

When they do emerge, especially on a day like this, they get not just

the warmth of the sun, cos bear in mind these are cold blooded animals,

but they get the warmth from the rocks as well.

The soil isn't very deep, and I can feel the heat beneath me now,

and that's really good for insects.

Plenty of insects, plenty of ants here,

and funnily enough this one has got an insect crawling over its head.

It's just tried to eat it. I think it's got hold of it now.

Brecon Beacons is great walking country,

and has many alluring peaks,

like Fan Gyhirych in the Fforest Fawr area.

Most of the peaks in this area are over 700 metres tall,

and weather conditions can change considerably

by the time you've reached the summit.

Visibility can reduce to a few metres in a matter of moments,

and you can easily end up in difficulty.

Which is just as well that there are four mountain rescue teams

in the Brecon Beacons.

Fan Gyhirych and the north part of the Beacons

is covered by the Brecon team.

There are around 50 volunteers who train weekly

to be ready for any conceivable accident.

Katie Garnett has been with the team for 30 years.

When I walk down that hill now, right,

I arrived here and I thought, "What the hell's going on here?!"

-It looked like a major incident.

-It gave you a shock!

-Yeah.

It's an exercise, is it?

Yes, it is, and you see all our bright yellow jackets,

which enable us to see each other and also if a helicopter comes in,

if we're working with a rescue helicopter,

they love to be able to see who we are

and not be distracted by all the other people

who've come around to see what's going on.

One tail to the casualty, one tail to Nick.

What's going on now,

are you pretending someone's fallen off a cliff?

Yeah, there's a person who's fallen over the edge

and he's called for help.

We're setting systems to bring him up safely.

So, we're practising putting in the stakes

to lower the stretcher safely.

-And the background here, there'll be all kind of jobs?

-Oh, everything!

Teachers, company directors, fitness fanatics, housewives, shop keepers,

you name it.

Lovely job, though, I'd imagine.

When you come out, especially in bad weather, at night maybe,

-and you save lives - that must be lovely.

-Oh, it's fantastic!

It is fantastic and we've had some really moving rescues,

but we've also had some sad ones as well,

but that's when the team spirit brings us all together

and we all get together and we support each other.

What's the main reason people get lost or people get hurt

and you have to get called out?

I think underestimating the conditions.

You're coming out today,

it's been a beautiful day down in the valley,

you're coming up here and you could be in shorts

and trainers or something

and if you didn't have a warm jacket then you'd be feeling that wind

and if you happened to have an accident, if you slip, if you trip,

twist an ankle, it's not a serious injury, but you can't walk.

Then, you're at the mercy of the weather

and waiting for somebody either to report that you're missing

or that you've managed to call for help somehow or other.

It's amazing to think that these are all volunteers,

each and every one of them.

And they'll get, what, roughly 100 call outs a year

and unfortunately of those maybe three or four

are usually fatalities.

I'm really glad that they're out there, I really am!

This is Traeth Mawr, it's a lovely little bit of common land,

it is really, with a succession of pools.

You can see Pen y Fan and Corn Du up there behind me

and at this time of year, especially when the sun is out,

it's a great place to come and see damselflies and dragonflies too.

Now, I know some of them but I don't know all of them, but over there

Keith Noble, the County Recorder, is a man who knows all of them.

Hello, Keith!

-Hi, Iolo!

-You seen much?

It's good today, there are lots of four-spotted chasers buzzing about.

So, these are all the same species, four-spotted chasers?

Today, yes, we've just got the one.

Later in the season, we'll get more coming out here.

You are a dragonfly recorder?

Every county in Britain has a dragonfly recorder

and their business is to see what dragonflies

they can find themselves and encourage other people to

submit their sightings too.

So, I have about 20 people feed in what they see to me and then I

jot down everything I can see

and this gets fed through to the local record centre

and the British Dragonfly Society and so we know what's here.

-How many species of dragonfly in the whole of the UK?

-It's about 50,

if you're counting some of the migrants that are quite rare.

-And how many in the Brecon Beacons?

-About 20.

-That's not bad, is it?

-I've seen 15 here, just in this area.

-Of course,

what we see here now,

that's only one small part of the whole life cycle, isn't it?

Yes, now, these have probably been under water for two years

and some of the big ones, like golden-ringed,

even four or five years.

That's amazing, four or five years under water

and then for just a few weeks they're an adult, flying around,

they lay their eggs, pmff, they die and that's it.

This is just the breeding bit,

but most of the life, 90% of the life is underwater.

