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Iolo's River Valleys (2025) Season 2 Episode 3
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00:04The rivers of Wales are among its greatest natural treasures, shaping breathtaking landscapes for
00:12centuries. In this series I'm going to be traveling along four of Wales's longest river valleys.
00:22The Ask, the Tawi, the Tivey and the Dee, heading from tidal shores to mountain streams.
00:37I'll get to see the fascinating wildlife living there.
00:42All four are rich in stories and surrounded by epic scenery.
00:47So join me through the seasons as I uncover the wonders of four great river valleys.
01:05The Tivey is known as the Queen of Welsh Rivers, flowing through some of the most beautiful corners
01:12of our country, including many important habitats for nature.
01:19My journey this time starts on Patch Beach.
01:23This is the mouth of the river Tivey, with Cardigan Bay behind me, and over the other side of the
01:31water that is Pembrokeshire. Poppet Sands, you can see very popular with tourists, and it's quite nice
01:37coming in here, it's quite sheltered. See a few fishing boats, not as many as they used to be years
01:44ago,
01:44of course. And from here, the river winds its way 76 miles, dividing Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire for most of
01:56the way. And then it ends up right up in the wild heart of Wales, in the Olenydd or the
02:02Cambrian Mountains.
02:11There's a nice mixed flock of waders over here. There's half a dozen Ring Plover and about
02:18about a 10, maybe a dozen Dunlin as well. I wasn't expecting to see wading birds here
02:25in May like this, but these, well the Dunlin are in breeding plumas, you've got the black bellies and the
02:32lovely reddish brown backs. And I suspect what's happened is that they've failed breeders, they've
02:38tried to nest, some maybe even on the Welsh Uplands, although it's a rare bird in the Welsh Uplands now,
02:44and they're starting to gather together. That's nice to see them.
02:57Look at this, they put these big rocks here as a sort of flood defence mechanism,
03:03and it's created a really nice little habitat. This is red valerian, this plant here. It's a
03:10garden escape really, and I know they do tell you when you plant flowers and what have you,
03:16to plant native ones. But this is one of the ones that actually is really good for all kinds of
03:22pollinators. It's packed full of nectar, packed full of pollen, and you've only got to have a
03:27look. And there's all kinds of bees here, several different species of bumblebees. There's a lovely
03:32big common carder bee here feeding away, like a big orangey looking bumblebee, and butterflies as well.
03:41I tell you what's interesting, there's a couple of them over there. Painted ladies. Now these are
03:47interesting because they have come from North Africa. They're migrant butterflies. This species
03:54undertakes an incredible 9,000 mile round trip, one of the longest migrations of any butterfly.
04:01These have come all the way up from Algeria, Morocco, up through Spain, Portugal, France,
04:07up to Wales, and they'll probably feed up here, and some of them will stay and breed, some will move
04:11on
04:12again. What's even more remarkable is that on their southbound journey, they fly at high altitude,
04:19over 500 metres, and reach speeds of up to 30 miles an hour. Nice to see that.
04:33The historic town of Cardigan sits where the tidal flow ends. Once an important port,
04:40it's surged in the 19th century to become one of Britain's largest.
04:49South of the river is Tyvie Marshes, a South and West Wales Wildlife Trust reserve.
04:55It's a place teeming with life, including little egrets, dragonflies, and even a small herd of red deer.
05:07It's spring, and I'm heading to the less visited corner of the reserve.
05:14When you think of slate quarrying in Wales, you think of the big quarries of North Wales,
05:19where you think of the Norway, Pendry in the Blenifestyniog area. There was actually at one time quite a big
05:26industry here
05:27on the Tyvie in the Kilgeran area from, well, the 1700s right through the 1800s to around 1938.
05:35And at its peak, it would have employed about 500 people. And some of these quarries are quite substantial.
05:43And they would have taken the slate away on flat bottom boats on the Tyvie, down to Abertyvie to Cardigan,
05:52and from there to elsewhere. But what I really like about it today is, look at the way nature's taken
05:58over.
06:00And not just your ferns and your mosses, but look at the size of some of these oak trees here.
