The Skylark
The Skylark (Yr Ehedydd)
by Dafydd ap Gwilym
Daring hours belonging to the lark
whirling high from his home each day,
early riser, bubbling golden on a post,
poet of the heavens, April’s guardian.
Towards the end of April, as the rushes are busily growing back on the Common’s moorland, the skylark will begin to nest. It’s a bird that thrives on both agricultural land and highlands therefore the Common – which is a mixture of both kinds of landscape – is the perfect habitat for it. To borrow Iolo Williams’s description, the skylark:
“…has a short comb, tight stripes on its chest and a white belly. Its wing is triangular with an obvious, white edge. Its back is a speckled yellow-brown with bigger spots on the shoulder. There are small spots on the cap, and a light edge around the eyes. It has a fairly thick, sharp beak (but narrower than the beak of a sparrow). The centre of the tail is light, with darker feathers either side and the outer feathers are white. Light pink legs and a big back talon.”
Habitat
The skylark lives here on the Common throughout the year and you will hear its song on any bright sunny day, whatever the season. But during April, with the summer advancing, its song can be heard even more often. There is something electronic about it, almost like the kind of sound you would hear in a video game. Although many of them nest on Wales’s highlands they are, unfortunately, becoming scarce.
On a sunny day, you can see them soaring in a straight line up into the blue sky, singing their amazing song. This flight of song can last for up to an hour and during this time they can reach a height of 300m before diving back down to the rushes of the Common.
In quieter moments you will see them sitting on fence posts, like the skylark in Dafydd ap Gwilym’s verse. You will also spot them sitting on the very tip of the highest of rushes: they can often be seen near Carn Bugail and also in the area between Pen Marc and the cattle grid of the Farm Road to Bedlinog.
The Skylark in Poetry and Song
It is a bird that has inspired many poets. The verse at the beginning of this piece comes from a poem called ‘The Skylark’ by Dafydd ap Gwilym who wrote in the 12th century. The bird also inspired the harpist Dafydd y Garreg Wen (1712 – 1741) to compose the tune ‘Codiad yr Ehedydd’ which means ‘The Rise of the Skylark.’
You can listen here:
Codiad yr Ehedydd | The Rise of the Skylark
It is said that the folk song ‘Marwnad yr Ehedydd’ which could be translated into English as ‘The Funeral Song of the Lark’, is one of Wales’s oldest folk songs. It is thought to have been written by one of Owain Glyndŵr’s followers and rumour has it that the skylark in the verse is, in fact, Owain Glyndŵr himself. Here is an English translation of the Welsh words:
I heard that the lark
Died on the mountain;
If I knew the words were true,
I would take a crowd of men and arms
To fetch the lark’s body home.
You can listen to the song in full here:
Marwnad yr Ehedydd | The Funeral Song of the Lark
Walking the Skylark Trail
A map of a Skylark Trail was created to help the Common’s visitors spot the skylark. By scrolling down below the following photographs, you will find the trail’s map. April, and the summer months to come, should be a good time to walk it and to look for this inspirational bird. The walk will give you views of the Ffos y Frân coal works, Pen y Fan to the north and the Sugar Loaf to the east. If you take the long route up to Carn Bugail you will see, on a clear day, the shimmering line of the Bristol Channel. Take your binoculars, look closely at the tips of rushes or the fenceposts at the Common’s edges – and enjoy the singing.
