Connecting the Carmarthenshire Coast

 Prynhawn da pawb,

Last week I spent a very useful three days in North Wales, at the Sand of Life project round up conference.

This international gathering of sand dune and coastal managers was held to celebrate the learnings and successes of sand dune projects across eight European countries. One overriding fact that came from the three days is that no matter which country you are from the issues facing sand dune conservation are the same. There will be a link to the conference which I will share when it becomes available

Last year we partnered with Bumblebee Conservation on a two year project called Connecting the Carmarthenshire Coast, in the project a number of our sites including; Pembrey Burrows, Ashpits, Pwll Lagoon and North Dock dunes LNR's will have invertebrate surveys carried out on them.

Already the entomologist surveying Pwll Lagoon has turned up a rare spider and beetle., 

The spider is , Donacochara speciosa - a rare spider, and in Wales only known from two sites in the north

Whilst the beetle is Stenolophus skrimshiranus - a few records for Wales and all from around Caldicot/Newport area

The surveys will be ongoing through the summer months with a comprehensive report published at some point in 2025

Seagrass Project

 Bore da pawb,

An interesting week, especially  my time with the team from the Seagrass Project; Homepage - Project Seagrass.

The team have been collecting the Seagrass, Zostera noltii, or Dwarf Seagrass from a small donor site on the Burry inlet and relocation some to our own Llanelli beach and some to Cardiff Bay. I have to say this is no easy task, although I didn't get involved in the harvesting or replanting, I merely provided 4x4 transport, this is hard work and I take my hat off to the team ably led by Emma Fox.

I forgot to mention that the previous week I attended an amazing workshop on Marine Invasive Non Native Species , MINNS, led by consultants working on behalf of Natural Resources Wales It was nice to meet a team who really know their stuff and more importantly Carmarthen Bay.

We met two amazing Cocker spaniels who are conservation detection dogs, which means they are trained to find by scent specific species in this case the Chinese Mitten Crab. Their owner also wishes them to detect Water Voles, so I've been asked to collect Water Vole poo and send off to her.....

I visited Penrhyngwyn Point to check on a report of Japanese Knotweed growing on the shingle bank, amazingly there is a robust stand of this tenacious invasive a job for my team..

I also picked up a few butterflies including a smart Small Copper. Plenty of Yellow Horned Poppy Plants along the shingle were great to see, the habitat is recognised as Coastal vegetated shingle, -Gro arfordirol gyda llystyfiant,-  a protected habitat in Wales under section 7 of the Environment (Wales) act 2016.

 Prynhawn da pawb, a croeso.

A quiet week by recent standards and not a great deal to "blog" about.

I did deploy a remote camera, a rather clever one that sends the images immediately to my mobile phone, not a lot of action to be honest especially at night despite "something" triggering the sensor whatever it was was too quick, that is until last night  when a Badger was recorded just going about it's business. Unfortunately to see the actual video you will need to go to my Facebook page or X (Twitter) account @pen_bre-ranger

As spring moves on to summer and many long awaited for  migrant birds have arrived, such as  Wheatear, Cuckoo Grasshopper Warbler Whitethroat and Lesser Whitethroat there is one bird that I am eagerly awaiting of course that is the Nightjar. Hopefully as in recent years a pair will settle at Llyn Llech Owain Country Park, even more hopefully we have removed two areas of Sitka Spruce leaving areas of clear-fell, something Nightjars like, more habitat more opportunities for territories to be established.

If you are venturing to listen for and hopefully see then just before darkness in June is a pretty good. If there is enough demand I'll organise an evening walk to listen for and possibly see the birds

Lost forever or maybe not?

Bore da pawb, croeso.

Before I get into this week's blog properly, a reflection on the past week.

Counting growth rings

Surprisingly a very run of the mill week until Friday afternoon when I had the pleasure of leading a local school on a visit to Llyn Llech Owain Country Park. Year six from Ysgol Gorslas wanted to understand why we have been carrying out forestry operations and harvesting some of the 70-80 year old Sitka Spruce. The class had clearly prepared for their visit with some great question being asked, such as, why are you cutting down the trees?  The trees were planted as a commercial crop and have reached harvestable size as well as posing a risk to visitors during storms. Will there be less Oxygen in the area now?  I had to flip this on its head and we discussed the Carbon cycle and the surprising fact that the peat bog is already storing approximately 3.2 times the amount of CO2 as all the trees in the park, Oxygen levels are unlikely to be affected!

                                                                                                           

Fen Orchid var ovata

Lost forever or maybe not... The Fen Orchid, Liparis loeselii, highlighted in the publication "The Nature of West Wales" by David Saunders in 1986 referring to Carmarthenshire as "..one of the county's specialities" although not seen Tywyn Burrows since 1971 and Pembrey Burrows since 1930.

Recently rediscovered on the MOD site at Pendine Burrows it would seem to be back in the county

Rare orchid rediscovered on MOD land - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Fen orchid Liparis loeselii is a small green-flowered orchid of fens and dune systems. Two morphologically distinct forms occur: the type form of the East Anglian fens has acute oblong-elliptical leaves, while the form occurring in the dune slacks of south Wales and formerly north Devon (var. ovata) is shorter, generally fewer-flowered and bears blunt, broadly elliptical leaves. In the UK the two forms are mutually exclusive with respect to their distribution between habitats, but in mainland Europe the type (fenland) form var. loeselii also occurs in dune slacks.

