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00:03Rivers have carved the face of Wales, and many flow through breathtaking valleys.
00:14Their beautiful landscapes make them popular places to visit.
00:19In this series I'm going to be exploring four river valleys.
00:23The Clwyd, the Conwy, the Dovey and the Rhaidol, going all the way from sea to source.
00:38Now all four of them are stunning, and I'm going to be seeing some of Wales' best wildlife,
00:45including some very special species.
00:50Join me as I explore the hidden stories and natural wonders of these remarkable Welsh
00:57River valleys throughout the year.
01:08The Dovey Valley is one of Wales' most stunning areas.
01:12It has some of the best examples of important wildlife habitats in the UK.
01:19This time, my journey takes me from Unislas National Nature Reserve, along the Dovey River's 30-mile course,
01:27up to Craiglin Dovey at the southern edge of the Erruri Mountains.
01:37This is the Dovey Estuary with Cardigan Bay behind me, and the town of Aberdovey over on the far side
01:45over there.
01:46It's Wales' only world biosphere reserve, one of only seven in the whole of the UK.
01:53And that means that from a wildlife point of view, it's probably the most diverse we have in the whole
02:00of Wales.
02:04This stretch of coastline is a vital breeding ground for ringed plovers.
02:09But these birds are under threat from changing beach conditions due to more frequent storms,
02:15along with human disturbance.
02:21Pleased to see that they've fenced this area of beach off.
02:24It's for a little weeding bird called a ringed plover, a smart little bird.
02:28And it lays its eggs on the shingle beach, really well camouflaged.
02:34And then the chicks hatch and they're well camouflaged as well.
02:37But they've declined massively in England and Wales, mainly because of disturbance,
02:42people and dogs going onto beaches.
02:45And I remember coming here 10, 15 years ago, one, maybe two pairs, that's all.
02:52But since they've put up this fence, the numbers have increased to six or seven pairs.
02:57Not everybody listens, mind you, but it does keep most people out.
03:01So simple measures, but very effective measures.
03:07In summer, low-lying areas called slacks come alive with orchids,
03:13including the marsh hellebarae and pyramidal orchids.
03:19The real highlight is the northern marsh orchid, which can vary in colour.
03:25Some botanists are still debating that the ones found along the West Wales coast are a unique species.
03:32But to me, they look remarkably similar.
03:45Next to Anislas is Corse Fochno, one of the largest lowland-raised bogs in the UK.
03:52Around 8,000 years ago, rising sea levels transformed a forested floodplain into a reed swamp,
03:59which later became a peat bog.
04:05Today, it's one of Wales' most important habitats, home to unique plants and animals.
04:11And early summer is a great time to explore it.
04:18What I want to show you is over here, careful where I put my feet, down on one knee.
04:26Over here, the sundew most people are familiar with is the round-leaved or the common sundew.
04:32It grows quite low. This is the greater sundew. It thrusts its kind of spoons, if you like,
04:41these adapted leaves up skywards. It's quite tall. And you can see little globules of liquid on there.
04:47That's a mixture of kind of sugary solution and enzymes, and it attracts insects in there, so they're carnivorous.
04:55The insects get stuck in there, the leaf will curl in on itself, and it'll send the enzymes into the
05:02insect.
05:02It turns into kind of a soup, if you like, and it sucks that out, and all that's behind is
05:07a husk.
05:07But, the one thing is, they then have a problem, because they produce flowers and they want to attract pollinating
05:15insects.
05:16But what they do, they send the flower up on a tall stalk, so that the pollinating insects can pollinate,
05:24but not get stuck in the leaves as well. Clever, isn't it? Nature thinks of absolutely everything.
05:31This bog is one of the few places I know we're almost certain to see a scarce butterfly,
05:37known as the large heath, during summer. This one has a chunk missing from its wing,
05:43likely from a close call with a bird.
05:54Of the many flowering plants that grow here, bog asphodel is probably my favourite.
06:02The Latin name is interesting. It's ossifraga, which means bone breaker.
06:07And that's because the early farmers, they would graze their cattle in areas like this,
06:12and those cattle would often break their bones. They had brittle bones.
06:16And the farmers blamed this plant. But it's got nothing to do with this. It's because of a lack of
06:22minerals.
