We’ve had a good year surveying farms and moorland in the valley this season, with others joining us in our data collection: the Biological Information Service (BIS), the Radnor and Montgomeryshire Flora Groups, the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) and our own volunteers. Bioblitzes have taken place at Penygarreg farm and Neuadd Fach and the BSBI met at Pont ar Elan with our staff and local flora groups this month.

Neuadd Fach has some good stands of temperate rainforest – Joe Price monitored nestboxes here in the spring and found 64% of the boxes occupied by pied flycatchers. Hazel Lee recorded numerous spotted flycatchers during our bioblitz in August. Hazel and Joe also recorded reed bunting, redstart, long-tailed tit, swallow, nuthatch, cuckoo and tree creeper this season. Meanwhile Hsin-Jung Lu picked up 15 insect records on the August bioblitz including the three grasshoppers: meadow, field and common green grasshopper along with the small mottled yellow (moth). Fiona Gomersall with others recorded 78 vascular plants including marsh violet, early hair-grass and the white and spring sedges.

The bioblitz in June which centred on a search for the rare lesser butterfly-orchid had experts also looking at birds and insects. Rob Davies and Julia Harrison recorded 22 bird species including redstart, willow warbler, wheatear, blackcap and tree pipit and amongst the insects: orchid beetle and common carder bee. We weren’t successful in witnessing the re-emergence of the butterfly orchid this year sadly, but did record 97 vascular plants including saw-wort which hadn’t been seen there for 40 years, plus the pale, green-ribbed and pill sedges and also sheep’s-bit all of which are uncommon plant species.  The wood bitter-vetch, a rare species in Wales, was looking particularly spectacular at Rhos yr Hafod.

The botanical survey around Pont ar Elan (Tymawr and Esgair Rhiwlan) had a focus to record bog orchid which sadly wasn’t found since it was too dry, but the 17 experts did have 3 new hectads (10² km) records for floating club-rush, lesser marshwort and a hybrid sedge. They had a great day fishing for aquatic plants in the Afon Elan and searching the various bogs and flushes where someone found mountain pansy.  The day finished at Troedrhiwdraen farm where there was great enthusiasm for seeing meadow thistle and globeflower and where a new hectad for slender knapweed was established.

Fiona Gomersall, Ecologist