This well-worn path has got to be the busiest one in

the whole of the Brecon Beacons National Park,

it's the route up to the top of Pen y Fan -

the highest mountain in the Beacons.

So, I'm going to go and join the masses.

As the path is so popular it has be regularly maintained,

and that jobs is done by National Trust warden Rob Reith and his crew.

-Hello there!

-Hello there, how are you?

-Not bad at all.

I'll have a sit down, if that's all right with you?

-Take a rest.

-I'll tell you what, it's a long way up.

-It is indeed.

-Cor! You've got to do this every day, have you?

-Most days, yes.

-Up and down here.

-Yes.

-And what's this, footpath maintenance?

Yeah, we're doing some erosion control,

so a bit of stone drainage is what we're trying to do.

Trying to get the water off the footpath.

So, this is more about water than people, really, is it?

It's a mixture. First of all, I get the water off the footpath,

by building a stone ditch.

Then, I will bring in some scalpage, which are small stone and dust,

to place on top of the surface for a footpath.

So, what's the worst thing from the point of view of erosion,

is it the thousands of people that come up or is it the water?

It's a mixture of both, I'm afraid.

Once the vegetation's been eroded by the walkers,

the rain water then gets in and starts washing away the soil.

I mean, this last year,

this footpath alone had a footfall of over 200,000.

200,000 people coming up here?! That's amazing!

What's this process now, you've got these stones here put aside,

are these for putting in a row along the edge?

These will be put in a row along the edge,

I will then be getting stone and putting in a base.

-Right.

-That stops the water getting any deeper.

Then I'll put some stones in the side, which holds the bank in place.

Then, I'm making sure that I create gaps, because I then want to put

grass seed in the middle. So, eventually, I want the grass

to actually grow through, hiding the stone pitching.

So, where does the water go?

It then goes down the side ditch and then on to my cross-ditch, off.

Ah, right, then it runs down there.

And I'll do it quite frequently because I want to slow

the speed and quantity of water running down certain sections.

Top of Pen y Fan, 886 metres above sea level,

highest peak in the Brecon Beacons,

highest peak in the whole of southern Britain.

And what a view?!

I've timed my visit perfectly at the end of the day -

when the masses have left and I have the summit pretty much to myself.

The walk up here is pretty steep, it's pretty hard going

but it's definitely well, well worth it.

It's no wonder that 200,000 people come up

the top of Pen y Fan every year.

The twin sandstone peaks of Pen y Fan and its partner Corn Du,

together with the adjacent ridges and peaks, form the central Beacons.

From here, you can see most of South Wales - a 360 degree panorama.

Pen y Fan literally means the Beacons' summit.

In the valley below Pen y Fan,

there's a far less strenuous method of enjoying the landscape.

This is the Brecon Mountain Railway

and it follows a route alongside Pontsticill Reservoir

through the central Beacons.

Allan Foster is one of the train guards.

I've got to say, Allan, amazing views, aren't they?

It's absolutely stunning, isn't it?

What's the history of this line, then?

Well, the original line used to be a standard gauge line

running from the 1860s right through the 1960s.

-So, it ran for about 100 years.

-Joining where?

Well, it was knows as the Newport to Brecon line, basically

and also the Merthyr line came into this as well.

It ran with passengers as well as freight, iron, steel,

coal and things like that.

So, this would have gone right through the Beacons

-and all the way on to Brecon.

-Exactly.

Yeah, it went right over the top, down to Talybont, then to Brecon

but also up to Hay-on-Wye and up in that direction as well.

I'll tell you what, that's a hell of a run down, isn't it?

I think it's a one in 37 incline on the other side,

so, it's incredibly steep.

-Hell of a job to come back up.

-Yeah, exactly.

-When did this

-reopen? They actually started running in 1980,

with the steam train, up to Pontsticill,

where we just passed and then only last year

we started running right up into the mountains.

It's beautiful once you get up there!

Look at that for a view, look at it!

TRAIN HORN BLOWS

Upland hills like the Blorenge near Abergavenny

have a substantial growth of heather, bracken and small bushes

during the spring and summer,

and that makes them a fantastic habitat for ground-nesting birds.

By June, many of the birds have finished nesting,

but if it's a cold spring and summer

some will continue well into the summer.

Steve Smith has been checking the population of breeding birds here on

the Blorenge for as long as I can remember.

Hello there, Steve.

-Iolo, how are you?

-How are you, boy, all right?

-All right, fella.

-Nice to see you.

-Good to see you too.

