Iolo's Valleys episode 3
Iolo's Valleys episode 3
Category
🐳
AnimalsTranscript
00:00The South Wales Valleys, one of Wales's most iconic regions.
00:12Most people associate it with coal mines, pollution and the scarred environment.
00:21Now with heavy industry mostly gone and replaced by a greener landscape, nature is making a
00:28comeback.
00:31Despite it being the most populated part of Wales, the people who live here are never
00:36far from remarkable wildlife and breathtaking scenery.
00:43So I'm heading to the Valleys to discover the extraordinary wildlife that's reclaiming
00:48the old coalfields.
01:02The Valleys north of Cardiff are well populated and that's where I'm exploring this time.
01:07And where better to start than Merthyr Tydfil.
01:17I'm walking over the Cairncoed Viaduct at the top of the Taff Valley and this was built
01:24for the Merthyr to Brecon railway line and opened in 1868.
01:28It's an amazing bit of Victorian engineering really.
01:34This impressive structure is 235 metres long and if you notice it was built curved to avoid
01:41the land of the Merthyr iron master Robert Crochet.
01:46And he at the time was one of only 10 millionaires in the whole country.
01:52Very, very wealthy man.
01:53There's a lot of building work going on all around me now.
01:55New bridges going up and I wouldn't mind betting that this will outlive all of them.
02:03I had to visit the old Cyfarthfa ironworks nearby.
02:07It was one of four built in Merthyr in the 18th century which made the town the iron
02:12capital of the world at one point.
02:17This ironworks, well it first opened in 1765 but things really took off when the Crochet
02:22family bought it out and then towards the end of the 1700s, the early 1800s it was one
02:29of the most important ironworks in the whole world and that was because at that time the
02:33British Empire was expanding.
02:35We were at war with virtually everyone and here they made things like cannons and cannonballs
02:41so it was really important for the war effort.
02:44And then it closed eventually in 1875 because you could just get cheaper iron elsewhere
02:50in the world and this today is all that's left.
02:55This huge stone ruin is riddled with holes and they've become a regular nesting spot
03:00for birds during spring.
03:03I tell you what's most interesting for me is the fact that they've been colonised by
03:11a migrant from Africa, by sand martins.
03:14So you'd expect sand martins to nest in river banks, sandy, muddy banks, they'll dig holes
03:19in there but here they're using the vents, the blast furnace vents and they're going
03:25in and out of these holes.
03:26There we are, there's one just gone out now, look.
03:28So they come all the way back from Africa and rather than nest on a river nearby somewhere
03:32they come and nest in these holes here and they must be all the way along here, there's
03:36probably I would think, probably 40, 50 pairs.
03:42Sand martins are very adaptable and have taken to this man-made structure well and
03:47the surrounding area has plenty of grasses for them to collect for their nests.
03:56Many of the rivers in this area were renowned for their beauty and salmon fishing 200 years
04:01ago but they declined severely during the industrial revolution.
04:07While modern pollution problems still occur, they're in a much better state now than a
04:12century ago.
04:14Ten miles south from Merthyr lies Aber Cynon and that's where I'm heading now.
04:19This is the river Cynon just before it runs into the Taff and I just want to have a look
04:26and see how clean this river is.
04:28I know the South East Wales Rivers Trust, they sample this river regularly and they
04:33say it's a pretty good river for invertebrates.
04:38Shoals of minnows are a good sign that this river's clean but most of the invertebrates
04:43will be under the rocks and while I look for them, Graeme, the cameraman, prepares a pool
04:48on the side so we can film them.
04:50Where do you want him Graeme?
04:53I'll try him there.
04:54I'll see if he settles.
04:55I doubt it will.
04:56He probably won't but you never know.
04:57Oh he has too.
04:58It's always nice if you can find bull heads in a river.
05:05It's also called the Miller's Thumb by the way because the old miller used to bang their
05:09thumbs and they had enlarged thumbs so it's got a big, big head and a small, thin body.
05:15Very descriptive term.
05:17And stone loach as well.
05:18They're beautiful little fish, they've got a little pattern all along the body like quite
05:23a long, thin fish.
05:25Here's some of the invertebrates.
05:26We've got stone flies, the ones with a two-pronged tail, mayflies have got a three-pronged tail.
05:32We've got all kinds of caddis flies, the ones that people are familiar with, the ones that
05:37build a little case.
05:39Some of them build it out of little pebbles, others use plant material, you've got caseless
05:43ones.
