BBC One Wales and S4C will show you Wales as you’ve never seen it before this spring with a new landmark natural history series that tells the story of our amazing wildlife through one extraordinary year.

If you loved BBC Blue Planet and Planet Earth II then Wales: Land of the Wild is not to be missed…it also features a special Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales Nature Reserve and a variety of awesome wildlife that call it home. You’ll have to tune in the spring it to find out which one!

Hollywood star Michael Sheen, who was raised in Port Talbot, will narrate Wales: Land of the Wild for BBC One Wales, with a soundtrack written by world-renowned composer Sir Karl Jenkins and his son Jody, and performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Wales: Land of the Wild / Cymru Wyllt is produced by Plimsoll Productions, an award-winning wildlife team who have also worked on Blue Planet, Planet Earth II and Springwatch for the BBC. They have also brought together the passion and expertise of wildlife enthusiasts across Wales, including series consultant Iolo Williams.

Together they have used their unparalleled knowledge to uncover the secrets of Wales’ rich habitats, as well as using the latest wildlife-filming technology to give viewers unprecedented access to a huge cast of creatures both great and small.

BBC Wales Head of Commissioning, Nick Andrews, says:

“Wales has some of the richest and most beautiful wildlife in the world, and I’m delighted that BBC Wales is able to tell these spectacular stories in Wales: Land of the Wild. It brings together the best of Welsh talent both on and off the screen to tell the defining story of Wales’ natural history. This ground-breaking series will uncover a Wales most of us have never seen before.”

Michael Sheen says:

“Land of the Wild is a revelation. It shows us a Wales as wild, as magical and as savagely beautiful a place as we have always felt it to be – and this landmark piece of Welsh television reveals it to us in all its natural glory like never before.”

The Welsh language version Cymru Wyllt will air on S4C.

For information on our Wildlife Trust Nature Reserves please visit www.welshwildlife.org . You can also follow us on Facebook /Wtsww, Twitter @WTSWW and Instagram Wildlife TrustSWW

First Signs of Spring

Seventy days after the winter solstice light is the major factor that is pushing almost all forms of life towards growth and breeding. Lengthening days makes temperature a contributory factor but it is normally fickle and not to be relied on. With temperatures in excess of 10ºC above the norm during the day and overnight frosts in this late February things are getting out of hand, with a record temperature in Aberystwyth in excess of 20ºC on the 25th. And that record was broken the following day on 26th with a temperature of 21ºC recorded at Kew Gardens, in contrast to a temperature of -17ºC recorded at Farnborough on 26th February 2018.

Some animals live in an environment where air temperature is not so critical, so trout have been spawning in rivers all winter with the water temperature between 8ºC and 5ºC. Whereas other animals live most of their lives where neither light nor air temperature have a direct effect, moles for instance…

A Mole’s life

Moles live a predominantly solitary life, but mole’s little home is actually a discrete network of tunnels. And their position and direction can be seen most easily at this time of year demarcated by the mole hills pockmarking the turf of a field or lawn.

Extraordinarily these tunnel networks become very prominent in the first quarter of the year, so what is going on? The tunnel network is designed as a trap for any mini beasts burrowing through the soil to fall into, which the resident mole patrols at regular intervals. Earth worms are the favourite fodder closely followed by beetle larvae, moth pupa, and leatherjackets.

With February being their breeding season the excellence and effectiveness of these civil engineering projects is an important factor in moles pairing up, encouraging the ladies to come calling.

Spring behaviour

On a warm sunny day there are a number of behaviours that show that spring is well on its way.  Magpies are seen in pairs or groups divisible by two. Wood pigeons undertake their significant dipping display flight with a loud wing clap and also can be heard cooing on a branch somewhere nearby, wooing a partner with much head and tail bobbing. Collared Doves make quite spectacular vertical display flights and the robin’s weak and reedy winter song starts to change.

Courting with Worm Charming, anyone?

Anyone in the Welsh lowlands and particularly urban areas should have seen Herring Gulls tap dancing on short grass turf on road verges, roundabouts, and in parks on moist mornings or after a shower of rain.  Are they trying to emulate Fred Astaire?

