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00:03Rivers have carved the face of Wales and many flow through breathtaking valleys.
00:13Their 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
00:44including 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.
01:12This time I'm heading up the Rhaidol Valley and my journey takes me 19 miles east of Aberystwyth
01:20to Llynd Llygad Rhaidol nestled in the Cambrian Mountains.
01:38This is Aberystwyth, a well-known university seaside town on the west coast of Ceredigion.
01:48It's also the mouth of the Rhaidol River which empties out here into Ceredigion Bay behind me.
01:59Now it's not a long river, it actually has one of the shortest and steepest declines of
02:06all Welsh rivers from its source up at Plyn Limon.
02:14The harbour has changed since its days of shipyards and cargo vessels.
02:20Now it's mostly filled with leisure and fishing boats.
02:25And it's always got a few birds around.
02:28Rock pipettes foraging along the edges with cormorants and kingfishes drawn by fish sheltering in calmer waters.
02:44Overlooking the harbour and the town is Pendinas Hillfort, crowned by a towering stone monument built in 1858 in tribute
02:53to the Duke of Wellington.
02:56It resembles an upended cannon and is the most obvious feature on the hill, but I'm more interested in the
03:03birds.
03:05And there's quite a bit of wildlife, it's a lovely place actually to come up, it's made up of its
03:09galore here, it's Whitethroat not long in from Africa, perched up on some of these bushes.
03:16Lovely view of Aberastwyth, you see the National Library on the far hill there.
03:22And this is the site of an old Iron Age hill fort, a really impressive big one.
03:28It's a lovely place.
03:30Right, head on up the valley.
03:40The lower section of the Rhaidol River winds its way along flat farmland.
03:47And where you get water crowfoot growing, you're likely to find beautiful demoiselle.
03:56After these damselflies mate, they remain attached and the male guards the female from rivals while she lays her eggs.
04:10I'm aiming for a steep river bank along this stretch, which is perfect for summer visitors that nest in colonies.
04:21I'm going to take you now somewhere.
04:23Well, to say that it's hidden is an understatement, we're going to go right through here.
04:28So, so watch yourself, there's gorse and branches and everything everywhere, but the river's just the other side.
04:33Look out, this is quite prickly, this bit here.
04:36So watch yourselves.
04:39Here we go.
04:42It's not the easiest place to get to, as you can see.
04:46Right.
04:48Here we go, a little bit more.
04:55Look at that.
04:58That bank there, it's got to be 12 foot, maybe even 15 foot tall, 4 metres.
05:04You see sand martin holes, here they are, here they are.
05:06They're all starting to come back now, the sand martins.
05:10You've got maybe 120 holes on the far bank there, of which 80, 90 maybe are occupied.
05:18And what's fantastic is they're all in a line.
05:21They're all in lines here and there.
05:23And the soil has been deposited there.
05:26Most of it is full of shingle and full of rocks.
05:29But then you get these thin layers of sort of sandy mud.
05:34And that's where they've nested.
05:35That's where they've dug in their tunnels in there.
05:39All of a sudden you get maybe 20, 30 of them appearing, busy, busy, busy.
05:44Then like this, it goes all quiet again.
05:47I suspect because it's a lovely sunny day, the insects will be high up.
05:51So they're going to be feeding quite high up.
05:56Now I've scanned around and had a good look.
05:59There's at least two or three holes where the chicks are right at the entrance.
06:04So they're enjoying the sun, but they're waiting for the adults to come back with food as well.
06:09One or two other adults have gone straight into the hole.
06:12So they're obviously feeding slightly younger chicks.
06:14They leave the nest after about, what, about 21, three weeks, just over three weeks.
06:21And some of these look on the verge of fledging.
06:25Nice to see them at the entrance though, enjoying the sun.
06:29They're all huddled together.
06:30It's a lovely sight.
06:31Really smart.
06:33And they're cracking birds or anything.
06:34Those little birds have got to go all the way down to the Sahel,
06:39below the Sahara in Africa.
06:41They won the first migrants back.
