View looking towards the mouth of the Burry Inlet near dusk...
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Yesterday evening I strolled out onto the mudflats that lie in the middle of the Burry Inlet, between Penclawdd (Glamorgan) and Penclacwydd (Carmarthenshire). Within the last couple of years a new sand-bar has formed and pioneer saltmarsh plants have started to colonise. I took a series of GPS readings of both the main strands of vegetation and pioneer clumps as it is possible that a lower-terrace type marsh may become permanently established, thereby reducing the area of open mudflat. This could have implications not just for feeding birds and fish, but also the cockle industry.
Below, a pioneer clump of Common Cord-grass (Spartina anglica), a hybrid that was introduced to the Burry Inlet in the 1930s...
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Glasswort (Salicornia spp.) by comparison is a native taxon of high conservation status. It is possible that this may be Common Glasswort (Salicornia europaea), though it will be a few more weeks before plants can be determined reliably. The two most frequently recorded species in the Burry are Purple Glasswort (Salicornia ramosissima) and Long-spiked Glasswort (Salicornia dolichostachya) with Common Glasswort known from just one or two specimens, so this could be part of a dramatic change in abundance.
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2 comments:
Hi Barry,lots of greenery on the sandbars over off Pwll,don't know if its eelgrass or something else,it can be viewed at low tide,from the slipway behind The Talbot Inn,if you are passing this way,cheers Bernie
Thanks Bernie, I'll try and check that out. Given the fact you've been seeing good numbers of Brent off there the last couple of winters it could be eelgrass, although they will also feed on Sea Lettuce and other estuarine algae. So long as it's not Spartina (obvious clumps of grass as shown in the middle photo), then the news should be good. For ref most alge form bright green mats, whereas eelgrass tends to form dark patches on the mud. The Glasswort, as you can see in the bottom photo, is very distinctive.
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