Return of the Magnificent Seven

When we first moved into our house in Snowdonia there was a gang of seven wild goats to welcome us; six adults and one kid. For the first few years the population was constant. Occasionally we’d lose one to old age, or a young male would go off in search of his own territory, but new ones would be born.

I'm the proud Dad!

We called them the Below the Railway Gang to differentiate between the ARGs, the Above the Railway Gang, which have a very distinctive colouring with a jet black head and shoulders and a white rear. I’m not sure how many ARGs we’ve got as they are much higher up the mountain but several years ago we counted twenty; that was the year they had four kids.

In recent years our gang of seven was depleted with successive years of no kids; was our impressive looking billy not up to the job? Inevitably the older ones would die of old age including the top billy. Months after he disappeared we found his skull and horns sticking through the snow, thirteen growth rings made him a teenager.

It was not until I discovered this skull that I understood goat horns. I knew they kept on growing each year, as opposed to being shed like a deer, but I hadn’t realised that they were connected to the skull with such a long piece of bone. The horn itself is a sheath, made of the same stuff as our fingernails, that slots over the bone. For a goat to lose a horn, which I’ve seen after the autumn rutting, it must be a serious and painful business.

Mum to four kids in thirteen months feeding at
bottom of cliff

Thirteen  months ago we were down to one elderly male and two middle aged females when out popped twin kids. We were delighted with the new arrivals and watched as they grew into sturdy youngsters. Curiously their colouring was more in keeping with the black and white ARGs than the mottled grey and white of our billy – had one of their billies crossed the line?

Over the last couple of months I have been watching the behaviour of our local gang and often found them taking afternoon siestas in the cosy bracken. Then one day I found just four of them, the billy, the twins and their auntie – where was mum? Sure enough a couple of weeks later, our good friend Sandra, a keen goat watcher who was looking after the place while we were away, saw the next generation, another pair of beautiful black and white twins.

One of the new twins - they don't stay still
long enough for a family pose.

For the time being they are resident on and around a steep sided cliff towards the bottom of our drive. She’s an attentive mother, quickly ushering the kids out of site whenever cars or people pass by. Yesterday I noticed the rest of the family had come down to the cliff and had just crossed the fence on their way back into the nature reserve. For the next week or so this fence is too much of an obstacle for the new kids but soon they’ll be tearing about with the rest of the family. I hope there is no jealousy on the part of last year’s twins.

So there we have it, the return of the magnificent seven – a lucky number and a modest one, which should not cause any conservation concern to the nature reserve. Back in the 1980s there were said to have been about sixty wild goats, that some were caught and transported to Scotland whilst others were shot. No need for drastic actions like that at the moment. Seven goats should be about right to keep down the ivy and brambles to make good space for the lichens and bryophytes.

One of last year's twins aged about 13 months.

First Sod

50 years ago today the first sod was cut; the deviationists were on their way to Blaenau. I walked up expecting to see a garland or maybe some people reliving old memories but it was all peace and quiet at the stone.

Christmas trains have been great to watch. This is what it was like on the day after Boxing Day:

Mushrooms and other fungi looking good

The vegetable garden is still looking relatively good; cosmos blooms are just about hanging on, nasturtiums are brighter than ever, lots of tall yellow flowers have grown from the green manure mix. Autumn-sown broad beans, onions and garlic are all putting on lots of new growth.

But mushrooms are the stars of the show and there’s a profusion at the base of the dead sycamore tree. I don’t know what they are but they look good and are surely NOT for eating. 

On the front lawn are many different kinds of waxcaps plus two strange-looking types of club fungus. 

At first I thought the black one was ‘dead man’s fingers’ but my ID guide says they grow on wood. These are growing on grass so are a type of ‘earth tongue’ – although having said that, they might be growing out of a dead tree-root beneath the grass. Complicated stuff this natural history. Next to the black is a bright yellow one which I suspect is the ‘apricot club’. 

Days to remember; on the Wales Coast Path

Despite the yo-yo forecast Saturday was a dream day on Llŷn. Starting at the northeast end of Porthor (aka Whistling Sands) we walked to the headland at Uwch Mynydd without seeing a soul; lots of white horses from the north and a fast moving sail doing many more knots than us.

