Garnteg Primary School Meets GWT & Breaking Barriers

In my first Job with the Gwent Wildlife Trust we kicked off a new project called 'The hills are alive: with the sound of nature!). The aim of the project is to banish the idea that our uplands are baron and bereft of wildlife. We plan on doing this by teaching people of all ages how to record/interact with wildlife. Families and generations of people actually struggle to connect with nature with their children, unless of course it is as easy as visiting your local pond/lake where they often feed the ducks. 

This is the reason why GWT has invested in quality recording gear for the younger generation to actually use in the field so they can practise and see how rewarding it is when you put in that extra bit of effort. It is surprising the things we miss in our busy daily lives. We tend to move too quickly, both physically and mentally...

We have teamed up with a great company called 'Breaking Barriers' and between the two of us, we intend on creating a memorable experience for the children at Garnteg Primary School who so far have learned how to use the gear and have now started to identify some of the bird songs around them. Garnteg Primary School have great facilities to accommodate this project with their very own recording studio so my knowledge of sound and music is really being used to help make this project productive.

Torfaen Biodiversity Partnership

Today I was very fortunate to be invited along to a meeting based around Biodiversity in Torfaen. Firstly, big thanks to Steve Williams (Torfaen's head ecologist) for inviting me and secondly, I'd just like to point out how lucky we are to have such great people and great minds sticking up for nature in our county. Without organisations like Gwent Wildlife Trust, Friends of the Earth, County Ecologists and self employed naturalists, our county and others surrounding it will be much worse off. Despite feeling quite 'safe' in their hands, they still need all the help they can get so if there is anything you yourself can do to support your local conservation groups, please help out. 

1 of the sites we visited today was, believe it or not... was Pets at Home in cwmbran.. Why on earth uh? Well, I heard about this before but thanks to some of the grassland being left to grow, we actually had wild Bee Orchids growing on the banks of the road side. This is a perfect example of how our ecology can re-establish itself sometimes if, just left alone. I learned a lot about grassland and meadows today which has made me appreciate my favourite meadows at Llandegfedd even more. 

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Below I've included some photographs from yesterdays short morning trip around Pontypool. Happy to see another Redkite and also find quite good numbers of Redstarts. 

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News Update (The Hills are Alive) (Llandegfedd Meeting)

 have good news! Last week I had a meeting with Veronika Brannovic from the Gwent Wildlife Trust regarding plans for a new project starting this year. The project will be called 'The Hills are Alive' (With the sound of Music!).. Those that know my background will at this point be quite excited for me as this project is pretty much tailer made! On that note, the outcome of the meeting was in fact a Job! Finally a Job that I can put all my knowledge with sound to good use. The Hills are Alive project has the aim to banish the idea that our upland habitats are baron land and bereft of wildlife and we will be approaching this from 2 different perspectives; Sound & Photography. My Job will be to teach people (mostly the younger generation) how to record the wildlife of our uplands. This is a huge task because the reason why people have this perception that the uplands is empty, is because the wildlife for the most part is very good at hiding. Not only that, the weather on the uplands can be quite extreme and even at the best of times, wind noise always plays a factor with sound recording. So, we have to approach it professionally and with the right equipment so the next step will be to gear up and prepare for everything. I'm very excited for this project to start! It will only be 1-2 days a week but that also means I can carry on with my current Job so win win. 

In other news, next week I have an important meeting with Welsh Water regarding Llandegfedd. The meeting came about after I expressed my concerns via email about the health and safety of both people and the wildlife onsite. In this email I offered a solution to solve all these problems and that involves bringing a Trust like the Wildlife Trust onboard to manage the ecological requirements at the North side. On that note, I saw the opportunity to invite Veronika Brannovic from GWT to the meeting also so that she could give factual information as to what the WT could offer if such a partnership commenced. I am super excited about this meeting and really hope that the outcome is beneficial for all and not just the narrow slopped path that Llandegfedd is currently taking. 

Iolo's Great Welsh Parks

Tonight on BBC 1 Wales a new series starts called Iolo's Great Welsh Parks, of which I feature on the very last episode in our very own park of Pontypool. I'm pretty nervous to see what the program turned out like as I really was nervous on camera... For now I'll enjoy the 3 episodes before. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pw6xl

In other news, I've now got a part time Job as a Web Developer for Evergreen Supplies in Newinn. It's not my ideal Job that's for sure but I'm really greatful to have it none the less and hopefully this will bridge the gap for long enough until I get the Job that I really want in Conservation. I have a meeting with the Gwent Wildlife Trust on friday in order to start volunteering which will also help me get the Job that I so desperately want in life.