Coast & Countryside

Parkland Paradise

One of the biggest successes of the Millennium Coastal Park has been the creation of wildlife habitats. So why not spend the day discovering some of the many fascinating plants and animals found within the park? There are many different habitats including sand dune, lake, salt marsh, fen, woodland, stream and semi-natural grasssland. Each habitat is home to a unique assemblage of plants and animals.

North Dock Dunes Local Nature Reserve, next to the Discovery Centre, is home to many specialist plants and animals that are adapted to withstand the dry sandy conditions. Look out for plants like sea holly, sea campion, sea spurge and grasses such as marram and sand couch grass. The rare marbled white and small blue butterfly also occur here.

From the cycle path on the Machynys peninsula there are good views over the mud flats of the Burry Inlet, which is internationally important for its bird life. The estuary is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and is within the Carmarthen Bay Special Area of Conservation. Look out for small flocks of dunlin, ringed plover, sanderling and redshank along the coast whilst shelduck, oystercatcher and curlew can be seen further out on the mudflats.

In the peace and quite of Pwll Lagoon Local Nature Reserve many rare plants can be found in this fenland habitat such as southern marsh orchid, common sundew and lesser centaury. In the more wooded areas royal fern and lemon-scented fern grow.

The semi-natural grassland is full of meadow flowers in summer along with the accompanying buzz of bees and other nectar feeding insects. Skylark and linnet both nest here along with numerous butterflies such as ringlet, meadow brown, gatekeeper, large skipper, peacock and red admiral.

At Ashpits Pond Local Nature Reserve there are high numbers of breeding birds such as swan, mallard, coot, moorhen, little grebe, great crested grebe and tufted duck. In the summer sand martin are found over the pond hawking for insects. Overwintering ducks include gadwall, shoveler, teal, pochard, wigeon and goldeneye.

The large sand dune system at Pembrey Burrows and Saltings Local Nature Reserve is still being formed and contains examples of all the different types of sand dune, from embryo dunes to large semi-stable yellow dunes. Specialist plants and animals live in the saltmarsh, which has formed behind the dunes. It is inundated with saltwater at every high tide and in late summer the purple flowers of common and rock sea lavender cover the ground. The notable insect population of the dunes includes the strandline beetle, the brown-banded carder bee and the tiger beetle. Many bees and wasps use the dry soft conditions found in the sand as nest sites.