06:06Some of these are huge. If you have a good look around, you should be able to find some cool
06:11wildlife here too.
06:30There are lots of areas of slate spoil, you know, the slate that they didn't want to use, they've dug
06:36out and thrown it.
06:39These areas are really good because the soil is quite shallow, good for invertebrates, all kinds of plants as well.
06:46Hold on two secs, come back a bit, just a little bit.
06:50There's a slow worm. There's a slow worm out in the open. Usually they've warmed up now,
06:59and usually they might be hunting in the vegetation or tucked under some rocks or something.
07:04But this one is out in the open. Looks like a youngish female slow worm.
07:10That's lovely to see. She needs to be careful. Mine's out in the open here.
07:15And quite a few buzzards, and I do see buzzards carrying away slow worms quite regularly.
07:20So I hope this one finds a bit of cover. But that's lovely. That's really nice.
07:25And areas like this can be really good for reptiles because they need to warm up, of course.
07:31They're exothermic, what we call cold-blooded. So they need to warm up before they can go off and hunt.
07:37Yeah, this one shows no inclination to go and hide.
07:40If you go back into cover, girl, you'll get eaten out in the open like that. That's lovely.
07:53The slate spoils are alive with insects, and one the most numerous here are the swollen thied beetles.
08:00Take one look at the males to see how they got their name.
08:04They're often found on open flowers, acting as busy pollinators while they feed.
08:13Finding a bird's nest is not always difficult.
08:17Graham, the cameraman, couldn't ignore the noise coming from a nearby tree.
08:21Yeah, there's a nice, great spotted woodpecker nest in an old cherry there.
08:25Actually, I can either check if I can even call it.
08:27Really louder.
08:30There he goes, there he goes. Just on the side of the tree there.
08:34He's brought back some insects. I think I can see insects in his beak.
08:39He's just gone in to feed the chicks. They must be young chicks because he's gone in, disappeared there.
08:44We go, off he goes again. Well, that's pretty cool. They're in and out every probably six or seven minutes,
08:49something like that. The male, then the female, then they go away, then the male comes back again.
08:55And what's brilliant as well is that if you look just about a metre down from where the great spotted
09:00woodpecker nest is,
09:02there's another hole. It's the old woodpecker hole, probably from last year.
09:06And there's a pair of great tits nesting in there.
09:09So you've got two nests for the price of one in the same tree.
09:23The lower section of the tivi is famous for its coracle fishing, a centuries-old tradition practiced by pairs in
09:32small boats.
09:33Years ago, salmon and sea trout were abundant, but now declining fish stocks mean only a handful of licenses are
09:41granted each year.
09:42And the tivi gorge is one of the last places in Wales where this coracle craft continues.
09:49It's me, and I've come to a section below Kilgeran to meet Rod Bowen, one of the oldest coracle men
09:56in the village,
09:57as he prepares to head out this evening.
10:01Rod, what are you doing?
10:02Oh, what are you doing?
10:04I'm doing well. I'm doing well.
10:04Good. Good. I'm doing well. I'm doing well.
10:07I'm doing well.
10:07I'm doing well.
10:09I'm doing well.
10:11Now, coracle fishing, of course, the tivi's famous for it.
10:18I know very little about it.
10:20How do you do it?
10:25Two coracles, one on the left-hand side.
10:28So, I would be handling these ropes.
10:31Yeah.
10:32One of them opens it, and one closes.
10:35Right.
10:36I see there's different sized holes, and there's this as well.
10:40How does all of that work?
10:41Okay.
10:42Well, this is a leaded line.
10:44You can use lead weights, or we use leaded line.
10:47So, we fish the bottom, the fish migrator river, on the bottom.
10:51So, we drop the net and make sure it's touched the bottom.
10:55Now, you'll see that the front has a very large mesh, right?
11:01The fish goes through that, doesn't touch it, and hits the back.
11:06And then, when we close it, it's in the bag.
11:09All right, so that's the idea.
11:13It's ingenious how it all works, isn't it?
11:15Yes.
11:16How long have coracles been on the TV?
11:19We don't know for sure.
