By Sophie, 27th Feb 2025
Welcome to our first instalment of Ranger Ramblings! Here we will talk about what the Ranger Team have been up to, any interesting wildlife sightings, and habitat management at Bryngarw Country Park. We will also announce a Recording Challenge for March and how you can help look after our wonderful Country Park.
February
The winter months are quiet for wildlife, the colder weather means there are less insects, birds and mammals to see as they hibernate and migrate to milder climates. For the rangers, the winters are a chance to get some maintenance done, clearing paths and fixing fences, but also a chance to do scrub and tree clearance.
We manage our woodlands in winter by clearing scrub (bramble, small saplings and bracken), coppicing and thinning trees. Thinning trees in our woodlands diversifies the age of the canopy, it creates pockets of light which reaches the woodland floor, encouraging the growth of seedlings and saplings. Having a mix of older and younger trees makes the woodland more sustainable – when the older trees die, there will be ‘teenage’ trees to take their place. If all the trees were the same age, it would take longer for the woodland to recover if several trees were to blow down or die of disease. We don’t do these jobs during the spring and summer months as it is breeding season for birds and mammals, meaning they are looking for good nesting spots in trees, hedges and scrubby areas.
Late February has also shown some early signs of spring, we have daffodils, primroses and snowdrops in flower, and you can just about see the leaves of the bluebells peeking through the leaflitter. Although the ranger team has yet to see any insect activity yet, we are on the look out for our first Bumblebee sighting of the year as the days get warmer and sunnier. If you have seen a bumblebee in the park, please let us know! We are trying to keep a record of first sightings around the park.
Volunteering Groups
We would not be able to manage our wonderful park with out the help of our amazing volunteering groups.
Our Saturday Volunteering group meet on the first Saturday of the month to complete conservation tasks. In February, the group cleared the bramble and bracken from the woodland floor in Coed Kensington, often called the Bluebell woods. We clear the bramble and bracken using shears and loppers and pile the cut material into habitat piles we call Bramble Bins.
By clearing the scrubby understorey of our woodlands, we let in light to the woodland floor, creating space for bluebells, wood sorrel, dog violet, wood anemone and foxglove. These woodland wildflowers are important nectar and pollen sources for a range of insects.
The Bramble Bins also create the perfect habitat for minibeasts, birds and mammals to shelter and nest in. The densely packed material creates a dead-hedge which will eventually rot down and return the nutrients to the soil of the forest floor.
Tuesday Volunteering Group
February has been a busy one for our weekly volunteer group. Here is a summary of some of the tasks we have completed over the month.
As above, our volunteers have been clearing the bramble and bracken from the woodland floor in the upper reaches of Coed Kensington.
We also worked with the B-Leaf trainees to plant some trees in the cleared areas. Hornbeam, yew and field maple was planted to diversify the woodland species.
Hornbeam will keep its leaves all year round, providing shelter, roosting, nesting and foraging opportunities for birds and small mammals. Hornbeam is the food plant for caterpillars of several moth species, including the nut tree tussock. Finches and tits and small mammals eat the seeds in autumn.
Yew was chosen as there aren’t many conifer species in that section of woodland. Yew are incredibly dense, offering protection and nesting opportunities for many birds. The goldcrest and firecrest may choose to nest in yew branches. The fruit is also eaten by birds, such as the blackbird, mistle thrush, song thrush and fieldfare; and small mammals, including squirrels and dormice. The leaves are eaten by caterpillars of the satin beauty moth.
You may have noticed the damage that the winter storms have inflicted on our poor trees during December and January. In the sensory garden, we lost a feature tree, a large branching oak which was blown down.
B-Leaf trainees have been hard at work resurfacing the paths in the sensory garden and clearing the broken limbs and branches of the fallen oak. Our weekly volunteer group have been creating a dead hedge from the multi limbed tree. The dead hedge will provide shelter and nesting habitat for insects, birds and mammals. It will also be a natural barrier to separate the path from the main trunk of the fallen tree.
The volunteers have also been busy in the Japanese inspired garden, creating a woven dead hedge out of coppiced willow and hazel. Coppicing is a traditional woodland management technique that involves cutting trees down to a stump to encourage new growth. It’s a sustainable way to produce timber and firewood, and material for weaving.