What have we got there?

We've got a small brood of windchats here, about a week old or so.

I'm just about to ring them now.

-Right.

-I've got a feeling there's only four,

and one of those might be worse for wear.

Actually, it might be a dead chick in the nest.

Normally, a brood is...first brood will be about six but it's not been

the best year for the birds.

-It's cold, Steve, isn't it?

-Absolutely.

-Middle of June,

high summer it should be. It's really cold!

I wonder if you could do me a favour?

Once I ring the birds I'll be passing them onto you.

They're a week old but unfortunately

there's not a huge amount of food around, I don't think.

So, I'm just going to put an A-ring on this little chap.

They're doing all right in the Brecon Beacons, are they, on the whole?

Generally speaking, they are. Thank you, Iolo.

There's peaks and troughs, there's a much larger chick there, you see?

Yeah, yeah, that actually looks like a windchat, that one, doesn't it?

-That's...

-Beginning to get the black band across the eyes.

-Yeah, indeed.

-Smart, little thing.

He's getting the majority of the food from the parents here.

Pop that in the bag for me.

This is quite a large one too, so this is quite a healthy chick also.

Yeah, let's just hope, I mean, if it warmed up now

and the food increased, even the young one might survive,

-mightn't it?

-Absolutely.

-So, this is the little chap that I'm fearful for.

-That one there?

He's a scrawny, little thing and he was already dead

-in the nest, you see.

-Poor thing.

-You know, we don't want this thing to start smelling in the nest.

-No.

I'll keep him out for the sake of the other birds.

Right, so it's going to be brood of three.

A very small brood, that's only 50%.

While birds ringing gives vital information about

the state of bird populations,

it's always crucial to keep the time spent near the nest to

the absolute minimum, especially when it's a tough year.

The quicker the parents can get on with

the job of looking after the chicks the better.

The summit of Pen Trumau in the Black Mountains has been damaged.

It's been like this for 40 years, since a fire burning for three weeks

exposed underlying peat during the hot summer of 1976.

A group of dedicated volunteers is climbing the 700 metre hill

to help patch it up.

They've been doing this every summer for the past five years.

Graham Cowden is one of the volunteers.

-Hello there!

-Hello there.

I saw you all coming up the hill,

I thought it was some kind of pilgrimage.

About ten people following two horses!

What's going on here then?

We're experimenting in some ways with the use of, in this case,

scoured wool but we've also got raw wool here from the local graziers,

in an attempt to slow down the water to try and help this area of exposed

blanket bog and hopefully get it restored.

There should be a thick layer of peat here

but the damaged bog can not retain water

and is continually being eroded by run-off water from rainfall.

Artist Pip Woolf came up with the idea of using locally sourced wool

to help restore the area.

You've got dozens of volunteers, haven't you?

-1,000 people have been involved in this project.

-Honestly, that many?!

Some of them don't come up here.

In the first year we handmade the felt,

which is a very labour intensive process.

Everyone that came near me made felt

and we laid 300 metres across here and the line is still visible.

It's the thinking,

"How can we return this landscape to a working, physical thing?"

This is a very powerful landscape and we are part of it.

Pip Woolf and her team may never be able to restore

the summit of Pen Trumau.

After all, it's a blanket bog that's taken thousands of years to form.

But they won't be giving up.

It's a precious landscape that needs to be cared for.

As the Brecon Beacons move from summer to autumn

and fewer visitors are around the national park becomes quieter.

A lot of the wildlife has died or disappeared.

Butterflies, dragonflies and swallows have gone,

and I'm always sad about that.

But the landscape is at its beautiful best.

Particularly during late October

when the autumnal colours have developed fully.

For the wildlife that's still around, autumn is harvest time,

and birds look for berries in some wonderful locations.

This is the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Capel-y-ffin,

and it's one of the smallest churches in the whole of Wales.

And it's a great location here,

a real beautiful place and a great backdrop,

because it's surrounded by the Black Mountains.

And I've come to look at the birds, more than anything else,

because you've got these heavy with berries,

red berries everywhere here.

A lot of blackbirds here now.

And these won't necessarily be our blackbirds, local birds,

these may well be birds that have come across from the Continent

and they're gorging themselves on this plentiful supply of food here.

By late October, the temperatures in Continental Europe and Scandinavia

are already colder than in Wales and England.

And by midwinter, the ground and air temperatures

will be so cold on the Continent

that food will be very difficult to find.

Millions of birds fly to Britain every autumn,

and many of them end up in the Brecon Beacons.

