Llanelli Naturalists Newsletter - November 2000 - No 66
Ian Morgan
Some time ago, David Saunders passed on to me some annotated notes in a little book called the Rural Calendar, which belonged to Canon T D Thomas, a former curate at Abergwili.
For April 17, 1905 Canon Thomas recorded a Lesser Whitethroat singing near Abergwili.
On May 1, 1905 he saw a Red-backed Shrike at Ty-llwyd (SN460209), whilst on 14th, he heard a Corncrake singing.
On June 22, 1905 he flushed a Nightjar on 'Ysbytty Mountain' (ie Mynydd Ystlyffau-carn, SN472265 etc) and heard another 'churring'.
On June 23, 1905 - a Cirl Bunting was seen by the railway near Bishop's Pond, Abergwili.
On May 8, 1906 had 'corncrake calling 10.00 p.m.'.
On May 25, 1906 had another 'butcher bird' ie Red-backed Shrike.
Some of these records give an interesting insight into elements of a bird fauna now long disappeared from the county. Nightjars have, in the 1990s, recolonised the big conifer forests of Carmarthenshire and Lesser Whitethroats still occur - mostly on the coast and along the Tywi valley.
In 'Pembrey & Burry Port: Some Historical Events and Recollections' (1994) by John Nicholson, the 'Recollections of Mr Daniel James Jones, Pembrey Forest employee of 1928-39' are given. As well as noting that the now notorious Sea Buckthorn was imported from Scotland for planting, he mentions the nesting of many Partridges, plover (ie Lapwing), Skylarks and 'St. George's ducks' (Shelduck) on the Burrows, 'the ducks usually making their nests in Rabbit warrens'. He additionally recalled the planting of huge asparagus beds on the Ashburnham Estate during the late 1800s. A specialist asparagus planter - Edward Brooks from Formby in Lancashire - was even brought in to manage this enterprise. Today, descendants of these plants still grow in Pembrey Forest and on the Ashburnham Golf-links Dunes at Pembrey. In 'Book One' of Mr Nicholson's 'Pembrey & Burry Port: Aspects of their History' (1993), he gives the 1911-12 season's shooting bag for the Ashburnham Estate:
- Pheasant 1116
- Woodcock 12
- Partridge 213
- Snipe 244
- Golden Plover 9
- wildfowl 18
- Hare 6
- Rabbit 209
- various (?) 40
Mr Oswin Thomas of Trimsaran told me in October 1998) of the breeding of Corncrakes (a nest was found) at Emlych Farm, north of Burry Port (SN456033) in 1946, where Partridges also bred. Both are now extinct in Carmarthenshire as breeding birds.
Another interesting record is that of Mike Alexander who recalls a 'large colony' of Sand Martins nesting in ash/waste deposits at the former Mynydd Mawr colliery site, Tumble in the early 1960s.
The last record of note is the flushing of a Bittern from marginal vegetation at Old Castle Pond, Llanelli by Ian McConkey in December 1962. He also reported a dead Chough, found within the confines of the former Duport Steelworks (now the Sandy Water Park) in the Siberian winter of 1962-63.