Iolo's Valleys episode 4
Iolo's Valleys episode 3
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 coal fields.
01:05Heavy industry has certainly left its mark in the Valleys north of Newport and that's
01:10where I'm exploring this time.
01:13I've come to the upper reaches of the Afonllwyd and it's the town of Blaenafon.
01:18You can see behind me and in the late 1700s and the early 1800s this place really was
01:24the centre of the iron making industry in the whole world.
01:28But these buildings you see here, well this is Big Pit.
01:31It was the last coal mine to close in the Blaenafon area in the 1980s and since then
01:38it's become a tourist attraction and a museum and a very good one too.
01:42But I'm not going to hang around here, I'm actually going to go and look for wildlife
01:47on the edge of town.
01:50A major feature on the surrounding landscape is Canada Tip, named after the Canadian army
01:56that worked an open cast mine during World War II.
02:01The mix of rough habitats below them are where most of the birds will be during May.
02:08While wheat ears are looking to mate after migrating from Africa, stone chats and meadow
02:14pippets will have chicks to feed.
02:19I've come to a nearby wood to meet Ros Watkins from Natural Resources Wales, who'll be ringing
02:24a brood of long-eared owl chicks as part of a project.
02:28So I'm really excited.
02:29Hiya Ros, how are you?
02:30Hello, nice to meet you.
02:31Long-eared moosey.
02:32Hello, yes.
02:33Nice to see you.
02:34Steve our climber's up the tree and he's got the chicks out of the nest in the bag ready
02:39for us to have a look at.
02:42We'll come in.
02:43A little bit more.
02:46OK, I've got him.
02:49Do you want me to act as a scry?
02:50Oh yes, please.
02:51That would be great.
02:52I'm sort of shaking a little bit because it's a long time since I saw a long-eared owl.
02:57While we get set up, the adult female is keeping a close eye on us from above.
03:03Every now and again you can hear like a quack, quack, quack, that's the adult up above.
03:08Oh look at that.
03:10Look at that.
03:11That's a lot of down.
03:12Beautiful.
03:13They've got these lovely sort of orangey eyes, haven't they?
03:16Yeah, they're gorgeous.
03:17What a beauty.
03:18And even now you can see the so-called ears here, the tufts here.
03:21Yeah, they're already developing.
03:23Yeah.
03:24Brilliant, thank you very much.
03:26There you go.
03:27They've got sharp little talons.
03:29They've got very sharp talons, yeah.
03:32Already developed.
03:33So the adults here, will they be hunting in the forest or outside the forest or both?
03:38They actually tend to hunt outside the forest.
03:40So they tend to like to breed in conifer trees that are on the edge of open habitat.
03:46So they like to hunt things like voles, they're their main prey.
03:49And so they tend to really favour crows or magpie nests.
03:53And they're quite inconspicuous nests really, sort of small, mostly just sticks and medium-sized nests.
03:58They wouldn't really notice if you were sort of just wandering through the woodland.
04:03I've been working it up for 30-something years since I last saw a long-eared owl chick.
04:06Oh really?
04:07I think, yeah, yeah.
04:08So this is a real red-letter day for me, this is.
04:10There you go, so that one's, first one's done.
04:13As part of the monitoring process, Roz records the wing length and the weight of each chick
04:19to see how well they're developing.
04:24Well, I'd have thought you'd have had something a bit more spectacular than an old plastic bag.
04:27Higher tech, higher tech.
04:30250.
04:32Keep an eye on him down there.
04:34Keep an eye, because they do tend to wander off, so everybody's going to have to keep an eye on.
04:39Ringing does them no harm at all, it's like having an earring or something in, isn't it?
04:43Yeah.
04:44What do you hope to learn by putting rings on them then?
04:47They're such an elusive bird, very few people ever see them because they are truly nocturnal
04:51and they're very secretive in their behaviour.
04:53We're hoping to build a picture then of population trends.
04:56Are they as scarce as we think they are, or is it just people aren't out looking for them?
05:00I think it's that they are very difficult to locate and survey and find and see really,
05:06so I think the numbers, I think there's supposed to be about 3,500 breeding pairs in Britain,
05:12so they don't think they're quite as scarce as we think.
05:15There we are, look at that.
05:16There we go.
05:17Yeah.
