It has been a busy August and September for our WTSWW staff on the Brecknock reserves!

Tara has been working hard in Ystradgynlais running work parties every fortnight or so and has made a great impact on the Himalayan balsam which is trying to spread through the reserve.

We currently have Welsh Government funding for Ystradfawr through the Local Nature Partnership (Powys).  At the end of August through Local Places for Nature funding we were able to put on a “pollinators” walk with local entomologist and Bees and Wasp enthusiast Janice Vincett.  

Janice showed us how to safely capture and examine insects with a net and a pot.  We were able to see a great range of beautifully marked hoverflies and bees from a small patch of mauve Devil’s-bit scabious.  

However recent larval web counts indicate that it seems to have been a poor year for Marsh Fritillaries.

These old ex-mine working areas are great for wildlife as shown beautifully and informatively on Iolo’s Welsh Valleys which is available on BBC iplayer.  Our Welsh Mountain Ponies can be seen on Episode 1 at around 11 minutes.

We have put in cattle handling pens in two of the fields to enable us to use cattle and ponies to manage the land. We are hoping that the cattle will also help by eating the Himalayan balsam and scrub.   Currently the field by the school, Hendreladus,  and on the edge of the common, Coedcae Mawr, are grazed sporadically by cattle as well as ponies.

This summer Lauren Porter who is studying Environmental Science at Southampton University joined us to carry out volunteering as part of her studies.  We were able to offer her a real experience including bracken bashing and helping with the BLG Go Wild for Wildlife event and Ystradfawr bioblitz.

Hello Autumn!

This autumn the work party tasks will include finishing the fencing and hedgelaying at Penywaun, path maintenance at Pwll y wrach, fence repairs at Cae Eglwys and grassland scrub management work at Ystradfawr.  We are particularly interested in recruiting more regular volunteers for the southern reserves as they tend to need more work.

There is likely to be more Ash dieback tree safety and management works being carried out at Pwll y wrach and Glasbury cutting during the autumn months.  So watch out for signage or social media posts about path closures.