05:44I find it really ironic really, this is the Avon Cunnon, it's in one of the most heavily
05:50mined valleys in the whole of the UK and just three, four decades ago this river was toxic.
05:58It's now got a really healthy invertebrate population, it's got the birds, it's got kingfishers,
06:03it's got grey wagtails, it's got dippers here and isn't it ironic that the Avon Cunnon is
06:10now healthier than the River Wye.
06:16The Cunnon Valley has numerous places to see great wildlife, with one surprising gem
06:23nestled in the middle of an urban area, Cwm Bach Wetlands, and on a spring morning it's
06:31beautiful.
06:32I think I was in the Everglades with you here, but I'm in the Cunnon Valley and look at that,
06:43it's absolutely stunning, it's first light, you've got the mist rising off the water there,
06:49you've got moot swans and that's the amazing thing with these valleys, despite the fact
06:53that they're incredibly busy, a lot of them very industrialised, you've still got these
06:59small pockets of wildlife havens right in the middle of them.
07:0625 years ago this area used to be farmland, and as it was left unmanaged it flooded repeatedly.
07:14The transformation is remarkable and now it's home to all kinds of wildlife, including a
07:19few noisy birds.
07:22A bit of a standoff here between two reed warblers, I must be right on the edge of two
07:34territories, one singing here and there's one, he's gone quiet all of a sudden, but
07:38he has been singing in here somewhere.
07:41Difficult to see because they'll hide away in the vegetation, but every now and again
07:45they'll come up and they'll put their heads up and they'll sing away, I don't know how
07:51many pairs, there must be eight, nine, ten pairs here, and there's a reed bunting sat
07:56in a willow there as well, so the more time you spend quietly just looking and watching,
08:01the more you see.
08:08Off he goes again, and the other one's picking up now as well.
08:14It's like a sing off and almost as if the reed bunting is going to be the judge at the
08:18end of it because he's just sat in the willow there just looking, just watching.
08:28One of the volunteers that helps look after this place is Bethan Jenkins.
08:32Do you know what Bethan, I just can't believe that you've got a housing estate there, you've
08:38got a busy road, you've got the railway line, you're hemmed in, and yet you've got this
08:43amazing little oasis right in the middle of it.
08:46It's bonkers and I don't think a lot of people realised until lockdown what was on their
08:52doorstep, and this became a haven for a lot of people I think, where they could come and
08:56do their daily exercise, and people just grouped together and we decided that we wanted
09:01to protect the land, and now people come here every day, it's amazing.
09:06Hold on, let me stop you for a sec, look at this, see there?
09:11It's a leopard moth, oh that is cool, I don't see those very often.
09:15I've never seen one of these before in my life.
09:17You can see why it's called the leopard moth, it's a little stunner, look at that, beautiful
09:22isn't it?
09:23Gorgeous.
09:24All along there, and then spotted all along the wings as well.
09:27That's gorgeous.
09:28Isn't that lovely?
09:29Yeah.
09:30It's a leopard moth.
09:31They'll hang around on dead trees, that's a little bit obvious though, and they hang
09:33around on areas I guess on dead trees by day, and then fly by night obviously.
09:38I've learned something today.
09:40Well it just goes to show you just how much wildlife you have got, but it's just the proximity
09:47of the houses, the houses are there, and then you've got some kind of hedge, and then all
09:52of a sudden you've got all of this wildlife.
09:55It's fabulous.
09:56It is fabulous.
09:57Are you down here every day?
09:58I'm not every day, but I come down when I can.
10:01We litterpick here every Sunday to try and keep it nice and clean and safe for everything
10:05that lives here, but yeah, I come here as often as I can.
10:09It's just beautiful, and it's a nice place to come and clear your head as well, you know.
10:13Despite it being a popular place with walkers, there are still a few quiet spots to find.
10:20Talking to a couple of locals walking up and down the path here, they're a mind of information.
10:25They reckon this area here is really good for water rail.
10:29It's a real reed bed, specialist dense reed bed.
10:32You don't see them out in the open that often really.
10:35Yeah, I've got one.
10:36I've got one.
10:37It's this one on the far side, just on the edge of the vegetation on the far side there.
10:43They're actually really quite smart birds as well, like a red sickle-like bill, a sort
10:48of blue-grey, and then the flanks are lovely lines of white and black.
10:53And this one is, well, it's probing, difficult to see, but it's probing probably after things
11:00like dragonfly larvae, maybe some sticklebacks, some minnows, small fish like that.
11:07Yeah, it's not going to hang around, is it?
