Valleys episode 2
Category
🐳
AnimalsTranscript
00:00The South Wales Valleys, one of Wales's most iconic regions.
00:12Most people associate it with coal mines, pollution and a scarred environment.
00:21Now with heavy industry mostly gone and replaced by a greener landscape, nature is making a
00:28comeback.
00:31Despite it being the most populated part of Wales, the people who live here are never
00:36far from remarkable wildlife and breathtaking scenery.
00:43So I'm heading to the Valleys to discover the extraordinary wildlife that's reclaiming
00:48the old coalfields.
01:01This time I'm exploring some of the central valleys east of Port Talbot.
01:11In the mid-19th century, the Garrow Valley was a mix of woodland and farmland, but fifty
01:17years later the industrial fever that swept this region changed all that, and today we
01:24see the rows of terraced houses, a classic image of the Welsh Valleys.
01:30I've come to Blaengarw at the head of the valley, and along its edge is Parc Calon Lan,
01:37named after the famous Welsh hymn that was written in the village.
01:42Look at all this beautiful, isn't it?
01:44But it's all man-made.
01:46All of it is man-made.
01:47The old colliery site was up on the hill there, and this was the washery.
01:52You used to come down on big sort of cable cars, bring the coal down here and wash it,
01:57and the river was called the Black River then apparently, but now it's beautiful.
02:04The clean-up from the old colliery was the helping hand that wildlife needed to return
02:08here, and with clean water flowing into the lake, a variety of insects can now be seen
02:14here.
02:15One dragonfly has caught my attention.
02:18Come over here.
02:19Where did that go?
02:20Where did that go?
02:21Oh, there we are.
02:22Oh, that's nice.
02:23That's a black-tailed skimmer.
02:24Slim, sort of powder blue, with a black tip to the tail and sort of olive-y, green-y eyes.
02:35Beautiful.
02:36One spot on each of the wings, and then the front, leading front edge of the wings is
02:41quite yellow-y.
02:43These are interesting because years and years ago, they were confined to the south and east
02:46of England mainly, but then over the last 50, 60 years particularly, they've spread
02:51northwards, they've pushed north, and why you ask, a combination of reasons, I think
02:55it is getting warmer, there's no doubt about that, but I think it's because like for hundreds
02:59of years, we drained a lot of ponds and pools, but now we're building them, because this
03:03is brand new, so they've colonised here.
03:12I've left the park behind and come up the street here, because I've seen house martins
03:24flying around.
03:25I just want to see whether they're nesting up here.
03:28Yeah, I'll see, here comes an adult, look, here they are, look at that, in they go.
03:39I thought there was one chick, but there are three chicks in there.
03:43Tell you what, I'm just on the road, let's get on the pavement and get in a bit closer.
03:55The adult actually held on to the chick's head and missed the nest.
04:00Do you know what, that nest, it made out of mud, and it's just little beakfuls at a time,
04:06like a brick, and what happened this year was a spring was really hot and dry, so a
04:10lot of them couldn't get wet mud, and some of the nests just collapsed, but these obviously
04:16got wet mud, maybe from a park just where we've come from now.
04:20But that is a very robust and very big looking nest, and it's lovely to see a house martin
04:27nest up on the eaves of a house like this, because when I grew up, look at that, all
04:33three chicks with their beaks open, because when I grew up, I had a house martin nest
04:38just outside the window of my bedroom, and then I could hear them, I could hear them
04:43well into after dark, you know, the chicks making a noise, and then before I woke up,
04:49I could hear them again, and this reminds me of just being a little lad, just lying
04:53in bed, tucked in, hearing the house martins.
04:58Old terraced houses offer precious nesting cavities to another African migrant that's
05:02in decline, the swift.
05:04Sadly, though, you sometimes find casualties on the ground.
05:08Oh, he's dead.
05:10Oh, poor little thing.
05:12Look at that.
05:14It's a swift, a young swift.
05:16They're stunning little birds.
05:18Oh, this has got a lot of growing to do as well.
05:22But it's definitely fallen out of this nest up here.
