Frequently Asked Questions

We don’t have the resources to come out to your home so, if possible, please send in a photograph and description via email to info@rwtwales.org or visit our wildlife explorer pages. You can also upload a photo via our wildlife sighting page, giving us details of the location, it was found in.

Unfortunately, the Trust is not able to take injured animals or offer anything other than very generic advice about animal care and welfare.

If you found have an injured an animal, please call:

RSPCA: 0300 1234999

If you have found a grounded bat please call:

National Bat Helpline: 0845 130 0228

Gigrin Farm, Rhayader, can sometimes rescue raptors, please call: 01537 810243

Baby birds should be left alone if possible. The parents are almost certainly still nearby and will come back to their young so long as they are not disturbed. Where young birds are under immediate threat from cats or other domestic pets it would be sensible to lift them up onto a nearby branch or fence out of harm’s way.

Under normal circumstances it’s best to leave all wild animals alone. However, if bats are felt to be particularly vulnerable it would be sensible to move them to a more elevated and sheltered position, perhaps under a roof eave or into a tree trunk cavity, provided that they can be positioned high up and in such a way as to allow them to fly off of their own accord.

Hedges can be extremely valuable for wildlife and in particular for nesting birds and for the berry crop that they provide. It is therefore best to cut them in sections (perhaps only half the length or just one side at a time) where they are big or berry laden. Cutting in late autumn or winter is ideal but earlier in the year can be acceptable depending on circumstance. As a rule, it’s best not to cut them between the end of February and the end of August to avoid nesting birds, which are fully protected by law.

If you are certain that there are nesting birds using the hedge and that their occupied nests are (or have been) damaged, then you should contact the police.

Badgers are extremely powerful and determined animals and can be very hard to deter once they are used to visiting a site. They are often attracted to gardens because of the high value food available. This can be especially noticeable in dry conditions when invertebrates are hard to find in the wider countryside but can still be available in watered gardens. Deterring badgers can be hard and we would recommend that you seek specialist advice. Remember that badgers are fully protected by law and some forms of exclusion can require licensing. It’s also unlawful to stop-up badger holes without an appropriate licence.

There is no need to remove the animal.

Disturbing a badger sett without a licence is unlawful and if you’re certain that the holes in question were occupied by badgers you should call the police immediately on 101 (or 999 if the diggers are still present).

Please contact the police to report the incident if the coursing has stopped or call them on 999 immediately if the coursing is still ongoing.

Frogs produce a lot of eggs to help ensure that as many as possible survive the effects of bad weather and predation. So, while you may have a lot of frogspawn now, it will reduce very quickly. This is a process that will continue for the tadpoles as they develop into froglets; only a handful will survive to adulthood from the initial thousands of eggs.

In urban areas garden ponds are now key habitats for our native amphibians such as frogs and newts. We would therefore advise that unless you really need to remove it, you leave it to develop and take pride that your garden is of good enough quality to be an urban nature reserve. It’s also worth remembering that removing spawn to other ponds can upset their existing ecosystem and has the potential to spread disease around.

Sonic deterrents are available from garden centres and may be quite successful in some circumstances.

Otters can be found on almost all watercourses. However, they are very shy and hard to spot so it’s difficult to suggest good locations to try. The best advice we can give is to spend lots of time (especially at dawn and dusk) out and about near the bigger rivers in the county.

We have a fantastic range of nature reserves covering the whole county. Please check out our reserve’s page for more information.

It sounds like you have tree bumblebees.  We have lots of queries about them from late May onwards; they’ve only been in the county for a relatively short period of time (years rather than decades) so are relatively new to many people.  They would naturally nest in holes in trees, hence the name, but they’ll also nest in bird boxes and roof spaces.  They’re easy to identify – very chestnut thorax and a black body with a white tail.

The lifecycle of a bumblebee nest is that a queen finds a suitable location and begins to build her nest.  This involves her provisioning pollen and nectar for herself and her first offspring.  The offspring, all worker females, go out to forage for more pollen to feed the young.  As the nest matures, the queen lays males and new queens.  It will be the males that you see dancing around outside the nest – they’re waiting for the queens to emerge so that they can be the one to pass their genes on to the next generation.  The whole process can take 3-4 months and by the time you start to notice the activity, the nest will already be producing males and queens and, as such, is declining rather than growing.

There is no real need to worry.  Bumblebees don’t produce honey in the same way that honeybees do so you won’t have honey dripping from your ceiling!  The nests are light and dry and the bees don’t chew through wood or bore holes.  The male bees that are hanging around are stingless and only have one thing on their minds.  The females can sting but will only do so if you threaten them or the nest.

If you’re concerned about it for the future, you could wait for this year’s cycle to complete itself and, once all the bees have moved out, block the hole to prevent another nest next year.  Depending on the size of the space that they’re using, they may already have used the suitable space and there may be no room for a new nest.  If you’d like to still provide somewhere for them to set up a nest, you could erect a bird box (you may get birds instead of bees)!

It sounds like you have ivy bees; they emerge in September and October.  They’re a solitary bee but they happen to nest near each other.  The males normally emerge first and then hang around for the females to emerge.  You’ll notice them by the mini mountains of soil that they create as they emerge from their nests and then excavate new nests. You may have hundreds or even thousands in your lawn and surrounding flower beds.