11:23But Julius Caesar's scribe, the one who wrote up all his travels and what have you,
11:30made mention that there were coracles all over Britain, you know, at the time.
11:34So, you're talking 2,000 years, at least.
11:38That is incredible, isn't it?
11:49It's remarkable, like today, for such a big, big thing.
11:53Why is a coracle shaped like this?
11:55It's a working vessel.
12:23It's impossible.
12:26The worst part of it, from our perspective, it could be the death knell for coracles and coracle fishing.
12:32Sad that it's, you know, it's a way of life.
12:36It is.
12:36It's dying out.
12:37It's really sad, because it's part of our word tradition, isn't it?
12:40Yeah.
12:41Yeah.
12:43Rod and his partner need to wait until it gets dark before they can head out on the river.
12:48When the time is right, we switch to the infrared cameras and lights.
13:01It's fascinating watching them steer the coracle one-handed in the dark.
13:06It takes some skill.
13:08Yet, this ancient tradition is tightly controlled to protect fish stocks.
13:12It's only allowed for four months of the year, and any salmon caught must be released.
13:18Keeping them is illegal.
13:20While fishing isn't responsible for the overall decline of migrating fish,
13:25I can't help wondering how much longer coracle fishing will continue for.
13:32Unfortunately for Rod and his partner, the only thing the net caught was a big rock.
13:38There's no fish that time, but I suspect for them it's more of a social thing than anything else.
13:52But they said the fish are not running yet, so they'll be back.
13:56They'll wait for the fish to start proper running up river, and then they'll come back and carry on.
14:07During summer months, deep, cool pools with fast-flowing water become vital holding spots
14:14for the few salmon that return to the taivi, with the biggest fish often laying up under tree roots.
14:21They'll stay in these pools until heavy rain triggers the next leg of their journey upstream.
14:29And one of the first major obstacles they'll face is at Kennarth Falls.
14:39For hundreds of years, it has won the best spots in Wales to witness
14:43the sight of salmon and sea trout leaping up the waterfalls during autumn.
14:48Although its scenery still attracts visitors,
14:51the legendary spectacle has largely disappeared.
14:58I remember the first time I ever came to here.
15:01I was five or six years old. I came with Mum and Dad specifically to see the salmon jumping,
15:08and we stayed for, I don't know, maybe half an hour, and it was an incredible show.
15:13In that time, it might be my memory playing tricks on me, but I seem to recall seeing dozens
15:20of salmon leaping up these falls. And, you know, now you can come here on a good day peak season
15:28and see if you're lucky one or two in a whole day.
15:32That's how dramatic the decline has been.
15:36And one of the sad things is that no one can put their finger on exactly what's happened.
15:41Climate change, overfishing at sea, even predators. But I think the elephant in the room is pollution.
15:51Some of that will be from towns and from villages, but a lot of that is from agricultural land as
15:57well.
15:57And it's something that we've got to tackle soon as well, before it's too late, because if we lose salmon
16:04and sea trout from our rivers, like the Tyvee here, you know, the rivers are going to be so much
16:10poorer for it.
16:20Like most rivers in the UK, the Tyvee has seen the spread of an invasive plant known for its rapid
16:27growth
16:28and barbie pink blossom. And a section near Henllan is particularly bad.
16:34It's a journey enough just to follow the riverbank here. Oh, look at this.
16:40This is Indian balsam, or some people call it Himalayan balsam. Look how tall this is.
16:46That's about two and a half metres tall. It's an alien plant. It's non-native.
16:51It was brought over in about 1839 by gardeners, escaped into the wild.
16:55And what it does is that it spreads mainly along riverbanks.
17:00And the Welsh name, Jackanadio, refers to these seed pods here.
17:04They'll come out later on and they burst and the seeds jump.
17:08And they jump in the water and then get carried down.
17:12And the trouble is that once it gets a hold, it covers everything and nothing else grows underneath.
17:19But the flowers, well, they look quite nice, don't they?
17:22And they're good for bees, really good for bees late in the summer, so late July into early August.
17:27And beekeepers love them. And bumblebees love them.