11:09It's going to disappear.
11:11It's turned and gone back in again.
11:13Ah, that is typical water rail behaviour.
11:17And if you're lucky enough to get a head-on view, like if you see a moorhen, it's quite
11:22a fat, dumpy bird, but if you get lucky enough to get a head-on view of one of these, it
11:27looks like someone's put it in a vice and squeezed it because they're flattened and
11:31that's an adaptation for them to be able to get between all of these reeds.
11:36It's a cracker of a bird, it really is.
11:40Some of the woods we see in the valleys today are remnants of larger areas that were cleared
11:46during the Industrial Revolution.
11:48Pontypridd sits at the junction of the Rhondda and Taff valleys, and the wooded hill north
11:54of the town is a great example of this.
11:58I'm meeting Tara and Sam, two of the locals who are passionate about it.
12:05Right then, Tara, Sam, I've got to be honest with you, I don't know this area at all well.
12:10Where are we headed?
12:11So, we're going up to Craigorask Local Nature Reserve.
12:15Sam is taking me to a nest she's found right on the edge of the woods.
12:19Can you see the barriers there?
12:21Oh, these two metal barriers, yeah?
12:23Yeah, just behind there's a hole and there's a pair of coat-its feeding young.
12:26Shall we go up here and see if we can get a better view?
12:29Blue-tits, nearly all of them, great-tits, always holes in trees or something like that.
12:33But cold-tits, I've had them in vole holes in the ground, you know, in stone walls, just anywhere.
12:39Yeah, that's where we usually get them, is in stone walls or bottom of tree stumps.
12:44Here we are, here we are.
12:45Oh, it's landed on it.
12:47It's got a nice green caterpillar.
12:50Fabulous.
12:51And in it goes, look.
12:53It's not that bothered by us looking, is it?
12:55No, no, no, little corker.
12:57Beautiful.
12:58There we are, off it goes.
12:59Oh, I tell you what it had in its beak then, fecal sac.
13:02Fecal sac, yeah?
13:03Yeah, fecal sac.
13:04Yeah, fantastic.
13:05Hell of a thing though, isn't it?
13:06Imagine you're looking after eating young ones and they put their bums in the air and
13:10they pook them.
13:11So you say thanks very much and out you go and drop it again.
13:14You just think, oh, if I come back as anything, I don't want to come back as a cold-tit.
13:19Lovely.
13:20What's next?
13:21Are we going back into the woods?
13:22We'll go back into the woods.
13:23Back into the woods.
13:24Right, come on then.
13:25It's May, so it's well worth listening out for any migrant birds that may have arrived
13:29in the woods and one has caught my attention.
13:35Hang on, hang on, hang on.
13:39Wood wobbler.
13:40Yeah, that's usually where they are, where the oak trees are, right over the back there.
13:44That's usually where they are.
13:45But this, this bit here actually, this is one of their favoured spots.
13:49When they first come in, we usually get a male displaying in this area here, doing a
13:53little bit of a fluttering flight.
13:55Lovely birds, aren't they?
13:56Beautiful.
13:57Just for that peep, peep, peep.
13:58Yeah.
13:59And then the spinning coin.
14:00Yeah.
14:01And that's, we know they're back then.
14:02Yeah.
14:03So that's really good.
14:04They're on the decline.
14:05Yeah.
14:06And they're getting harder and harder to find, aren't they now, wood wobblers?
14:08Yeah, yeah, definitely.
14:09Really difficult to find.
14:10Yeah, I think they're on the red list now for whales, unfortunately.
14:12That's a nice bird.
14:13That's a really, really nice bird.
14:14That's my favourite.
14:15Is it your favourite?
14:16Yeah.
14:17It is nice.
14:18It is nice.
14:19I'm not a wobbler person.
14:20Most of them are boring brown things, but a wood wobbler is nice.
14:23A wood wobbler.
14:24Yeah, it is.
14:25It's nice.
14:27We lay down.
14:28Oh, that's it.
14:29Yeah, there he goes again now.
14:31Within Craighar Haysk Woods, hidden relics of the past can be found if you know where to look.
14:37Oh, wow, look at this.
14:38Look at this.
14:39Hang on.
14:40There's an old building.
14:41Looks like there's some kind of roadway or something going up here, is there?
14:43I'm not exactly sure, but I grew up calling these the secret allotments.
14:47There was an old tram road running down here between the quarry and canal and everything
14:52down in town.
14:53And I used to walk the woods with an old gentleman who owned a lot of that land.
