Tawny Cockroaches at Port Eynon

Within Wales this native species is restricted to the Gower Peninsula, where on summer and autumn nights, adults can be found in good numbers feeding on flowers such as Ragwort and Hogweed. On new year's day we discovered many Tawny Cockroach (Ectobius pallidus) nymphs near Port Eynon Point, hidden amongst the grassy tufts overhanging the soft cliff just above the splash zone. These were found by 'ruffing up' the grassy tufts over a tray, gaining a few curious looks from passers by in the process; it seemed everyone was out taking the rare opportunity to enjoy a sunny day!

Distribution of Tawny Cockroach shown on NBN 

The Hungry Gap?

Andrew Lucas wrote:
I came across an interesting article in the magazine 'Conservation Land Management' recently*.  It described some results from the GWCT work at Loddington, Leicestershire, where they have been undertaking systematic winter feeding of farmland birds.  They have found that winter food supplies were sufficient up to Christmas, but become close to exhausted early in the year, leading the what they term the 'hungry gap' between January and late March.  Winter feeding significantly boosted the numbers of birds on the farm during the winter, and led to higher breeding bird numbers in the subsequent April and May.  So, if you want to feed farmland birds, January, February and March seem to be the key months.

There is a new feeding station for tree sparrows at Monksland Farm, and a second is now in place at the 'traditional' site at Newton (see map).  You can easily walk between the two using public footpaths, so anyone can go down and take a look.  If the work from Loddington is transferable to Wales, it would suggest that we are coming up to the most important period for winter feeding, when any sightings of tree sparrows will be particularly valuable.

If you manage to visit, please let me know, even if you don't see anything!  You can contact me at a.lucas@ccw.gov.uk or at 07968 838152

Andrew Lucas

*Stoate, C. (2012) 'Filling the hungry gap - late-winter supplementary feeding of farmland birds'.  Conservation Land Management Winter 2012,  4 - 7.

Melincourt Waterfall

A visit to a waterfall seemed appropriate after all the rain we've received this month and the walk up to Melincourt turned out to be surprisingly dry, at least until we arrived at the falls! Here, the force of the spray was too great to allow a full frontal shot, so we satisfied ourselves with more distant, partially obscured images.

The humid conditions of narrow, shaded valleys such as Melincourt provide ideal conditions for mosses and liverworts to flourish and the ground, rocks and tree trunks were festooned with various shades of green.

Greater Featherwort (Plagiochila asplenioides)
growing on wet rocks

Pellucid Four-tooth Moss (Tetraphis pellucida)
growing on a fallen tree

Wishing everyone very best wishes for 2013 and fingers crossed we'll see less rain and a little more sunshine!

Yews within the Parish Churches of Gower

The photographs of Yews (Taxus baccata) in parish churches across Wales in Archie Miles’ Heritage Trees of Wales inspired Sandra and myself to brave the persistent wet weather and investigate the parish churches within Gower over the Christmas period. Of the 17 churchyards visited, 11 were found with Yew growing within the boundary walls. The largest specimen measured was at Llanrhidian, with a very respectable girth of 6.31m, though this would be a little less if the Ivy were to be removed. The second largest tree measuring in at 5.13m was at Ilston, where another 3.13m specimen also grows alongside Box with a basal girth of 2.61m. All other Yews measured were less than 5m.

The largest tree in each churchyard is ranked from largest to smallest below (apologies for the poor quality of the photos but it was dull and raining at almost every site!):

(1) 6.31m Llanrhidian (St. Illtyd & St. Rhidian’s Church)

Gower's Parish Champion Yew

(2) 5.13m Ilston (St. Illtyd’s Church)

(3) 3.72m Nicholaston (St. Nicholas’s Church)

largest Yew just out of shot to the left

(4) 3.68m Penmaen (St. John the Baptist's Church)

(5) 2.99m Bishopston (St.Teilo’s Church)

(6) 2.98m Reynoldston (St. George’s Church)

the church has four Yews, one on each side of
the church, this being the largest  by the entrance

(7) 2.52m Oxwich (St. Illtyd’s Church)

(8) 1.45m Llangennith (St. Cenydd’s Church)

(9) 0.65m Oystermouth (All Saints Church)

fenced off and in poor health

(10) 0.15m Pennard (St. Mary’s Church)

(11) 0.14m Cheriton (St. Cadoc’s Church)

the smallest Parish Yew!

Parish Churches without Yews are:
  Llanddewi (St. David’s Church)
  Llanmadoc (St. Madoc’s Church)
  Penclawdd (St. Gwynour’s Church)
  Penrice (St. Andrew’s Church)
  Port Eynon (St. Cattwg’s Church)
  Rhossili (St. Mary’s Church)

It’s quite feasible of course that other large Yews grow elsewhere on the peninsula, for example there is a 4.01m Yew in the Mumbles British Legion car park, which currently qualifies as Gower’s third largest specimen. We know very little of parish churches away from the peninsula although there is some useful information on the Woodland Trust ‘Ancient Tree Hunt’ website which I would recommend exploring to those with an interest in veteran trees.

Gower Black Poplars

Black Poplar (Populus nigra subsp. betulifolia) is a rare species in Britain and identification is confused by the multitude of hybrid poplars commonly planted in both urban and rural situations. Ian Morgan made me aware of two trees in the Swansea area, the most photogenic of the two being found in Parc-y-Werin, Gorseinon, which until August 1996 had a companion that was inexplicably removed. The girth of the existing tree was measured at 3.03m this year and the stump of the felled tree is of a similar size – one day I shall take some sandpaper down to clean up the stump and count the rings.

Parc-y-Werin Black Poplar 05-Nov-12
Alfie sniffing the old stump

Another tree is located in a hedgerow in Cwm Ivy. This is a much more difficult tree to photograph and measure as the trunk is gnarled and twisted, but a girth measurement at 70cm height of 3.38m suggests this may be the older of the two trees.  Earlier this year I also saw a tree on the Neath Canal, Melincryddan, though no measurements were taken.

Veronica Shenston at the
Cwm Ivy Black Poplar 27-Dec-12

To put these humble trees in context, yesterday we visited Brecon where Britain’s largest Black Polar grows – we measured the girth of this spectacular Champion tree as 7.03m.

Sand at Brecon Black Poplar 26-Dec-12

Brecon Black Poplar 26-Dec-12

Domestic Diversity

A couple of interesting breeds encountered this week:

Highland Cow on Fairwood Common

Rambo (breed unknown) above Rhossili beach

Gower Yews

Yews (Taxus baccata) are a frequent sight in churches and cemeteries throughout the UK. The National Champion stands at Ashbrittle Parish Church in Somerset and has a girth of 11.59m. At 11.28m, the Welsh Champion at Discoed in Powys is the UK’s second largest Yew. In Gower we’ve only measured a handful of Yews to date and the largest we’ve come across is a tree in Llanrhidian Church that has a girth of 6.31m. I'm sure others have looked before us and undoubtedly there are bigger trees around, so we’d be interested to hear if you know of any good examples of these living historical monuments.