By Sophie, 09th Jun 2025
The park has been in bloom! Unseasonal warm weather and periodical downpours has done wonders for our ornamental and native plants.
The Japanese garden has been a wash of colour, purples and pinks from the specimen rhododendron and vivid white of the Dogwood and the Handkerchief tree. Its easy to forget how special our little Japanese garden is until it reminds us with its amazing foliage and blossoms. We have several species of tree and shrub which were brought over when the garden was created in the early 1900s, with several original rhododendron and acers living to over 100 years old.
Our wildflowers have also made an appearance, yellow pimpernel, red campion and lesser stitchwort bursting with colour on the grass verges and orchids popping up throughout our meadows. For more information and identification tips, keep reading for May’s Species of the Month.
Have you seen any Batman Hoverflies (April’s Species of the Month) at Bryngarw Country Park? You can still submit your records to us at Your.Bryngarw@awen-wales.com or directly to SEWBReC.
Dawn Chorus 2025
To celebrate international dawn chorus day, we organised two dawn chorus walks for 2025 to bask in the early morning symphony of birdsong.
Thank you to everyone who woke up extra early to witness one of nature’s wonders. As we walked we shared tips on how to identify species by their song. How I think that goldcrests sound like squeaky wheels and another thought they sounded like fairy bells. We even identified a Song Thrush who was trying to throw us off by mimicking a Buzzard!
As we walked we heard several common bird species, and some seasonal favourites like Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Blackcap. On the first morning we were also lucky enough to spot a fleeting glance of some dipper chicks along the river Garw.
We ended our lovely walk with a warm cuppa and some sweet pastries back at Y Nyth, and shared in our enthusiasm for nature, the outdoors and Bryngarw Park. If you are interested in joining us for a Dawn Chorus Walk, keep an eye on our What’s On page, and we will see you next year!
Invasive Species Week – Introduction to Invasive Non-native Species Workshop
We are broadening our educational programme this year to include several workshops suitable for adults and teenagers.
The aim of this workshop is to equip the participants with the tools to identify, record and manage invasive non-native species (INNS) in their gardens, at Bryngarw Country Park and in the wider countryside. The session started with a talk on INNS and then we put what we had learned into practice, recording species using the LERC Wales app, and even doing some balsam pulling!
Thank you to everyone who attended!
Volunteering Groups
We would not be able to manage our wonderful park without the help of our amazing volunteering groups.
Our Saturday Volunteering group meet on the first Saturday of the month to complete conservation tasks. May’s volunteering session was spent in the nature garden, which is a small area bordering the meadows, where we take school groups for mini beast hunting. Together we bashed some balsam and bracken and created a dead hedge.
The volunteers made quick work processing fallen trees and used the branches and logs to create a dead hedge on the northern border. This reinforced the boundary between the nature garden and the cow fields, hopefully stopping them from breaking into the park!
Balsam and bracken were also encroaching on the grassland and were knocked back by pulling and bruising. Balsam and Bracken reduce the biodiversity of an area by outcompeting other species such as wildflowers and grasses.
Tuesday Volunteering Group
Another busy month for our weekly volunteering group, thank you to everyone who contributed!
Balsam Pulling! (and other invasive bashing)
As we head into the summer months, I will be writing a lot about Balsam pulling! It will be an ongoing battle to rid the park of Himalayan Balsam (an invasive species) for years to come. But we live in hope that we will suppress it enough for our native species to shine through.
This month, the Tuesday volunteers have targeted several afflicted areas around the park, hoping to hit most areas before they flower and seed.
Himalayan Balsam is a super spreader plant. It is an attractive looking flower, with a stout, hollow stem, trumpet shaped pink/white flowers and elliptical shaped green leaves. It grows in dense stands and can be up to 2m tall. It has an explosive seed capsule, which scatters seeds over a distance of up to 7m.
Luckily, balsam is an annual plant, so it grows, flowers, seeds and dies all within one season. The aim of control work is to remove the plant before seeding occurs – so in the early summer months, critically before the seeds ripen and seed pods ‘explode’ scattering seeds. The seeds only persist in the soil for around 18 months, so populations of balsam can be removed after 2 or 3 years of consistent control.
Another invasive species that was bashed in May, was the Japanese Giant Butterbur. First imported in 1897, it is a highly architectural ornamental herb. They have impressive leaves which are kidney shaped and 30 – 100cm across, rough textured and usually dark green.
We manage the Butterbur in the Japanese garden by cutting it back at ground level and removing the cuttings from the area. The cuttings are dried out and habitat piled elsewhere in the park.
Allotment Day
As mentioned in a previous Ranger Ramblings blog, we have been asked to help Ffaldau Primary School revamp their allotment space.
The allotment was gifted to the school by the council last year and will need some TLC before it is a suitable area for outdoor education. The ranger team have been asked to help advise on how to manage the space for wildlife and provide ‘boots on the ground’ to help create a habitat which is nature and child friendly.
The Tuesday Volunteer group did a fantastic job clearing the area ready for the school to redesign the space. We cleared a fallen willow, several broken pallets and planters, and rediscovered the raised beds and firepit for the school to enjoy.
Photographer Spotlight: Lauren Sullivan
Lauren is a regular Tuesday Volunteer at Bryngarw Country park, and always spots something beautiful while getting stuck in the practical conservation work!
Would you like to share your photos with us? We can display your wonderful snapshots! Please email to YourBryngarw@awen-wales.com
What to look out for in June
We have a recording challenge for you! We want to know more about the species we have at Bryngarw Country Park. Once we know what species we have, we can manage the park in a way that better benefits those species and monitor them in future.
In June, we would like you to record your sightings on your walks and submit them to recording apps or to the Ranger team (your.bryngarw@awen-wales.com).
Species of the Month – Orchids
Common Spotted-orchid / Tegeirian Brych (Dactylorhiza fuchsia)
The common spotted-orchid is the most common of all UK orchids and the one you are most likely to see. You may have seen in on road verges, hedgerows, woodland, grassland, marshes and even on sand dunes. They bloom between June and August.
The common spotted-orchid gets its name from its leaves, which are green with many purple, oval spots. They form a rosette at ground level before the flower spike appears; narrower leaves sheath the stem. The flowers range from white and pale pink, through to purple, but have distinctive darker pink spots and stripes on their three-lobed lips. The flowers are densely packed in short, cone-shaped clusters.
Southern Marsh Orchid / Tegeirian y Gors Deheuol (Dactylorhiza praetermissa)
These orchids love chalky, damp soil and its range is not limited to just marshes and wet fens. It can tolerate much drier meadows which probably accounts for its greater success than other members of the family. You are most likely to spot them during the summer months of May, June and July.
We are very lucky to have Southern Marsh Orchids in our Wildflower Meadows as it has disappeared from 20% of its historical range. The reduction is almost certainly due to changing agricultural practices and the draining of damp pastures.
Southern marsh orchids look very similar to Common Spotted-orchid, with pale pink or purple flowers, but they do not have the spotted leaves at the base of the stem.
If you spot an orchid during June (or at any other time of year), please submit your record! Ideally via SEWBReCORD or the LERC Wales App. Instructions on how to submit records are available here.