A month on the Carmarthenshire reserves
Frwd Farm Mire Well it’s been another busy month on the nature reserves in Carmarthenshire, thanks to the enthusiastic team of willing volunteers.
The biggest project to have been started this month is a major fencing challenge in the south east block of the Castle Woods nature reserve, known as South Lodge Woods. The materials for re-fencing the boundary have been funded by a Better Woodlands for Wales grant from Forestry Commission Wales, but that still leaves several hundred metres of fencing to dismantle and replace over the course of a number of workparties. Em Foot and her intrepid volunteers from Ceredigion also joined us for one day, helping to make good progress on the project. Meanwhile, elsewhere in Castle Woods the war against the bank of Himalayan Balsam continues, with considerable effort to find and remove those last plants from the woods before they set seed. We were lucky enough to be supported by volunteers from the Local Health Board during this work on the Balsam control.
Elsewhere in Carmarthenshire, work is underway to progress mowing of the grassland on Ffrwd Farm Mire, to improve the condition of the habitats there. Gates have had to be replaced and access improved to allow the machinery needed to undertake the mowing. WTSWW are very grateful to Andrew Stevens and the Llanelli Naturalists, who own part of the nature reserve, for their support in making this possible. Carmarthenshire County Council have also supported the Trust by controlling Japanese Knotweed growing on the boundary that threatens to invade the nature reserve. Within the reserve itself, a number of dormouse boxes funded by Carmarthenshire County Council through the Local Biodiversity Action Plan have been checked for signs of this elusive mammal. Dormice have not been recorded on the reserve for many years, so more information on their presence and use of the reserve is needed to help inform management of the site. Some boxes have been mounted on fenceposts amongst the scattered gorse on the edge of the reedbed, which so far have not revealed any dormice, but have been providing homes for woodmice which have made their nests from dried leaves taken from the reeds. We shall keep looking!
Thanks to everyone who has supported the work in Carmarthenshire this month. For more information about any of the Carmarthenshire reserves, or volunteering in the county, please contact Lizzie Wilberforce.
Become a Carmarthenshire Wildlife Gardener!
Wood mouse, Richard Pond WTSWW volunteerSome species found in our gardens can help us out - hedgehogs are natural slug control, ladybirds prey on aphids, worms improve our soil and bees and flies help pollinate our fruit, vegetables and flowers.
Some gardening practices however may be harmful for wildlife. Over use of pesticides and fertilisers, over-tidying of gardens, drainage of ponds and use of peat can all have a harmful effect. However, taking simple action means that we can all garden in a wildlife-friendly way.
Avoiding chemical fertilisers, using peat alternatives, providing food, shelter and water for birds and planting some native species in borders are all ways in which we can help wildlife in our gardens.
This summer the Carmarthenshire Biodiversity Partnership, of which WTSWW is a member, wants to find out how people garden and encourage people to make a pledge to do something for wildlife in their gardens. Visit the Carmarthenshire Biodiversity website to make a pledge on line or download pledge and survey forms.
Why not give wildlife in Carmarthenshire a helping hand by pledge to do something positive for wildlife in your garden! Simple, easy to do things really can have a big benefit for wildlife. And if we all did just one simple thing, we'd be making a big difference together.
A Month on the Carmarthenshire Reserves
Castle Woods, Llandeilo
workparties on the Carmarthenshire reserves. Summer always brings luxuriant vegetation growth, so there is much work to be done keeping footpaths open, and we’ve been up in Castle Woods doing just that, to keep the woods accessible to the many thousands of visitors the reserve receives every year.
Thanks to funding from Better Woodlands for Wales, we’ve also been able to make and install a number of bird boxes which have been put up in Castle Woods- perhaps a little late for this season, but hopefully they will encourage breeding birds in future years.
Another task in early summer each year is to tackle the huge bank if Himalayan Balsam that grows adjacent to the Tywi floodplain in Castle Woods. This invasive species grows rapidly and suppresses the native flora, then dying back to leave bare soil over the winter which is vulnerable to erosion. Fortunately its seeds last only for a few years in the soil, so with concerted effort over a number of years to prevent plants from setting seed again, we hope to be able to beat it back and eliminate it from most of the woodland. So far this season a fantastic 23 person days have been put into Balsam control in Castle Woods, helped by the dry weather- this time last year, efforts were hampered by being thigh-deep in water in the ditches where the balsam is growing!