I've just come down now from the Hay Bluff here,

right on the eastern edge of the Black Mountains.

And I've walked into a huge flock of fieldfares.

Looking all around me,

there must be well over 1,000 birds here.

And they must be rubbing their wings together,

because there's so much food here.

And what they'll do is,

they'll strip the berries here over a large area

and then they'll keep moving west.

And, eventually, they'll end up in West Wales, even over in Ireland.

Fieldfares belong to the thrush family,

and they are one of its most colourful members.

They don't nest in Britain

and you'll only see them during autumn and winter,

and usually in large flocks, like this.

They're gobbling up these berries now.

Yeah, I'm sure these have just come in.

Just, maybe the last few hours, maybe the last day,

maybe overnight last night.

They've just come in,

and they're refuelling before they move on again.

BIRD CHEEPS

I love the call, too. Here, we have more of them coming over, look.

A "chuck-chuck-chuck" kind of call. It's a lovely call.

It's a sign that autumn is really here and winter's on the way.

In some ways, I find the autumn in the Beacons

just as exciting as the spring.

Maybe an autumnal fieldfare

may the not have the same uplifting effect as a spring swallow,

but they are long-lost friends

and it's fantastic to see them returning

after an absence of six months.

Like the spring,

the autumnal landscape is also a transforming one.

And there's little doubt which season wins in terms of beauty.

Cold, misty dawns lift to reveal amazing colours.

There are stunning sights this time of year

throughout the national park.

It's a landscape that's been photographed by thousands,

if not millions, and has inspired painters for centuries.

Louise Collis is a landscape artist

and does most of her work in the Brecon Beacons.

She's come to work in The Punchbowl,

one of the park's many hidden quiet spots.

-Hello.

-Hello, Iolo.

-You don't mind if I join you, do you?

-No, absolutely.

Oh, wow. Autumn colours.

They are absolutely fantastic this time of year.

Wonderful for an artist who paints outside.

Yeah, this must be the best time of year for you, isn't it?

I absolutely love this time of year.

You'll never catch me in the studio this time of year.

SHE LAUGHS

I'm always outside, trying to capture the changing colours.

-And this is the beech over there, is it? This one?

-That's right, yes.

Yeah, and you can see it reflected in the water as well,

-which is nice.

-Oh, yeah, you can.

-Yeah, along with the blue sky.

Will you come up to The Punchbowl here quite often?

Yeah, this time of year especially.

Yeah, yeah. It's fantastic in the autumn.

-It's a favourite location for me, yes.

-Oh, wow.

-Yeah.

I can see why. And also the other benefit on a day like this -

there's no-one else here.

-WHISPERING:

-That's right. It's so quiet here.

-There'll be maybe one or two people come down when I'm painting.

-Yeah.

But, erm, I can often be on my own for a whole day.

This is one of those hidden little places

that the Brecon Beacons is so good at tucking away.

This is Clydach Gorge,

with the Clydach River flowing down below me here.

A very deep, very dangerous gorge.

And it's amazing to think that this has survived unscathed down here,

when you consider all the industry around us.

The southern part of the Brecon Beacons Nation Park

borders old industrial South Wales.

From the 17th century until the end of the 20th,

the Clydach Gorge was used for iron-ore extraction,

stone quarrying and the production of charcoal, lime and iron.

The whole area was intensely worked

and the remains of spoil tips, tramways and old railway lines

are still visible.

It was a perfect site for early industrial exploitation.

It had mineral resources, a powerful water supply

and woodlands for charcoal.

Amongst all of this industry,

one beautiful woodland was left untouched.

This is a beech woodland.

It's obviously been a very good year for beech mast.

Look at all this on the floor.

This is all beech mast here. Look at that.

Lots of seeds there for the local birds.

And, actually, beech woodlands,

they're not common in the national park.

And this particular example here

is one of the best examples of native beech

in the whole of western Britain.

And it's amazing, really, that this survived,

because, in the early years of the iron industry,

they used to cut these woodlands down for charcoal.

That's why a lot of the other woodlands around here didn't survive.

But this particular section is still here

because it's so rocky and so steep -

it would have been incredibly difficult

to harvest the woodland here.

And eventually, of course,

they discovered that there was coal locally,

so that was then used in the iron industry

and these woodlands were spared.

There are many beautiful woodlands throughout the national park.

And during autumn, as temperatures become cooler

and moisture levels increase,

wild mushrooms begin to grow.

Some are notoriously lethal, but I'm in good hands.