Well no, they are trying to find protein rich “sausages” with a core of fine earth, they are indeed worm charming. Or at least trying to scare any mini beasts into the open for a potential snack.  And in doing so they are cementing the pair bond with their partner for the forthcoming breeding season, although I have never seen them feed each other. We will soon have that raucous head back display call which wakes everybody up in the early morning.

Still Sleeping or Not?

Some beasts are still hibernating such as your garden snails, others are being subtler about it. BEWARE of curious piles of deciduous leaves it could be a hedgehog hibernaculum.  Pat Morris’ new monograph the Hedgehog No 137 in the New Naturalist Library published last year, states that these hibernacula are built for insulation both to keep the frost out and also to keep the warmth of an early spring day out as well.

Hibernating garden Snails

Other hibernators awake earlier such as the amphibians and of course there is frog spawn everywhere.

And we are just on the cusp of our early spring flowers opening, and with that, our hibernating queen bumblebees, particularly Buff-tailed, White-tailed, and Spring/Early species [orange tailed] are emerging. All these queens are carrying the hopes and fears for the year, a full set of fertilised eggs with which to found and maintain a bumblebee colony. So please look after them carefully and release them, should they accidentally enter your home.

These flowers also feed the range of hibernating butterflies, Brimstone, Comma, Small Tortoiseshell, and Peacock, all of who have been seen on the wing in the last week.

What is Flowering?

Some flowers like the Bitter-cress family flower all winter long with tiny white flowers producing large amounts of seed to give gardener’s something to do all summer. Without many if any insects about plants in general use self-pollination or other species such as hazel resort to wind pollination.

The male yellow pollen filled hazel catkins are obvious in the hedgerows and along motorway embankments. The little red tuft of hairs that makes up the visible part of the female flower is much more-subtle at the top of the photograph.

Male and Female Hazel Catkins

Who is on the move?

Black-headed Gulls have gone off to moult their body feathers to give themselves some semblance of being black-headed before they breed.

With the wintering birds leaving, spring migrant birds are already arriving including Sand martins, Swallows and our first leaf warblers the Chiffchaff. The Chiffchaff being first is hardly a surprise as they have taken to overwintering in UK. If they have migrated, it is only to winter in the Mediterranean and North Africa so less distance to return, whereas their doppelgänger the Willow Warbler, with that wonderful “waterfall of notes” as a call, crosses the Sahara into West Africa and will not be back until late April.

A big dragonfly, the Vagrant Emperor, has ignored the fact that it is the end of February and arrived from the Sahara to hunt for insects over Poppit Sands in the Teifi Estuary. Together with a number of sightings of Painted Lady butterfly across West Wales, a species which also migrates here from North Africa in some years, and occasionally this early, but is also known to return south in the autumn, rather than hibernate.

With the spring equinox on 20th March, we are close to having more daylight than darkness, and the intensity of the dawn chorus will increase. Some of the wind section have been practising, but it is normally not until mid-March that the entire population of male Blackbirds all join in. And then you know it is spring…

Although the sight of cattle roaming freely across Llantrisant Common isn’t anything out of the ordinary, during the summer of 2018 there were a few more beasts on the loose than there should have been!

The four seemingly docile highland cows which were lightly grazing the grassland habitat at Y Gweira Nature Reserve, located in the corner of the common, had somehow worked up the gusto to half-jump over, half-crush, the stock fencing and escape into the surrounding farmland. Not only was this an issue for our poor grazier who had to track them down and return them to the reserve, but it also meant that we lost out on grazing on the nature reserve since our cows were having their appetites filled elsewhere.

Y Gweira Nature Reserve

Y Gweira is a mosaic of wet heath, mire and marshy grassland, with plants such as Petty Whin and Devil’s bit scabious scattered about. Royal Fern, which is rare in the Eastern part of Glamorgan, grows along the wet ditches on the reserve. As with most grasslands, grazing (or a simulation of) is needed in order to maintain the balance of species, and at Y Gweira the highland cows were helping to prevent the rushes, brambles and young birch scrub from becoming too vigorous.