Work is also underway on Cors Goch national nature reserve, just outside Carmarthen, where volunteers worked hard to clear a fallen tree and prepare the fences for grazing and mowing of the reserve this summer.
Thanks to everyone who has volunteered in Carmarthenshire this month- for more information on volunteering in the county, contact Lizzie.
Volunteers help with litter pick at Ffrwd Farm Mire, Carmarthenshire
Volunteers lend a helping handIt’s a dirty job, but someone has got to do it!On a very hot, sunny day in early June, WTSWW volunteers got stuck in to a big litter-clearing job along the roadside boundary of Ffrwd Farm Mire.
We were delighted to be supported on the day by Keep Wales Tidy and Tidy Towns, both of whom both attended to help with the clearance but also very kindly dealt with the removal of the waste, saving WTSWW a great deal of time and money- for which we are very grateful.
On a day so hot that the tarmac on the road was starting to melt, some respite was found working in the shade of the large boundary hedge- even if it meant occasionally being on the receiving end of prickly shrubs!
Three vans worth of rubbish was cleared. Much of the waste originated in fly-tipping from a historic layby adjacent to the site, which was closed by the Local Authority some years ago on account of the dumping problem. All sorts of items were found, from the sadly ever-present fast food wrappers, through to a kids plastic tricycle, cockling waste, about 25 tyres or wheels, a car door, and even a toilet pan!
Also evident was the scourge of every land manager these days- dog mess in plastic bags, dumped on the ground.
However after several hours of hard graft, the reserve was looking much improved. Thanks to all who attended for doing a fantastic job. With luck it will be some years before we have to revisit the job!
Help wanted to find trees in the woods!
When you go down to the woods to play, do you always rest under a favourite tree? Stop to run your hands over familiar bark or did you do your courting with your back resting against an ancient oak?
WTSWW and The National Trust, working in partnership, would like to know: we are asking for thoughts and memories of favourite or most memorable trees in Castle Woods and Dinefwr Park, in Llandeilo. Dinefwr Park and Castle is managed in partnership by the Wildlife Trust, National Trust and Cadw.
We are working together on this project under the guidance of the Woodland Trust to record all of the Ancient and Notable trees in the estate. The project is part of the Woodland Trust’s Ancient and Notable Tree Hunt, a project aimed at recording trees right across the British Isles. Dinefwr is nationally important for its veteran trees and their associated wildlife- but this project is not just about how old the tree is or how large it has grown, it’s also about the social history of the trees. Some of the most ancient trees are already recorded, but we need help to update the database, and also to collect that extra information about trees that are important for other reasons- for their character, or for important memories they hold.
This is where we are looking for help- we need a group of volunteers who can work together to go out into Dinefwr Park and Castle Woods and records the trees of notable interest and enter them into the database. Whether you have a tale to tell of a particular tree, want to get involved in the surveying in the field, or can offer help with the data input, we’d love to hear from you. Volunteers will get training as part of the project which is estimated to take about nine months to complete. If you are interested in getting involved or would like further information, contact Lizzie Wilberforce or Carol Bailey.
New funding stream comes online for Poor Mans Wood
Poor Mans Wood, near Llandovery in Carmarthenshire has become the first WTSWW nature reserve to have its application to the Better Woodlands for Wales (BWW) grant scheme signed off by the funders, Forestry Commission Wales.
Many of the Trust’s woodlands have been entered for the BWW grant, but Poor Mans Wood has now been approved, which will facilitate significant management over the next five years to improve the biodiversity value of the woodland and assist with the maintenance of public access.
Works in the woodland have already begun with Trust staff clearing a new glade and removing selected beech seed trees to preserve the characteristic structure of this sessile oak woodland.
Poor Mans Wood, or Gallt y Tlodion, a 41 acre woodland that lies one mile north east of Llandovery, has a notable history. It was donated to the town by Vicar Pritchard in the sixteenth century so that the townsfolk could “on foot only, enter on the property demised, for the purpose of taking dead wood for fuel, being such amount that they can carry on their backs”. The Wildlife Trust has leased the woodland from Llandovery Town Council since 1983.
The open oak woodland as a varied ground flora, with much bilberry and heather in the upper slopes, but with many spring flowers in the lower areas that will make the site well worth visiting in the coming months- including bluebell, lesser celandine, wood sorrel and wood anemone.