06:23It's very nutrient poor here. And the Welsh name is also interesting too. In Welsh, we call it
06:29Llaven a bladyr, the blade of a scythe. You've got to look at the leaves for that. They're long,
06:35pointed end, and they're also scimitar-shaped. But a lot of the early Welsh botanists that named these
06:43were shepherds, they were landowners, and they were on the land all year round. And of course,
06:50what they would see for most of the year would be the leaves. You only see the flower for about
06:55a month.
06:56And that's why a lot of the Welsh names for plants, in particular, are very descriptive,
07:02and refer not to the flower, but to the leaves.
07:08Moths and other insects thrive in these wet conditions,
07:12making the bog ideal for a nocturnal bird that feeds on them.
07:19About 15 metres ahead of me, in the bend, in the path,
07:23is a nature. A crepuscular bird usually comes out late in the evening, early morning,
07:29and it's just perched there. It's beautifully camouflaged, but little does it know that it's
07:35really standing out on the boardwalk. And they'll usually nest in the bracken-y areas around the side
07:42there, but it's the first time I've ever come across one in the middle of the day, right on the
07:47edge of the path.
07:49It's got a huge eye, and it's just opened just a little, little bit like that,
07:54just that it can keep an eye on me. I'm not going to go any nearer. I don't want to
07:59put it up now.
08:04It's heating up now, getting towards the middle of the day.
08:07But these areas of open water here, these are quite cool.
08:11They maintain these, well, some for the rare plants, but also for dragonflies and damselflies.
08:19Here we are. If we go on just a little bit again. We've got four spotted chasers.
08:25When it heats up like this, they're very aerial. They hunt on the wing. They'll catch other insects.
08:31They'll chase each other. They're territorial. Oh, there we are. There's a four spotted chaser
08:36just landed on here now.
08:40But the master of the air is the emperor. That's a biggie. That's a big one.
08:46Lovely things. They're really huge, big eyes. Their vision is superb, absolutely superb.
08:52Oh, I tell you what, there's an emperor. Come on, just a little bit. There's a female emperor.
08:57Yeah, she's eggling. She's landed on some vegetation there. And then she's backed her abdomen right down to the water.
09:05And she lays her eggs individually. She'll curl her abdomen and lay the eggs on the vegetation under the water.
09:14And then that egg will hatch out. And the various nymphs, they can be in the water here for about
09:20four years
09:21before they eventually emerge up the vegetation. It'll dry out, the back will split, and out will come an adult
09:28dragonfly.
09:29And these that we see, they're only on the wing for a few weeks. That's it. For the rest of
09:34the time, they're underwater.
09:36Even though this is P.T. nutrient-poor, there's enough there to sustain these dragonflies and damselflies.
09:50The Dovey River is often viewed as the natural boundary between north and south Wales.
09:57As well as the saltmarsh, the unique mix of habitats at Unnysir Nature Reserve make this area a wildlife haven.
10:05And a springtime visit is an absolute must.
10:14The ditches here are good places to look for a species of reptile that's often elusive.
10:21Luckily, our cameraman, Graham, has spotted movement.
10:29We've got a female grass snake. I'm keeping my voice down, keeping my movements to a minimum,
10:36because they can see pretty well under any sudden movement, she'll see it.
10:42I would say she's at least a metre long.
10:47Yeah, she's a sizeable individual.
10:50Beautifully marked.
10:51Grass snake's a lovely thing.
10:53They're sort of olive green with a yellow collar here.
10:59Yeah, there's a second one just coming in.
11:01Probably from the water up onto the platform.
11:05She's very tolerant of it. She appears to be kind of chasing it away.
11:09They have their areas, their favoured basking sites, where they like to sunbathe.
11:15And then when they warm up enough, they'll go off on the hunt.
11:19Unnysir, this area has always been really good for them.
11:23I used to see them all the time, but they've declined a lot in the last maybe 10, 12 years.
11:29They like water. They really like water.
11:32And they will take mice and bulls, but more often than not, they'll hunt things like frogs,
11:37toads, newts, even small fish.
11:39They're really fast, really fast snakes.
11:43Yeah, she's heading off.
11:49You can easily spend hours at Unnysir. It's a fascinating place.
