Llanelli Naturalists Newsletter - Summer 1992
Ian Morgan
Leader - I.K. Morgan
Some twenty-five people turned up for the joint Llanelli Naturalists - Dyfed Wildlife Trust field meeting, the greater majority of those attending being members of the new DWT Llanelli Section; attendance by the Llanelli Naturalists was disappointing.
The purpose of the meeting was simply to show how much wildlife can be seen - in what is perceived as the depths of winter - in two contrasting areas of the Stradey Woods complex, the semi-natural sessile oak Quercus petraea - birch Betula pubescens woodland of Cwm Mawr (SN48-02-) and the more diverse amenity plantings on the flatter land ("Strade" = -plain") between Cwmbach (SN488019) and Stradey Castle (SN491016).
Little mercy was shown by the leader towards those members who were inappropriately shod, as the party followed the muddy trackway up Cwm Mawr. The mud hereabouts owes its blackness to the presence of coal dust, for several coal edits were, in the past, active in this narrow dingle; but the linear spoil tip that lies parallel to the path is now disguised by mature growths of birch and other trees. On this shale-spoil ridgelet (which many people traverse without realising its origins), evidence of badgers were seen, in the form of latrine pits and, indeed a well-used track led to a sett on the nearby flanks of the dingle.
The party were shown the essentially calcifuge (lime-hating) woodland flora underlying the multi-stemmed once-coppiced oaks - with swathes of bilberry Vaccinium myrtilus in some areas and with broad buckler ferns Dryopteris dilatata and hard ferns Blechnum spicant proliferating on the few outcrops of sandstone. The party inspected the entrance to one of the old adits (at SN483023) but the luminous lime-green moss Schistosteqa pennata which was present only a few weeks previous had disappeared; no attempt was made to carefully survey this very dangerous adit for the presence of the whiskered, Natterers and Daubentons bats that are known to roost here.
We then proceeded to the mixed (mostly 19th Century) plantings of conifers and various deciduous trees such as oak and beech which arcs around the rear of Stradey Castle, the party walking down the rather precipitous path from the bottom of the sunken land (SN488018) that reaches towards Mynydd Penbre - this was the old route before the construction of the length of the B4308 between Cwmbach and Parc (SN476027). The steep slope that we had descended actually crosses the "Stradey Fault", a minor structural disturbance in the underlying strata.
In a damp area at the base of this pathway, a clump of spreading Galeobdolon arqentatum was admired; this close relative of the native labiate yellow archangel G. luteum subsp. montanum, is cultivated in gardens because of its attractively silver-variegated leaves, but it is often thrown out due to its virile rate of growth. Close by, a tree creeper was watched as it spiralled up an ancient beech tree; these same ageing beeches are valuable to wildlife, as a range of local deadwood invertebrates such as longhorn beetles utilise the rotten timber.
Near the artificial waterfalls, "Dutch rush" Equisetum hyemale (actually an evergreen horsetail not a rush) was seen to be cautiously spreading around the edge of a clogged up pond (SN489016) to where it was introduced by the author in 1982. This species was used in the past as a 'natural Brillo-pad" for scouring pans etc, as the stems (which are very rough) hold quantities of silica. Also pointed out was the solitary young wild service tree Scorbus torminalis planted just below the waterfall in 1986 (it was donated by Mr Ian Watt of Llandeilo).
Looking across the parkland in front of the Castle, several members commented on how different the view now looked since the demolition of the distant dominating hulk of the Duport Steelworks. The leader indicated the general position of the heronry (with c.7 nests) that has established itself in recent years amongst the tall conifers immediately SE of the Castle; he also warned of the strict need not to disturb these nesting birds.
After leaving the party, the leader passed early-flowering clumps of "Abraham, Isaac and Joseph" Trachystemon orientalis along the drive at SN494015. This boraginaceous perennial is a native of the Mediterranean and it is also extensively naturalised just below Penywern Cottage SN495013, together with sheets of more Galeobdolon arqentatum and a few plants of another member of the borage family - alkanet Pentaglottis sempervirens. In the tall trees above the first-mentioned clumps of Trachystemon, a male lesser-spotted woodpecker was calling kestrel-like (it was subsequently heard again here a few days later).