I'm with mycologist, or fungi expert, Sheila Spence.

Just back down there, I found these.

-That one's a spongy bum.

-Spongy bum?

-Yeah.

-It's a naughty name.

-That's a cool name, I like that.

It is a naughty name, yeah.

-It's commonly known as a spongy bottom.

-Right. And that one?

-Yeah.

-That's quite a colourful one.

-Now, this one, this is lovely.

It's a bit of a dried-up version, really. It's not a very good one.

-But it's amethyst deceiver.

-Oh, what a name.

And I am told that they are very, very good

cooked in vodka and poured over ice cream.

Oh, right. OK. I tell you what, I'll take that home with me.

-Right.

-I'll take that one home with me. Vodka and ice cream?

-Yes.

That's my kind of fungus.

-Yes.

-Let's see what else we can find.

-Oh, that's lovely!

-What's that one, then?

It's a similar colour, isn't it, to that one, the amethyst deceiver?

-Oh, it is, yeah.

-But this one is the wood blewit.

-Wood blewit?

-Yes.

There's another good edible. And if you look at the stem,

-can you see the purpley lines down the stem?

-Oh, yes, yeah.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-They'll be around right through the winter frosts.

-Oh, will they?

-Right through to about Christmas.

-And you say I can eat that one?

-Absolutely.

-I'll come back and get that one afterwards.

-Yes. Yes.

-They're very good.

-Wood blewit?

-Yes.

-Right, OK.

-Just so I remember these names.

-Yes.

-I recognise this one.

-Can I name this one?

-Yep.

-Turkey tail?

-Absolutely.

-Turkey tail.

See, I love that name. And just look at them.

-It just looks like the tail of a turkey, doesn't it?

-It does.

-You turn it upside down and it's white underneath.

-Fabulous.

Really, really white and beautiful.

-And growing on wood?

-Yes, always.

And, of course, the bit we see is only a small part of it, isn't it?

Yes, that's the fruiting body,

whereas the majority of the fungus is running through the wood,

the mycelium, which is the main body.

And that will break the wood down, basically, into soil eventually.

Oh, yes. Yes, yes.

So, without fungi, you and I would be up to our necks

-in dead wood and leaves right now.

-Well, we would, wouldn't we?

-Yeah.

-Yes, absolutely.

-Very useful things.

-And you can eat them. And I like my food.

-You wouldn't want to eat that.

-That one's not edible?

-No. It's very, very chewy. Very woody.

-Oh, right.

-But you can use it for all sorts of things.

They use it for medicinal purposes,

growing it for cancer cures and things like that.

-More here, look.

-Yes, now that's one to avoid.

-Oh, is it?

-Yes.

-Oh, right.

So, people get this muddled up with something else that you can eat.

-Right.

-Though I don't think it's particularly good.

-OK.

-This is a thing called sulphur tuft.

-Sulphur tuft?

-Yes.

-Right.

And I'm going to pick one and show you what it looks like underneath.

-Right, OK.

-Cos that's the way you recognise it.

-OK.

-But you say leave well alone, this one?

-Yes. Don't try and eat it.

-Right, OK.

-So, look how green it is.

-Oh, it is, yeah.

-So, if it's green underneath, that's sulphur tuft?

-Yes.

And, what it is, it's got very, very black pores and a yellow flesh.

And the black on the yellow makes it look green.

They say you can eat every fungi once...

-Yeah.

-..but some of them will kill you.

-Yeah.

Just up the road from the woodland

there's one of the biggest colonies of bats in Britain.

During the autumn, they'll leave their summer roosts in buildings

and head for the more constant temperatures of caves to hibernate.

I'm at an old watermill in the Usk Valley

with David Jermyn of the Vincent Wildlife Trust,

and we're filming bats with infrared light

and using a sound detector to hear their calls.

BATS SQUEAK

Without it, their calls cannot be heard.

BATS SQUEAK, IOLO LAUGHS

-It's a good noise, innit?

-It's amazing.

Somebody once described it as sounding a bit like The Clangers.

LAUGHTER Yeah, yeah, it is! Yeah.

So, how many bats have you got in there?

The peak count in the summer was 420.

-That was the second week in June.

-420?

-Yeah.

-And all lesser horseshoe bats?

-Yep.

In June, so this is, what? Is this a nursery roost?

Yes, and it's a maternity site here.

And this is where they'll come and just give birth?

Yeah, they probably turn up early spring, depending on the weather.

They'll have a single pup or baby the second or third week in July,

depending on the temperature.