11:57In May, the Welsh oakwoods come alive as migrant birds like wood warblers return to nest.
12:03And the carpet of bluebells onshore are stunning.
12:07Standing dead trees, left untouched, drawing great spotted woodpeckers.
12:14But it's the wetlands, teeming with breeding waders, that I'm heading to next.
12:29This is the Unnys Edwin part of the RSVB's Unnysir Reserve.
12:33It's cut off from the estuary by the embankment you see there.
12:36That's where the railway line goes along.
12:39And because of that embankment, they're able to hold back water when it's dry.
12:44And if it gets too wet, they're able to open the gates there and let some of the water flow
12:49out.
12:50And because of that, you've got good numbers of red shank here.
12:54And red shank is a bird, I remember, nesting in sort of wetland areas.
12:58You know, right across inland whales. Every single one of those has now gone.
13:02They're confined to areas like this.
13:05And it's home now to, well this year, 42 pairs of lapwing,
13:09which is double what they had just a couple of years ago.
13:13What's lovely is that you can see there's a female lapwing there that's brooding its chicks.
13:20It was quite warm early. It's got a little bit nippy.
13:22So they've all tucked in under her wings. She's just keeping them warm there.
13:29And there they are. They're back out again now.
13:33One, yes, four chicks, four chicks. She's done really, really well.
13:39Hopefully, they'll have a really successful breeding season.
13:42And we'll start to see lapwing spread out of these nature reserves,
13:48back to the farmland, wet farmland, where they belong again.
13:51And it's great news. It's brilliant news. Of course it is.
13:55But what's quite sad is that to make sure that they succeed now,
13:59you've got to put an electric fence like this all the way around this wetland area.
14:04You know, for someone like me who remembers lapwings being common farmland birds,
14:08that's quite sad, really.
14:18By July, most of the breeding birds in the Dovey Valley will have finished nesting.
14:25Yet a pair of well-known summer visitors are still tending to their young.
14:33I'm on my way to see the Dovey Valley's most famous residence.
14:37Now, the ospreys here at Corse Dovey, the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust Reserve.
14:43But it's a beautiful morning. There's dew lying everywhere, spiders, webs.
14:48And as you make your way along the boardwalk to the Observation Tower, it's worth taking time.
14:54Don't rush. Just have a look around you, you know, because there's dragonflies,
14:58there's lizards, there's all kinds of things to see as you walk along.
15:15The Observation Tower here gives you a great view of the osprey nest at eye level.
15:20Even though the chicks have already fledged, they'll be hanging around for a few more weeks.
15:26They came back 2011.
15:28They've also been here for, what, nearly 15 years, not far, 15 years now.
15:33But before that, well, they hadn't nested in Wales for about 400 years.
15:43What are they now? They're about eight weeks, eight weeks old now.
15:46They've fledged in the last few days, one of them's just launched off now.
15:51Two of them are launched off. There they go, flying around.
15:55This is what they'll do now. They'll have to perfect the art of flying.
16:00Yeah, they're chasing each other through the air.
16:09It hasn't quite perfected the art of landing yet. Not quite.
16:15The female, she will leave now in the next probably week, 10 days or so.
16:20She'll head down to Africa. Her work here is done.
16:23And then the male will stay. He'll teach the chicks how to hunt for a while.
16:28Then he'll go. Then the chicks, they'll hang around for a few days, maybe a week or two.
16:33And then they will head off as well.
16:39Oh, there's one of the Adelberts coming in.
16:41Oh, he's got a fish. He's got a fish.
16:46And I was expecting him to feed it to the young, but he's not.
16:51Helping himself to the fish. Well, the chicks look on.
16:54They call every now and again.
16:57I suspect what he'll do is he'll feed up what he wants. He's eating the head.
17:02And then he'll probably give what's left to the chicks, I would imagine.
17:08Beautiful, beautiful birds.
17:13The fish hawk. That sums them up, doesn't it, really?
17:19Ospreys usually make their way back to the UK when they're about two years old.
17:23And fingers crossed, these chicks will pick whales as their home when they return.
17:35The Dovey's shallow basin means the tide reaches all the way up to the village of
17:40Derwyn Lass on its south bank.
