Down on the Gwent Levels 

This May was when all our species ID training sessions really kicked off, getting our volunteers ready to head out and record wildlife. Our Gwent Levels Reserves are a fantastic place to host these training sessions thanks to our diverse ditches and meadows which host a variety of life.  

We kicked off the survey season with Bumblebee Conservation Trust coming to run a Bumblebee ID course at Magor Marsh for our volunteers. After learning about the 8 common bumblebees, plus some bonus rarities found on the Gwent levels such as the Shrill Carder Bee and Brown-banded Carder Bee, we set out to Bridewell Common to practice what we learnt. Thanks to the variety of early forage available in the hay meadows, volunteers spotted a selection of bumblebee species, including the Brown-banded Carder Bee! 

Volunteers and staff were also treated to a Dragonfly and Damselfly training day in May with the county recorder, Steve Preddy. Unsurprisingly, Magor Marsh was the ideal setting for this, with all our ditches creating fantastic dragonfly and damselfly habitat – it wasn’t awarded British Dragonfly Society (BDS) “Hotspot” status for nothing! After a great class-room session we headed out in the sun to put our skills to the test. We recorded 3 Dragonfly Species, and 4 Damselfly species on the reserve, which is pretty good for early in the season. Highlights were the local specialty the Hairy Dragonfly, the huge Emperor Dragonfly, and a fairly recent colonist the Red-eyed Damselfly. People will be putting their newfound skills to use, recording for the Monmouthshire Dragon/Damselfly which will be published in 2029. 

Over in the Eastern Valleys 

One of the main tasks this time of year across many of our reserves is the dreaded bracken bashing! Although bracken is an important component of the landscape and supports many species, without management it can quickly take over meadows, outcompeting all our delicate flowers, thus reducing the overall biodiversity of a site.  

Historically, bracken would have been kept at bay by the presence of large mammals roaming the land. Species such as boar and auroch would trampling and knock back bracken as they moved through the landscape and occasionally eating it. With the absence of these species bracken quickly swamps open areas, growing fast and dense and over time creating a thick layer of mulch over the ground. 

May’s weekend Saturday task took our volunteers to Silent Valley, where we continued efforts to reduce bracken cover on priority areas to help enhance and maintain floral diversity. By bashing the bracken with sticks, the stems are damaged but not killed. Killing the bracken early on in the season will only open up the area for new growth. Bruising the bracken stunts it growth, still allowing light to the ground for other species. After repeating this a few times a year, for a couple of years, you finally start to see the bracken retreat and become more spars.  

Off our reserves 

May was a busy month for our volunteers down in Newport. With a long list of tasks to be done on our monthly session with The Twmps Nature Restoration Group / Grwp Adfer Natur Y Twmp, volunteers carried out a wide range of tasks. The Twmps is an area of Newport owned by Newport City Council and managed by The Twmps Nature Restoration Group, a collection of community members working hard to restore the site and improve it for biodiversity. 

With a mission to build up a bank of species records for the site, we started the session by carrying out a plant survey and a Flower-Insect-Timed count, to gain a better understanding of the pollinators on the site.  

As with many of our sites, we then turned our attention to the encroaching bracken, knocking it back to expose a variety of plants fighting to reach the light. We also worked on cutting back the bramble to re open the paths to make the site more accessible for visitors. 

Top species sighted 

We had an exciting first record for Bridewell Common this May! Following 6 years sympathetic management and wildflower seeding at Bridewell Common, we were extremely excited to have our first Shrill Carder Bee record! This was reported by one of our wonderful volunteers who was carrying out their weekly butterfly transect on the reserve. The queen bee was spotted foraging on a patch of red clover, and there have been subsequent sightings on the reserve. It's exciting to see that all the hard work undertaken by staff and volunteers to enhance floral species richness and flower abundance has been rewarded