-It's called a pup, is it?

-Yeah, it's a pup.

-A young...? I didn't know young bats were called a pup.

-Yeah, a pup.

And they'll hang around here until when?

Until the first big frosts. Some of the colony's already left,

cos we had a couple of frosts about a week ago.

But at the first big frost, they'll be off

to one of their hibernation sites further down the valley.

Where's that? That'll be in one of the caves or something, will it?

-Yeah, up on the mountain.

-Oh, there's a lot of caves here.

How good is the Brecon Beacons for them?

It's one of the strongholds.

I think, on the last count, over 10% of the UK population

was in the Upper Usk.

-Just in this area?

-Yeah.

-Just the Upper Usk Valley?

-And between Brecon and Crickhowell.

-Gosh, that's amazing.

-Yes.

So you say 10% of the UK population -

roughly how many bats would that be?

Well, the estimated population is about 25,000.

-Wow!

-So here, with all the roosts,

we're looking at about 3,000.

-You can see them hanging now.

-It is, innit?

-Like little packets.

-Yep.

-Cellophane-wrapped little packets.

Cos this is the sort of Dracula bat,

the one that everyone thinks of - bats hang upside-down,

-but not all of them do...

-Well, all bats can hang upside down,

but it's just the horseshoes,

both greater and lesser, actually do the hanging up.

BATS SQUEAK

Autumn must be an important time for them,

cos they've got to feed up for the winter.

Well, this is it, cos they need to build up their fat reserves

to get them through the winter.

And, also, autumn's the time when they actually mate.

So, most of the males actually won't be in the roost with the females,

they'll actually come by from another smaller roost

and, basically, as I understand it, the females will mate with the males

that have the highest or the best-quality call,

echolocation-wise.

-Because that's then a reflection of body conditioning.

-Yeah.

-Cos they want to mate with the healthiest males.

-Exactly, yeah.

-Ah!

-And then basically the female actually delays fertilisation

-until the following spring.

-That's clever.

And then the pup is born then, or the baby bat is born then,

depending on the weather, sort of early or mid-July.

Most of the bats will hibernate deep inside caves in these cliffs.

This is Craig-y-Cilau,

one of the largest limestone cliffs in South Wales.

It's part of the Llangattock Escarpment,

a huge slab of rock that overlooks the Usk Valley.

The cliffs are popular rock climbing sites,

but these are not regular climbers.

All right? What's going on here?

I thought it was Outward Bound, but I see you're all military, are you?

Yeah, it's military. What we've got here is army recruits,

and they're nine weeks into their basic military training,

so nine weeks ago these were civilians.

Major Mark White overseas soldier development in the Brecon Beacons,

and the national park is one of the army's key training sites.

What we've done is we bring them down to the Brecon Beacons

to do some adventurous training

with the aim of putting them out of their comfort zone a little bit.

The chap at the top there,

he's definitely not in his comfort zone,

but he's not panicking.

And he'll have been given a little task to do as well -

memorise a grid reference, or carry out a task halfway down.

So, we get them to operate through that,

cos one day they will deploy out to the field army,

perhaps in operations,

and we need them to work through the difficult circumstances

to be the soldier and do whatever their role is on operations.

So, at this very early stage, they start to develop in that way.

It's a fantastic way to do it, and good for them cos, for some of them,

it's probably the first time they've done this.

For the majority, it is the first time.

He's done well, hasn't he? He's reached... So, he gets to the top,

just taps it, then he'll abseil down and he'll take all the weight?

Yeah. He'll take responsibility from now and lower him off, slowly down.

Yeah, so there's a trust thing,

-cos he's now taken his hands off the cliff.

-Yeah.

And his descent is totally controlled

by his mate on the other end of the rope.

I bet his heart is beating now.

-I bet it is.

-I bet.

-Yeah, that's the stretch thing.

That's putting them into that stretch.

We've taken them out of their comfort zone

and that's where the stretch comes in,

cos of the exposure to the rock,

to the height, and knowing that a lad on the other end

is providing his safety, is responsible for his life.

Yeah, well, he is, yeah! And this is ideal for that, this escarpment.

You know, you could pick any part of this, couldn't you, really?

Well, this is amazing, and we've got lots of venues

that we use around the Brecon Beacons,

not just for climbing, but caving and paddling

and hill walking as well.

The Brecon Beacons National Park provides most of the drinking water

for the population of South Wales,

and many of the reservoirs are in the central Beacons.

