- 17 hours ago
Iolo's River Valleys (2025) Season 2 Episode 1
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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 Towie, the Tivey and the Dee, heading from tidal shores to mountain streams.
00:36I'll get to see the fascinating wildlife living there.
00:42All four are rich in stories and surrounded by epic scenery.
00:48So join me through the seasons as I uncover the wonders of four great river valleys.
01:05The River Ask is one of the longest rivers to flow solely within Wales.
01:10I'm heading up its 77 miles coast through the heart of the Banner Brychyniog National Park
01:15and ending in the west on the Black Mountain.
01:20I'm starting near the industrial docklands of Newport.
01:25And over my right shoulder is Newport's most famous landmark, the transporter bridge.
01:32One of only two transporter bridges still working in the whole of the UK.
01:38And although it's home to 160,000 people, there's still plenty of wildlife to be found along the riverside
01:46in the heart of the city.
01:53At low tide, the River Ask reveals its mudflats, attracting different birds to feed on invertebrates
02:00hiding under the surface, while patches of land above the river quietly support their own hidden wildlife.
02:09I've come down now, not far from the bridge. You can hear the traffic in the background.
02:14And the River Ask is about 20 metres over there and there's a housing estate just over here.
02:19And this is what most people would think of just as an abandoned bit of wasteland.
02:23But do you know what? It's not. Just look at the flowers here. Common Centauri, there's teasel,
02:28there's buddleia plants everywhere as well. And it's a real pollinator's paradise.
02:36There's a red admiral, beautiful red, black and white. And then when it shuts its wings,
02:42it just disappears. It's so well camouflaged. If you come on with me a little bit, just over here
02:49is a butterfly I always associate with woodland, woodland glaze, woodland rice. Here we are.
02:55Here it is. Speckled wood. It's landed again, this one. And this one's been dancing around,
03:01defending its territory, right in the middle of Newport. And bees, there are bees, several species
03:08of bees here as well. And I wonder how many people walk along here and really don't appreciate
03:14what's all around them.
03:26Every so often you come across a strange looking insect and Graham the cameraman has spotted one.
03:32I can see it. I can see it right on top there. Tell you what, I'll try and get around
03:37it. Here we go.
03:38Wait there, don't go too close. I'll see if I can get around it. It's such a cool insect. It's
03:44called a javelin wasp.
03:47Get down here now. And it's called a javelin wasp. Because of that ridiculously long ovipositor.
03:55It looks like a sting, but it's not a sting. It uses that to lay its eggs and it targets
04:00solitary bees and
04:02solitary wasps. So it needs to get that right into the burrows to lay the eggs. That is superb.
04:11Amazing looking insect. Look at that. Superb. Superb. And the Latin name, right? And I didn't make this
04:19upright. Genuinely, the Latin name is Gast Eruption Jackulata. Seriously.
04:36The lower section of the river Usk is one of the few areas in the UK where sea fish called
04:42shad come to
04:43spawn. And the stretch through Usk town is a hotspot. During spring, hundreds migrate and gather in
04:52calmer fresh water where the Levenci lay their eggs on the gravel riverbed at night.
05:00As we move upstream towards Abergyvenny, the river's current pushes that gravel to the sides,
05:06forming shingle banks. And those quiet patches make perfect nesting spots for a few hardy riverbirds.
05:16There are quite a few birds that will nest on the shingle and right on the edge of the shingle.
05:23So if I stop and scan, just look for any movement, because the birds that nest on the floor, they'll
05:28come off the eggs to go and feed every now and again. And the eggs are so well camouflaged,
05:32they're not worried. And it's a brilliant day to do this because it's nice and warm. The eggs won't
05:37get chilled, they won't get cold. And it's worth listening as well because some of the birds will
05:42feed and display and call. Oh, hang on.
05:52It's a little ring plover. It's a little ring plover nest. Wow, okay. Now I've got to be careful now
05:58with
05:58this. It's quite a scarce bird. I have got a license, by the way. I've got a license to find,
06:05to monitor, to film the nest. You've got to have one. Just watch where you put your feet.