17:30Quite a few bumblebees here as well. They're packed full of pollen and nectar.
17:35But, as I say, it's non-native and it is becoming a major issue in a lot of our rivers.
17:40And this section of the Tyvie, it's covered in it.
17:49With two old kingfisher nests on the opposite bank, there's a good chance there's a third one somewhere nearby.
17:57I see them on the opposite side there. You can tell they've been used this year,
18:01because they've got whitewashed kingfisher poo by the entrance.
18:04And what they do is they'll dig a hole about a metre in, dig a chamber, they'll lay eggs there.
18:09Then when those chicks leave, they'll dig another one.
18:11And then sometimes they'll have three broods. And if they've had two here,
18:16I'm going to sit down and see if I can see where the nest is, and if they've got a
18:19third brood.
18:29Tell you what's interesting is that one of the old kingfisher nests here is now being used by a sand
18:34martin.
18:39Oh, we've got a kingfisher, we've got a kingfisher.
18:43It's perched up on a stump by a bank over there.
18:49I don't want her to see me. It's a female. She's got a small fish in her beak.
18:54She's an absolute beauty. Lovely, lovely bird. Really smart.
19:00Orange on the front and bright blue on the back.
19:04And the reason I know she's a female is because they've got orange on the base of the lower mandible,
19:09the lower bill.
19:12She's gone in. She's gone in. So that's the third nest now.
19:17She's gone in with a fish. So that means that they've got young again.
19:23They've got young again, which is brilliant.
19:26I'm going to back off. Back off quite early now.
19:36The Tyvee flows through many small communities.
19:40And among the most picturesque is Maesa Krigiai.
19:43It's a stunning place.
19:45And according to a landowner tip-off, you have a pretty good chance of catching a glimpse of an otter
19:50here.
19:51We're not taking any chances, so we hide our cameraman behind camo netting.
20:06Oh yeah, we've gone. We've gone. We've got an otter. We've got an otter.
20:09It's coming up. It's coming up. It's coming up at the rapid.
20:16Yeah, it's working its way up.
20:21There it comes.
20:25Oh, that's brilliant.
20:27They're all right as long as they can't smell you.
20:30Can't see movement.
20:33They haven't got particularly good eyesight.
20:36They often do this.
20:38They'll go amongst the tree roots trying to scare out some fish.
20:45It's got an eel. It's got an eel.
20:48Yeah, it's eating an eel.
20:52Oh, there we are.
20:54Oh, this is good.
20:55I can see where it is from a trail of bubbles because they trap air in the thick fur coats
21:02they've got.
21:02As they go down deep, the air escapes and you can follow a trail of bubbles through the water.
21:10Otters are pretty common now in Wales, Frank.
21:13I don't see them that often, really.
21:16I'm lucky if I see, you know, a handful of otters in Wales every year.
21:20But to see one like this fairly close really is brilliant, absolutely superb.
21:33My journey up the Tyvee wouldn't be complete without a visit to Corse Caron National Nature Reserve near Tregaron.
21:41This ancient peat bog is a haven for all kinds of wildlife
21:45and a crucial sanctuary for several species that are under threat.
21:54I've got to say I like coming out onto the boardwalk here because it takes you
21:57right out into the middle of the bog, you know, areas that you couldn't usually go to.
22:02And there's a windchart, there's a male windchart sat up on a dead tree here.
22:10Lovely bird, really smart, got that robber's mask and an orange chest.
22:17And then there's another one that has been calling.
22:22Yeah, he's here. He's on top of the tree here.
22:24There's another one. So I'm stood right in the middle of two territories here.
22:29And windcharts, they're pretty scarce birds now.
22:32They're confined to mainly upland areas.
22:35And it's one of the few lowland sites that I know have still got windchart.
22:40I'm not quite sure how many pears there are, but it's got to be the best site all along the
22:45Tyvee
22:46and maybe in the whole of West Wales for them. But lovely bird, really nice bird to see.
23:00The river is quite peaceful in this section as it meanders through the bog.
23:04And it's harvest season. A lot of the farmers up on the hills here,
23:09they're cutting the grass now and quite a few kites following them.
