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Tag Archives: Wales Biodiversity Week

Welsh biodiversity: Heath Park

12 Sunday Jun 2016

Posted by sconzani in fungi, insects, nature, wildflowers

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

biodiversity, biological diversity, Heath Park, Wales Biodiversity Week

This is the last, but by no means least, day of Wales Biodiversity Week, and today we’re checking out the biodiversity of another of my locals, Heath Park.

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Once upon a time (in the 1830s), the Lewis family built a great mansion (Heath House) on this land (since demolished – where the Miniature Railway and neighbouring carpark are now) and the present park was part of their estate (you can read more here). Today, the 37-hectare site is owned by Cardiff Council, and contains sports fields, courts and playgrounds, a large carpark (also useful for visitors to neighbouring Heath Hospital), large fields for picnics and dog-walking, a mature woodland and two ponds.

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Part of the woodland is very damp so, as you can see from my photos, it’s ideal for fungi, even in the summer months. And there is also a rather smelly stream, the Nant-y-Wedal, which had a surprising abundance of wildlife amongst the vegetation adorning its banks. Heath Park was an unexpected biodiversity hot spot, so we have a bumper number of photographs which seems a fitting way to close Wales Biodiversity Week for 2016.

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Welsh biodiversity: Roath Wild Gardens

11 Saturday Jun 2016

Posted by sconzani in birds, insects, nature, wildflowers

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Tags

biodiversity, Roath Park, Roath Park Wild Gardens, Wales Biodiversity Week

You’ve heard of the baker’s dozen? Well, today let me introduce you to the Welsh week. In Wales, it seems, a week actually consists of nine days (!) so here is my selection for day eight of Wales Biodiversity Week.

I am lucky to live opposite Roath Park, here in Cardiff, but it’s a large and varied place, with recreation grounds and a botanical garden, as well as a lake, so I’ve chosen just one smallish area for my biodiversity challenge, the Wild Gardens at the northern end of the lake.

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Developed slightly later than the rest of the park, in 1896, the Wild Gardens have seen many changes in their lifetime. In the early days there was a summer house in the centre and during 1910-11 three ponds for trout-rearing were constructed. Nowadays the Gardens live up to their ‘wild’ name, with a network of dirt footpaths winding back and forth amongst a canopy of mature trees with shrubby growth beneath. A few weeks ago this place was awash with wild garlic – a most gIorious, if smelly spectacle, and now it’s lush with blackberry bushes and ferns, grasses and wildflowers. I love its wildness and so does the wildlife, as you can see from these photos, all taken on yesterday’s wander.

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Welsh biodiversity: Coryton roundabout

10 Friday Jun 2016

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, wildflowers

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

biodiversity, Coryton roundabout, native orchids, Wales Biodiversity Week

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You might think I’ve gone a little bonkers with today’s choice of site for day seven of Wales Biodiversity Week, but you’d be wrong. Officially known as Juncton 32, the Coryton roundabout, where the M4 motorway and the A470 spin around together, is the large roundabout in Wales and one of the largest in Britain. That means it contains large areas of green space within its boundaries and, as the Cardiff Naturalists Society can verify, it is a very rich habitat for all manner of plants and insects.

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Yesterday was my first visit to this place. If you can ignore the constant traffic noise and the buzz from the large power pylons, it is a lovely patch for a wander, with parcels of mature trees and wedges of flower-filled meadows, which have the added bonus of an abundance of native orchids. Several species can be found here apparently, the Common spotted and Bee orchids, Twayblade and Broad-leaved helloborines, as well as the Pyramidal orchid. I also found quite a few critters enjoying their efflorescent surroundings. It was a most unexpectedly biodiverse location!

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Welsh biodiversity: Forest Farm

09 Thursday Jun 2016

Posted by sconzani in animals, birds, insects, nature

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biodiversity, birding, birdwatching, damselflies, dragonflies, Forest Farm Nature Reserve, rabbits, Wales Biodiversity Week

I’ve sung the praises of Forest Farm in previous blogs (here and here) and enjoyed many conversations with robins during my walks there but today, on day six of Wales Biodiversity Week, for the wildlife at Forest Farm it was all about procreation.

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Male damselflies were flashing their colourful wings trying to impress the females; male dragonflies were patrolling their territory to warn off any potential interlopers; damselflies were copulating as they flew along the canal and around the pond, and I saw two female dragonflies depositing their eggs amongst plants and reeds in the pond.

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The birdlife was a little more advanced – there were chicks and fledglings everywhere: ducklings, baby coots and moorhens, young robins and dunnocks, to name just a few. Perhaps cutest of all, though, were the baby rabbits, happily frolicking and nibbling on the grass near the bird hides. It was like a scene from Watership Down!

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Welsh Biodiversity: Colonising the walls

08 Wednesday Jun 2016

Posted by sconzani in nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

biodiversity, biological diversity, colonising the walls, Wales Biodiversity Week

Here’s something a little different for day five of Wales Biodiversity Week. This is not a specific location – it could be at your house, at the bottom of your garden, in the street where you live, in the middle of a city or in the depths of the countryside.