Future work planned under and funded by the BWW grant will include footpath maintenance, new nest boxes, woodland management including thinning and further glade creation, and the production of a leaflet to help visitors navigate and understand the reserve they are visiting.
For more information about Poor Mans Wood, go here
Records for grey squirrels sought from the Tywi Forest area
Readers of our magazines and e-newsletters will be used to hearing appeals for records of red squirrels from the Tywi Forest, through our involvement with the Mid Wales Red Squirrel Partnership (MWRSP). Well, for a change, we are appealing for records from the conifer forests… of grey squirrels!
The red squirrel population in mid Wales is being helped out by an important project being carried out by Forestry Commission Wales. Building on the work undertaken in recent years out by the MWRSP which has been investigating the status of this rare and elusive animal, Forestry Commission Wales are carrying out research that will help them to see how best to conserve the red squirrel population that exists there.
Part of the work over the remaining weeks of 2009 is to find out how far grey squirrels have moved into all conifer forests both public and privately owned that make up the Tywi forest complex in mid Wales. Red squirrels have retreated to the conifer forests because here they have a slight advantage over the grey squirrels, which out compete them in deciduous woodland, once widely used by reds in Wales.
Normally sightings of grey squirrels go unrecorded but to see how the greys may be affecting the distribution of the reds in Tywi forest it is important that we start recording the presence of grey squirrels from now until the end of 2009.
If you have seen a grey squirrel within this specific area of the Tywi forest complex, then please let us know by going to the MWRSP website at www.wwbic.org.uk/redsquirrelproject. Here you will see a map of the area where we would like to have records of greys and the information we require - a six-figure grid reference (you can get help with grid references from the OS website http://getamap.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/getamap/frames.htm) of where the grey squirrel was seen, the number of grey squirrels seen and what they were doing.
You can also find out about more about red squirrels in mid Wales and the work that the MWRSP has been undertaking. Thank you!
Tidy Towns funding makes footpath improvements possible at Castle Woods Nature Reserve, Llandeilo
With assistance from a large number of enthusiastic volunteers, work as been progressing all summer and autumn to make some significant improvements to footpath surfaces in Castle Woods nature reserve, in the Dinefwr Estate, Llandeilo.
This latest project on visitor access improvements has been supported by Tidy Towns, a Welsh Assembly Government funded initiative, delivered in partnership by Carmarthenshire County Council and Keep Wales Tidy.
Funds given to the Wildlife Trust have enabled many hundreds of metres of footpaths through the woods to be levelled, widened and resurfaced with an all-weather quarry scalping surface. In addition the main track down to Llandyfeisant Church has been scraped to remove many years accumulation of leaf litter and mud, making access for local dog walkers and people with buggies much easier.
Volunteers from all across Carmarthenshire, including groups from Trinity College in Carmarthen, have got stuck in with over 60 volunteer days committed to the project so far. Thanks are also due to the National Trust, whose staff have been very supportive in helping us move many tonnes of stone around the estate, and to the Wildlife Trust reserves teams from Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion, who have both visited twice as part of the Trust’s rolling scheme of joint workparties across the western counties.
Between now and the end of the year, the project will also be funding some interpretation panels, which will help visitors learn more about the reserve and it’s very special history and wildlife.
Castle Woods has always been a very high profile site by virtue of its location within the historic Dinefwr Estate. We hope that these improvements to access will help even more people enjoy this flagship reserve- whatever the weather!
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Eminent Polish Conservationist to visit Carmarthenshire
The Annual Lecture of the East Carmarthenshire Group at The Civic Centre, Llandeilo provides an opportunity to hear renowned Polish Conservationist Marek Borkowski talk about the outstanding wildlife and habitats of his native North-east Poland.
Marek lives in the extensive Biebrza Marshes a wetland which is home to hundreds of nesting Cranes and White Storks as well as most of the World population of Aquatic Warblers. White-winged Terns, Little Crakes, Corncrakes, Black-tailed Godwits, Ruff and Great Snipe all abound in this exciting place. This marshland also provides a home to Elk and Wolf and is home to may interesting plants including orchids..