23:14It's ironic, isn't it, that this area is where I used to come as a young lad
23:18because it was one of the few places I was guaranteed to see red kites.
23:23And look at them now all over Wales, doing really well.
23:26But I'm actually going to leave the bog because there's a farmer up here
23:30where he's put over half of his farm, really over 400 acres, to manage it to benefit wildlife.
23:37It's a great example of how farming and conservation can work hand in hand.
23:43It's July and I've had special permission to visit.
23:48What's really uplifting is to walk through a field here where the farmer actually loves his wildlife
23:56because he's not used insecticides, he's not used pesticides in any way,
24:01he's not fertilised the land beyond. And because of that, there's a lot of wildlife here,
24:07so much wildlife, butterflies galore, meadow browns, been a big hatch of those recently,
24:12a large skipper, there's bees everywhere. It's absolutely brilliant.
24:17There's a golden ring dragonfly landed over there as well.
24:20And I tell you, my favourite here is the ringlet.
24:24It's kind of a dark brown butterfly and I love the Welsh name.
24:27It's called Gwairloinaglau, roughly translated. It means the rain butterfly.
24:35Because if you get a little bit of rain, it'll be the only one still in the air.
24:39Fantastic name for a lovely butterfly.
24:44I've been told there's a kestrel box in this dead tree here somewhere.
24:50I can see it now. Yeah, I can see it. I haven't seen nesting kestrels for quite a few years,
24:56something I see a lot of when I was a kid. As we're filming near the nest,
25:01the cameraman stays concealed behind a screen and I watch from a distance to avoid disturbing the birds.
25:09Females in. She's got a vole as well. Yeah, she's got a vole.
25:17In she goes. She's got into the box.
25:23See her feeding. I think I can see two chicks. I can see at least two chicks there.
25:28She's landed on the branch with a vole. She quite sneaks in. She sneaks in from the back,
25:34lands and then goes in and feeds. And the male actually, the male's at the top of the tree,
25:39she's just unconcerned. But these kestrels have got the best of both worlds, really. You've got
25:47an environmentally friendly farmer this side of the fence, you know, and there's got to be a lot
25:52of prey items in here. But even better, you've got Trgaranbolg Corse Caron over there,
25:58which has got to be absolutely jam-packed full of voles and large insects. Perfect prey for the kestrels.
26:06Oh, there she goes. Out she goes. And off she goes around the back. It's on farmland now,
26:12it's become quite the scarce bird in Wales. So it's lovely to see that this pair has got at least
26:18two
26:18chicks in here.
26:39It doesn't look like much, but this little stream, this is the Avon Teivi, the river Teivi.
26:47I've reached the Olenid or the Cambrian Mountains and they extend for miles in all directions around
26:55me here. And looking back down the Teivi Valley looks quite beautiful, but up here it's harsh.
27:02It's a pretty barren environment. There's not much here in the autumn. You get your grasslands and you
27:07get sheep and that's about it. And down at the valley down below there, it's still quite autumnal,
27:14quite beautiful, fairly mild, but up here it's incredibly cold and very wintry already.
27:22One last push over the brow there and I reach the source itself.
27:38The source of the river Teivi and it's 76 miles from sea to source which is actually quite long for
27:47a
27:47Welsh river. But those 76 miles, they meander through some beautiful habitat. And yes, some of the wildlife
27:54is under threat. We can't escape that. Some of our iconic fish or the salmon and the sea trout. For
28:00so many years,
28:01the Teivi was famous for them. But there is hope. And of course, we've seen plenty of wildlife too,
28:08from little Dunlin feeding at the mouth of the river. And then we've seen some fascinating insects.
28:14We've seen slow worms, kingfishers, trigaran bog of course. But the real highlight was being able to sit down in
28:25a
28:25beautiful, tranquil place and watch the otter. Any journey where you see otter is a journey worth doing.
28:38Next time I'll explore the Dee Valley, where I'll watch thousands of wading birds and birds of prey along the
28:44Dee estuary.
28:45I'll also get to see black grouse courtship displays and go in search of spawning sea trout.
29:06I'll see you next time.
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