17:43From there, the valley starts to narrow with wooded hills closing in on either side.
17:52I've come now up a hill called Mynydd Cynfirch, really just to show you the view.
17:58Have a look at this.
18:07The whole nature of the river has changed now.
18:10It's meandering up a very broad, flat bottom, agricultural land.
18:16And in the distance there is Mynydd and down there is a wild animal, very special wild animal,
18:24that I have never ever seen in the wilding whales before.
18:36This is the old bridge at Mynydd and I'm actually here to look for a beaver.
18:44Usually, with a mammal this rare, we'd keep the location secret.
18:48But so many of the locals in the area know that it's been seen regularly on this stretch.
18:54It's been here for at least 18 months, maybe more than that.
19:00It's not always around, usually comes out early evening.
19:05But I'm just going to sit and watch and just hope that I'm lucky tonight.
19:21Beaver. We've got wild beaver.
19:24It's one on the far shore over there, about 20 metres away from me.
19:30How fantastic is that?
19:33The last wild beaver in Wales were hundreds, hundreds of years ago.
19:38But it's over there. It's quite cool, quite calm.
19:42It's eating Japanese knotweed, of all things.
19:46It's coming out onto the water. It's coming out onto the water.
19:55And it's dived down now. There's a very well-wooded bank over there.
20:00A lot of Japanese knotweed.
20:04And I think it's disappeared into the back there.
20:09Yeah, he's gone back up on the bank.
20:12He's dragging some more Japanese knotweed, I think, with him.
20:17This is phenomenal, honestly.
20:19This is one of the best wild things I've ever seen in Wales, ever.
20:24What an animal.
20:26It's just happily, quietly nibbling away over on the far side there.
20:37The riverside path is regularly used by locals.
20:41And I got talking to Glen Howard during his evening stroll.
20:45How long have you known he's here, then?
20:47He's been here for a good two years.
20:49Has he? Oh, yeah.
20:50Do you know what?
20:51You're about the third or fourth local person I've seen walking by saying,
20:54have you seen him yet?
20:56I wouldn't say everybody in McHunteth North,
20:58but it's pretty common knowledge that he's down here.
21:00And there's quite a few people that do know you.
21:03People was very sceptical and they were gnawing away the trees.
21:06Yeah.
21:06And it was definitely beaver.
21:09We think there's more than one here, actually.
21:11We think there's two there, because one was here and there was another one up there.
21:14And it can't be the same one, can it?
21:16Well, it might be the same one.
21:18It might be a fast one.
21:19It might be a hell of a fast one, you're right there.
21:23I can't tell you how made up I am.
21:25I bet you are.
21:26Honestly, I never thought I'd be standing here talking to someone from McHunteth
21:29saying, oh, here's a wild beaver over there.
21:33Lovely to meet you anyway.
21:34Thank you very much.
21:35You're welcome.
21:36Take care.
21:39It's making its way downriver slowly on the far shore.
21:43There is a little bit of controversy.
21:45I know on the news they've had one or two landowners, one or two fishermen,
21:49saying they don't want them, you know, they're going to block the river up.
21:52It's going to cause flooding.
21:54But actually, the opposite is true, really, because if they do build a dam,
21:59it's not going to be here.
21:59It's going to be higher up on some of the tributaries.
22:02They're going to hold back water.
22:03That'll help during floods.
22:05It'll help during drought as well.
22:07And that's going to create habitat for all kinds of things, from invertebrates to plants,
22:12to amphibians, to fish.
22:14So, you know, the beaver's only going to bring good things to Wales.
22:19And I'm just delighted, absolutely delighted that they're here, back where they should be.
22:26With rumours of several beavers living along the dovey and possibly breeding,
22:32it's clear these remarkable animals can survive in Wales after centuries of absence,
22:38bringing benefits to both nature and people alike.
22:50My next stop is at Mynllyn, near the village of Dynas Mawdwy.
22:55It's always been an important crossing point over the river Dwy,
22:58and one ancient example still stands today.
23:03Most people zooming past on the A470 are unaware of this hidden gem.
23:10For years they would build wooden bridges that would get washed away during the floods.