14:57And he told me that these were wartime secret allotments.
15:01If you look at the size of them, you can kind of believe they're quite small.
15:04Yeah.
15:05Not big enough for farming.
15:06And it is divided up into different bits as well, isn't it?
15:09Yeah.
15:10So, obviously, I can't verify it, but he told me they were secret allotments.
15:13They didn't want to hand all the food over to the government.
15:15Or in the war.
15:16In the war, yeah.
15:17They used to keep some of the food for the locals.
15:19Yeah.
15:21Quite a neat story, true or not.
15:23Yeah.
15:24And a fantastic place for nesting birds, isn't it?
15:25Yeah, definitely.
15:26Look at all these walls.
15:27Just having a few wrens and robins galore in there.
15:29Yeah, yeah.
15:32If we just stop here, Yolo, just here, there's something pretty cool nest-wise up here.
15:37Can you follow my finger up that tree there?
15:39You can see a small hole.
15:40Oh, an attach.
15:41Oh, you can see the beak of the chick inside.
15:43There we go.
15:44Right up to the hole.
15:45Sure, there's a lot of mud gone into that.
15:47Yeah, because it was a big hole.
15:48Yeah, yeah, it was a big hole.
15:49And they've had to fill it to be the perfect size.
15:51And that mud will dry like concrete.
15:53Yeah.
15:54Well, that's another record for us.
15:55Oh, that's lovely.
15:56That's really nice.
15:57Now we've seen the chick.
15:58OK, on average, right, between the both of you,
16:01how many nests do you reckon you find in this wood every year?
16:04Roughly.
16:05A good year, do you reckon?
16:07Yeah, probably about 30.
16:0825, 30, I would say, yeah.
16:10Well, well done, you two.
16:11And thank you so much for showing me around as well.
16:14You're welcome.
16:15Come again.
16:24For over a century, coal mining defined the South Wales Valleys,
16:28leaving scars of heavy industry and coal tips.
16:33Times have changed, and with mining gone,
16:36wildlife has been able to colonise them.
16:39I'm visiting one of the most recent tips on the outskirts of Beddau,
16:43a few miles south of Pontypridd.
16:46It's an impressive sight, isn't it?
16:48It's the site of the old comb colliery and coke works.
16:52And the coal, well, it wasn't particularly clean coal,
16:55it was what they called steam coal.
16:57And I'm walking on the old tip here,
16:59and you're reminded that it is an old coal mine,
17:03because you keep finding bits of coal all over the place here.
17:07And although much of this soil is quite toxic,
17:12nature is actually winning the ground back again.
17:16You see vegetation, you see some trees, some shrubs,
17:19and what happens, you get pioneering plants.
17:22They die, their leaves fall on the ground,
17:25they form a thin layer of soil.
17:27And on a warm day, the tip warms up quickly,
17:30the soil is warm,
17:32and that makes it a brilliant site for invertebrates.
17:42See, it's all these aphids here.
17:45Well, what the gardeners call blackfly.
17:47And I tell you what, there's a few ants there as well.
17:50That is pretty cool.
17:52I don't know if you know, but you can use your binoculars
17:55as a magnifying glass if you turn them round,
17:58and then hold them, and then put it right in.
18:01Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
18:03The ants are farming the aphids.
18:06They sort of touch them with their antennae,
18:10kind of stroke them, really,
18:12and that then induces the aphids to produce honeydew,
18:17a sugary solution out of their back end,
18:21and then it's feeding on the honeydew.
18:24But what do the aphids get back?
18:27Well, the ants guard them against any predators.
18:31Oh, that is really cool.
18:33I tell you what else is here.
18:35Not feeding on them, but it's just nearby.
18:38It's a ladybird larva,
18:40and that is one of the main predators of these aphids.
18:44And I hate it when gardeners say,
18:46oh, I've got an infestation of blackfly.
18:48I've sprayed it.
18:50Please don't spray, because the ladybirds will do well
18:53if you don't spray, because this is ladybird food,
18:56and they will come, and they'll eat them,
18:59but the ants, of course, try to battle them,
19:01keep them away, guard them.
19:03But not brilliant, just on a bit of ragwood like that.
19:08One of the coal-tip specialists that's found here
19:11is the grailing butterfly.
19:13Its cryptic colouring blends well against lichens and bare ground.
19:17Sadly, they're on the decline,
19:19so these industrial moonscapes are important habitats for them.
19:26As I look around, I meet local ecologist Liam Olds,
19:29who's an expert on coal-tip wildlife.