05:18Do they do like the other owls in that if there's a shortage of prey, the younger one dies?
05:23Yes, because they lay over a number of days, don't they,
05:26and the larger ones will be much bigger and can predate on the smaller ones.
05:30So in a way this is a good sign, it shows that there's been enough food,
05:33so even the little one has grown, and as you said, four eggs, four chicks, so that's pretty good.
05:37Yeah.
05:40They click their bells when they're unhappy, you know, you can hear click, click, click, click, click, click.
05:44Yeah, it's great, isn't it? They're really, really lovely little birds.
05:48Look at this one, it gets up and it opens its wings, makes itself look bigger.
05:52As big as he can.
05:53Yeah, look, look.
05:54They're gorgeous.
05:57It shows they're all in good condition anyway, doesn't it?
06:00That's what this shows you, they're growing well.
06:03Yeah, definitely, it's such an important project and, you know, nationwide as well,
06:08and we've been doing the nests in this area for years and hope, you know, over time,
06:11we get building a really good picture of these elusive birds, it's great.
06:15Fantastic, Roz. Thank you very much indeed.
06:17My pleasure.
06:18This is brilliant.
06:20Iron and coal were huge industries throughout this valley for generations.
06:25A few miles south of Blenavon is one of the largest brownfield sites in south Wales
06:31that's become an important wildlife haven.
06:35This site is called the British above Tallowine, and this was one of the collieries,
06:42you can see the coal spoil here, and down the bottom there, that was where the iron works were.
06:48Now, in spring, this is a really good place for wildlife, but in summer like this,
06:53the real jewels are down in the grassland down the bottom there.
07:01One thing you can't miss on this site is the ruin of the old ironworks engine house,
07:06but it's the pollinators that I'm interested in.
07:12This place is just amazing, it's full of flowers at the moment,
07:16and that means that there are butterflies galore here.
07:19I've seen small skippers, I've seen peacocks, I've seen a plethora of different species,
07:25but there's one in particular that I'm looking for.
07:27I've seen a few, but they're very flighty, so I've got to wait for one to land.
07:33Hardy flowering plants thrive on this nutrient-poor soil,
07:37so there's plenty of choice for these butterflies.
07:41This is the butterfly I was looking for.
07:43It's a real little beauty, it's feeding on the thistles just down here.
07:47It's called a marbled white, it's kind of white with black veins and blotches over it.
07:53I love the Welsh name, the Welsh call it Gwyn Cleisog, bruised winged white.
07:59Lovely, lovely name.
08:00It's not one that I was used to when I was little, I never saw them in mid Wales,
08:05but they've spread in Wales, at least they've spread north, and they're starting to spread west as well.
08:10And this area is brilliant for them because the caterpillars,
08:13they feed on two or three species of grasses,
08:16but the adults, they love the thistles and the knapweed.
08:21They love those because they're packed full of all sorts of nectar.
08:25And you imagine, it looks quite wild, but from a wildlife enthusiast's point of view,
08:30it's a brilliant place.
08:31You imagine if one in a hundred of our fields looked like this.
08:35You think the difference that would make to our wildlife.
08:41What's sad is that many flowering plants on brownfield sites and around our towns
08:47are thought of as weeds and removed,
08:50which is a shame because they attract all kinds of pollinators,
08:54so we really should value them.
09:00Many of the South Wales valleys are steep sided and they offer plenty of nesting sites for birds.
09:06I reckon every single one has a breeding pair of peregrines, including the Ebbw Valley.
09:12It's July and I'm meeting Mike Warburton,
09:15who's been keeping an eye on a well-known nest site near Cwm Carn.
09:19A bit of a pull.
09:20Right, here we go.
09:22We're heading to a spot where we should be able to get a view of the birds,
09:26and as they're a protected species, we have a licence to film here.
09:31Near one of the birds, one of the adults, I think it is, isn't it, calling away now?
09:34Yeah, they tend to be a bit noisy, especially this time of year.
09:41Oh, there's a bird up in a larch up there.
09:45That's the male.
09:46Yeah, yeah.
09:47Beautiful, isn't he? Really pale underneath.
09:50See the black hood and the yellow talons as well, and the legs.
09:54Beautiful.
09:55And where's the nest?
09:57Right, if you just see through the trees there.
10:00See, I can see all the whitewash.