06:13Be really careful. See that there? Look at how well camouflaged those are. What the bird does,
06:21it remembers where some of these key stones are, so it can make its way back to those eggs,
06:27to incubate those eggs. Four eggs is a full clutch. Just hope we don't get any high water now for
06:33the
06:33next few weeks until these eggs hatch. But that is absolutely brilliant. Right, let's back off.
06:41We stuck Graham the cameraman hidden under a nearby tree to film the bird coming back to the nest,
06:47and I'll watch from further back.
06:53I've only just had time to settle down here, well away from the nest, and one of the birds come
06:58back
06:58straight away. Straight away. She landed on the shingle and is making its way back up to the nest now.
07:07Oh, it's lovely walking through. Oh, there's another bird. The partner's already incubating the eggs.
07:15Where did that bird come from? I didn't see the other bird coming in at all.
07:18It shows you just how tolerant they are. There'll be fishermen making their way up and down, and the
07:23birds are used to coming off the nest, going back on the nest all the time.
07:30They'll be feeding on insects, and it's a good river for insects. And there's not a single Welsh river,
07:36I think, that's in great condition these days. But the usk, comparatively speaking, is one of the better ones.
07:46The river usk is also known for having a good brown trout population, partly down to the abundant
07:52insect life that it supports. Warm spring weather is a good time to see newly hatched food sources
07:59for all sorts of wildlife. What's interesting is that you get all kinds of flies. You get your
08:06mayflies, you get your stoneflies, your caddyflies, your alderflies, all these different flies. But they'll
08:13emerge not just at different times of the year, all the way through from late winter right through spring,
08:19summer, autumn again into early winter, but at different times of the day as well.
08:28Here we go. Here's one of them. Lovey little insect, member of the mayfly family. It's called the medium
08:35olive. See the yellowy body and the yellowy wings and the big, big black eyes. Right, I better let that
08:43one go. We'll see if we can get some more now. Oh, look at this. This is a big one.
08:51Look at that.
08:52Large brook dun, this one's called. And it's a sizeable mayfly, this one. Imagine being a brown trout
08:59jumping up to catch one of these. That is a fair old meal in itself. And these like the fast
09:05flowing
09:06areas of river, just like this one behind me. And they'll emerge from the shore, from the bank here.
09:11And the reason they all hatch at once is because it's much safer for you as a fly if you
09:18are emerging
09:19one in 10,000, one in a million. If you emerge just one or two of you, you're all going
09:25to get
09:25eaten. But if you're in a mass of other mayflies, then the chances are you'll live long enough to mate
09:31and to lay eggs again.
09:46The Usk Valley is scattered with remnants of its industrial past, many of which have since been
09:52transformed into peaceful areas for recreation. And the canal at Llanvois is one of the prettiest.
10:13I've left the valley bottom to come and have a look at another significant waterway that actually
10:19follows the River Usk for much of its course. It's the Munmouthshire and Brecon Canal that was
10:26built during the Industrial Revolution to transport coal and iron. They'll be brought to the canal by
10:33by railways and tramways and taken to the docks down at Newport. It closed in 1962, but a section 35
10:42miles of it has now reopened and in the summer it can be very busy here with tourists. Not so
10:51busy now
10:52of course, but I think it's at its very best in the autumn at its beautiful best. But I'm not
11:00here for
11:00the canal actually. I'm going looking for a special spider. Once a route for workers and trams, this dark
11:15and damp tunnel is ideal habitat for a large spider, perfectly adapted for these conditions.
11:27Oh here we are girl. Here we are. Right, I'll hold the light. I don't want to put it too
11:32close.
11:33It's about six inches above my finger. It's a European cave spider and they live in caves,
11:44as the name suggests, and dark tunnels like this. And of course usually it's dark here 24-7.
11:50And you might wonder how do they survive here. Well, there is a slight wind. This is the old
11:56walkway that was right underneath the canal. You can hear the water dripping behind me here.
12:00And there is a slight breeze blowing through, so you will get the odd insect coming through
12:06and being blown into the web. But the main food source is that around here you've got midges. These are
12:14the midges that will bite you in the summer. It's the females that bite and they'll overwinter.