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Stone and brick walls are all around us, and they frequently offer superb examples of a biodiverse environment in miniature. The roots of enterprising plants, like ivy and ivy-leaved toadflax, seek out the tiniest cracks and crannies to establish themselves, as do the many varieties of the garden-escapee Campanula species, which are providing magnificent displays in shades of lilac, blue and purple on the walls here in Cardiff right now. On the damper sides of walls and along the bottoms ferns, mosses and lichens make themselves right at home. Bees, birds and ants frequently nest in the larger holes, as do the occasional rats and mice, and a damp crevice at ground level can make the perfect home for a toad.

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And then we have the smaller critters – bees and butterflies often bask in the sunshine on walls; slaters, millipedes and snails inhabit the dark spaces between stones and old bricks; and spiders find the gaps convenient places to string their webs. When you’re next out walking, don’t ignore the walls – take a closer look. You might be surprised what you find.

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Welsh biodiversity: Cathays Cemetery

07 Tuesday Jun 2016

Posted by sconzani in nature

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

biodiversity, Cathays Cemetery, Green Flag Award, Site of Importance for Nature Conservation, Wales Biodiversity Week, wildflowers

For day four of Wales Biodiversity Week we’re heading to a wonderfully biodiverse location just 10 minutes’ walk from where I live – my local cemetery!

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Although Cathays Cemetery was first opened in 1859, its 110-acre grounds have remained largely undisturbed since the cemetery closed to new burials about 35 years ago, so it is the perfect environment for native plants to thrive, and that means it also provides a rich habitat for the birds, animals and insects that live in, amongst and on those plants. The cemetery also contains an arboretum of trees, both native and exotic, and some remnants of shrubs and flowers planted in Victorian times. No wonder the cemetery has been classified by Cardiff Council as a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation, and has held the Green Flag Award since 2009.

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When it first opened, the cemetery wasn’t just a place to bury Cardiff’s dead; with few parks and recreation spaces available at that time, this was also considered a pleasant place to walk – and it still is!

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Welsh biodiversity: Howardian NR

06 Monday Jun 2016

Posted by sconzani in nature, wildflowers

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

30 Days Wild, biodiversity, Howardian Nature Reserve, Wales Biodiversity Week

Another day, more biodiversity! On day three of Wales Biodiversity Week I explored another of my local nature reserves, Howardian, a 30-odd-acre triangle of woods and meadows, at the intersection of two major Cardiff roads, which was once a domestic rubbish tip. Oh how times have changed for the better!

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After more than 40 years of tireless labour, firstly by the pupils of the Howardian High School Natural History Society and now by the Friends of Howardian LNR (where would the environment be without these Friends groups!), the reserve is a treasure trove of biodiversity. You only need to look at the website galleries and the impressive species’ lists to get an idea of the richness of life in this reserve: field voles and dormice (!); slow worms and palmate newts; bees, butterflies and damselflies; chiffchaffs and whitethroats; moths and hoverflies; fungi, lichen and mosses; and, during the months of June and July (now!), a breathtaking display of native orchids.

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Howardian is a superb testament to how a former urban wasteland can, with time and a ton of hard work, be revitalised into a shining example of a biodiverse environment.

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Welsh biodiversity: Nant Fawr Woodlands

05 Sunday Jun 2016

Posted by sconzani in nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

30 Days Wild, biodiversity, Nant Fawr Woodlands, Wales Biodiversity Week, wildflowers, woodland

For day two of Wales Biodiversity Week (and day 5 of 30 Days Wild, which I am also following – more information on that Wildlife Trust initiative here) – I went for a wander around one of my local nature reserves, Nant Fawr Woodlands. Established as a green corridor by Cardiff City Council in 1993 and following the Nant Fawr stream from Roath Park Lake to Llanishen Reservoir, the woodlands are managed by a group of local conservation-minded residents, ‘The Friends of Nant Fawr’.

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As well as two parcels of woodland harbouring some magnificent old trees, the area also includes three ancient meadows, once part of Rhyd-y-blewn farm, which are valuable habitats for wildflowers and the insects that thrive on them. The Friends are part of the Cardiff Biodiversity Partnership, have a well-developed biodiversity action plan, and manage the woodlands and meadows in accordance with agreed guidelines to conserve and enhance this wonderful environment.

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It’s a wonderful place for a ramble, taking you from city to countryside, with much to enjoy along the way.

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Welsh biodiversity: Kenfig NNR

04 Saturday Jun 2016

Posted by sconzani in nature

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

biodiversity, Kenfig National Nature Reserve, Kenfig Pool, sand dunes, Wales Biodiversity Week

Today marks the beginning of Wales Biodiversity Week, which this year runs from 4 to 12 June, so it seems appropriate to celebrate one of the most biodiverse places in Wales, indeed in the whole of Britain, Kenfig National Nature Reserve. Kenfig is primarily a huge undulating sand dune system, though the reserve encompasses a range of habitats, from lagoons and salt marshes through bogs and fens to broad-leaved deciduous woodland. And Kenfig Pool is the largest freshwater lake in south Wales.

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Nature lovers can bird-watch from the hides around the pool, where damsel and dragonflies also abound during the summer months. For the plant-lover an estimated 550 species, including the rare Fen Orchid, grow within the reserve, and some very rare fungi make their home amongst the marram grass. If critters are your thing, there are bees and butterflies, (pink!) grasshoppers and weevils, newts and lizards, and there are even reports of otters, though you’d have to be exceptionally lucky to see them.

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Kenfig is a shining example of the biodiversity to be found in a coastal environmental and well worth a visit or six!

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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