10:02It looks like someone's taken a huge brush and painted half the quarry with it.
10:06Yeah.
10:07So what have we got here this year, then? How many chicks?
10:09Three chicks fledged, two females and a male, from four eggs, obviously.
10:14That's good going, mind you. That's good going.
10:16Yeah, it is. It is good going. It's a good site, this one.
10:20I'll tell you what I did as well, on the way through,
10:22while you were going like a greyhound, I couldn't catch up with you,
10:26so I thought I'd pick up some prairie mane.
10:29Look at that one.
10:32Wood pigeon.
10:33Wood pigeon, yeah.
10:34Yes, tail feather wood pigeon, isn't it?
10:36That one going, then this one, that's a nice one. Look at that.
10:38Look at that.
10:39Look at the colours on that one.
10:40Yeah. Magpie.
10:42That is a great spotted woodpecker.
10:45Look at that.
10:47A cracker, isn't it?
10:48Yeah, fabulous.
10:49And it just goes to show the range of things that they'll eat.
10:52Yeah, that's right.
10:53Anything and everything.
10:54And if you're up on that cliff there, looking down the valley,
10:57you're the lord of everything you survey, really, aren't you?
11:00Well, I got one nest site where they've actually taken rabbits,
11:03and that's the first time in all my years, which is 20-plus years now,
11:06monitoring, you know, as part of the group,
11:08and that's the first time they've ever had rabbits in a pellet,
11:11and there are rabbits in the quarry,
11:13so at some point the birds have gone down and taken a rabbit,
11:16because obviously they don't eat carrion.
11:18Now, when I was here, a long time ago now, 30-something years,
11:22whatever it is, they were persecuted.
11:24Yeah.
11:25What's it like now?
11:26It's not as bad as it was.
11:27You still get the odd persecution, you know,
11:29but nothing like it used to be, thank goodness.
11:31Oh, that's great.
11:32But things have changed.
11:33Oh, it's lovely.
11:34For the better.
11:36Two of the chicks are on the wing
11:38and busy chasing each other, practising their hunting techniques.
11:42But their landing skills need some work.
11:47How long will these chicks hang around now, then?
11:49These ones that have fledged, about a month ago,
11:52you know, they will hang around till around late August.
11:55Obviously, they'll be trained by the adult centre,
11:57bring in live prey and release it for the youngsters to have a go,
12:01you know, and that's how they train them.
12:03Have you watched them do that?
12:04I have seen them do that, yeah.
12:06It's not very nice to see, but it is what it is.
12:09Well, they have to learn, don't they?
12:10They have to learn.
12:15After Mike and I left,
12:16our camera operator captured the female bringing in prey to the chicks,
12:21a pigeon, and she's not wasting any time tearing into it.
12:28Hungry chicks get excited when dinner's ready.
12:31Fortunately, this one's a bit too eager to get its talons into it
12:35and drops it.
12:37This is another lesson for it to learn.
12:39Don't play with your food.
12:45Most towns in the valleys were built on the black gold found underground,
12:50but there were numerous mining tragedies,
12:52so I couldn't come to the valleys without a visit to Sanghenydd.
12:57The 1913 disaster at the Universal Colliery killed 439 miners
13:03and one rescue worker.
13:05It remains the worst in British history,
13:08leaving 542 children fatherless.
13:12The memorial garden reminds you of the true price of coal.
13:17I think what really hits you here
13:19is that they've got every single person
13:23that died in these mining disasters here in Sanghenydd
13:27commemorated on tiles all along the wall here.
13:31The youngest one I can find, 14 years old.
13:34Two 14-year-old boys.
13:36And the eldest one, 73.
13:40I'm meeting Carol Bowen,
13:42a local who knows a great deal about this valley's history.
13:47Carol, lovely to see you. Very nice to meet you.
13:49And you, Carlo. Lovely to meet you too.
13:51Thank you for meeting me as well.
13:53Now, I've just come up from the memorial garden down there,
13:56and it's still, over 100 years on,
13:58it's still a really poignant, very sad place.
14:01So it would have wiped out whole communities here, really.
14:04They recorded the fact that there were hardly any families
14:07in the valley whatsoever that weren't affected.
14:10But in one fell swoop, you must have lost most of the workforce
14:15that's Sanghenydd and the upper valley here.