12:20In caves and in tunnels like this. And that provides the spider with this main food source.
12:26I'll tell you what's really cool about them as well, is that the adults, they don't like light.
12:31That's why I don't want to put light too close, because it'll shy away. It'll go up into one of
12:36the
12:37cracks up in there. But the egg sac, let me show you an egg sac.
12:41Egg sac is up here, hanging down like a small ball of cotton wool. That's where the eggs are. And
12:49you
12:49might have maybe a couple of hundred eggs in there when they hatch out, the spiderlings.
12:54Well, after they've molted for the first time, the spiderlings are then attracted to light.
13:01So they'll walk to the entrance of the tunnel. They'll provide some silk, a long line of silk,
13:08and that'll act like a parachute to carry them away in the hope that at least one or two of
13:13them
13:13will land by another cave. And that's how they spread from one place to another. And of course,
13:19once they land, they then go into the cave, they're then attracted to the dark rather than the light,
13:25just like the adults are. It's cool. Nature thinks of absolutely everything. Fantastic spiders. I really like them.
13:37Overlooking the valley south of Crick Howell stands a dramatic wall of rock that defines the landscape.
13:45This was once a huge limestone quarry during the Industrial Revolution and used to make fertilizer,
13:52whitewash, and as a vital part of the iron-making process. These days, the rock faces are mostly
13:59visited by organized groups here to climb them. But I'm here to explore the slopes underneath.
14:06I couldn't walk up the Esk Valley without bringing you here. This is Crigachilliae. Now, it's limestone,
14:14so it was quarried for hundreds of years. But today, it's a national nature reserve. And that's
14:20mainly because it's got some pretty rare plants here. Whilst most of the rare flowers cling to the
14:26crag's inaccessible ledges, there is a scarce arctic alpine plant that grows beneath the cliffs.
14:33It's amazing, you know, it's so heavily grazed here. But one flower that's surviving somehow, and I don't know
14:42how, is mossy saxifraite. It's quite a rare one scattered all around this rocky area here.
14:51Lovely little white flowers and the carpets areas of the floor.
14:56And also, there's a bird chuck chucking up here.
15:04Let's tuck in here for a minute. It's a wheat year. There's a bird you'd expect in an area like
15:10this.
15:10They like it well grazed, but rocky. The Welsh name is excellent.
15:15Tynwy na gairn, the white bum of the rock. It's got this bright white bottom,
15:21but it nests in scurry like this. Here we are. Here we are. Let's have a look.
15:27Oh, that's nice. It's the male. I need some grubs in his beak.
15:34Go on, boy. Go on, go on. Yeah, there'll be a nest here somewhere for you.
15:40He's quite nervous. He knows I'm here, but here we go.
15:47Yeah. He's just disappeared into the rocks there. See if he comes back with an empty beak.
15:54Yeah, yeah. There we are. Back chuck chucking at me, telling me off again. Now,
15:58the nest is obviously tucked out the way in that area of scurry there. It'll be really nice and safe.
16:05Somewhere they'll have tunnels in their little nest right against the floor, so it'll be nice and cool.
16:11The chicks will be protected. Here comes the female. The female's coming in now.
16:16Yeah, she's got a beak full again. Oh, nice to see, but it's a bird you'd expect.
16:20You know, they're like these overgrazed areas because they can find beetles and grubs on the surface,
16:26bringing it back off and let them be.
16:31One bird I wasn't expecting to see here is the redstat,
16:35a migrant from Africa that's usually found along woodland edges and glades.
16:39Since it's carrying insects, there'll be a nest nearby.
16:44So, to avoid disturbing this busy parent, we turn our cameraman Graham into a bush.
16:50By covering him in camo netting.
16:55There's a male redstat there. He goes, look, just flying along.
16:59Bear in mind, they're using nests in holes in trees, in holes in walls.
17:03I've seen them in holes in houses, but the nest is in the ground.
17:07There's a small shrub and the male and the female occasionally keeps disappearing with food
17:13into that hole there.
17:16He does the same thing every time.