However, after learning that they were stronger than the fence, the highland cows escaped several times during the summer and eventually the naughty things had to be returned to the farm, meaning that Y Gweira lost out on a month of grazing.

Hard work and Helping Hands

Not wishing for a repeat of that this year myself and the valleys volunteers have been working incredibly hard to replace the fencing on the nature reserve and to make it fully cow-proof. Vehicle access is very limited due to the terrain and the delicate nature of the habitat, so almost all the tools and materials were carried across the field, and each fence post (over 200 of them!) knocked into the ground, by hand.

Thankfully there was help to be had!

Dewi John, a local farmer and freeman of Llantrisant, kindly transported a trailer load of fence posts across the common to Y Gweira with his tractor. Student volunteers from Bridgend College came twice to help with the fencing under the instruction of Lyn Evans, a lecturer in Environmental Conservation. Natural Resources Wales covered the cost of the fencing materials needed.

Without all this help we wouldn’t have been able to complete this fairly mammoth task, and wouldn’t have had much hope of being able to contain our (not-quite-so-mammoth) cows on the nature reserve. We hope to have them securely grazing Y Gweira in March.

Thanks to everybody for their efforts!

To join a volunteering work party, contact Lorna l.baggett@welshwildlife.org

Spring is Like a Perhaps Hand

Spring is like a perhaps hand
(which comes carefully
out of Nowhere) arranging
a window, into which people look (while
people stare
arranging and changing placing
carefully there a strange
thing and a known thing here) and

changing everything carefully

spring is like a perhaps
Hand in a window
(carefully to
and from moving New and
Old things,while
people stare carefully
moving a perhaps
fraction of flower here placing
an inch of air there) and

without breaking anything.

-E.E.Cummings 1894 – 1962

Like this poem observes, spring flowers can seem to appear from nowhere after the cold depths of winter and spring changes things in nature without removing anything.  Slowly changing and rearranging as ‘people stare carefully’.

Each year spring seems to get a little earlier and it is always exciting to see those first stirrings as nature wakes up from its winter slumber.

We have some amazing reserves to see spring flowers including the wild daffodils at Coed Y Bwl, near Bridgend.

The wild daffodils are already coming through with the full display expected in early March.   Set in the north west side of the Alun valley this stunning little nature reserve is well tended by a local group of volunteers who maintain its paths and walls. Every year this ancient ash woodland fills up with spring flowers, making it a spectacular sight, but the wild daffodils really make it special.

The daffodil is the flower for March with National Daffodil day being 23rd March and the national flower of Wales.  It is said that if you spot the first daffodil of the season, your next 12 months will be filled with wealth and giving a bunch of daffodils will ensure happiness.

Signs of other spring flowers in many of our nature reserves are appearing, Dog’s Mercury has pushed up it’s leaves in many of our woodland reserves, snowdrops are blooming in Dinefwr Castle Woods Llandeilo, and bluebells are pushing their leaves up across the patch.

Other reserves to see spring flowers include:

Coed y Bedw – Pentyrch, Cardiff. An ancient broadleaved woodland. Bus number 136 from Cardiff to Gwaelod-y-Garth. ST111827

Coed y Bwl – Castle Upon Alun, Vale of Glamorgan. Ancient ash woodland where wild daffodils and bluebells are in abundance. Bus numbers 146 and 145 from Bridgend. SS909749

Craig Cilhendre Woods, Pontardawe, Swansea. Partially ancient oak woodland with some newer woodland areas. Bus numbers 122, X20 and X25 from Swansea Quadrant Bus Station to Pontardawe. SN719022

Cwm Ivy Woods and Betty Church Reserve, Cwm Ivy, Gower, Swansea. Ancient broadleaved woodland with an abundance of spring woodland flowers, plantation and calcareous pasture and quarry. Bus number 116 from Swansea Quadrant Bus Station to Llanmadoc. SS438937

Melincwrt Waterfalls, Resolven, Neath, Port Talbot. Spectacular waterfall and ancient oak woodland with beautiful spring woodland flowers. Bus number X5 and X6 from Swansea Quadrant Bus Station or Neath Train Station. SN822020

