Stop, Look and Listen and celebrate Carmarthenshire’s wildlife!
Carmarthenshire’s wildlife needs celebrating! So why not come along to one of events or take part in our Stop, Look and Listen campaign during Wales Biodiversity Week (9-17th June) and take some time experience wonderful wildlife and wild places.
Wherever you are in the county, if you stop, look and listen there is wildlife (and wildness) all around you. From lichens to larches and bees to buzzards if you take the time to look you will always see or hear some of the amazing range of wildlife that occurs in Carmarthenshire.
Whether you are looking out of your classroom or office window, in your back garden, in the park, on the beach or on a country walk we would like you to stop for 5 min during Wales Biodiversity Week (9–17 June), and take the time to look and listen for any wildlife that you can see around you. It could be a plant coming into flower, a moss or lichen growing on a wall or tree, or a bird flying or foraging.
Let us know what you see by filling in the form on the Council’s website. We’d like records from all over the county – common or rare -so we get a picture of what people are seeing in one of the most diverse counties in Wales. If you see something and you don’t what it is then take a photo and send it in – we’ll try and identify it for you!
Walks and activities are taking place throughout the county throughout the week. Why not join find out about our urban wildlife with a walk at Pontyberem, see the wildflowers of a hay meadows at the National Botanic Gardens or take part in a range of family activities looking at insect wildlife at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, Penclacwydd.
Biodiversity officer Isabel Macho said ‘We are lucky to live in one of the most diverse counties in Wales with habitats ranging from mountains and moorlands, rivers and wetlands, hedges and woodlands and coastal and marine. Our biodiversity helps our economy, contributes to our health and well being, and forms an important part of our cultural history. Come along and find out more about the rich tapestry of life around us in Carmarthenshire, discover how it inspires and sustains us all’.
For more information contact Isabel Macho – IMacho@carmarthenshire.gov.uk, 01558 825390 or look at the council’s biodiversity pages on the website. www.carmarthenshire.gov.uk (in the planning and environment section)
Did you know…
- We have the only known example in Great Britain of a ‘Turlough’ – a lake that empties and fills from underground water. Pant-y-Llyn near Carmel usually empties by June–July filling again in the autumn.
- We have at least 10 of the 17 species of bats that occur in the UK in Carmarthenshire – however bats are under threat due to loss of feeding habitats and their roosting sites in buildings and trees.
- We are custodian of more marshy grassland than any other county in Wales – about one-third of the total, concentrated mostly in the Cross Hands area. This important habitat is home to a number of scarce and declining species, including the Marsh Fritillary butterfly and the meadow thistle
- Carmarthen Bay has recently been recognised as probably the most important UK area for the Leatherback Turtle, which arrives here in the summer to feed on the jellyfish blooms that occur. The largest living turtle, the leatherback can reach a total length of 2.1 m and weigh 365 kg. So important is Carmarthen bay for its wildlife it is a Special Area of Conservation.
- The Brownhairstreak Butterfly only lays its eggs on 2–3-year-old blackthorn branches. Carmarthenshire has important populations of this scarce butterfly, having roughly 60% of the recently recorded sites in Wales, but we need to manage our hedgerows appropriately to ensure its survival
- The RAF at Pembrey manage the grassland for the rare Dune Gentian – we now have about one-third of the UK population growing there and as you can imagine – they are well protected!! It is an annual plant that in the UK grows amongst short vegetation in dunes.
- Despite steep declines throughout the country our native Red Squirrel still occurs in the county, living in the coniferous forest in north Carmarthenshire, where they feed on a variety of seeds, fruits, buds, shoot tips, bark and lichen. A project is underway to find out more about them in these forests
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