This is Talybont Reservoir,

and it's the longest reservoir in the park,

it's about two miles long.

And the water from here

goes all the way down to the city of Newport,

right on the south coast.

And here's a tip for you,

if you're going to come here to watch birds -

and in the autumn, particularly, it is a good spot to come -

come to the end that's furthest away from the dam.

Because here the water is shallow,

there's a lot of vegetation, a lot of invertebrates,

and that then attracts a lot of birds.

And we've seen some of the early winter visitors coming in.

We've got some teal here. A small flock of wigeon here as well.

And the wigeon are interesting, because in the summer they malt.

They go into what they call eclipse, and they look quite scruffy.

But now they're starting to get this beautiful breeding plumage back,

and the males in particular look beautiful.

The reservoirs and lakes of the Beacons

will gradually fill with migrant birds throughout the autumn.

And if it's a hard winter and the ground freezes,

large bodies of water, like Talybont Reservoir,

become essential for their survival.

Hardier animals will be able to survive, even on the highest peaks.

Welsh cobs and ponies have been running free

in the uplands of the Brecon Beacons since Roman times.

These semi-wild ponies were probably always used by local farmers,

but during the 18th century

many worked in the coal mines of South Wales.

During the autumn,

sisters Lydia and Bethan from Wernlas Farm

help to round up the ponies

to separate the foals from the mares.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-SHE LAUGHS

-Fancy meeting you two out on the hill.

-I know.

So, what are you out here for, then?

-We're just going to gather the ponies in now.

-So, what's your job?

Cos I saw the boys do it out on quads, two of them?

Yeah, that's... They own about ten of the ponies,

so they come and help every year.

Basically, they should push them up here now.

And we're like flankers,

we'll go on each side and try our best to keep up with them.

How many are there in all, then? Or how many are you expecting?

Roughly about 40. And they, most of them, should have foals as well.

-So you'll bring them down, you'll take the foals off them...

-Yep.

..and then they'll come back out?

-And then they'll come straight back to the mountain then.

-Wow.

They don't like being on the farm long. They're not used to it.

You'll see them at the fences, they want to go out,

they're not used to the short grass.

They know where they want to be, basically.

-Yeah, out on the hill. BOTH:

-Yep.

-Real mountain ponies.

-Definitely.

-That's their natural habitat.

And have they always been here?

Because I've been coming along this road for...

It must be 35-odd years,

-and there are always, always ponies out here.

-Generations.

Our grandfather, he kept them, his father.

Probably spanning over about 70 years.

And the mares will pass on their knowledge -

where to go with the different seasons.

This weather now, they'll come up here,

-and they'll have windbreakers.

-Yeah.

-And then in the summer,

-they'll go down here, where there's all the water.

-Fresh grass.

And fresh grass. So, they teach their foals what to do.

-They know the mountain, don't they?

-They know the mountain.

-This one's dying to go.

-I know, he's ready.

I think that's our cue to go, cos they're all starting to go.

Oh, is it? Ah, right, OK.

-OK.

-So we'll see you on the side, I think.

-Oh, nice one. Thanks.

-Good luck.

-That's all right.

-See you soon.

-Thank you.

-Take care.

-Ta-ta.

-Bye.

-Go on, you head off.

The biggest surprise for me is that the ponies, apparently,

are worth very little.

They have no value or market for the farmers,

other than the pleasure of seeing them roam freely on the land.

Fantastic there. That's the way to do it, look.

On horseback, gathering horses.

I suppose, if you want to get a horse off a mountain,

jump on a horse.

The Brecon Beacons has some of

the most impressive cave systems in Europe,

and Porth yr Ogof Cave has, by far,

the largest opening in the national park.

-It's a big cave entrance, isn't it?

-Oh, it's amazing.

Just the walk up to it, that huge letterbox entrance,

and the way this geology, this landscape, leaps out at you.

Very atmospheric.

I'm with Julian Carter from the National Museum of Wales,

and we're looking for cave dwellers.

Oh, here we are, Iolo. You like moths. Have a look at this up here.

Oh, wow. Herald moth.

Yeah, the herald moth.

It's one of a couple of species of moths

that kind of likes to use caves for part of their life cycles.

So, at this time of year, they'll start coming into the cave

and finding somewhere quiet, out of the way.

Sitting it out and sort of going into a torpid state over winter.

-While it warms up again.

-Yeah.

-They're nice moths, too,

and I love that orangey sheen on it, and the...

sort of dead-leaf-like shape to it as well.

Yeah, they're just gorgeous, aren't they?