06:43They get back here in March.
06:45And then they'll stay with us all the way through now
06:47till the end of the summer, early autumn.
06:49And then they'll make their way all the way back down again.
06:53Miraculous, really, how they can find, you know,
06:55the same bank on the Avon Rheidol year in, year out.
07:07In this part of Mid Wales,
07:09you're almost guaranteed to see a red kite soaring overhead.
07:14Once nearly extinct in the early 20th century,
07:17they are one of the UK's best conservation success stories.
07:25While the village of Kapil Bangor isn't a well-known wildlife hotspot,
07:30I've been told there's a nest I must see.
07:32So I'm here to meet Adrian Price.
07:35Yeah, just on the left-hand side.
07:41Just in that tree there, you can just see it through a small gap.
07:47The ivy-clad oak you're on about now, is it?
07:49The oak there, you can just about see the nest.
07:52Oh, I can see it.
07:53Big fat chick sitting on top of the nest.
07:56Yeah, it won't be long before that chick is standing up
07:58and walking along the branches.
08:01Yeah, yeah.
08:01It's a big old lump of a thing.
08:02It is now, yeah.
08:04How long have they been nesting here, then?
08:06Er, this'll be the third year that I'm aware of.
08:10That's quite a good place as well, isn't it?
08:12Because, you know, you're in the ivy.
08:14Not easy for us to see it.
08:16But in the shade, out of the sun.
08:18Yeah.
08:19Well, well, well.
08:21Do you know what?
08:22I remember the days when red kites were really rare.
08:25You know, when I started working in the arts,
08:26maybe in the early 80s, it was something like 40-odd pears.
08:30And I never thought I'd live to see a pear nesting
08:34right by someone's back garden.
08:36Yeah, I know, it's amazing.
08:38And I've got two kids and they take it for granted now
08:40that there's always kites in the sky.
08:42And we see on the telly about how rare they once were not so long ago.
08:45Yeah.
08:46And they find it hard to believe.
08:48I mean, there's quite a few houses on this street
08:50and all our back gardens come out onto this land.
08:53And we use it regularly.
08:55The kids play.
08:56We have picnics out here.
08:57And they just sit there and watch.
08:59But, yeah, they're not bothered by us.
09:01We're often in the garden having food
09:03and they'll fly over to have a nose, see if anything's landed on the floor.
09:06And, of course, that's how it would have been, isn't it?
09:08Way, way, way back.
09:09Yeah.
09:09They were scavengers.
09:11They were, you know, scavenging from people's back gardens.
09:15But it's nice to get great views of an adult kite
09:18not bothered with you looking back at it.
09:22And because it's so warm, it has wings open with sunbathing.
09:26Yeah, stunning.
09:27That's brilliant.
09:27Like most people see that with blackbirds in the garden sunbathing.
09:31But you've got kites sunbathing in your garden.
09:33Yeah.
09:33It's quite a nice one to add to the garden bird list, you know?
09:38Yeah, yeah.
09:40Oh, brilliant.
09:42Hey, thank you very much.
09:43Oh, no worries.
09:43Thank you, boy. Come on, we'd better go and let it get back.
09:45Leave it in peace.
09:46Lovely.
09:47Cheers.
09:59This area has several hill forts.
10:01And I had to visit one with probably the best views of the valley.
10:07This is an old Iron Age hill fort called Castell Bua Drain.
10:13And look at the commanding position you've got looking right down the Rhaidol Valley.
10:19You can see Cadigan Bay in the distance.
10:23Well wooded valley all the way up there.
10:26You can see Pontarfanach or Devil's Bridge in that last bit of wood up the valley there.
10:36And what a commanding position they had.
10:39Anybody attacking up this way, well it's our men.
10:43There's just no point at all.
10:45And even if you thought about attacking from the north up here, it looks a lot easier, but bear in
10:52mind that they would have built ramparts here that were three metres tall.
10:57That's ten foot tall.
11:00There would have been a settlement in here, but they would have farmed.
11:03They would have farmed all around us.
11:05They would have hunted.