The major factors leading to its widespread decline have been habitat loss and deterioration.

All fenland sites in the Norfolk Broads are subject to high water tables throughout the year and some experience winter flooding. The cessation of peat-cutting in the fens is probably the most important contributory factor leading to the decline of this species, as L. loeselii in this area is confined to tall-herb fens that have experienced disturbance through peat-cutting.

In dune slacks L. loeselii occurs across quite a wide range of vegetation types, though principally in younger dune slack communities where some open soil remains. These dune slacks are all subject to winter flooding, with inundation often occurring for up to five months in a year. A high summer water table appears to be essential for the survival of this drought-sensitive species. In common with many other orchids, the fen orchid appears to rely on regular disturbance for its long-term survival at any one site, and dune system over-stabilisation has been a major causal element in its decline.

I have been unable to track down the exact location on Pembrey Burrows for the pre 1930 records but maybe just maybe a search of likely habitats, and there are a few may reveal the presence of this diminutive orchid.

Getting old......

Croeso a bore da pawb,

The weather seems to be settling down, although if you have ventured outside this last week you would have felt the chill. This hasn't stopped our summer migrants arriving though with, Whimbrel, and Tree Pipit reported from the usual sites.

Flowers are responding to the increasing day lengths with the dunes at Pembrey starting to colour up with Green Winged Orchids, Dune Pansy and Rue -leaved Saxifrage all adding a splash of colour. A search for Moonwort was not successful I'll need to try harder, discover more here. Common Moonwort – Learn About This Wildflower (wildflowerweb.co.uk)

The latest edition of Ringing & Migration dropped through the door this week, a very specialized publication, often over my head, being a more practical person;  but I did glean some fascinating facts regarding some recent bird "longevity" reports, ( recent in bird research means up to 2021)

Fulmar a bird which occurs in the far west of the county needing cliffs for breeding, the oldest recorded bird was an amazing 45years  9months 12days old when observed in 2021 on Orkney

Shelduck a familiar bird along the Carmarthenshire coast was 19years 10months 15days when observed near York

Shelduck | BTO - British Trust for Ornithology

Goldcrest one of the smallest birds in the UK, was 5years 3months 14days old when reencountered by a licenced bird ringer on the Isles of Scilly, having originally been ringed in Wiltshire.

I bumped into Liam Olds this week, if you don't know Liam he is, in my opinion, one of the foremost entomologists in Wales if not the UK, he was surveying for the mining bee Colletes cunicularius, one of the earliest of the Colletes family to be on the wing and reliant of the Willow for pollen. A colony was found, just over the Pembrey Country Park border, on the NRW dunes of Pembrey forest

Here is some more information on bees in Wales

Wales-Threatened-Bee-Report-SUMMARY.pdf (buglife.org.uk)

SLOW WORM fest..

 Croseo pawb, 

Another busy week which has kept me on my toes, as usual, I've dealt with fish poaching, illegal vehicle intrusion, and odd things going on with a "Badger Sett".

The relevant authorities are dealing with the poaching and vehicle issues whilst I have investigated the "goings on". Nothing of concern as there is no Badger sett just an outlier burrow probably an old boar Badger or one of last years youngsters pushed out from the main sett, quite common at this time of year when the sow badgers will be giving birth.

Our amazing volunteers have been out and about, today they were at Morfa Berwig LNR, where I joined them this afternoon for their first reptile survey of the year, a very productive survey with 16 refugia to check and a total of 22 Slow worms, five Grass snakes, although two were out basking away from the refugia and just one Common Lizard. One refugia had seven Slow worms in a loose ball under it an incredible sight, another had Slow worms, a Grass snake and a Bank Vole. 

Find out more here Species – Bank Vole – The Mammal Society 

As is to be expected summer migrants are arriving en-masse, with at least two Little Gulls, a Bonaparte's Gull, a visitor from across the Atlantic, gracing our Sandy Water Park lake. find out more here Bonaparte's Gull | BTO - British Trust for Ornithology

Another LNR appears to have a pair of Mandarin Duck on a small concealed pond, I will keep an eye on them and see if anything develops.

Fingers crossed the weather starts to behave and become more spring like....

A Tern of events Sunday 7th April

 Prynhawn da pawb,  I hope you have all weathered storm Kathleen.

It's been a heck of a week personally,  I'm hoping this coming week will be better.

Well storm Kathleen is the last weather event we need but sadly any meagre control we may have had over our climate has long run out. On a brighter note though a phone call from the county bird recorder set me off to Sandy Water Park, (SWP) where 13 Arctic Terns, 2  Little Gulls and a mixed flock of 2-300+ mostly Sand Martins and a few Swallows were playing in the wind.

Little Gull

If you're up to speed with the last few months then you will know that we have installed bird nesting rafts on SWP and at Ffynnon Helyg near Pwll, with a view of hopefully attracting  Common Terns to nest !!. OK its a coincidence but a nice one

Earlier in the week a Little Ringed Plover was seen flying over the SWP raft, what's that saying, build and they will come!

Lots of migrant birds have now arrived and we have some great places to seek them out, try Ynysdawela Local Nature Reserve in Upper Brynamamn, or Morfa Berwig Local Nature Reserve near Bynea, don't forget to report your bird sightings to  About us - Carmarthenshire Bird Club and other sightings to

 Welcome to West Wales Biodiversity Information Centre - West Wales Biodiversity Information Centre (wwbic.org.uk)