COUNTY WILDLIFE
Montgomeryshire's magnificiant and varied landscape still holds a wide range of habitats supporting some of our most common and threatened species. The flat river plains in the east contrast markedly with the high mountains and exposed hills to the north and the west, and also with the more extensive rolling hills dissected by river valleys elsewhere.
One of the most important wildlife habitats is heather moorland - a rolling mosaic of heathland and grassland, mire, lake and bog. Being confined mainly to oceanic western Europe this habitat has a very restricted world distribution. The diversity of vegetation across heather moorland supports a number of nationally and internationally important species, including birds such as Hen Harrier, Red Grouse and Black Grouse.
Montgomeryshire's western oak woodlands, dominated by the sessile oak with ash or birch, are of conservation importance both in their own right, but are also home to important characteristic communities of birds, mosses and lichens. In the summer they are alive with the songs of Pied Flycatcher, Redstart and Wood Warbler. Once one of the most wooded of counties, Montgomeryshire’s oak woodlands are now mainly restricted to areas with steep valley sides.
Other characteristic features of mid-Wales are the river valleys and flood plains. Montgomeryshire holds the source of the Wye and the Severn, both of which are nationally important rivers.
In the past, the meandering of these rivers across their flood plains naturally generated oxbow lakes, willow carr and mires. Now however, many of our rivers have been tamed and as the diversity of habitats on the flood plain dwindles, many of these features have disappeared.
After many years in decline otters are now increasing in number, but with the disappearance of wet meadows, river shingle and earth banks, Sand Martin, Lapwing, Redshank and Yellow Wagtail all continue to decline.
The Montgomery Canal is a nationally important waterway, quite different to other running and still water bodies. It supports one of the widest ranges of water plants and invertebrates known from any canal in Britain, and includes notable rarities. This is due to its long abandonment as a commercial transport thoroughfare, the consequent lack of motorised boat traffic and the relatively unpolluted nature of its water.
Dry rocky hills, a mosaic of grassland, scrub, woodland and bare rock found in the east of the county are few in number but high in conservation importance.
Perhaps the most seriously threatened habitat in lowland Montgomeryshire is that of unimproved grassland. Meadowland with a wide range of flowering plants was once a common part of the Montgomeryshire landscape; only tiny fragments are left and few resound to the calls of Lapwing and Curlew. Almost all have now been converted into improved grassland for silage making and/or permanent pasture.