11:06We'd have had wild boar.
11:07We'd have had deer here then.
11:09But it was a hard life, there's no doubt about that.
11:12And life expectancy was around 26.
11:33The woodland extending along the steep sides make the Rhaidol Valley one of the most beautiful places in Wales, especially
11:41during spring.
11:43And almost all of it is protected as a special area of conservation due to the mature native trees and
11:51variety of plants that grow here.
11:55I'm at Coyd Simdhel Llewyd, a local wildlife trust nature reserve.
12:02These are sessile oaks.
12:04They don't look like the classic English oak, the big old oak that you get.
12:08These are just on a steep sided valley.
12:12But they have been used.
12:14The name gives you a clue.
12:15Coyd Simdhel Llewyd, the wood of the grey chimney.
12:20And down the bottom is a house called Teapoyth, the hot house.
12:24And that is an indication that these would have been harvested for charcoal at one point.
12:36While this wood looks natural, many of the trees are the same age due to clear felling for timber during
12:43World War I.
12:44Only trees on the steeper, hard to reach slopes were left untouched.
12:51Be careful here.
12:53Path gets narrow and it's very, very steep.
12:57Oh wow, look at this section of the wood here.
13:00It's like a sort of Welsh oak bonsai woodland.
13:03You know, these trees are really stunted, really short.
13:07But I wouldn't mind betting some of these are probably well over a hundred years old.
13:12And the reason they're so short here is because there's no soil.
13:15It's all scree underneath all the moss you can see there.
13:19So there's hardly any nutrients in there for them to grow.
13:24It's kind of tangle of all of these branches together down there.
13:29Amazing place.
13:43Look at this.
13:44How beautiful is that?
13:46Isn't that stunning?
13:48There are lots of waterfalls all the way up the Rydal Valley.
13:51Some famous, some not so well known like this one.
13:55It really is a hidden gem.
14:06Oh, hold on, hold on.
14:10There's a little frog down here just in the bilberry on the leaves there.
14:15It's the second frog I've seen today.
14:17But it makes you wonder, where on earth do they breed up here?
14:21Because they need still water, little pools.
14:23You know, the water here is fast flowing.
14:29During certain spring conditions, large areas of the woods look like they've been draped in spider webs.
14:36But the real culprits are here to feast on the fresh leaves.
14:42It's a hot, hot day.
14:44It's really hot and humid.
14:45And I have never seen as many caterpillars as I've seen today.
14:50Look at these.
14:51All hanging off me here.
14:53They're everywhere.
14:54Absolutely everywhere.
14:55And I mean millions of them.
14:57Millions.
14:58And what they're doing, they're mainly winter moth caterpillars.
15:01And they're feeding on the leaves.
15:03And they'll hang down.
15:04They'll spin like a thread, a silk thread.
15:07And then any breeze will carry them on to the next tree.
15:10And they'll go on and feeding the leaves there.
15:12They'll do the same again.
15:13And eventually, they'll drop down onto the floor, dig down into the leaf litter.
15:18They'll pupate down there.
15:20And as adults then, they'll emerge in the winter, hence the name winter moths.
15:25But it's amazing.
15:26And every now and again, you get a real bumper year like this here.
15:30And they'll defoliate whole trees.
15:34Look at these leaves.
15:35Look at them.
15:35They've been absolutely stripped here.
15:39They'll feed on broad leaves, on oaks.
15:42There's bilberry on the floor.
15:44They'll feed on that.
15:45So they will eat virtually anything in this whole wood.
15:48And of course, one of the knock-on effects of that is that the birds are having a real good
15:54early spring.
15:55We've seen blue tits catching them.
15:57We've seen even blackbirds.
15:59Your blackbirds usually feed on the floor looking for earthworms.
16:01But blackbirds are up in the trees feeding on these caterpillars.
16:05Every single bird in here virtually will be making the most of this bumper year for these caterpillars.
16:18It's a huge deal on the floor.
16:23The
16:24Built in 1902 to haul lead and timber.