05:25I can feel the breastbone, so what they do is if they're hungry, they go by the entrance,
05:30and probably the parents coming in might have knocked this one out,
05:33and this one must have missed out, I think, because of the bad weather we've had.
05:37Oh, poor little thing. Look at that.
05:39And what a beautiful, stunning markings.
05:42Little white under the chin and everything.
05:45I'll go and put that in the head somewhere.
05:48Let's hope the others make it anyway.
05:52Just over the mountain is the Avon Valley.
05:55At one point, it was an important corridor for transporting coal to the ports of South Wales.
06:02So much so, that a railway tunnel was dug through a mountain
06:06which linked the mines of the Rhondda Valley to the Avon at Blaen Gwynfi.
06:13I met the village that grew from that industrial activity,
06:17and I started talking to one of the locals.
06:20How are you?
06:22Hello, how are you?
06:24How are you?
06:25I'm just heading up in the woods, I am, just to see what wildlife I can find up there.
06:29There used to be a tunnel, didn't there, when the mines were here?
06:33Or is it just over there?
06:35Right through into the Rhondda.
06:37Were you a miner yourself?
06:39Yes, from the age of 15.
06:41I started off in Wyndham West End in the Ogmore Valley,
06:44and I went from there down to Blaen Ant in the Dilys Valley,
06:48and I finished off in Aberpurgo down in the Gleeneith Valley.
06:53Different place then, is it?
06:54Yes, different colonies.
06:55And then we had a job and we bought back into Tower Colony.
06:59Tell me this then, when you look back at it,
07:02it was hard work, dangerous work,
07:04but do you think good old days?
07:06Brilliant.
07:07Do you?
07:08Brilliant.
07:09You won't get better camaraderie underground anywhere.
07:13Outstanding ones.
07:15It's odd how many miners will tell you that, really.
07:18Oh, there we are.
07:19Characters, we had some characters underground.
07:23I better let you go, the rain's starting to come,
07:25I'm going to head up into the woods.
07:27Take care, nice to see you.
07:28Not a problem.
07:29Thank you very much.
07:30When you talk to people in these former mining communities,
07:33it's clear that many still have fond memories of those times.
07:38Nowadays, of course, most of the coal has gone.
07:42The valley's still got quite a bit in common,
07:44and one of them is woodland.
07:46Many of the forested hills in this area
07:49have wind turbines scattered along them,
07:52and it feels like it's gone full circle,
07:55with green energy replacing coal.
07:59I'm quite ambivalent about them,
08:02you know, if it is green, if it is efficient, then great,
08:05but I do find them to be a bit of an eyesore,
08:08and it depends on where they go.
08:10You don't want them on areas that are good for wildlife.
08:13You don't want them on areas that are good for wildlife,
08:16and areas that's got peat,
08:18where you're destroying the carbon in the peat and everything else.
08:21But, well, it brings money in, and they're here to stay.
08:27The surrounding conifer forests may have commercial value,
08:31but from a wildlife point of view,
08:33they're nowhere near as good as this city, Westwoodland.
08:36Surprisingly, one of our most threatened species
08:39has been found to be living here in recent years.
08:43One of the amazing stories from the whole of the valleys,
08:46I think, from a wildlife point of view,
08:48so when they were doing a survey here
08:50before they built any of these turbines,
08:53they found a population of water voles up here,
08:57and they're still here, surrounded by the turbines,
09:00surrounded by the conifer plantation.
09:08This is where the water voles have been seen.
09:13Around these two ponds here, there are some runs.
09:16Look, there's signs of them here.
09:20So what I'm going to do is,
09:22they're notoriously difficult to sit and watch,
09:24they just will not come out.
09:26So I'm going to put a camera down,
09:28I'm going to put a bait, I've got some grapes in my bag,
09:30put a camera down here,
09:32and some bait in the hope of getting them.
09:34But also, there's a fantastic conservation charity
09:38based in the valleys called
09:40Initiative for Nature Conservation Cymru,
09:42and they're already monitoring the water vole population here,
09:45and they've got one of their traps here.