14:18We imagined that, but when we went into the research of it,
14:21there were still actually about 800 men underground working that day,
14:26as well as those that got killed.
14:29So the mine went on working for decades afterwards?
14:32Yes, until 1926.
14:34Do you remember any coal mining in this part of the valley here?
14:38Well, my dad was a miner.
14:40My in-laws were miners, and grandparents were.
14:43But my memory was my dad coming in,
14:46and my mum would always make a point of combing her hair,
14:49putting some lipstick on, and a clean penny.
14:51She used to say,
14:52your dad doesn't want to come home from a stinking dirty pit,
14:55she said, to see me in my working clothes.
14:58How did your grandad and your family talk about the mines?
15:02Because everyone talks about black gold bringing money, bringing work.
15:05Yes.
15:06Because it brought all these disasters as well.
15:08But did they look back fondly on those times?
15:11Fondly as regards to their working colleagues.
15:14The camaraderie underground was fantastic.
15:17And, you know, we all see films where they sing underground.
15:21I don't know how much of that was going on,
15:23but I imagine them singing when they're leaving underground,
15:26not so much when they're going into work.
15:28Carol, thank you very much. It's lovely to meet you.
15:31Thank you. And well done with the garden. It is beautiful.
15:36Throughout the valleys,
15:38the hills above were regularly scarred with coal tips from local mines.
15:43But several were highly unstable.
15:46And after 144 lives were lost in the Aberfan disaster,
15:51many of the tips were reshaped for safety.
15:55By now, a lot of them blend into the landscape,
15:58including one above the Rhymney Valley.
16:03This is New Trinidad down below me,
16:06and the town of Bargoed is just ahead,
16:09and I'm actually walking on what was coal spoil, an old coal tip here.
16:15And what they used to do quite often
16:17was they would throw the spoil up quite high on a mountain top,
16:22and they would then just flatten the top off.
16:26And what you get is somewhere that's actually quite damp, quite wet,
16:30and this is brilliant for a whole host of quite threatened birds.
16:34This is a good spot for lapwing.
16:38There are adult birds flying around here,
16:41but they're not behaving as if they've got chicks.
16:43If they did, they'd be very vocal.
16:46So I head down to the farm below to see if the farmer knows more.
16:51I've just been up on the top there now, looking for lapwing, I am,
16:55and there was maybe two, three birds there,
16:58but not much sign of much going on.
17:00If you'd been here yesterday,
17:03you would have seen the mother fetching one clutch down off the tip
17:09from the one across the road and on to the second tip.
17:13Which is down below me on my left here.
17:15Now, would you mind if I go through your gate then and go on to that tip?
17:19No, no, you go on.
17:20Would that be all right?
17:21You go on, help yourself.
17:22I won't harm them, don't worry, I won't do them any harm,
17:24I'm just going to go down and have a look.
17:26Good.
17:27Brilliant. Nice to talk to you.
17:28Right.
17:29And thanks for allowing me on the land as well, that's very kind.
17:31Right on.
17:32Take care now, ta-ra.
17:33Ta-ra.
17:36If you want to know where they are, ask your boy, ask the local farmer.
17:41It's great.
17:42But I've got to be honest as well,
17:44this doesn't look like the ideal lapwing field,
17:48but it has got the advantage of having quite a bit of water in here like this.
17:58There is a bird overhead starting to call now as well.
18:01Yeah, she's not happy.
18:03I'll have a very, very fast look.
18:05I'm not going to hang around her.
18:07I don't want to endanger any chicks that she's got here.
18:12What they need is they need bare earth to lay their eggs,
18:15which was ideal up on there, it's great.
18:17A little bit of vegetation,
18:19but they want to sit on the eggs and look all around them, look for any danger.
18:23And then if there is anything, a crow or whatever,
18:26they'll come off the nest, mob it,
18:28and the eggs are lovely olive green, so they'll blend in.
18:31And then when they've hatched, they need somewhere damp and wet
18:34because a lot of insects here for the chicks to eat,
18:37but with a bit of cover as well.
18:39And there are quite a few rushes around.
18:41But I'm going to go and sit over there on the bank
18:43and look from afar and see if we can see her come back
18:46and see some of the chicks.
18:49With me far enough away,
18:51hopefully that'll encourage any chicks to come out of cover.