And sometimes you'll find them in very large numbers

in certain cave entrances,

so they can be number sort of maybe hundreds.

While moths only use caves during winter...

This alcove here looks promising.

..certain species of spiders live here pretty much all the time.

Iolo, have a look round here - it's one of the egg sacs.

Oh, wow. So, they're definitely around here.

That's like... Almost like a sort of bit of cotton wool.

-It is, isn't it?

-Amazing-looking thing.

They have astonishing egg sacs. There's a lot of them around.

You can have loads and loads of them. It's really quite special

seeing all these little balls hanging from the ceiling.

Now, is that the spider,

-see the spider under the rock there?

-Ah, yes, that's one.

That is one. That's a cave spider.

That's why it's commonly called the cave spider, yeah.

They are amongst our biggest spider.

This is actually a male.

Oh, wow. So, is the female bigger than the male?

-Yeah, the female's much bigger.

-So, this is a little 'un, then?

-Yeah.

The females could be sort of twice the size.

So, there's an egg sac here. They're obviously breeding.

How on earth do these young spiderlings,

once they've hatched out, find new caves?

The youngsters, at a certain stage, actually get attracted to light.

So, they leave the cave, they leave the damp area,

they go out into the wide, wide world and disperse themselves,

and go find somewhere else that's a bit damp and miserable

with less adults around to compete with.

Nature's amazing, isn't it?

I would imagine, in the Beacons - so many caves here,

lots and lots of cave spiders.

Yeah. And, anyway, when you've got this sort of environment,

there'll be lots of these spiders.

In fact, they can be very, very numerous,

depending on the cave entrance.

So if you don't like spiders, and you go in a cave,

don't look around too much.

During the autumn, the rivers and upland streams fill up with water,

and it's a trigger for fish to migrate.

These are sea trout, locally known as sewin,

and the rivers of Carmarthenshire are famous for these fish.

They're heading upstream in the River Sawdde,

one of the best rivers for them.

I'm with river bailiff Peter Thurnall,

and we're using a pole camera

to get better views of the fish underwater.

Tilt it down a bit.

-She's there now.

-Yeah. Lower down. Push it lower down.

Like that?

Yeah. I see her. No, she's gone.

-She's gone, has she?

-Yeah.

I'll hold it there just in case she comes back around the corner.

-But she... We say it's a she, it is a female, is it?

-Female, it is.

And this one looked like quite a big one.

It's a fish about six, seven pounds.

-Oh, hello, hello.

-Something went past.

I won't move. I'll hold it there,

because she may well come back to the original position.

Now, these...sea trout...

how long have they been in these pools now?

Some of these came in April or May of this year.

-That long ago?

-Yes, they've been in the lower reaches

and pushing their way up the rivers now.

What makes this particular river so good, then?

The water conditions are good for them, the gravel is good for them.

In particular, I think it's the gravel.

And the Beacons, of course, as a whole -

lots of rivers, lots of streams, lots of clean water.

-Pretty good for them?

-Yes.

The whole of the Beacons area is good-quality water.

Why are they staying here?

They haven't got far to go spawn, have they?

They've got depth of water here until they go spawn,

so they hold here.

So, they're just waiting for a little bit more rain?

Any flush of water, any rise in water.

And they'll spawn about as high up as they can go, will they?

They push up as far as they can get

until they reach the spot where they spawned in the past.

That's amazing, isn't it,

because they'll spawn exactly the same place as they were born.

-Yes, within meters.

-That's amazing. That is amazing.

So, they're all waiting on the deeper pools,

they see some friends, they say, "I'll hand around here,"

-a bit of rain, up they go.

-They'll be gone.

These fish are heading

for one of the most beautiful landscapes in Britain -

the Carmarthen Fans, one of the wildest parts of Wales.

The mountains and hills of the Brecon Beacons

are what most of us identify as the national park's main feature.

But I hope, in my journey through the seasons,

I've shown that these are just the peaks

of a much more extraordinary landscape,

full of wonderful wildlife...

..and people.

This is my favourite place

in the whole of the Brecon Beacons National Park.

It's the River Twrch flowing down below me here.

The old oak wood and then, on the opposite side,

limekilns of Henllys Vale

and the old colliery chimney as well.

And that, really, for me,

represents the whole of the Brecon Beacons National Park.

It's human industry, and the scars of human industry,

alongside some of the most stunning scenery we have

in the whole of the UK.

But, above all, what makes the Beacons so special for me

are the quiet places where few people go and I can escape to.