19:33Hi, you all up?
19:34Do you know what, I thought if I'm going to bump into anyone here today,
19:37it'd be you, you live your life on these old coal-tips, don't you?
19:40Yeah, that's right, yeah, I'm up here quite a lot.
19:42What are you looking for today, then?
19:44So I'm having a look at these ornith-tailed digger wasps,
19:47that are solitary wasps that nest in the sandy bank here,
19:51and these are predatory on solitary bees.
19:53If you look kind of carefully, you'll sometimes see them
19:56coming back with the little solitary bees
19:58that they paralysed to put into their nests.
20:00And what, they'll lay an egg on that, then,
20:02and the grub will eat the bee, will it?
20:04That's right, yeah.
20:05So that's where all of these little holes are in this bank here,
20:08all these burrows in here.
20:10And are those two mating over there?
20:12Yeah, so you've got a bit of a mating ball there,
20:14so you've got multiple males sort of jumping onto a female.
20:17Yeah, so beautiful species, you know, with the really bright yellow bands.
20:20So, you know, they're quite rare in the Welsh context,
20:22you often get them on the sand dunes, you know,
20:24but these sites are basically replicating inland sand dunes in the valleys.
20:28How many species of bees will you have here, then?
20:31So, on this tip, we're approaching about 60 species of bee now,
20:35and then with the wasps, we're probably looking at
20:37about 20 species of wasps here as well.
20:40A few decades ago, this would have just been
20:42a total black ice on the landscape, devoid of anything, really,
20:45so literally ground zero, and then just through natural succession,
20:49they've just become these really amazing islands
20:51that are really rich in biodiversity, you know,
20:53and we're finding now that they're actually supporting
20:55some of our rarest species within a Welsh and a UK context,
20:58and in some cases, a global context as well, so yeah.
21:01That is amazing. Oh, top man.
21:03Well, you keep up the excellent work, right?
21:05I'm going to let you carry on.
21:06I'm going to have a look round and see what else I can find.
21:08Great stuff, thank you.
21:09Nice to see you, boy.
21:10Nice to see you. Take care, Leo.
21:11Take care.
21:12Ta-ra, boy.
21:17Birdsfoot trefoil thrives here,
21:20and as well as providing nectar to various pollinators,
21:23it's also important for a rare and stunning species
21:26that hardly stays still.
21:32This is one of the species I was hoping to find here.
21:36It's called a six-belted clearwing.
21:39They're really, really mobile, but they love this.
21:42They love birdsfoot trefoil, also called eggs and bacon,
21:45this plant here, but they're beautiful things.
21:47Clearwings are just weird kind of moths.
21:50They've got see-through wings.
21:52These have got markings like yellowy-orange bands.
21:55The males have got six, the females have got five,
21:58but these are probably all males looking for a female.
22:02They've got an interesting life cycle as well.
22:04This is one of their main food plants.
22:07They lay eggs on it, but then what the larva does
22:10is it goes down into the roots and lives inside the root
22:15all the way through until June, July next year
22:18when it emerges again as an adult,
22:20and then the females send out pheromones
22:23and that attracts the males and they mate again.
22:27Of the 14 species of UK clearwings,
22:30the six-belted is one of the scarcest.
22:33And it just goes to show how important sites like this are,
22:38these old coal tips, these old industrial sites
22:41all throughout the valleys.
22:43They support over 50 species of bees,
22:46and some of those are found nowhere else in the UK.
22:49They've got some invertebrates here,
22:51but are found nowhere else in the world.
22:53So, you know, we really should value and protect these areas.
23:01Two miles north of Tonopandy is Penrhys Cemetery.
23:05Now, it may not seem like a good place to see wildlife,
23:08but it's one of the best spots in South Wales to look for fungi.
23:12There's all sorts here, from the bizarre-looking corals
23:15to the aptly named earth tongues.
23:18So I'm meeting local mycologist Emma Williams.
23:25And you know this area well, don't you?
23:27I do. This is where I grew up. This is my childhood cemetery.
23:30So, yeah, I've known this cemetery for 40-odd years.
23:33You say childhood cemetery, it makes sense.
23:35You were born and brought up here?
23:37I wasn't quite born here. I was a toddler.
23:39My dad was a sexton, so I lived in the lodge just there.
23:42So this cemetery was my playground.
23:44This is where I learned about nature.
23:47So what we have here is a really nice, one of the yellow corals.
23:51Yeah.
23:52And it's quite an attractive-looking one here.
23:54Look what that is. It looks like coral, looks like yellow coral.