09:47It's like a box, long box,
09:49the voles go in, there's a camera in there,
09:52and they've asked me to put some bait,
09:54so I'll put some fresh grapes in there,
09:56and then once I've done that, I'll leave it
09:58and I'll come back in a couple of weeks.
10:03Although my camera didn't record any activity,
10:06the tunnel camera did.
10:08Oh, we got something immediately anyway.
10:10Ah, it's a water vole.
10:13Cleaning itself, wow.
10:15Looks like a massive
10:17bank vole on steroids there.
10:20Beautiful little things.
10:22Well this one is eating,
10:24he's eating the grapes that I put in there for him.
10:27Takes me back to when I was in my early teens,
10:29you know, sitting on the bank with my brother
10:31usually just doing a bit of fishing
10:33and just watching these voles.
10:35It's having a sniff of the camera now, this one.
10:37Do you know what?
10:39When I was a little lad,
10:41I used to fish the River Verne,
10:43we'd just be below a dam, Lake Verne,
10:45and these were common, really common.
10:47Every time I'd go fishing, I'd see them.
10:49They'd go across and they'd plop under water
10:51and then they'd go into their tunnels in the bank.
10:53And what's happened?
10:55Well, in Wales, more than anything else,
10:57yeah, they've lost a bit of habitat,
10:59but what's happened in Wales more than anything else
11:01has been the mink, American mink,
11:03non-native, they escape from fur farms,
11:05they've spread throughout Wales now
11:07and they've decimated the population of water voles.
11:11But I just wonder whether the isolation here
11:13because of the forestry has helped them,
11:15has kept the mink away
11:17and that's why they've survived.
11:21It's shocking that water voles
11:23have declined over 95% in the UK
11:25in the last 40 years.
11:27So it really is heartening to know
11:29that there's a small population
11:31surviving here in the valleys.
11:35Heavy industry has left its mark
11:37in the Afan Valley
11:39and at Pondryd Y Ffen
11:41is an impressive aqueduct
11:43that once carried water
11:45to the ironworks at Cwm Afan.
11:47Today, it's a spectacular path
11:49for walkers and cyclists
11:51and I'm making my way to the woods above
11:53as I hear it's a good place
11:55for birds of prey.
11:59A couple of cheddars here.
12:01That's not good luck.
12:03That's a barn owl.
12:05There's another one here as well.
12:07Yeah, that's another barn owl feather.
12:09Two barn owl feathers.
12:11Something's had a barn owl.
12:15Oh, how blind am I?
12:17Look at this.
12:19Big old nest here.
12:21It's a buzzard.
12:23Oh, there's one huge chick.
12:25Actually, I'd better keep quiet.
12:27I'd better back off a bit
12:29because it might jump.
12:31It's that big.
12:33It's branched.
12:35Put those down for now.
12:37So, it's left the nest.
12:39It's gone out onto the branch.
12:41When the adults come back with food,
12:43it'll come back onto the nest
12:45and use that as a platform.
12:47Most of what they eat are things
12:49like earthworms and grubs
12:51but they'll scavenge as well.
12:53They'll pick up dead rabbits,
12:55dead pheasants off the road.
12:57Now, the barn owl
12:59is quite an easy item of prey
13:01for anything really
13:03like a buzzard
13:05because it moves slowly.
13:07It flies really slow
13:09and a buzzard could catch a barn owl
13:11or it could feed.
13:13They might have just picked up
13:15a dead barn owl off the road.
13:17Who knows?
13:19But there are feathers
13:21all around the rim of that nest
13:23and they're all very pale
13:25and most of them look like barn owl feathers.
13:27Good job there.
13:29A few miles north
13:31of Pontrydwen is the village
13:33of Tonmawr.
13:35It's industrial heritage has left
13:37some surprising benefits to wildlife
13:39and a former colliery site
13:41that surrounds the rugby pitch
13:43is a good place for reptiles.
13:45I got talking to one of the locals there.
13:47Nice to see you.
13:49Hello Peter.
13:51I'll tell you why I'm here.
