Llanelli
Places for free-living wildlife abound at the National Wetlands Centre for Wales, with its mudflats, salt-marsh, freshwater lagoons, streams and its string of grass-banked pools with reed beds.
The range of habitats makes the site a refuge for many different plants and animals – from huge flocks of waterbirds to some of Britain’s rarest mammals and flora.
The site’s upper marsh lagoons are where birds gather in the greatest abundance, including black and bar-tailed godwits, curlew, pintail, shelduck, shoveler, snipe and teal. Little egrets are usually present, too, and in ever-rising numbers. Around 200 now roost in the reserve, providing an especially engaging sight when several at a time settle in the same tree!
Well-kept paths take visitors to hides overlooking the salt-marsh and pools. Look out especially for short-eared owls hunting. For impressive views of the Millennium Wetlands, visit the Heron Hide or add to the adventure of exploration by paddling on the centre’s canoe trail.
Efforts to encourage water voles have been such a success they are now widespread. Keen-eyed observers may glimpse otters occasionally while the sharp-nosed may smell their presence, courtesy of the sweet, fishy, spraints often found close to the water’s edge.
Fish are plentiful in the deep-water lake at the heart of the Millennium Wetlands and in the nooks and crannies formed by its smaller islands. The lake’s larger islands provide nesting sites for a variety of birds, among them little ringed plovers. Other birds breeding include redshank, lapwing, reed warbler, reed bunting and shelduck.
Flighted residents of a different kind – moths – add to the site’s invertebrate interest. Scarce species include the scarlet tiger moth (Callimorpha dominula) and rosy wave moth (Scopula emutaria).
In Spring and summer, the site is ablaze with botanical treasures, such as the bee orchids, rock sea lavender, marsh mallow, narrow leaved eel-grass, yellow horned poppy, yellow bartsia, stone parsley and the huge southern marsh orchid.
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