23:57But it's well-known for its wax caps.
24:00Can we find some wax caps?
24:01We can find some. She's a little bit behind this season.
24:04I've got one or two on my lawn.
24:06Parrot and blackening is the other one.
24:09Parrot is my favourite. I've got those on my lawn.
24:11So this is what we have here.
24:13So it's showing its very typical feature,
24:16which is that normally quite a conical cap on them, hence conica,
24:21but the blackening.
24:22So whenever you get damage, they'll actually blacken quite rapidly,
24:25about five minutes on the conica.
24:27We have an orange to red form there,
24:29and you can just see, again, where she's been damaged,
24:31that she's gone black.
24:33But she will naturally completely blacken up
24:35and almost look like petrified wood when she's finished.
24:37Hence why, around Halloween, seeing those on a lawn is quite amazing
24:41because they do look as if you've got, you know,
24:43hundreds of little witch's hats throughout a lawn.
24:46Nice to see them.
24:47Listen, we've got to move on, not for any reason,
24:50except that my knees are going to pop any minute.
24:52Come on. That's lovely. I like those.
24:59I've only just left Emma.
25:01Something caught my eye.
25:02It's a female green woodpecker, which is lovely.
25:04I don't see them very often anymore.
25:06It's digging away at an anthill.
25:08She uses these graves as a perch.
25:11Just have a look around you.
25:13She's been digging for ants, and she comes up.
25:15She has a look around.
25:16She's quite concerned looking to see any danger, anything like that.
25:20Then she'll go back down, and then she'll start to dig again.
25:23It's lovely.
25:24And this is ideal for them.
25:26Lots of old anthills where they'll dig.
25:28They'll feed on the grubs.
25:30I'd love to think, you know, that where you're being laid to rest
25:34is going to be a wildlife haven.
25:39As the Rhondda Valley became more urbanised,
25:42most of its wildlife moved to the fringes.
25:46Now, many who live in these communities enjoy going in search of this nature.
25:52Dean Selden has been photographing a fox near Todapande for a few years
25:57and has got to know it pretty well.
25:59So he's taking me to a spot where he's been putting food down for it.
26:03And while the crew and I get set up,
26:05Dean prepares a buffet for the fox
26:07and lets it know dinner's ready by whistling.
26:17When did you first come across this fixture?
26:19About four years ago now, I think.
26:21Four years?
26:22Yeah, four years.
26:23How long did it take you to get her used to you being here?
26:27The last two years.
26:29Is it your two years?
26:30Two years.
26:31So wait for her to get used to me at the top?
26:32Yeah.
26:33Come down an extra five or ten metres and just get your patience.
26:38So now, if we weren't here, you wouldn't have the cap on it
26:43and you'd sit out in the open, would you?
26:45Yeah.
26:46And she's happy with you here?
26:47Yeah.
26:49Foxes have this amazing ability to stay hidden even when they're close
26:53and this one has her eye on us.
26:56See a beautiful fox's head sticking up out of the heather.
27:02I suspect she knows there's something going on.
27:04She's quite nervous.
27:07They're very intelligent, aren't they?
27:09They get used to people they know and any stranger
27:13and they're on edge straight away.
27:15It's late May, so she'll have young cubs to feed in a den nearby.
27:20Foxes rarely turn down a free meal
27:23and although it's taken a while, she finally makes an appearance.
27:27Oh, wow!
27:31What a good girl.
27:35She's been so patient.
27:36She must have been sitting there.
27:38She could see us.
27:39We couldn't see her.
27:40We thought she'd gone.
27:47She always stops to have a look at me.
27:51She's the best fed fox in the whole of the valleys, I tell you.
27:55She's starting to collect her food.
27:57I think she's going to make her way back down to the cubs now.
28:00So what she's done is she's eaten for herself
28:03to make sure she gets some food and then she's taken,
28:05I can see she's taken the chicken leg
28:07and whatever else is there, she'll take it down to the cubs.
28:10Yeah.
28:11That's fantastic.
28:13That was absolutely brilliant.
28:14Top-notch.
28:15It was creative.
28:16Thank you, Dean.
28:17Cheers.
28:18Throughout the Taff, Connaughan and Rhondda Valleys,
28:21the locals are never far from fantastic wildlife.
28:26Next time, I'll visit the valleys north of Newport,
28:29where I'll get up close to owl chicks.
28:32I'll also look for stunning insects on brownfield sites
28:37and find lapwings nesting on a coal tip.
28:55.