18:55Yeah, she has got something.
18:57She's got chicks, there's no doubt about that.
18:59I was calling non-stop, but she's just settled down now.
19:02Not by the pool where I thought she'd land,
19:04but much further over.
19:06There's a bit of rush there, but...
19:09Oh, she's got a chick! She's got a chick right by her now.
19:13Oh, that's why she's over there.
19:15I thought she was going to walk over to the pool,
19:17but she's landed right out in the open over the far side there.
19:21A little chick has just come out of some of the rushes.
19:24I'd never have found that chick.
19:27And I'll tell you what's beyond her.
19:29She's got a jackdaw just beyond her.
19:31There's two jackdaws.
19:36Yeah, she's not happy. Look, she's not happy with them at all.
19:39Or the male has come in now as well to chase the jackdaws away.
19:49And the chick has disappeared into the cover,
19:52into those rushes there.
19:55What a place for a lapwing, you know?
19:57I'm used to seeing lapwings somewhere
19:59where there's not that many sheep,
20:01where it's very damp, very wet,
20:03but I suppose these poor things,
20:05it's been dry, it's been dry all day,
20:07and where I was up on top, it was very dry.
20:10There was one small pool.
20:12This is much bigger.
20:14There'll be more food here for them, I'm sure,
20:16but they are running the gauntlet.
20:18There's no doubt at all about that.
20:20Big question is, of course, are they going to rear any young?
20:23Looks like she's down to just the one,
20:25but I really hope that she makes it.
20:29How fantastic is that, to come to an old coal tip
20:32and find lapwing chicks.
20:35Ebbw Vale sits at the head of the Ebbw Valley,
20:38and its iron, coal and steelworks
20:40made it one of the most prosperous towns in South Wales.
20:44As new industries come and go,
20:46the sites they once occupied can be great for wildlife,
20:50and this area has a few of them.
20:57The Ebbw Valley is a beautiful place
20:59where you can find a lot of wildlife.
21:02If you look around here now,
21:04you'd swear I was a lovely bit of habitat
21:07somewhere in the middle of the countryside, wouldn't you?
21:10But it's not, actually.
21:12I'm on a brownfield site,
21:14which is a site earmarked for development
21:17right on the edge of Ebbw Vale.
21:19But it's beautiful, very wet,
21:21a lot of vegetation, scattered willow,
21:23a couple of ponds here as well.
21:25I've come to look for some wood,
21:27but I haven't found any.
21:29A couple of ponds here as well.
21:31I've come to look for some late-flying dragonflies.
21:34It's the end of September now,
21:36but there should still be some on the wing.
21:38Oh, here we are, here we are.
21:40Come over here.
21:42Oh, there's a male migrant hawker,
21:45and there's a mating pair of migrant hawkers.
21:48Let me just get a better view of these.
21:51They're on the bulrush stem over there.
21:54Oh, there we are, that's lovely.
21:56The male is kind of a black with parallel blue spots
22:00all the way down its body,
22:02and then the female is brown with yellow spots,
22:06yellow markings on its body.
22:09The male clasps her behind the head,
22:12and then she's putting her abdomen right underneath him
22:15and getting a packet of sperm,
22:18which will fertilize the eggs.
22:20I say migrant hawker,
22:22it's a sort of North African, Southern European species
22:25that's kind of slowly moved up,
22:27and in Wales they've increased remarkably
22:30because it's getting warmer, of course,
22:32and they'll be on the wing.
22:34What are we now?
22:36About another month or so, if you're lucky.
22:38This is lovely.
22:40It's a shallow pool, open water, vegetation.
22:42It's important to have vegetation in the water
22:44and on the bank, on the land.
22:46Oh, hang on, go back a bit.
22:48Oh, it's a black darter.
22:50Smaller than the hawkers.
22:52The male is the only one you'll get
22:54which is all black or nearly all black
22:56with a few little yellow spots on it.
22:58Beautiful, beautiful thing.
23:00But he's just resting up there with his wings open.
23:03It must have cooled off a bit.
23:05You've got to reach a certain temperature for these to get airborne,
23:08and once they are airborne, they're very, very active.
23:11So it's nice when the sun comes out because you can see them,
23:14but it's quite nice when the sun goes in because they land
23:16and you can have a good look at them.