13:53I'm looking for adders.
13:55I have. I've been told by several people
13:57this is a really good spot for them.
13:59These playing fields
14:01are right for them.
14:03Where are the real hot spots?
14:05Hot spots are usually
14:07on that scrub land behind the last pitch.
14:09So my best bet would be
14:11to have a walk around and look at all the banks.
14:13You'll catch one.
14:15How about when the boys here train?
14:17Do you ever come across something?
14:19One of the boys is frightening the life out of a snake.
14:21He pulled a tyre over for training
14:23and there was one in the tyre.
14:25He ran off.
14:27I'm glad.
14:29I want to go and have a walk around.
14:31Peter, thank you very much indeed.
14:33Nice to meet you as well.
14:35You've got the wrong team on there.
14:37You want to get a wheels top.
14:39Take care.
14:43After an hour of looking
14:45it starts to warm up
14:47but the reptiles here are keeping close
14:49to cover for now.
14:53It's all been a bit frustrating
14:55so far.
14:57There was an add just back then
14:59but it wasn't in a good position.
15:01I couldn't see it very well.
15:03I didn't dawdle.
15:05I don't want to disturb them
15:07so I just let it go.
15:09It's amazing to think.
15:11The habitat is brilliant.
15:13We've got the rugby pitch down here.
15:15We've got houses just behind me over here
15:17and this is the site of an old colliery.
15:19It's got some amazing wildlife.
15:22I can hear willow warblers.
15:24I can hear chuff chuffs.
15:26Stop, stop.
15:28Come back a little bit.
15:34Coiled up nicely is a female adder.
15:38You little beauty.
15:40Let's go left.
15:42Get a better view of it.
15:44There we are.
15:46It's curled up perfectly.
15:48It's head is just onto the left.
15:50Lovely blood red eye.
15:52Tongue is flicking out now.
15:54I can see the tongue flicking out.
15:56It's kind of tasting the environment.
15:58They've got specialist organs
16:00where they flick out the tongue
16:02and the tongue pick up any particles of scent.
16:04By doing that
16:06they build up a picture of what's around them.
16:08They're amazing, amazing creatures.
16:10I really, really
16:12like adders.
16:14They're very misunderstood
16:16really.
16:18I don't like them because they're venomous.
16:20I really like them
16:22and if you leave them alone
16:24they'll leave you alone
16:26and usually if I find adders
16:28I keep quiet, I don't tell anyone
16:30but this is such a well-known site.
16:32Everybody locally knows that they're here.
16:34It's always good if you find one
16:36and if you can watch it, enjoy it
16:38and just leave it.
16:40Don't disturb it.
16:42I'll just back off now.
16:44But that is lovely.
16:46Cogmore Valley is Bulch Mountain
16:48and on a clear day
16:50the views looking east towards the Rhondda
16:52are incredible.
16:54I'm walking
16:56above the sheer rocks of Graig Fawr
16:58and the rocks of Graig Fawr
17:00are looking stunning in the sun
17:02ahead of me over there
17:04and they're glacial cumes or cirques
17:06the most southerly ones
17:08in the whole of Britain
17:10and they were formed when the last ice age
17:12retreated about 12,500 years ago.
17:14It's July
17:16and these cliffs are a good place
17:18to look for a bird that favours
17:20rocky terrain.
17:22That's quite nice
17:24there's a young wheat here
17:26just hanging around in these
17:28rockier crops here
17:30probably about 5 or 6 days out to the nest
17:32I would imagine
17:34and there are plenty of these
17:36cirques in this area
17:38and it's ideal for wheat here
17:40because the wheat here, well, they want patches
17:42well grazed like these tops here
17:44they're able to probe
17:46and look for grubs in there
17:48but they also want these rocky areas
17:50where they can nest and lots of nooks and crannies
17:52where they can tuck in
17:54and nest out of the way
17:56they're going to have to feed up quickly now
17:58because by, well
18:00early September
18:02they'll be heading off right down to
18:04Africa below the Sahara
18:06so they've got a long journey ahead of them.