Just an hour or so away lays the primeval forest of Bialowieza bordering Belorussia. This enormous area is home to many species of woodpecker including all found in Europe. All European flycatchers, Golden Orioles, hordes of Hawfinches, Pygmy and Tengmalm’s Owls, Hazel Grouse, Black Storks and Spotted Eagles are all to be found in the dense woodlands. The forest is also home to Lynx, Wolf and European Bison. The latter were first reintroduced into the wild in this area and now thrive in this superb wilderness.
Marek Borkowski was the first person in Poland to purchase a privately owned nature reserve. He acquired a large area of marshland which is home to Great Snipe and species which depends on large traditional areas to lek as part of its breeding cycle. Marek continues to manage this area and much more using his near wild konik horse to graze the pristine grassland.
The lecture starts at 7.30pm on Wednesday November 18th and the entrance is £2.50.
Why not come along and learn more about this amazing part of Eastern Europe.
Tidy Towns funds improve access at Castle Woods nature reserve
A significant grant from Tidy Towns is supporting staff and volunteers to improve the quality of access at the flagship reserve of Castle Woods in the Dinefwr Estate, Llandeilo.
The funding is making improvements to the paths that make access to the woodlands possible. In the eastern woodland blocks, paths are being resurfaced with timber and local quarry scalpings. This is making the paths easier to walk all year, but also makes the route more visible and therefore easier to follow. This will contribute to reducing damage to the woodland habitat, where previously visitors have tended to wander off the designated route and into the woodlands.
The funding has also paid for contractor time to clear many years of accumulated leaf litter and mud from the main trackway that leads from the estate down to the Ffairfach end of Llandeilo and the Tywi bridge, past Llandyfeisant church. This will make walking easier for local visitors from Llandeilo town and people with buggies and wheelchairs, now providing a solid surface where in places this route had previously been ankle-deep in mud.
Volunteers have been key in undertaking the path improvement works and will continue to be an essential part of the project until its completion at Christmas time. Additional works planned include new information panels to help visitors identify some of the wildlife they see during their visits and learn about the history of the woodland.
The next workdays planned to continue working on the footpath resurfacing are November 13th and November 25th. Anyone interested in helping out should contact Lizzie Wilberforce on l.wilberforce@welshwildlife.org
Marsh Fritillary population steady in Carmarthenshire
Volunteers met on a Friday in mid September to undertake the annual larval web count on the Trust reserve Rhos Cefn Bryn, near Llannon, in Carmarthenshire. The survey involves looking for larval (caterpillar) webs- at this time of year, the marsh fritillary caterpillars are gathered in groups on the leaves of their foodplant, Devil’s Bit Scabious, under a silky web. This makes them relatively easy to spot, and therefore to count, as part of the Trust’s annual monitoring programme.
The survey of the larval webs is an annual event on all the Trust reserves where marsh fritillaries are present. The survey involves a systematic sweep of all suitable habitat, in an attempt to gain a total count of all the webs on the site- everyone working their way slowly across the reserve in lines, heads bowed, eyes peeled. The surveys are also used to record other wildlife on the site- very rarely do we get so many people spending all day staring at the ground! Everything from reptiles, to small mammals and other invertebrates are spotted and recorded en route.
This year on Rhos Cefn Bryn a total of seven larval webs were recorded- down on 2008’s count of 15, but still the second highest count since 2002 and within the limits of reasonable variation. This is good news, given that both 2007 and 2008 were recognised to be bad years for butterflies in general, with poor summer weather conditions. Adult marsh fritillaries are flying between mid May and mid July, and fortunately early summer 2009 was fairly warm and dry, conditions the butterflies need to fly and lay their eggs. Four adults were spotted on a warm day in mid June by the Trust’s Senior Conservation Officer, Nigel Ajax Lewis.
Anyone wishing to visit Rhos Cefn Bryn can find details of the reserve here or a more detailed leaflet is available from Lizzie Wilberforce on l.wilberforce@welshwildlife.org
Funding secures conservation of rare ant colony in Carmarthenshire
Cors Goch Llanllwchis a nationally important lowland raised bog, which lies a few km south west of Carmarthen, one of only six good examples of its kind remaining in Wales. The Wildlife Trust owns 19 hectares of the site to the south side of the railway, the first part being bought by the Trust in 1980. The bog is a characteristic domed shape, a feature created by accumulated peat, and is covered in a mixed vegetation that includes Heather, Purple Moor-grass, Cotton Grass and Deer Grass, with occasional pools which are filled with Sphagnum mosses.