23:18Females are more colourful than the males,
23:20and a few of them are perched up as well.
23:23And these, like, shallow acidic pools like this,
23:26especially in peaty areas,
23:28which is why it's very much a northern and a western species.
23:32Scotland, north of England, all over Wales as well.
23:35Lovely to see.
23:37And actually, when you see one,
23:39hopefully we should see more of them as well.
23:42But the amazing thing for me,
23:44you know, we've seen all that in, what, three minutes,
23:47three, four minutes here, not in the countryside,
23:50not up on the moors, not in the wilderness.
23:53You can hear the busy roads all around me.
23:55There's a supermarket over there,
23:57but on a brownfield site on the edge of Ebbw Vale.
24:00Incredible.
24:06For such an industrialised valley,
24:08it's amazing that there are still a few places
24:11that are virtually untouched.
24:13Near the village of Cwm is a really peaceful corner of the valleys.
24:18This is one of my favourite places in the whole of the valleys.
24:22It's Cwm Merdogo, Silent Valley in English.
24:25Near the village of Cwm, not far from Ebbw Vale.
24:29And it's, well, it's two old beech woodlands, really,
24:33and they're the highest beech woodlands in the whole of the UK.
24:37And, yeah, you could come in spring,
24:39you get your birdsong, you get your flowers.
24:42I feel like coming here in autumn,
24:44cos in autumn the beech leaves look stunning.
24:53Many of the trees in these valleys were felled
24:56and used for iron smelting or coal mines,
24:59yet somehow this ancient woodland survived.
25:07Among the many mushrooms growing here is the porcelain fungus.
25:11It's a beech specialist and, amazingly,
25:14fights off its rivals by producing its own fungicide.
25:20The size of some of these trees here, look at this one.
25:23Some of them are more than 300 years old.
25:27Look at these huge things.
25:30I do like beech because when the leaves first appear in spring,
25:34they're kind of a polished green, and then now you come into autumn,
25:38they've changed into oranges and yellows
25:42and like a burnished brass colour.
25:45And what I love about this wood is that when they die,
25:48they fall and they're just left there,
25:50which is fantastic for fungi, for all kinds of invertebrates.
25:54And if you come over here, look at this one here.
25:57Look at this. Sometimes they'll fall, but they'll carry on growing.
26:01So the roots are still in the soil
26:04and the branches are going up for the light.
26:07It's like natural sculptures, isn't it?
26:10Better than anything man-made.
26:21It's been a great autumn for all kinds of berries.
26:24Look at some of these bushes, they're just bright red.
26:27There's the odd blackbird feeding on them.
26:30And there's a kestrel as well hunting above the hillside here.
26:33Quite a scarce bird in Wales now, I don't see many kestrels.
26:37And raven, plenty of ravens, one tumbling up there.
26:40I love ravens, they fly just for the fun of it.
26:43And I'm following an old tramway here that took coal down the valley
26:47and these were drift mines up here,
26:50which meant that the miners followed the seam into the mountain.
26:54Not that many signs left of the old mines now,
26:57but I'm walking now along a spoil heap
27:00that's become covered with gorse and with heather.
27:03And I want to show you the view from the top.
27:06Look at this. Isn't that magnificent?
27:09Look at that, I'm eye-level with the top
27:12of some of the big old beech trees here now.
27:16And the locals say that the miners would come up here
27:20for some peace and quiet, hence the name Silent Valley.
27:24And they'd take a leaf out of their book
27:27and just stand and stare over.
27:34My journey through the valleys has come to an end.
27:38The landscape we see here today is the legacy of the Industrial Revolution
27:43and I've been amazed to see how nature's recovering.
27:47It's a place where old coal tips are now home to breeding lapwings
27:52and similar sites support stunning insects as well as scarce adders.
28:00Despite heavy pollution during mining's heyday,
28:03the valleys' rivers today are a haven for wildlife.
28:10Large areas of conifer trees,
28:12originally planted to supply timber for mines,
28:15have become breeding sites for the honey buzzard and nightjar.
28:19And remarkably, some of our most threatened species are still holding on.
28:27The South Wales Coalfields have undergone a remarkable transformation.
28:31Wildlife is here to stay.
28:34And I've thoroughly enjoyed exploring these nature-friendly greener valleys.
28:49www.subsedit.co.uk