18:12At the lower end
18:14of the Ogmore Vale
18:16is a fantastic area of common land
18:18and it's well worth a visit
18:20on a summer's evening.
18:26There's surprisingly
18:28little common land in the valleys
18:30and this is probably
18:32one of the best bits of it
18:34and it's a mix of habitat
18:36you've got the bracken, you've got gorse here
18:38great place for birds
18:40it's got skylaxing
18:42into my right
18:44stone chat on top of the gorse to my left
18:46as well
18:48if you look closely
18:50at this tussocky grass
18:52you'll see little tunnels going everywhere
18:54those have been left behind by
18:56voles and mice
18:58and those attract barn owls
19:00and that's what I'm hoping
19:02to see hunting tonight.
19:04What's nice is that this place
19:06isn't overgrazed
19:08so there's plenty of good hunting ground here
19:10for the owls
19:12but they could turn up anywhere
19:14so I need to find a spot where I can see
19:16as much of the common as possible
19:18and hope a bird makes an appearance
19:20while it's still light.
19:26They are crepuscular
19:28which means they hunt in low light
19:30not pitch black
19:32Here she comes
19:34she's just hunting
19:36over the far side of the rough grassland
19:38just a ghost really
19:40just below the horizon
19:42against the bracken
19:46very pale bird
19:48this one
19:50if she comes close
19:52I'll stay still
19:54because sometimes I can't see her
19:56but if she comes close
19:58I'll stay still
20:00because sometimes they're
20:02so focused on looking down
20:04they don't know you're there
20:08You see the facial discs
20:10these
20:12heart shaped face they've got
20:14they act like discs
20:16like a satellite disc
20:18really focusing any noise
20:20at all into the ears
20:22which are either side of the head
20:24one above the other one like this
20:26and they make no noise
20:28as they fly
20:30none at all
20:32they've got these little barbies
20:34like a comb under their primary feathers
20:36so what happens is
20:38turbulence is what makes a noise
20:40that curls around the end of most
20:42birds
20:44if you think of a big bird
20:46like a raven
20:48when it flies
20:50it's just
20:52there's no turbulence
20:54no noise at all
20:56music
21:08she really
21:10stands out
21:12she's hunting some
21:14wettish brushy area over there
21:16music
21:26she's gone down
21:28she's gone down
21:30music
21:32with prey
21:34she's coming back
21:36with prey
21:38yeah magsaur on full
21:40oh wow
21:42music
21:44music
21:46music
21:48if I hadn't pointed at her
21:50I think she'd have come almost over my head
21:52she saw me very much last minute
21:55how cool is that
21:57absolutely brilliant
21:59music
22:01music
22:03they're just
22:05magical birds
22:07not only are they stunning
22:09but you've got to make an effort to come out late on
22:11to try and find them
22:13and then sit down and hope that they'll hunt in front
22:15and hope that they'll fly past you with prey
22:17and it all worked
22:19tonight
22:21which is brilliant
22:23music
22:25music
22:27music
22:29music
22:31music
22:33music
22:35music
22:37many of the conifer woods we see today
22:39in the valleys were originally planted
22:41in the first half of the 20th century
22:43to provide pit props
22:45for local mines
22:47the hills north of Ptolbert
22:49are still forested
22:51the high felled areas are ideal habitat
22:53for a bird that's notoriously
22:55difficult to find
22:57the nightjar
22:59luckily I'm teaming up with Mike Shuring
23:01an ecologist who knows this area well
23:03where are we headed
23:05where is the nest Mike
23:07it's just on the slope
23:09heading down that way towards
23:11well Swansea Bay
23:13oh it's lovely isn't it
23:15beautiful look at that
23:17we left our bags behind on a track
23:19two chicks are there
23:21sat there
23:23and after locating the nest
23:25we took the chicks back to the track
23:27where Mike could ring them safely
23:29because you did your PhD on nightjars
23:31I did yeah
23:33so up on these sites
23:35monitoring nightjar nests
23:37the best part of five years
23:39are they successful up here
23:41yeah really very successful
23:43on these kind of upland forestry sites
23:45why is that
23:47yeah more space
