Bramblers beware

Lately you may have noticed orange topped bamboo canes popping up throughout the forest. Or you may have seen hazard warning tape, or just seemingly random patches of dead vegetation.

Hazard tape around a pine and clump of montbretia/crocosmia

Orange topped bamboo cane by brambles and montbretia

Mainly, these markers are showing where Natural Resources Wales’ contractors will be or have been spraying herbicide to try and kill the montbretia/crocosmia.

Montbretia/crocosmia and surrounding plants sprayed off

Inevitably, despite careful application, the pesticide is also getting on to the surrounding plants and especially the brambles / mwyar duon / blackberries which are just coming ripe now. So, if you don’t want a dose of pesticide with the fruit you pick, best to avoid any of these areas.

There are, of course, questions about the appropriateness of using herbicides in this way – especially for a corm forming plant. But there are also questions about the additives used to ensure the herbicide works: the surfactants which dissolve the leaves’ waxy coatings, also dissolve the waxy coatings on the skin of anything else they touch, most especially amphibians.

The frogs, toads and newts at Newborough are already having a tough time, with the declining water quality and extensive disturbance in NRW’s habitat “improvement” schemes here. This year, I have seen fewer frogs, toads or newts than any previous year. And it is ironic that the toad I saw near the treated montbretia had suppurating ulcers on its back. Probably (possibly) that is nothing to do with the herbicide applications, but it did make me wonder…

Toad with ulcers, by the treated montbretia – a bit of a blurry shot as the toad was clearly unwell and I didn’t want to hassle him/her

Frogspawn and newts

Back in February, when we took our freedoms for granted, I spotted frogs spawning at the edge of the forest.

Frogspawn, Newborough Forest, 4th February 2020.

The frogs were still there as I arrived and quickly took this picture, but they ducked under the water to hide and I moved on quickly so as not to disturb them.

Today, I saw my first newts of the season.

Newts, Newborough Forest, April 2020

The paler newt, to the left of the picture was sneaking up on the darker one.

Newts in a pool at Newborough Forest, April 2020

After this, they got in a tussle and I couldn’t get a clear picture as they stirred up the bottom of the pool.

Happily for the frogs, these newts are not in the same pool as the frogspawn!

 

 

Super-tides and frogspawn

Today and tomorrow will see the highest tides of the spring at Llanddwyn.  In fact, they’re probably the highest they’ll be for many springs to come (although the autumn tides this year will be higher still). The National Tidal and Sea Level Facility website has tidal predictions up until 2026 for the highest and lowest equinoctial tides. They don’t list Llanddwyn, because it’s too small, but they have data for Holyhead and they show that 2015’s tides will be the highest.

Thanks to last year’s storms that ate away at the sand cliffs so much, although the tide is super high, it is still possible to walk along Penrhos Beach at high tide.  It’s a bit slopey though – you could really do with one leg about six inches longer than the other!

The slopey side of Penrhos Beach where the sand cliffs used to be

Llanddwyn as a proper island at high tide

Meanwhile, in the forest, the frogs have been spawning for about a week.  They have moved back to their old ditch/stream in the newly landscaped area on the Postman’s Trail. Every night new clumps of spawn are being added to the earlier batches: fingers crossed it is going to be a good year for the frogs.

Frogspawn – they’re quite hard to spot amongst the reflections of the trees

Frogspawn clumps – the newest are the darkest ones in the middle

Froglets and flowers on the warren

In the forest, the first froglets started clambering out of the pools and ditches at the start of June. Those forest froglets were big, strong and quite golden in colour.

Today, out on the warren, some of the froglets in one of the pony watering holes were climbing out. These froglets are tiny and so dark they look almost black. Maybe they’re actually toadlets.

A tiny froglet or toadlet making its way out of the pool

The water level in the pond has dropped meaning that the baby amphibians have to clamber through sand before they can get anywhere: becoming completely coated with sand grains in the process.

…scrambling up the sand bank…

…getting coated with sand…(there is a froglet here – right in the centre)

On the edge of the warren, a clump of hemlock water dropwort (the UK’s most poisonous plant) must have caught the eye of lots of people as a path has been worn to it through the scrub and rushes.

Closer still to the tide line, pretty little sea milkwort flowers carpet the path.

Sea milkwort (Glaux maritima)

There are plenty of colourful orchids flowering, and plenty of twayblades too – also an orchid, but an easily overlooked one as it has fairly inconspicuous green flower spikes with two broad leaves at the bottom: hence the name twayblade.

Twayblade flowers

Froglets galore

Each summer, usually around midsummer’s day, thousands of froglets emerge from the pools and lakes around Newborough. In a good year (for the frogs), walking becomes more like dancing as you try to make your way without stepping on a little froglet.

Froglets on the track by Llyn Parc Mawr – I missed circling one, top left – they’re not easy to see.

Froglet (I’m not even sure that is a word!)

The froglets are so small, a lot of people don’t even notice what is under their feet, you can imagine the consequences…