Dinefwr Castle Woods, Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire. Lowland mixed deciduous woodland with an abundance of spring flowers in a stunning setting. On the train line – Swansea to Shrewsbury service. Bus number X13 from Swansea and the 280 from Carmarthen. SN623223

Coed Wern Ddu, Llanllwch, Carmarthen. Mixed deciduous and wet woodland with an abundance of spring flowers. No known public transport. SN373179

Poor Man’s Wood/Gallt y Tlodion, Llandovery, Carmarthenshire. Sessile oak woodland with a hazel understorey. Lower down in the woodland is an abundance of spring flowers. On the train line – Swansea to Shrewsbury service. 280 from Carmarthen although the bus stop is a reasonable walk from the woodland. SN781351

Coed Penglanowen and Old Warren Hill, Nanteos, Ceredigion. A varied woodland which includes the county’s tallest tree, a specimen of Sequioadendron giganteum. This woodland has a spectacular display of spring woodland flowers. The Aberystwyth circular town service stops in Penparcau, a 2km walk to the reserve. SN611786

Penderi Cliffs, between Llanrhystud and Monk’s Cave, Ceredigion. Oak woodland hanging on to the cliffs with a spectacular spring flower display of flowers. Bus numbers X40, X50 and 550. SN553734

We are delighted to continue working in partnership with The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales (WTSWW). Vine House Farm donates £10 for every new Trust customer and 4% of every sale to WTSWW and other partner Trusts! Crucially, the donation has never been added to our prices – it’s simply something we allow for and our prices remain some of the lowest in the market.

Did you do your bit for National Nest box week?

14th -21st February (National Nest Box week) is an important month in the WILD calendar, particularly for our feathered friends. Providing nest boxes for birds in your garden is a great way to attract different species, plus it is fun and very rewarding to watch the whole process of birds first taking the box, building their nest, feeding their young, then the young emerging for the very first time. Vine House Farm have a great guide to help you get the most out of your nest boxes including which direction should a box face, when’s the best time to put one up and special nest boxes for other species. Read the whole guide here

What’s happening on the farm?

Unusually we have been able to drill spring barley in January because we’ve had such a dry winter so far. I can’t remember doing this before, however that could be because we’ve grown very little spring barley. In recent years, things have changed – we now need to have more spring crops because of a problem with blackgrass.

Bird seed is in big demand with the cold weather, so we are kept busy all through the winter months.

We have all heard too much about Brexit but we have not had many details about how it will affect agriculture. What we have heard is that the government says it will reward those farmers looking after the environment and so I am looking forward to hearing more of their plans.

Wildlife

I would normally expect the Lapwings to go south and west during the cold weather, but they are still around. Most of them during the day have been standing on the ice on one of the recently excavated gravel pits. As the light fails in the evening, they will fly to various fields in the district to feed.

We have more Buzzards and Kites about than ever. Both are supposedly carrion eaters, but only last week I was driving down to Holbeach Marsh when this bird came diving out of the sky. Just as it hit the ground a pair of Grey Partridge took off and they were soon joined by another pair and off they flew. The Buzzard was left on the ground looking around without a meal.

Every bird of prey has a different method of hunting

Kestrels for example hover when searching for a meal. The Harriers we have appear to fly lazily over the land but they are searching for something to pounce on. Merlins chase Skylarks and Meadow Pipits across open ground and Peregrines swoop on their prey. Buzzards and Kites are carrion eaters but when there is no carrion they hunt for live prey by dropping down on them.

My bird feeding has attracted Sparrowhawks. However as I am feeding near hawthorn bushes, this offers the birds some protection. Sparrowhawks fly down the sides of the hedges, hoping to pounce on a bird that is flying out of the hedge. They cannot afford to try and get a bird that is flying into a thorn hedge as the Sparrowhawk may be injured.

Farm walks start in May, tickets can be bought online or by telephone

Dates: 18th May, 15th June, 6th July, 3rd, 10th and 11th August

For more information on their range of bird seed, bird feeders or advice visit the Vine House Farm website