The Wildlife Trust of South and West North Group Newsletter March 2020

1. Chairperson’s welcome Whilst the Met Office maintains that spring is the season from March until May, it would seem that nature knows otherwise. In addition to lots of reports of frogspawn, Snowdrops, Primroses and catkins, tonight at dusk I saw a number of bats out hunting (probably pipistrelles), despite the gusty wind conditions. Beachcombing often yields unexpected results. One notable find, made by Chloe Griffiths and the ‘Nature of our Village’ group of citizen scientists earlier this month, was the discovery of 27 Curled Some of the Curled Octopus stranded on Octopus (also see Page 3). These live in Tanybwlch beach. (Photo Chloe Griffiths) the NE Atlantic but usually in deep water so are rarely seen on the beaches. In previous strandings it has been suggested that they can be associated with low pressure storm systems. This certainly proves that you never know what wildlife you might spot in Ceredigion! Our May meeting is a ‘Wildlife Show and Tell’ night, when we encourage members to share video clips and slides or give a short talk on a topic they are passionate about. Please think whether you can contribute to what usually proves a really varied evening or just come along and enjoy what others share. 2. North Ceredigion Group programme of spring meetings 2020 (Ian Scott) All indoor meetings 7 - 9 pm in Theatre C22, Hugh Owen Building, University. Monday 2 March - Bats of North Ceredigion by Naomi Davis (North Ceredigion Bat Group). Monday 4 May - Members ‘Show-and-Tell’ after brief AGM. Please send offers of short presentations or displays to Ian Scott ([email protected]).

North Ceredigion Group – local contacts Chairperson Fiona Corke 01970 822078 [email protected] Secretary Naomi Davis 07857 102286 [email protected] Facebook https://www.facebook.com/NorthCeredigionWTG 3. Aberystwyth Botanical Society field meetings (Chloe Griffiths) Sunday 26 April (10:30 – 12:30) - Coed Nant Llolwyn with Steve Chambers. Ancient semi-natural woodland SSSI near Llanfarian, Aberystwyth, with rich ground flora. Meet at Rhyd-y-gwîn entrance at SW end (SN585768). Sunday 24 May (start 10:30) - Hay meadows at Denmark Farm with Margaret Howells. Hay fields once dominated by rye grass, now rich in flowers, grasses and sedges. Option of staying on in the afternoon to walk around the marshy grassland sites. Meet at car park at Denmark Farm: for directions see www.denmarkfarm.org.uk/directions/. Sunday 7 June (09:00 to afternoon) - Cwmtydu coastal path walk with Red Liford. Meet at car park (charge) opposite café, by public toilets (SN35609 57410). Bring lunch. Sunday 21 June (10:00 – 12:30) - Cors Fochno with Juliet Regan and Justin Lyons. Visit to raised bog to see orchids. Meet at estates track car park (SN63343 92180). Limited parking so please arrange to share cars where possible. Saturday 22 August (10:30 to afternoon) - Pumlumon with Andy Jones. Summit heath and grassland recovery after removal of grazing. Meet at Maesnant at end of road on south side of Nant y Moch reservoir (SN774879). Bring lunch. 450 m of ascent and descent in mountain terrain: suitable clothing and footwear essential. Not suitable for children. Sunday 13 September (10:00 start) - Native tree and shrub seed collection and preparation with John Rainbow. Meet in layby at Old Warren Hill/Coed Penglanowen reserves (SN61012 78660). Come along to two of our Wildlife Trust woodlands near Aberystwyth to find out more about how to collect, clean, store, stratify and sow the seed from our native trees and shrubs. 4. On High Alert! How reading my local paper and messing about on Facebook helped me make some fascinating wildlife records (Chloe Griffiths) We who love wildlife like to keep our eye out for the latest sightings of our favourite species and it can be astonishing how effective the use of social, as well as traditional media can be. One of the most interesting Facebook groups I am part of is ‘Ceredigion Birds and Wildlife’, where people share photos of the wildlife they see in their gardens or on their travels around the county. People are very generous with sharing what they have seen and enabling others to go and find these species too, which adds enormously to what we know about the wildlife of Ceredigion. Just recently a friend of mine shared a fantastic photo of a By-the-wind- sailor (Velella velella), a pelagic colonial hydroid, with short tentacles hanging down By-the-wind sailor. (Photo Chloe Griffiths) from a float, catching the wind by means of