Sheltered behind the old coastguard building we munched Kurdish pasties from Kurmang, the baker in Blaenau Ffestiniog. Warming and filling - yum. A Devil’s Coach-Horse beetle came to investigate, its tail raised scorpion-like, but we had none to share. From here we could see Parys Mountain near Holyhead and to the south what looked like Pembrokeshire. With binoculars we think we saw the mountains in Ireland. Wicklow?

Choughs choughing or chowing galore and gannets swooping over the waves – no chance of spotting dolphins in all that surf. However, in a sheltered cove, a pair of seals; male and female? No sign of a pup but were the plaintive moans her labour pains?

Five hours later we made it to the beach at Aberdaron and walked through the waves into the sea; bit of a shock to begin with but a great swim. Dried off at the top of the beach; no wind here, the heat of the sun stored in the sea wall and the sand. Not a goose bump in sight. Tea, Bara Brith and home – memories are made for days like this.

Campbell's Veg Patch in Guardian

Page 47 of today's Guardian and it's the vegetable garden at Campbell's Cottage. What a surprise. I think this must have been taken by Lewis, our recent visitor. I remember seeing him standing on the lawn.

Campbell's to Cobden's

When visitors have travelled so far to enjoy a weekend of Snowdonia walking, I feel duty bound not to disappoint. Something big? Something long? Yesterday it was both.

Out of the front door towards Tanygrisiau, steeply to Stwlan then across the plateau to Rhosydd, past Llyn Adar, past Llyn Edno, along a fenced ridge that marks the county boundary and then the assault on Moel Siabod. The views along the way were perfect.

As for the return journey we were fortunate to have booked a lift with Sue on her way back from Llandudno. Slightly later than intended we met up at Cobden’s Hotel 7 hours and 20 minutes since we set off. Highly recommended route in good weather.

Space Race through Vale of Ffestiniog

The road from Maentwrog to Blaenau seems to have more than its fair share of accidents; at the weekend an air ambulance helicopter landed in the valley but the motorcyclist was already dead. Today I went to a briefing in the Blaenau library about plans to make it safer and ironically there was another accident on the way home, with an overturned Land Rover - fortunately no-one seriously hurt.

Possible improvements start at the Maentwrog end with a right turning lane for the junction at the bottom of the hill as you come down from Trawsfynydd. Other improvement areas are at Rhyd y Sarn, then at the big bend after Rhyd y Sarn, also further up the hill towards the junction with Manod and at Rehau. However, the biggest, potentially most expensive and contentious area is the junction at Tal-y-Bont where our bottom lane crosses the Dol Moch bridge and joins the main road to Blaenau.

Six options have been put forward for consideration and these can be seen in the diagram below. 

One of the options is to make the bottom lane from near the Oakeley Arms the new main road, connecting at Rhyd y Sarn; an official at the meeting noted my concern and pointed me to the long list of disadvantages and relatively few advantages saying that this was the least likely option. Phew!

One of the options is to take the road higher up through the woodland above the Tal-y-Bont junction but this too has many disadvantages and is unlikely. The frontrunner from a casual glance looks to be the building of a new bridge slightly downstream of the current one to reduce the sharpness of the bend. The bottom lane will be diverted just after the Dol Moch bridge to join the main road closer to Rhyd y Sarn and the road down from Llan Ffestiniog will use the old bridge merging with the new section of road further down the valley.

Top of the table of disadvantages is ‘potential impact on the setting of Tal-y-Bont’ - I feel sorry for our good neighbours who live here whose beautiful home will become an island if these proposals go ahead.

I am also concerned that if and once these various improvements are implemented the road from Maentwrog to Blaenau will become the new trunk route and the current section from near Traws to Blaenau will be de-trunked. This will mean yet more traffic going up and down steep hills with all its noise and pollution.

This road improvement investigation has been initiated on account of the Snowdonia Enterprise Zone, which includes sites at Llanbedr Airfield and Trawsfynydd Power Station, and its need for an efficient transport network. With Llanbedr one of eight potential candidates for the UK’s first spaceport, the shaving of a few seconds off the journey from Llandudno could make all the difference to a trip to Mars!