A lagoon with easy access and a massive estuary beyond
Aformer major steel works, the 16-acre lake is now the centrepiece, together with reedbeds and woodlands, a great example of how a derelict industrial site could be regenerated. The water park separated only by the railway embankment from the vast expanse of the Burry Inlet and its ornithological riches.
WHERE TO WATCH 1 immediate, indeed lengthy attention, if you hope to add Mediterranean Gull to your day’s list. Many of the Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls will likely to have come from the nearby rooftop colonies at North Dock, Llanelli.
2
In summer, the songs of Reed and Sedge Warblers announce their presence in the reedbeds, while even in midwinter Cetti’s Warblers are likely to be heard, rather than seen, in all the coastal marshes and fen carr bordering Carmarthen Bay.
3 and House and Sand Martins hawking insects over the lagoon, in preparation for their imminent departure on migration. The following morning maybe few or none are to be seen, no wonder many watchers, until the early 19th Century, thought they hibernated in ponds and reedbeds. 4
Having made a complete circuit of the Water Park, no visit will be complete without a little time spent a short distance away on the estuary shore, a shore where the Oystercatcher is the most numerous and most obvious of the waders present, nationally important numbers in many thousands winter on the Burry Inlet.
SUMMER TARGET SPECIES
● Mute Swan
● Gadwall
● Mallard
● Tufted Duck
● Pochard
● Little Grebe
● Moorhen
● Coot
● Black-headed Gull
● Mediterranean Gull
● Kingfisher
● Sand Martin
● Reed Warbler
● Sedge Warbler
● Whitethroat
● Reed Bunting
AUTUMN/WINTER
● Shoveler
● Scaup
● Great Crested Grebe
● Little Egret
● Grey Heron
● Water Rail
● Cetti’s Warbler