On 8th April 2015 we ventured to Parc Slip to do an evening pond watch. The walk was at 8.30pm and seeing as we got there an hour early we parked up and went for a stroll around the reserve. The sun was setting and it looked like it was going to be a lovely evening
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| Brian the badger with the sun setting behind him |
We made our way to the north hide to see what bird activity was around, the beautiful sunset was turning the water a lovely pink colour and there were a number of moorhens and coots on the water. Two Canada geese were strolling on the grass to the left of the scrape and we could see another bird beyond them. With my binoculars I managed to make out that it was a lapwing - our first lapwing sighting of 2015! The lighting wasn't great, but Dan managed to get an awesome pic with his Canon SX50 at full zoom :)
Other creatures that weren't so hard to photograph were the beautiful Highland Cattle. They belong to a local farmer and are kept in this field to improve the habitat for the lapwing by grazing and keeping the turf short. The lapwings prefer the land like this for breeding and the bugs from the cattle manure will be a good source of food for the chicks.
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| The view from the North hide. |
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| A solo lapwing at full zoom and a very long way away (photo by @danturner23) |
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| One of the highland cattle (photo by @danturner23) |
The time was getting on so we started making our way back to the visitor centre. On the way we passed a field full of sheep and lambs and were amused that the lambs were jumping on and off their mum. We also saw a number of small ponds and just happened to spot a great crested newt in one of them. This is the first time I had seen a newt in ages and I knew that the evening was going to be great.
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| Lambs and their poor mum |
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| Great Crested Newt (photo by @danturner23) |
Back at the visitor centre we met our Wildlife Trust guide - a lovely girl called Beth Hopkins and we were joined by another six people. After a quick introduction we were offered torches and we made our way to the first pond behind the visitor centre.
It wasn't long before we were seeing all sorts of pond life: newts, sticklebacks, giant diving beetles and caddisfly larvae - these were really cool. The caddisfly are like architects, using their own silk and whatever they can find to build ornate cases to protect the larvae.
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| Pond behind the visitor centre |
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| Stickleback and newts |
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| Caddisfly larva in it's DIY protective case |
Happy with what we documented here we made our way to the next pond, passing Brian the badger on the way. We couldn't see much activity in the ponds near the front of the visitor centre but the deeper we went into the reserve the more we started to see. We had to be careful where we were stepping because there were newts and toads on the path.
There were alot of deep streams on the side of the paths which were full of activity, one of them had at least four palmate newts in it.
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| A male toad on the path |
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| One of the streams near the path |
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| Palmate newts in a stream |
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| Close up of a palmate newt |
We kept walking around the reserve at a slow pace with just our torches for light. We stopped at any body of water to see what we could find and there wasn't many that didn't have some kind of pond life in them.
I was getting some lovely photos too with newts resting on the surface of the water, including these photos below of a palmate and great crested newt where you are able to see the beautiful bright orange belly.
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| Palmate Newt |
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| Great Crested Newt |
I was extremely interested when I came across a sign containing information about the glow worm - Parc Slip have laid rocks and logs here so that the glow worm can hibernate over winter. It would be so lovely to see a glow worm - I have never seen one in South Wales before.
Not far from here we came across another small male toad with beautiful markings...but this was nothing compared to the beast we encountered a few metres away. It was one of the biggest toads I have ever seen and was a female too - she was awesome, even though she was extremely warty and not very colourful.
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| Glow worm information |
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| Male toad with beautiful markings - you can tell a male from his 3 black toes |
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| The beast of a female toad - females tend to be larger and more warty than the males |
After walking around for over an hour we started to head back to the visitor centre. We were still seeing newts and toads all over the place, we even had to stop while Beth picked up a Great Crested Newt from the middle of the path and placed it back on the grass. She explained that she had a special licence that allowed her to handle these newts. Great Crested Newts are a protected species: the animals, eggs and breeding sites are protected by law and anyone found disturbing them or damaging their habitats would face imprisonment and a £5,000 fine.
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| The rescued newt in Beth's hand... |
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| ...and then safely released into the undergrowth |
We had a fantastic time on this pond watch, it was so interesting to see and learn all about these fantastic amphibians. We didn't get to see any frogs unfortunately but seeing the newts made up for it. We have done other walks in Parc Slip including a bat walk and I highly recommend anyone taking part in one of these events. They are a great way to learn and witness nature and with a suggested donation of only £2 per person it's not expensive either. I can't wait to do another one very soon.
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| Great Crested Newt I spotted on the way back to the visitor centre |
Click here for all of the cool events that the Wildlife Trust offers in South and West Wales
Directions to Parc Slip...