A little pond has also been dug out in a boggy area adjacent to the new woven hedge. This small wildlife pond is shallow and will slow the flow of water on its way into the river. It will hopefully provide habitat for amphibians such as frogs, toads and newts, as well as aquatic insects.
New Volunteer Roles at Bryngarw Country Park!
Welcome to two new volunteers – Amanda and Anne – who you may see on our all new Welcome Desk in the Visitor Centre.
Our Welcome Desk volunteers are here to provide a warm welcome, a chat and to provide information on what’s happening at Bryngarw Country Park.
If you are interested in volunteering with us, you can contact the Ranger Team on bryngarw.park@awen-wales.com.
School Outreach – Big Schools Birdwatch
As part of the Big School’s Birdwatch, Ranger Ewan visited Brackla Primary School. The Big School’s Birdwatch is a RSPB survey similar to the Big Garden Birdwatch for schools to take part in.
Ranger Ewan discussed the importance of counting the birds they saw and taking part in scientific surveys. The class discussed the different birds they saw and the reasons some bird species are in decline.
Surveys like this are called Citizen Science, when the public collaborates with scientists to collect and analyse data to advance scientific knowledge. By crowdsourcing data in big events like this, we can better understand trends in populations, whether species are in decline and how we can help conservation efforts.
If you are interested in a School Visit at Bryngarw Country Park, please get in touch with the Ranger Team – bryngarw.park@awen-wales.com.
Bird Ringing at Bryngarw
Over winter, we have been busy behind the scenes surveying birds in a method that hasn’t been used at Bryngarw Country Park since the 1990s!
We are currently doing a survey called the BTO Bird Ringing Scheme. Ringing birds is essential if we are to learn about how long they live and when and where they move, questions that are vital for bird conservation. It involves placing a lightweight, uniquely numbered, metal ring around a bird’s leg and provides a reliable and harmless method of identifying birds as individuals.
In February, we have surveyed several species using this method including:
We hope to compile a Bird Report at the end of the year to discuss our findings.
Horses and Cows – Oh My!
You may have noticed that we have had some unusual visitors in the park this month. Our hoofed neighbours have been in for an adventure.
The two horses are from a neighbouring farm and are opportunistic when passers-by leave the gate to their paddock open. Once free, they walk down the river and into the park for some lovely grazing. If you spot horses in Bryngarw Park, please let the Ranger team know so that we can contact their owners.
At Bryngarw Park, we have some grazing fields bordering on Coed Kensington and Coed Waunpiod. We work with a local farmer to graze these fields with cattle, you can often hear and see the cows from the B-Leaf carpark. Our cows have become escape artists in recent months, testing our fencing that separates the grazing fields from the park. As you might have noticed from the hoof prints, they have made their way around most of the park during their escapades. We have hopefully repaired the weak points in the fences, but if you have spotted any cows in the park, please do not approach them and call the Ranger Team. At this time of year, the cows have calves, and can be very protective.
The ranger’s office phone number is 01656 725155.
What to look out for in March!
As spring awakens, we have a recording challenge for you! We want to know more about the species we have at Bryngarw Country Park. Once we know what species we have, we can manage the park in a way that better benefits those species and monitor them in future.
In March, we would like you to record your sightings on your walks and submit them to recording apps or to the Ranger team (yourbryngarw@awen-wales.com).
Species of the Month – Dark-edged Bee-fly / Gwenyn Pryf (Bombylius major)
Is it a bee? Is it a fly? It’s a Bee—fly!
Bee-flies are amazing mimics, although they look like fluffy bumblebees, they are actually flies. It has a hairy little body and face, and a very long, straw-like tongue. It buzzes around and just like a bee, so you may hear it before you see it.
It is one of the earliest insects to emerge. Having pupated over winter, dark-edged bee-flies usually start to appear in March, but people sometimes report sightings as early as mid-February after unseasonably warm and sunny days – they don’t usually fly in temperatures less than 17oC.
The larvae of the dark-edged bee-fly are nest parasites of ground-nesting and solitary bees, feeding on the bee grubs. The female bee-fly flicks her eggs towards the entrance holes of solitary bee nests to allow the larvae to hatch in the right place. She even coats her eggs with sand, soil, or gravel to protect them, camouflage them, and make them easier to throw!
Bee-flies can be seen flying from flower to flower looking of nectar or basking in the sunlight on leaves and bare ground. Keep an eye out for this weird and wonderful insect!