The females dig tunnels beyond 30-40cm or so and then have a series of chambers off each tunnel in which to lay their eggs.  Although the adults can feed on nectar from any flower, they can only provision their eggs/larvae with pollen from ivy (once it’s flowered, the ivy berries are great for birds so please leave it until spring before cutting or pruning it).

The bees are pretty harmless.  Only the females can sting but they’re very unlikely to do so unless they feel threatened (and they have a very weak sting if they do).  They’re great for aerating the soil but it does mean that mowing the lawn is a little trickier than normal – if you’re able to leave mowing for a few weeks that would be great.  Depending on the weather and the ivy season, the action is normally over within 3-4 weeks when everything should settle down and it will be as though they were never there.  The young, of course, will be buried under the lawn until next September when it starts all over again for a few weeks.

Many landowners are keen to improve their land for wildlife but are unsure where to start. RWT are now able to offer bespoke farming and agriculture advice relating to the environment. Our Wye Adapt to Climate Change Officer, Sarenta King, can offer farm-wide site visits, advice, and reporting on how best to manage your land in a way that works both for farm businesses and the environment - whilst dealing with the increasing impacts of climate change. Get in touch with Sarenta by email: Sarenta@rwtwales.org 

We can also offer advice to any landowners within the river Lugg catchment, through our Wilder Lugg Project Officer, Dan Westbury. Using Natural Flood Management principles, Dan can offer site specific advice and opportunities related to managing water and riparian habitat on your land. Get in touch with Dan by email: dan@rwtwales.org

Both Sarenta and Dan are trained in the environmental sciences while coming from farming backgrounds – conservation within the farming sector is a field they are both passionate about. Why not reach out for a site visit? We offer no-obligation visits to talk about opportunities and welcome everyone from small-scale landowners through to large-scale farming operations.

This depends entirely upon context. If creating a small meadow within a formal garden setting, there are some recommended companies that specialise in the production of UK-native wildflower seeds and plug-plants. However, if the planned site is within an agricultural field or in a wider countryside context, then more thought and attention need to be given in the planning stages to a range of factors:

• What is the existing grass sward like? You may need a skilled botanical surveyor to determine this.
• Where is the source of the seed? This should always be as local as possible to avoid inappropriate introductions.
• What techniques will you be using e.g. spreading hay, spreading green hay, slot seeding?

With all this in mind we suggest that you email us with details of your query, and we will make sure that the right person gets back in touch as soon as possible.

Radnorshire Wildlife Trust is an independent registered charity – it is not part of the council or the government. We rely for the majority (more than two thirds) of our funding on the donations given by our members and supporters.

However, in common with other landowners, managers and farmers, the Trust can apply to government funding schemes for specific areas of our work. We also participate in the Gift Aid scheme that allows all charities to recover from HMRC the tax paid on donations given by taxpayers.

Where we identify the need to carry out special projects, activities or works we make determined efforts to secure financial support from a range of sources including Heritage Lottery Fund, The Landfill Communities Fund, charitable trusts, or even statutory agencies.

Other funds are raised through the work carried out by Radnorshire Wildlife Consultancy (which contributes its profits to the Trust); hiring out our meeting/conference rooms; adoption schemes, Christmas card sales and many other ways.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a reciprocal arrangement with these organisations and therefore your membership card will not allow access to their sites (or vice versa). However, your membership of Radnorshire Wildlife Trust does allow you to access most other Wildlife Trust reserves in the UK. There are a few sites where charges are applicable even for members, usually where visitor centres etc. offer additional facilities.

We have a small selection of items for sale in the reception of our Warwick House offices in Llandrindod Wells. These include, cards, calendars, identification guides, bird food etc. There is also a range of free leaflets and literature.

Details of booking for our events can be found on the individual event listing within our what's on pages.

Please contact us by email info@rwtwales.org if you would like a speaker as we have a team of volunteers who give talks on our behalf. Please bear in mind that we receive a high number of requests for our speakers, and we are not able to fulfil everyone.

We have a range of options for volunteers, and you can find more information on our Volunteer page or contact us by email. Please be aware that volunteers under the age of 18 will need to be accompanied by an adult.

We would recommend that anyone interested in working in nature conservation should try and get experience through volunteering. We have a range of options for volunteers, and you can find more information on our Volunteer page or contact us by email. Please be aware that volunteers under the age of 18 will need to be accompanied by an adult.

Please follow the directions for individual reserves on the relevant pages. These can be accessed by clicking on the main nature reserves page.

Nature reserve guides are available from our Warwick House headquarters.

In many cases we are happy to allow access to groups without a Trust guide. However, there may be reasons why a group visit would not be appropriate on a particular site or at a specific time, perhaps because of conflicts with management activity for example.

On most of our sites we allow visitors to visit with their dogs but require owners to keep them on the lead, while on other sites, we do not allow dogs at all. Please check on the individual reserve page for details before visiting a reserve.

We are very sorry, but we are unable to offer birthday parties on our nature reserves.

While we encourage enjoyment of our reserves, some of our more sensitive or difficult to access sites are closed to the public. This may be seasonal in some cases, so please check the reserves handbook, available from the Trust, or the individual  reserve page before visiting.

Most Wildlife Trust reserves around the country are free to members and many are free to all. Some charge a small entry fee to help with upkeep and visitors are sometimes asked to pay a charge to visitor centres that provide extra facilities. If you are planning a visit to another county, then you might like to get in touch with the local Wildlife Trust in advance for further details.