At any time of year Cors Goch is teeming with life, so long as you know where to look! As our youth forum embarked on our most recent outing, we were lucky enough to explore this wonderful wetland reserve at the heart of Anglesey with Eve McSpadden, project officer for the Corsydd Calon Môn Project. With her wealth of knowledge of the site’s plant life, Eve introduced the youth forum to the incredible variety of species that thrive on the fens.
An afternoon on the Anglesey Fens
Cors Goch Nature Reserve fens © NWWT
Our Môn Gwyrdd youth forum enjoyed a late-spring walk and poetry session around the fens at Cors Goch Nature Reserve. Youth forum lead, Ellen, tell us more...
Looking at sundew along the boardwalk at Cors Goch © NWWT
On the boardwalk looking at sphagnum moss © NWWT
Examining an orchid © NWWT
Orchid at Cors Goch © NWWT
Group on the old millstone at Cors Goch © NWWT
Walking along the boardwalk at Cors Goch © NWWT
Photographing the plants at Cors Goch © NWWT
Bogbean on Cors Goch © NWWT
Cors Goch Nature Reserve fens © NWWT
Writing poetry outside Bryn Golau cottage © NWWT
Among our favourite species were the vibrant pink blooms of early marsh orchid, the sticky tentacles of the carnivorous sundew, the shaking seed pods of quaking grass and the small round heads of salad burnet with its faint cucumber scent.
Sundew at Cors Goch Nature Reserve © Ashleigh Thomson, youth forum member
With the sun warming our backs as we wandered along the boardwalk, we were also lucky enough to spot dragonflies, a lizard and even a bird of prey in the distance which one of our youth forum members identified as a buzzard.
After our walk, we headed back to our base at Bryn Golau cottage for a creative workshop with local artist, Rhys Trimble. We had a go at writing some poetry about the things we’d seen and experienced on our walk.
Our youth forum members share their poems below
Michelle
Water arises from the ground
Creating an abundance of life on the fen
Tiny germander speedwells and delicate fairy flacks decorate the grasses
Dragonflies and painted ladies dart across red sundews and butterwort
A gentle breeze takes the edge of the scorching heat
Playfully teasing to pluck us from the hilltops and whisk us away
Carrying us into the white, fluffy clouds in the sky
Tall, long grasses and moss surround us on the boardwalk
You wouldn't be at fault for believing the ground was completely solid underneath
The cors fen can still be navigated, if you know where to place your step
The ground springy and squishy beneath your feet
But be careful not to stay too far
Or you could join the ghost of Cors Goch
The midwife that still wanders across the fen
Locals still catching glimmers of her lantern glow
Hidden in the tall grasses at the dead of night
Aled and Iola
Dail gwithlys yn gorweddyn wastad cyn culfachu y pry diam ddiffyn yn dyn yn ei afael.
Menyn y Waen ai deilen gludiog yn llawn diddordeb I’r ymwelwyr bach diniwed.
Ddim syniad ä dyfodol byro fod yn bryd i’r ddaer.
Selina
As I move through the heather, what do I see? A bird, it’s a buzzard, some plants and a bee. The sounds all around me fill me with joy, the wind blowing wild and robin nearby.
Joanna
Brushing of leaves
Birds tweeting along
Scent of moist greenery
Warmth of the sun
Warming my back.
Soft leaves brushing past,
Past my bare ankle straps.
Many flowers and leaves,
Some scent of cucumber,
Others of medicine.
Surrounded by nature,
Eye catching all is green.
The uneven ground beneath,
My feet struggle to follow.
Spiky brush on my toes.
A path emerges, slithers like snakes
Through thick grass, the path.
Playing with the squishy, watery path and intrusive,
Thoughts fight to win.
Dipping a toe into the mud
Soft, cold and mushy!
Squishy wet moss,
Soft to the touch
And the fluffy feathery moss
Now resting upon the wooden bench.
Tranquility and belonging,
blossom feelings within.
The millstone telling tales, from a by gone era.
A little bumble bee buzzing
Bouncing around our feet,
‘shrooms shooting in its white glory,
Leaves of all textures
And clovers on my bare feet…
Felix
Lost in the spines,
Tossed to the spikes,
Survival within the bramble
Is the greatest gamble.
The stench of dung stings the tongue
As ferns and vines and twisting mnds
Loom from all sides.
Digestion. Consumption. Torment. Beauty. Nature.
The Forest lives. Bark twists the faces.
Ellen
A haiku:
Pinc, porffor, gwyrdd a gwyn
Colours rise up on the fen
A spring spectacle
Mon Gwyrdd Youth Forum at Cord Goch Nature Reserve © NWWT
A big thank you to the Corsydd Calon Môn project for taking us a tour of the fen, to Rhys Trimble for his wonderful poetry workshop, and the members of the youth forum for their enthusiasm!