- 2 - a stiff sail. They are occasionally found washed up en masse, as on 9 November 2017, when we found 30 stranded on Tanybwlch beach, but in 2019 we only found one animal. She had found an influx of these fascinating, free-floating species washed up on beach in early February 2020. Thanks to her alert, I went down to Aberystwyth North and South beaches to see if I could find them and was delighted to find 98 near the bandstand on North beach. My friend went south to and did not find any there, and I went to Tanybwlch beach and found more than 200 beached in the strand line. Thanks to her alert, we have managed between us to map the influx of this species from Aberaeron to Aberystwyth, in an ad-hoc bit of citizen science! A second much-appreciated alert came in the form of a photo of a live Curled Octopus (Eledone cirrhosa) in the pages of our local newspaper, the Cambrian News. I managed to locate the photographer through a combination of grape-vine and social media, and asked him if I could have a look at the original images. He was happy to share and I was able to make an identification of his sighting. He told me the octopus had been moving through the rock pools near the base of Constitution Hill, when it had caught his attention. When I asked if I could make a scientific record of this great sighting he agreed and gave me the date and location to add. I was later able to feed back to him that his record was only the sixth ever made in Ceredigion; however, there was a further surprise later in the month when we found another 27 dead individuals during a mermaid’s purse hunt on Tanybwlch beach Both traditional and social media together combine to alert us to the magnificent wildlife of Ceredigion: thanks to all the generous people out there who share their findings! 5. Bon Voyage to Lizzie Wilberforce (Geoff Powell) In April we say a fond and reluctant farewell to Dr Lizzie Wilberforce. Having volunteered with the Trust while a student and been secretary of the North Ceredigion committee while completing her PhD, Lizzie was appointed WTO for Ceredigion in the Autumn of 2003 with the job of delivering the Heritage Lottery Fund programme for the county. She was mentored by Lin Gander for her first few months in the management of Ceredigion's 21 reserves and she started running work parties with volunteers at the beginning of 2004. I first volunteered with her in January 2004 and had the immense privilege of working with her in both Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire for very nearly 10 years. From the start, I was impressed by her dedication to the work of managing the reserves, even to the point Lizzie with volunteers in 2008, of buying fence posts out of her own pocket when the shortly before her move to account at Mount Trading had not been settled! Then Carmarthenshire. (Photo Geoff there was her winning way with the volunteers Powell) combining humour, gratitude and a readiness with praise, which brought out the very best in people and

- 3 - created a loyal following of workers. We had, thanks to Lizzie, a lot of fun while achieving great things on the reserves, most memorably when we had the good fortune to count a record number of Marsh Fritillary larval webs (over 1000) in 2006 at Rhos Pil Bach. It was about this time that Lizzie was involved in helping to compile the Trust's Reserves Handbook – a massive undertaking in which she applied her graphic skills in drawing the maps, which look deceptively simple, but which required a huge amount of work to create. In 2008, Lizzie moved to Carmarthenshire and was promoted to the post of Conservation Manager (West) while also taking over from Phil Ward as WTO for Carmarthenshire. It was felt that she could cope with combining the two roles, Carmarthenshire having half as many reserves as Ceredigion, but it did increase her work load considerably. Nevertheless, she applied herself with her usual zeal in managing her new reserves and their challenges, tackling head on the Himalayan Balsam infestation at Castle Woods, for example. Soon after the Trust acquired Carmel, a large reserve in Carmarthenshire, it became obvious that the extra burden of work involved demanded a dedicated officer and Lizzie stepped down as WTO for that county in 2013, focusing exclusively on her role as Conservation Manager. In this position she line-manages several WTOs and, as far as I can gather, acts as a general trouble-shooter dealing with all manner of problems. In a recent email, she told me she had to sort out what to do about a refrigerated shipping container that had washed up on Skomer. I am very grateful for the experience of working with such an outstanding person as Lizzie and in saying this I suspect I represent the feelings of the entire Trust. Diolch yn fawr Lizzie and may 2020 bring you the successful future you so thoroughly deserve. 6. Dolphin Watches at Aberystwyth (Steve Cuttle) Repairing fences and rooting out blackthorn and bramble are some ways of helping with the work of the Trust but a far more leisurely volunteering opportunity is to sit by the sea and watch for dolphins. As part of the Living Seas Project the Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre in organises dolphin watches at a number of sites on the Ceredigion coast, including at Aberystwyth. Volunteers carry out two-hour watches from beside the war memorial in the castle grounds, recording any sightings of dolphins, including their behaviour and approximate position within the survey area. How dolphins interact with boats is of interest to the researchers so watchers also record the numbers and type of all water traffic seen during the watch period. Of particular interest are interactions where a boat comes close to a dolphin; within 300 m being classified as an ‘encounter’ or within 50 m, a ‘close encounter’. On these occasions the observer records how the dolphin reacts to the boat, e.g. moving away from or approaching it, and whether the craft observes the Ceredigion Marine Code that stipulates how boats should behave in the vicinity of cetaceans. Observers also record the presence of seals and porpoises, although there are few, if any, records of porpoises being seen during watches at Aberystwyth. Of course, there will be occasions when no dolphins are seen but records of the absence of dolphins are also of value to the researchers. Typical sightings at Aberystwyth are of two to four bottlenose dolphins in a loose grouping, surfacing at regular intervals and - 4 - presumably searching for prey at depth. They normally linger in the area for half an hour or more rather than simply passing through. Sometimes the group will include an adult with a smaller juvenile close alongside. The two surface and dive exactly in phase with one another and without using binoculars it is often difficult to see that there are actually two individuals. For much of the time when dolphins are present they remain within a few 100 m of the shore. Watches are carried out between April and October and are restricted to times when the sea is relatively calm. With large waves it would be difficult to spot dolphins even if they were present. It is important to complete the full two-hour session but watchers can select the timeslot that best suits them. Additional watchers are always needed. If you are interested and would like further details, please contact Laura Evans at the Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre in New Quay ([email protected]). 7. Update of work on the Ceredigion reserves (Alice Midmore) I started my new post as Ceredigion Nature Reserves Officer in September and had a wonderful first few weeks surveying for Marsh Fritillary Butterflies on our Marshy Grassland Reserves. This is where we survey for webs of the caterpillars on Devil’s-bit Scabious, undertaking transects across the reserves. We are down on the high numbers of last year but still found some strong populations especially at Rhos Glyn-yr- Helyg. We have been busy fixing and improving the infrastructure at some of our reserves. At Coed Penglanowen we added anti-slip mesh to some slippery boardwalk and replaced some rotting boards on bridges and boardwalks. On the same day we fixed a broken bridge in Old Warren Hill. At Rhos Fullbrook we found a very badly damaged section of boardwalk so bought new joists to fix that, reusing the slats and mesh that were still in good condition. We also fixed a boundary fence and made a new lid/funnel for the The new stile at Penderi Cliffs nearing water tank at Rhos Glyn-yr-Helyg, to increase the completion. (Photo Alice Midmore) amount of water captured, which has helped prepare that part of the site for better grazing to improve the habitat for the Marsh Fritillary Butterfly, once we find new graziers. We have very nearly completed our winter task of coppicing blackthorn at Coed Maidie B Goddard and Caeau Llety Cybi. The coppicing will provide better habitat for the Brown Hairstreak Butterfly in the future. We are on year two of a five year rotation, coppicing patches around the sites. At Rhos Fullbrook and Rhos Glyn-yr-Helyg we have been fulfilling our Glastir contract and clearing areas of scrub of blackthorn and gorse. Also as part of this contract we have replaced a rotten stile at Penderi Cliffs to improve access to the reserve and at the same time we repaired a dilapidated information board.