23:16And then in the early 1600s, a local eminent Welsh scholar, Dr John Davies, also an architect,
23:24he designed this bridge here, Pont Mynllyn in Welsh, the Pack Horse Bridge in English.
23:30And look how narrow it is, but it was designed to accommodate pack horses, horses, people walking,
23:37and it served its purpose because it's still there 400 years later.
23:42But of course, the stagecoach, larger cart and horses came, and he wouldn't accommodate those,
23:50so they had to build another bridge. And this one I'm stood on here, this was built in 1845.
23:57But times move on, lorries get bigger, buses get bigger, and then this bridge here was built.
24:05Now I've got to be honest, I prefer the architecture of the 17th century to the 20th,
24:11but it fulfills its purpose. This is the A470. It's a busy, busy main road.
24:18But what I really like about it is that a pair of dippers is building a nest in one of
24:25the pipes in the wall there.
24:27There must be a chamber or something. I've watched the dippers come carrying leaves,
24:32carrying bits of moss, and then flying in with it. And it's something I hadn't seen before.
24:37All the other dipper nests I've ever seen have been big balls of moss hanging out over the water,
24:44on a wall, or on the bank, or under a bridge. But this one is tucked right into the pipe.
24:49Isn't that fantastic?
24:59Beyond the tourist hub further down the valley lies the quieter yet dramatic landscape north of Dinas Maldhwy,
25:06and it's worth exploring, especially in autumn, just to see the colours.
25:15I'm leaving the valley floor and heading to the upper reaches of the river for my penultimate stop.
25:25I've come off the track just a short way now to have a look at this section of the dovey.
25:33Stampeding over these rocks on its way down to the valley bottom below me.
25:42Because we've had a cold weather, cold snap, the bracken has turned colour, so have some of the leaves.
25:50It's absolutely beautiful here.
25:54I'm actually going to have a quick stop here, have a cup of tea.
25:58There are a few birds of prey around, so I'll see what comes.
26:03Scattered trees along the hillside are ideal perching posts for this kestrel looking for prey,
26:10while other birds prefer to glide up above.
26:15The wind whistles up the valley here, and then it hits this hillside,
26:21and I've had a couple of buzzards knocking about.
26:24Oh, hang on, there's something up there now.
26:28Peregrine falcon. Oh, look at that.
26:30I tell you, I've barely had time to drink my tea.
26:33I'm going to put this out, otherwise I'm going to spill it.
26:36He's just patrolling.
26:38I can see the black mask and everything, beautiful birds.
26:43You'll probably gain height if he sees anything down the valley,
26:46a pigeon or one of the wintering thrushes.
26:49He may well just stoop and go for it.
26:53What a place this is.
27:02A mile or two further up from here is where my journey ends.
27:08It's a really peaceful place.
27:13This is Craiglin Dovey, the source of the Avon Dovey, the source of the river.
27:19And it lies in the shadow of the very imposing and the magnificent Aran Vaudwy.
27:27And that so often happens up here.
27:29As I was walking up, I could see the peak and look at it, it's suddenly closed in.
27:35The weather's so unpredictable.
27:38But I like the Dovey.
27:39I do like the Dovey.
27:41I used to come here in my teens and in my twenties.
27:44I used to bike over eight miles, then walk the other three or four miles up to the lake here.
27:50Sometimes we'd have a dip on a hot day.
27:52And I like the fact that the Dovey, so much of the lower reaches is now protected.
27:57It's a biosphere reserve, national nature reserve, local nature reserves.
28:01Then it winds its way up through farmland, a whole host of wildlife.
28:06Beaver, of course. Beaver in Wales.
28:08You know, that's magnificent.
28:09That would have been thought impossible just 30 years ago.
28:12And then you end up in this magnificent place.
28:17Very isolated, but very, very beautiful.
28:30Next time, I'll be travelling up the stunning Conway Valley.
28:35Exploring the hidden gems along the valley sides.
28:38I also get to see a curlew chick up close.
28:43And I watch a hen harrier hunting a moorland.
29:08I watch a hen harrier hunting a moorland.
29:09I watch a hen harrier hunting a moorland.
29:09I watch a hen harrier hunting a moorland.
29:10I watch a hen harrier hunting a moorland.
29:10I watch a hen harrier hunting a moorland.
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