Poor attendances at indoor meetings since the venue was changed to the Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre at Penclacwydd has forced the committee to think again. At the recent AGM venous possible reasons were put forward which included the out-of-town location. the bleakness of the centre on wild winter nights, its inaccessibility except by car and the clash with other meetings. The advantages Penclacwydd had to offer included the excellent facilities and the fact that the society was able to use it grabs. In an attempt to rectify matters, meetings from October 1995 will be held at the Y.W.C.A, Queen Victoria Road, Llanelli on the third Thursday of the month (except for the Christmas Social meeting) I hope that we can now expect attendances to rise to their former level. A very varied programme has been arranged and I urge members to make every effort to attend. We are very fortunate to have Dr. David John, Head of Algology at the Natural History Museum, London, to lead a beginners' seaweed identification meeting on Easter Saturday. I particularly commend this meeting to you. Selected Dyfed Wildlife Trust meetings have also been included to cater for as many interests as possible.
I again have the pleasure of thanking Barry Stewart for providing the excellent line art for illustrating the articles in this Newsletter. Further examples of his, and others`, work will be included in the first and subsequent issues of the Society's new publication The Llanelli Naturalists Bulletin. Members wishing to receive their copy, the contents of which are outlined on the back cover of this Newsletter, should return the tear-off slip on page 5 and include their remittance which is only intended to cover production costs in order not to be a drain on the Society's general finances.
I recently attended the two-day Herpetofauna Worker's Meeting held at the National Museum of Wales where a paper was given by Steve Gibson of JNCC outlining progress with the national recording scheme launched last year. Very few records had been received from our local area. Nationally, returns were also surprisingly few, for instance, the total number of records received for the Common Frog, was only 435. Common Toad, 188 , Smooth Newt. 153, Palmate Newt, 68 and Great Crested Newt 61. Most records (all species) were from garden ponds (94), followed by other ponds (84), broad-leaved woodland (60) and lowland grassland (49). Very surprising was the prominence of coniferous plantation as a favoured habitat type with 84 records originating from this type of woodland. All reptile and amphibian records should be sent to Andrew Lucas at CCW, Llandeilo who has agreed to pass them on to the national co-ordinators. Andrew also urges you to continue to send him all your mammal records. Records of common species are just as important as those of rarities, and please don't assume that someone else will have sent the record in, be sure by submitting it yourself.
No doubt you have read of the national survey of Mistletoe currently being promoted by the BSBI and Plantlife. In Carmarthenshire the species has always been rare and is unlikely to be native with those few plants recorded outside apple orchards likely to have been bird-sown from nearby cultivated sources. But was this always the case? O. Donovan, in Science Gossip of 1885, is reported to have recorded Mistletoe "on oaks in the remains of old forest along the courses of the Rivers Towy and Cothi" This is unusual as oak is not a tree favoured as a host. As I discovered recently whilst carrying out a monitoring survey, Ivy can frequently resemble Mistletoe in tree tops and I wonder whether Donovan's observations were, in fact, correct. Every other record in the county refers to one, or at best, a few plants, growing in apple orchards, sometimes with presumably bird-sown singletons established on other tree species in the vicinity. Such is the case for plants established in a lime tree at Llanmiloe House, Pendine, and in a hybrid poplar at Cnap-Ilwyd, Glanamman; both plants are now, however, extinct. The total number of Mistletoe records made in Carmarthenshire between 1858 (the first record) and 1994 was fifteen. Monitoring these known sites established that only four were extant and of these, three occurred at Hermon, within 0.5km of each other. Appeals in the local press produced a new record of a plant in an orchard at Croesyceiliog together with a planted seedling at Hermon (again!) and a c50 year old record from Salem. It would appear that Mistletoe is on the verge of extinction in the county with the only flourishing colony of about thirteen plants established on four apple trees in an orchard off Grenig Road. Glanamman (presumably the source of the Cnap-llwyd plant). Mr. and Mrs. Tallowin recorded Mistletoe in a garden in New Road, Llanelli in 1976 whilst attending a house-contents sale. I have been unable to track his record down. I would be very grateful if you know of the exact whereabouts of this, or any other Mistletoe plant if you could phone or send me the record. Happy hunting!
