About Me
My name is Richard Evans, I reside in a lovely rural village called New Inn just outside Pontypool which is situated in the County of Gwent.
I suppose I was lucky enough to be brought up in such a beautiful area, one of which some people take for granted. I am one of those people who takes full advantage of what is actually on my doorstep, I regularly walk my two springer spaniel dogs around my local vicinity.
Located at the edge of New Inn is a wooded area called Coed-y-cando woods, and from a very young age based pretty much all of my days playing in what was once a safe haven for children of all ages.
My dad and uncle introduced me to wildlife, and in particular birds, so it is from these that I gained some knowledge of garden and woodland birds. My dad is a carpenter by trade and I can remember to this day the time he supervised me constructing my first ever nest box. The nest box was purposely made to attract a family of Blue tits, with a 25mm hole of which only a Blue tit could enter. My dad and I erected the nest box in my local woods and attached the nest box to a tree about 3m high. A week later when dad and I inspected the nest box, to my amazement there was a lovely fluffy little nest containing 9 eggs. From that day onwards I was mesmerised by nesting birds in particular, but pretty much all garden and woodland birds. Dad could see how enthralled I was and decided to build a bird table for our back garden. My bedroom window overlooked my garden and directly onto the bird table where as a family we kept appropriate amounts of food like peanuts, bread, fruit, berries and seed all year round. Again I was mesmerised watching a variety of species of garden and woodland bird such as Starling, House Sparrow, Blue tit, Great tit, Coal tit, Long tailed tit, Siskin, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Robin, Blackbird, Mistle thrush, Song thrush, Dunnock and occasionally a Pied wagtail and Redwing if it was very cold, eating what was on offer. I used to spend hours either watching birds feeding in my back garden or watching woodland birds in Coed-y-cando woods.
The Blue tit box that my dad and I erected in Coed-y-cando woods was a complete success which resulted in 8 eggs hatching and all chicks growing and successfully reaching adulthood. This then inspired me to dramatically increase the number of nest boxes ready for the following spring. I can still remember the conversation I had with dad and the promise he gave me to supply me with the materials to construct several nest boxes. I bought books with information on garden and woodland birds to gain the knowledge needed to understand breeding seasons and habitat of all species which were either resident all year or were summer visitors. I can remember constructing 8 nest boxes in total and had different hole sizes for certain species like Great tit, Blue tit, Coal tit and robin. This hobby pretty much lasted until I was 15 when I decided to join Her Majesty's forces and in particular the army.
After leaving the army due to a serious knee injury, I held several jobs, the last being the owner of a courier company. It was whilst driving one of my company vehicles on a fateful day in September 2010 which gave me a completely different outlook on life. Unfortunately the knee I had so many problems with locked and my foot was stuck on the gas pedal. I attempted to brake with my left foot but to no avail. I left the dual carriageway up an embankment, through a wooded area and back down towards the dual carriageway, eventually impacting the side barrier which probably saved my life. I was actually thrown through the windscreen and ended up on the bonnet of the van or at least what was left of the bonnet. The vehicle was a complete right off and I must say looking at the vehicle as I was taken away in the ambulance, I then realised how lucky I was to be alive.
That is history, and now with my 3 children can look forward to once again participating in a hobby I loved so much as a child. Whilst recovering from an operation, I along with my son Ieuan constructed 72 nest boxes during December and January of 2010-2011. I was kindly given permission from Hanbury Park Estates to erect all of my nest boxes in Coed-y-cando woods. All boxes have been erected of various sizes to hopefully attract species such as the Greater spotted woodpecker, Lesser spotted woodpecker, Green woodpecker, Redstart, Tree Sparrow, Nuthatch, Pied wagtail, Spotted flycatcher, Blue tit, Great tit, Coal tit, Willow tit, Marsh tit, Tawny owl, Robin and last but not least the Barn owl. I am now in the process of monitoring all nest boxes on a daily basis, albeit at a distance. Early signs are good and through February 2011 have already spotted birds such as the Blue tit, Great tit and Tree creeper checking out some of the nest boxes.
I will endeavour to update this web site on a daily/weekly basis.
Richard Evans
New Inn, Pontypool
New Inn, Pontypool
Telephone: 07970 139550
This domain has had 41264 hits since it was created on Monday 14 February 2011.
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