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We experimented with using scythes for cutting the meadow at Coed Maidie B Goddard this year and it proved very successful and enjoyable. We hope to be able to use them more in the future. We have been working at Old Warren Hill clearing brambles in patches where Bluebells are strongest to give them a better chance at flowering and we have also been in Coed Penglanowen managing the boundary by clearing high branches and encroachment of vegetation into a neighbouring field. It’s been a great and varied first six months and I have thoroughly enjoyed working on the reserves with the wonderful company of all the volunteers. Thank you all! We are always looking for more volunteers so if you are interested please get in touch [email protected] 8. Megan Jones Legacy comes to the rescue At its meeting in early February the North Ceredigion committee agreed to approve a request from Trust HQ to allocate money from the Megan Jones Legacy to fund a replacement vehicle for use with the volunteer work parties. A dependable vehicle is clearly essential for transporting the volunteers and equipment to and from the reserves around the county; however, the current van has become unreliable and expensive to maintain (and is off the road at the time of writing this piece). A replacement is urgently needed. WTSWW does not have the immediate funds to purchase a vehicle and there is not the staff time to raise the money by an appeal or by applying for grants. The committee concluded that this was an appropriate use of the Legacy funds that would benefit all of the Ceredigion reserves and agreed to the full £18,000 that had been requested. We have been assured that the new vehicle will only be used for work in Ceredigion. Other payments from the Legacy since its receipt in 2012 include funding works at the Cwm Clettwr reserve, the kestrel nest box project, invertebrate surveys on the reserves, contributions to the Water Vole and Red Squirrel Projects and contributions to the Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre and the Welsh Wildlife Centre Hides and Boardwalk Appeals. 9. Amphibians and reptiles in Ceredigion During the Group’s evening meeting at the start of February our speaker, Mark Barber of the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust commented on the poor coverage of amphibian and reptile records from much of Ceredigion and raised the possibility of forming a local group to get more people involved. The good attendance at the meeting indicated that there was already considerable interest in amphibians and reptiles locally and with the additional interest generated by the talk it is perhaps a good time to take the suggestion of a local group a step further. If you would like to be involved, please contact David Kirby ([email protected]) who will collate responses and liaise with Amphibian and Reptile Conservation.

Newsletter editor Steve Cuttle ([email protected]), who thanks all contributors to this issue. Offers of short articles of interest to members (100 – 500 words) and photographs of local wildlife are always welcome. Please contact the Editor for details.

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