On a freezing Sunday morning in mid-November, I set out with Steph to walk Nant Tawe Fechan, from Tafarn y Garreg to the Tawe’s source high on the Brecon Beacons, making art as we went along. Technically not mountains, hills, but that’s a matter of elevation. We wanted to try out a few different art […]
Investigating the world of marine inverts in Worms’s Head, Gower
Last week, Dr Ed Pope kindly offered me the opportunity to join him and his class of second year biosciences undergraduate students at Worm’s Head to take a glimpse of the intertidal marine invertebrate community. The weather was on our side, giving us a good window of sunshine to explore the fascinating inverts in the tidal […]
Fire in the hole! Watch out for art and science along the Tawe River
A few months ago myself, Rose, and James headed up the Tawe River valley as part of some exploratory research in relation to science and art on tributaries to the Tawe. We are looking at differences on culverted and non-culverted streams, and bringing together arts and sciences to do so. It’s a growing area of […]
How culverts transform rivers
In an earlier blog post, I wrote about how the River Tawe harbours a range of flora and fauna despite a long history of neglect and strain inflicted by human activities. While changes in the management of rivers has improved ecological conditions across the catchment, ecosystems supported within the Tawe are still threatened by different […]
Tawe Walks: A walking – technology experience
Last week Tara shared about our recent walk up and down the River Tawe in south Wales. This week I will build on what Tara shared and talk about a reflection I had on the return walk from the upper reaches of the Tawe. On my way back downstream I decided to take a different […]
#FishInThePost: European Perch
This week’s #FishInThePost question was, ‘which freshwater fish have been known as the wolves of the river?’ The answer we were looking for was the European Perch (Perca fluviatilis) and it was correctly guessed by @UnderwaterMedia. We were also very taken by the lovely photo of a Perch shared by @UnderwaterMedia and look forward to […]
#FishInThePost: Common Roach
This week’s #FishInThePost question linked to the common name of the fish species that we had in mind, and to a common name for a common insect. Our question was, ‘which Welsh freshwater fish has a common name the same as an insect that people also eat?’ James Stovold was the first to guess the […]
#FishInThePost – Lemme know Minnow
On Thursday we tweeted this week’s #FishInThePost question: ‘Me being one of Wales’ smaller freshwater fishes, is it not impressive that I produce up to 1,000 eggs in a breeding season? Which Welsh freshwater fish am I?‘ Winning guess by Pepijn for this week’s #FishInThePost! We had several great guesses, commentary, and puns about which […]
#FishInThePost – River Lamprey
Our question for the week contained two fun facts about lampreys: the death of a member of the royal family and their disappearance in otter poop. Three species of lamprey occur in freshwater ecosystems in Wales: the Brook Lamprey (Lampetra planeri), the River Lamprey (Lampetra fluviatilis), and the Sea Lamprey (Petromyzon marinus). This week’s #FishInThePost […]
#FishInThePost – Twaite Shad
This week’s #FishInThePost was created and written by Sayali Pawar. On Thursday we tweeted our most recent #FishInThePost question: ‘I’m a fish hearing specialist, and can respond to sounds my comrades make up to 180 kHz, what Welsh native fish species am I?’. There were a lot of great guesses, and while several people came […]
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