17:18He goes to the tree at the back, then flies to the tree at the front, the small tree,
17:23looks around, makes sure everything's okay, and then he drops into the hole,
17:27stays for maybe 10, 20 seconds, comes out and then off he goes again.
17:32It's a really confiding bird, and I think it's the first time I've ever seen a redstat nesting in the
17:38ground.
17:49The middle section of the Usk Valley is an important area for one of our rarest mammals,
17:55the lesser horseshoe bat.
17:58After they emerge from their winter hibernation sites in spring,
18:02they spread out to nearby areas looking for good feeding sites
18:05and gather at different maternity roosts to raise their young.
18:10One of them on the outskirts of Brecon is an old manor stable block dating back to the 1600s.
18:19Carys Piotto from the Vincent Wildlife Trust monitors this site,
18:23and I'm tagging along this evening.
18:26So this was part of the stable block of the old manor,
18:30and it's just excellent for horseshoe bats.
18:32Oh, wow. And where do the bats come out? Is it this archway here?
18:37Yeah, so they've got two main exit points.
18:39Their favourite is this one here in this arch,
18:41and then there's another one round the back near vegetation.
18:45The bats emerge just after sunset, so we get our gadgets out,
18:50including infrared light, camera and thermal scope.
18:55We're all set up now. All we're going to do is wait for it to get a little bit darker,
18:58wait for the bats to come out, and then we'll go over to infrared.
19:04So here's some footage that we've recorded, and this is inside the building.
19:10And you see why they get the name Lesser Horseshoes, because of the nose area,
19:14and it looks like a mini horseshoe kind of thing.
19:17Absolutely, yeah. And they echolocate through their nose.
19:19Oh, do they? Yeah.
19:20So they emit the noise, and then it comes back in their ears, obviously.
19:23Absolutely, yeah. And those satellite ears are constantly moving to pick up all of
19:28those echoes and pick up all the detail.
19:29They're quite stunning. Some people say they're ugly, but I really like them.
19:32Beautiful in their own way.
19:34I do, yeah, I do. Have these got youngsters?
19:36Yeah, absolutely. You can just see.
19:37Oh, look at that.
19:38They're actually upside down here, so you're seeing the back of the baby there,
19:43that's the tail, and just the end of their wings.
19:47There are, what, 30, 40, maybe a few more bats there in that scene.
19:52Now, how many have you got in the roost here?
19:54Probably around about 500 adults.
19:57Majority will be females, that's not including pups.
20:00500 is a big roost, isn't it?
20:02Really good, yeah.
20:03This whole area is a bit of a stronghold for lesser horseshoes.
20:06It's just lovely landscape.
20:07If you look at a satellite image, you've got great quality woodland,
20:11lovely connected hedgerows, lovely sheltered valleys,
20:14everything that a lesser horseshoe needs to be happy.
20:16I don't want to panic you, I'll take that.
20:18Look, there's quite a bit of activity going on now, so what exactly is happening?
20:22Let's get the bat detector on.
20:25This behaviour you can see of them coming out and coming back in again
20:28is called light sampling.
20:29Right.
20:30A couple of different theories why they do this.
20:32They're obviously nocturnal, so perhaps it's to reset their circadian rhythm,
20:36so when the days are getting shorter, it helps them adjust to those alterations,
20:41as well as seeing what the conditions are like when they pop out of their roost
20:44for the first time, because they're quite shy bats.
20:48They are our highest accolocated bat in the UK, so about 108 to 114 frequency.
20:54Human hearing is, at best, about 20 kilohertz.
20:57Wow.
21:02There's a lot of activity now, and they're actually coming out a bit more now as well,
21:06over our heads.
21:07Yeah, getting a bit braver now, as it's getting a bit darker as well.
21:09It's actually very hypnotic, obviously, watching them here.
21:13It really is. It's hard to start off.
21:39I can see how many there are, how they're whizzing around.
21:44They're just phenomenal mammals.
21:46Yeah, absolutely, and with the detector off as well, it'd be completely silent,
21:50and it's just a whole world that you wouldn't know is there.
22:02Reckon and the surrounding area is a magnet for visitors heading to explore
22:06Banai Berchyniog National Park.