As well as being important for its vegetation communities and rare plants, Cors Goch is also home to a number of rare invertebrates, including the Small Red Damselfly and the Black Bog Ant, the latter being a priority species known from only two other sites in Wales. It was discovered on Cors Goch in 1991, and observations over the years of Trust ownership have recorded up to 300 colonies of this spectacular ant on the reserve.
Its isolated location makes the management of Cors Goch a challenge, but HLF funding in recent years allowed the completion of a large length of fenceline which will hopefully allow future grazing of the western side of the bog, where Purple Moor-grass is becoming increasingly dominant. Now, extra funding received from the Countryside Council for Wales is enabling the construction of extra fencing which will allow us to graze the areas inhabited by the black bog ants more carefully. The work will fence the ants into a miniature compartment of their own, which will be gated, and which will permit the grazing cattle to be admitted or excluded to the area and give the control that allows careful management of the habitats according to the rare ant’s needs.
Anyone wishing to visit Cors Goch should contact Lizzie Wilberforce on l.wilberforce@welshwildlife.org, reserve leaflets are also available on request
Volunteers declare war on alien plants in Carmarthenshire!
July has seen a great battle in Carmarthenshire- a war of attrition- between dedicated Wildlife Trust volunteers, and luxuriant growth of the alien, invasive plant species Himalayan Balsam in the flagship Wildlife Trust nature reserve Castle Woods in the Dinefwr Estate, Llandeilo.
Himalayan Balsam (Impatiens glandulifera) is an attractive, but non-native species which is increasingly visible in our countryside. A relative of Busy Lizzie, it is also known by a number of other names including Jumping Jack and Policeman’s Helmet- after the exploding seed pods and flower shape respectively. In Welsh, it is known as Jac y Neidiwr. It was introduced to the UK in 1839 for its aesthetic contribution to gardens but was already recorded from the wild by 1855. Since then it has spread rapidly across the UK and is particularly common on riverbanks and in marshlands.
Unfortunately, the Tywi Valley is just one of many in Wales that has been colonised by this voracious plant, and it has reached the Trust reserve of Castle Woods, spreading rapidly through the woodland and along the edge of the floodplain. Fortunately, though, Himalayan Balsam is (for an invasive species) relatively easy to control by manual pulling and stacking of the plants before they set seed.
With this in mind, throughout July, Carmarthenshire’s hard working volunteer team has been grafting away, seeking out these plants in the woodlands, and pulling them up in an attempt to eradicate them from the reserve and bring about a reversion to our native flora. Around 28 person days have been put to the task, and in all weathers- sun, rain… and even thunder! Plants have been pulled from the woodland, fished out of ditches, and even sought out from nooks and crannies of trees where they had managed to set seed.
We would like to extend a huge ‘thank you’ to everyone who has contributed to this mammoth task this year- and if you see Balsam on any of our reserves, please do let us know- even better, pull a bit up as you pass!
Ffrwd Farm Mire visited by expert naturalists
A number of expert naturalists have visited the Carmarthenshire reserve Ffrwd Farm Mire in recent months, adding valuable information to the reserve records and making useful recommendations for the management of the site. The 19 hectare reserve, near Pembrey in south Carmarthenshire, is part of the Gwernydd Penbre SSSI and includes large areas of reedbed and marshy grassland, with some wet woodland and scrub.
CCW’s Lowland Peatland Survey team visited in late June to map the vegetation communities across the reserve. The map of NVC (National Vegetation Classification) plant communities will be a big help in making detailed decisions about the management- which areas get mowed, which areas get grazed, and which sections need special treatment for the unusual plants that occur there. A few rare plants were also located, including Oenanthe aquatica (Fine-leaved water dropwort), confirmed on the site for the first time after one single record from 1988.
The site was also visited by CCW staff mapping the use of the site by Cettia cetti (Cetti’s warbler). Cetti’s warbler is one of the special features for which the land was designated a SSSI. Rarely seen but with a powerful song, the Cetti’s warbler breeds in the scrubby margins of reedbeds and overgrown ditches. Because Ffrwd Farm Mire is important for its reedbed and marshy grassland, scrub invasion needs to be monitored and controlled to prevent excessive spread- and yet the scrub is also vital for some of the rare species like the Cetti’s warbler. The maps of breeding warblers on the site will help us to know which areas of scrub are the most important to retain, and balance this with the need to control it elsewhere.