23:49more bay ground
23:51there's a lot less spraying
23:53a lot less pesticides up here
23:55a lot less light pollution
23:57but when we did a lot of moth trapping
23:59we were getting a lot of moths
24:01which seems to be really important
24:03as well as putting a ring
24:05on the legs
24:07Mike records the weight and wing length
24:09of both chicks
24:11to help monitor their health
24:13so they can leave the nest
24:15and they'll be flying around
24:17and foraging off the floors
24:19you quite often see them fly catching
24:21from the floor in the summer
24:23so quite often they'll sit on the tracks
24:25in the forestry
24:27and they'll just watch the moths
24:29sky the moths against the sky
24:31and then hop up and catch them
24:33the adults they don't come in
24:35the same way with an individual food piece
24:37like some of the other bird species do
24:39they come in with what you call a bowler
24:41so a rolled up bowl of a number of different
24:43things to throw up in the chicks mouth
24:45a big bowl of moths
24:47there you go
24:49and you can see how once they shut their eyes
24:51they disappear
24:53and they're on bare ground
24:55look like a lump of wood
24:57yeah
24:59look at that
25:01massive mouse
25:03that's weird though
25:05they hiss and open that huge gape
25:07almost like a snake
25:0951.7 they're so light
25:11they've not been fed yet tonight
25:13so they'll get a feel the stomach there
25:15they've got
25:17they'll have a lump in there after they get fed
25:19so you can feel the bowlers
25:21the female would have gone off before we were out
25:23because we didn't put off
25:25but yeah she'll definitely go off
25:27she might even be thinking about starting a second brood
25:29which is why she's gone off early
25:31so will she leave them and the male will feed them
25:33and she will then lay another two eggs
25:35so she'll go
25:37sometimes with the same male but quite often with a different male
25:39so impressed
25:41first time I've handled the nightjar chick
25:43for about 20 years
25:45and they're just as
25:47amazing as 20 years ago
25:49and it's nice to see them doing so
25:51so well up here
25:53fabulous
25:55we better get him back in
25:57because the male is going to want to bring food for him
25:59with it being such a good sight for nightjars
26:01I couldn't leave
26:03without trying to see and hear a male
26:05make a really peculiar sound at dusk
26:07called churring
26:11so Mike and I hung around a bit longer
26:13and we were in luck
26:15there's a male
26:17stunning
26:23churring
26:25right up on top of that
26:27young pine
26:29males will have favourite perches
26:31to sing from
26:33and if you ever hear one
26:35it's incredible
26:39the Welsh name for them is
26:41traillwr mawr
26:43big mouse
26:45it's the old spinning wheel
26:47you know when they used to spin the wool
26:49it would start off click click click
26:51and eventually when it got fast it went
26:53yeah yeah
26:55it's cool isn't it
26:57how many males will you have
26:59on an area like this whole bank here
27:01well really hard to know
27:03we've got at least 5 or 6 churring males
27:05in this valley
27:07easily
27:11and seen at least 2 females
27:13alright so 5 males doesn't necessarily
27:15mean 5 females
27:17no probably not
27:19they're much harder to find females as well
27:21and the males of course they have the white patches
27:23on the wings and on the tail
27:25so as long as you see the white
27:27you can tell if you see them in flight
27:33long wind sort of bats
27:35and they're flitting around like this
27:37cracking birds really is
27:41I'll tell you what
27:43before we get eaten alive I've lost half a stone
27:45I reckon we leave the nightjars to it
27:47and head back
27:49cracking evening, thank you very much Mike
27:51that was brilliant
27:59it's been great exploring the central valleys
28:01discovering wildlife living so close
28:03to people
28:05and threatened species surviving
28:07in some of the conifer areas
28:09next time
28:11I'll be exploring the most populated valleys
28:13north of Cardiff
28:15where I'll find interesting insects
28:17and old coal tips
28:19I'll also stick out to Fox at dusk
28:21and I'll visit an urban wetland reserve