16:27The Vale of Raidol Railway came too late for the area's mining boom.
16:32And soon found its steam trains carrying tourists instead.
16:38This 12-mile journey from Aberystwyth to Devil's Bridge is one of the most spectacular in the whole of the
16:45UK.
16:50Many who travel here come to see the ancient bridges and the breathtaking Munach Falls,
16:57which cascade dramatically 90 metres into the wooded gorge below.
17:08But I'm here to look for one of our rarest mammals, the pine martin.
17:13They were previously thought extinct in Wales until people started seeing signs suggesting a few of them were surviving in
17:21the valley.
17:22And after 51 animals were released in the area around 10 years ago, they're making a comeback.
17:31I'm heading to a wood next to a caravan park in Devil's Bridge,
17:35as I've heard people have been seeing them there regularly.
17:42Just looking for somewhere where I can find a couple of stumps where I can put nuts and berries on
17:47them like a bait to attract them.
17:49Find a clear line of sight where I can put up a hide as well.
17:53Here, there's a couple of places here.
17:55It's almost a path going down.
17:58I'll stick them up on here, I think.
18:02Pine martins have a keen sense of smell and will eat just about anything, including the dried berries and nuts
18:10I've put out.
18:11So if there's one nearby, it should sniff out this feast.
18:15Fingers crossed it does the trick.
18:18We need to get the hides set up quickly.
18:21How's it looking on your side alright?
18:22And settle in quietly.
18:27Then, all we can do now is wait.
18:37The arrival of jays close by is a good sign that we're well hidden, as they're notoriously wary of people.
18:46But they don't hang around for long.
18:49Something has spooked them, and other birds are alarm calling.
19:01We've got, we've got an animal.
19:12Got to be really, really careful, because it's looking straight at me.
19:21It comes up the stump, it feeds, and then it drops down. I can't see it afterwards, but it keeps
19:27coming back, keeps coming back for more.
19:42Effortlessly up there, hanging on, and that big bushy tail, they use that for balance.
19:52It's got its summer coat on, sort of light chocolatey brown.
19:56They've got individual markings on the beach, patch on their breast.
20:02Beautiful, beautiful animal.
20:08I've seen one before, in Wales, but only at night.
20:12So to be sat in a hide, in daylight, just watching a pine mountain.
20:18Oh, it's enthralling.
20:21It's one of the highlights of my wildlife watching.
20:25And I've been watching wildlife for, you know, 55 years, whatever it is.
20:31I've achieved a childhood ambition.
20:38Thanks to conservation efforts by the Vincent Wildlife Trust, these remarkable animals are back breeding in their former haunts once
20:47more,
20:48and even spreading to other parts of Wales.
20:54You know, it's brilliant to know that you can come to a woodland in the Rideau Valley, and you've got
21:01a really good chance of bumping into a pine mountain, even in daylight.
21:21The Rideau Valley was a major centre for metal mining in the 18th and 19th century.
21:28Lead, silver and zinc is what the people were after.
21:34At one point, over 40 mines were here, some deep within the gorge itself.
21:42Which must have required a lot of ingenuity for such a remote place.
21:50This is one of the many mines scattered along the Rideau Valley.
21:55Actually, it's not the mine itself, the mine is further up again.
22:02This is the old crushing plant where they would have crushed the rock to separated the metal ore from the
22:09rock itself.
22:11And it was open in the late 1800s, and they reckon at one time you had 45 men working here,
22:1933 of those underground.
22:21When I say men, actually, they were men and boys, they were aged between 8 and 50.
22:26Can you imagine sending 80-year-old boys up here to work mine like this?
22:31It wasn't very productive though. It didn't open for long, just didn't make enough money.
22:36And they reckon that over the time that it was open, about a decade or so, they mined about three
22:43and a half tons of lead ore and about 20 tons of zinc ore.
22:48So it didn't pay its way, and it closed down soon after.
22:52But what I like about it, take a step back, you can see, look at this.
22:57Nature's taking over. What man abandoned, nature will eventually take over and cover the lot.