22:10But I prefer the quieter spots that are off the beaten tracks.
22:24It's an amazing spot, this is called Panthaskathog, not far from Senny Bridge, and it's privately owned,
22:31but I have got landowner's permission to be here.
22:34It's one of those places where you can just stand and just soak in the view.
22:40Lovely place, really nice.
22:43It's one of the many little hidden gems all along the usk.
22:49And talking of little gems, I'm going to make a bit of a detour,
22:53go to a privately owned woodland nearby in search of one of Wales' rarest and smallest birds.
23:18We've just come up to some conifer woodlands above the floor of the usk valley now.
23:24We're looking for quite a scarce bird, quite a scarce breeder.
23:28It's called a firecrest, it's kind of a close cousin of the gold crest,
23:32but it's got white and black stripes across the eye and just a bright orange cap here.
23:40I suspect there are more around than people know,
23:43but it's not an easy one to pin down and certainly not an easy bird to film.
23:47So we're going to have to just sit and watch and wait and hope we see something
23:52flitting around amongst the top branches of these trees here.
24:19They don't keep still for very long, don't they?
24:21No, no, no. I did warn you.
24:35Oh, we've hit gold dust. We really have hit gold dust here.
24:38We've hit the edge of a territory between two firecrests. There are two males here,
24:45one on the left and one on the right, and they're so vocal. They're calling.
24:50It's really hard to hear. It's high pitch, but they're calling constantly.
24:53And the one on the left, he's quite nervous, I think, but the one on the right here,
25:00he's got a flame orangey, flame-coloured feathers on top of his head,
25:04and he's flaring that out as a threat to this other male over here going,
25:08boom, boom, boom, like that. Beautiful birds, beautiful.
25:12Best views I've ever had of a firecrest. Honestly, it's brilliant, absolutely brilliant.
25:19And he's still singing away. He's up. Have you got him, Bray? Have you got him?
25:25You've still got him, right? He's still there. He's still there.
25:35Just amazing. Usually you get just a skulking little bird, hard to see, hard to get the binocs on.
25:41But this one, yeah, he's up, yeah, he's up. He's still there. This one is just brilliant.
25:47And it sounds like he's holding a torch on top of his head. It's an amazing bird. It really is.
25:59We've got a fox. Great. Fox. We've got a fox. To cap it off, just let the fox walk right
26:11out and down
26:12in the middle of the path, in the middle of the day. What a place. It's not brilliant. It's not
26:18brilliant.
26:28The Usk Reservoir is fairly remote.
26:32about 280 acres of water surrounded by the glass funnith forest
26:39it's the main supply for swansea and cardiff and is fed by the rain that falls on the northern
26:45slopes of the black mountain range this is where my journey ends
26:53it's well worth checking out any wet flushes you come across because there's a greater diversity
27:00of flowers and more insects these are a mating six spot burnet moths and everyone thinks moths
27:07so you're boring and brown and fly at night but look at these these are day flying and they're
27:13beautiful just black bright black with red spots on them now they're mating so i don't really want
27:20to disturb them i'll just let them get on with it
27:39this is the perfect place to end my journey up the osc valley in the shadow of some of the
27:45high
27:45peaks here you've got van brechyniog on the left and then you've got van voil and then the start of
27:52that long ridge there that's picos d and the osc i always think is one of our most varied rivers
28:00from
28:00a point of view of wildlife you start in the industrial estuary around newport there then you
28:06meander up the lowlands past abergovenny and crick howell and it's been an eye opener for me to see
28:13ground nesting red starts then you carry on towards brecon a vitally important area for lesser horseshoe
28:19bats there are hundreds of them there and then you reach banner brechyniog the brecon beacons itself
28:25and i'm going to carry on following the river because this is one of the least visited parts
28:31of the brecon beacons one of its major attractions for me
28:37next time i'm heading up the tawi valley where i look for fallow deer during the rutting season
28:44find different birds living on an ancient site i'll get to see juvenile salmon in a tributary
28:51and they explore a stunning oak hoodlum
28:54you
28:56you
28:57you
28:58you
29:08you
29:12you
29:13you
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