23:11During autumn, rowan trees above the mine attract thrushes of all kinds to feast on the rich offering of berries.
23:20Many will be migrants from further north, here to avoid the bad weather.
23:34I've made it to the upper reaches of the Rydal, deep in the Cambrian Mountains,
23:39where abundant rain feeds one of the largest hydroelectric schemes in England and Wales.
23:48Remarkably, it's been generating renewable energy since 1962, long before climate change was in the spotlight.
23:56Below me is Nantamoch Reservoir.
24:00Huge dam over there, and there's a whole series of reservoir built all the way along the Rydal Valley,
24:06and each one has its own power station. It's part of a big hydroelectric scheme.
24:13And I know a lot of people come up here, it's stunning, they take photos,
24:17but I always come up here and I think about the people who suffered.
24:20You know, I'm all for green energy, but people did suffer,
24:23because underneath those waters, the remains of a hamlet,
24:28the chapel and the graveyard, scattered farms.
24:32Can you imagine having lived there, your parents and grandparents having grown up there as well,
24:37and being told, you have to move, you've got no choice.
24:48The final leg of my journey is a short climb up from Nantamoch Reservoir to Llinllagad Rheidol,
24:55just below the summit of Pym Limon, the highest point in mid Wales.
25:08To me, it still feels very wild up here, despite the lake becoming a reservoir in 1883.
25:21This is the source of the Avon Rheidol, the River Rheidol, and it is, it's a natural lake really,
25:28but it was built up, they've dammed it.
25:31It supplies water for Aberastwyth and the area, but the good thing about the dam is that
25:37a pair of wheatia has taken up residence in the wall here,
25:42and they're feeding their chicks just on the shore over there at the moment.
25:46They've got two or three chicks there.
25:48They're going back and forth, feeding them all kinds of invertebrates.
25:51It's a little bit late in the year for them, so they're going to have to feed up,
25:56get the experience ready to migrate down to Africa, but lovely to see.
26:15It's incredible how the temperature drops and the wind picks up as you climb.
26:21You can tell that you really are in the uplands now.
26:25I've come up here to take in the view really, but my eye was drawn towards a sudden movement,
26:34just dropping down onto that little bit of heather up there, and it's a male merlin.
26:43It's a male merlin just sat in the heather, looking out, greening its feathers.
26:53And what a bird to end with.
26:55Isn't that incredible?
26:57And the merlin, you know, it's a scarce bird these days.
27:03It's a scarce breeding bird in Wales, a scarce wintering birds.
27:06And what it's done, as I walked up, saw quite a few birds gathering together,
27:12leaving the moors.
27:13It's late on in the season.
27:15The breeding season is well past, so they'll be gathering to head down to the coast,
27:20possibly, to the mouth of the Rheidol, where my journey began.
27:24And the merlin will have bred somewhere further north, and he knows this.
27:28He's going to hang around, try and pick off one or two of these birds,
27:32especially the younger, the less experienced bird.
27:35They'll make a lovely meal for him.
27:39But look at the view, just look at that.
27:41This is why I really wanted to come up here.
27:43Llyn Llygat Rheidol, and the mountains leading round to Pim Limon behind me over there.
27:53And I'm going to take a leaf out of the merlin's book and sit and just look and enjoy.
28:04The Rheidol Valley is packed with fascinating wildlife and steeped in history.
28:10Next time I'm making my way up the Dovey Valley, exploring the variety of wildlife along the estuary.
28:17I'll also watch recently-fledged osprey chicks.
28:21And I get to see my first wild beaver in Wales.
28:40Strangely excitement.
28:42There are many joints in the sky and rowocal in theозможно field.
28:45In lovely woods, there were many most main planets in grunt geにきます.
28:46I'm going toura-OMEgi at that conference.
28:46I'll find the best someday acetasy and get dressed in the hall.
28:46And I'll find those talks for you with my Poolzel in the confession.
28:46It'll be a most astronomical, inks any more proces dinerian and ho err?
28:46You must be a doctorateacher to read all theaze.
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