Recent News

The Search for Sausage Beard-lichen

Sausage Beard-lichen Usnea articulata seems to be spreading after a period of decline. Natural Resources Wales are looking for records of this species from South and West Wales. An excellent poster which will help you identify it and how to report it can be obtained from this link. Sausage Beard-lichen Info Sheet . This is the first such circular we have received carrying the Natural Resources Wales logo.

February 2013

Wales Online Amphibian and Reptile Atlas

During the past year, Cofnod, the Local Record Centre for North Wales, and Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (ARC) have been developing an online Atlas for Wales. Not only can you view records at 10km and 1km square resolution, you can add records directly to the Atlas. All the LRCs in Wales have access to records submitted to the atlas so you will be helping us to build up more records for the West Wales region as well as the national distribution.

Amphibians and reptiles are an under-recorded group so please have a look at the atlas and help us to fill the gaps.

February 2013

Ash Dieback
What to look out for

BTO free training
The BTO are offering free training in the Breeding Bird Survey methods to prospective volunteers who would like to take on a square.
More information

The Vincent Wildlife Trust have a new project

People and Pine Martens in Wales

December 2012

Older

Common Fungi Project 2012

This British Mycological Society project is continuing for a further year, and is looking at distribution and associations of 6 common fungi species; Fly agaric (Amanita muscaria), Birch polypore (Piptoporus betulinus), Jelly Ear/Jew’s Ear (Auricularia auricula-judae), Blushing bracket (Daedaleopsis confragosa) Stump puffball (Lycoperdon pyriforme) and Yellow stagshorn (Calocera viscosa). Further information on the project can be obtained from the Pembrokeshire Fungus Recording Network and all records should be sent to the co-ordinator, David Harries in the first instance. email dandh@f2s.com

April 2012

Mitten Crab Recording Project

A new website has been launched by a consortium of partners to rapidly capture records of Chinese mitten Crab. http://mittencrabs.org.uk/ The site will help with the identification of this invasive and highly destructive species and there is a link to enable you to submit records online which will help to ensure records are quickly verified and acted upon.

The mitten crab is one of the world's worst invasive species and as the main means of transmission is ship ballast water, it's spread is very difficult to control. It can cause ecological and economic damage to coastal fisheries, change existing habitats, compete with native species and will even spread into fresh water habitats.

September 2011

Free professional training opportunities

Dr Neil Price of Swansea University is running an EU funded project which provides subsidised training (free). This training is provided to companies/organisations that are within the convergence area and count as an SME, Small to Medium Sized Enterpris. (see www.swansea.ac.uk/aptbioscience/eligibility/#d.en.56426 for more info).

The type of ecology courses they can do include but are not limited to:
-    Basic Fieldwork Skills
-    Introduction to Plant Identification
-    Invasive Plants
-    Protected Species (bats, amphibians, reptiles, terrestrial mammals and invertebrates)

If you are interested and think that your company/organisation meets the criteria then please contact Dr Neil Price on D.N.Price@swansea.ac.uk. For further information visit www.swansea.ac.uk/aptbioscience/

Launch of Mammals in Sustainable Environment Project

MISE is a new project funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the Ireland Wales Programme 2007-2013 (INTERREG IVA), and will set out to foster involvement of communities in Ireland and Wales in mammal conservation.

Survey work will include monitoring different mammals including otters, pine martens, and squirrels. Monitoring in Wales will include some mammals absent in Ireland such as polecats, weasels, harvest mice and dormice.

Project Partners: Waterford Institute of Technology, (WIT). Waterford County Council, (WCC). Countryside Council for Wales, (CCW). Vincent Wildlife Trust, (VWT). Snowdonia National Park Authority, (SNPA). National Biodiversity Data Center, (NBDC).

Waterford Institute of Technology
Eco-Innovation Research Centre, Chemical & Life Sciences Department, Cork Road, Waterford, Republic of Ireland
Email mise@wit.ie

Pembrokeshire Dormouse Project

An exciting partnership project to discover the incidence and distribution of the hazel dormouse (Muscadinus avellanarius) within the country has been started with the involvement of CCW, the National Trust, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, the Wildlife Trust and local land owners. Siân Williams from Kite Ecology, an ecological consultant based in Pembrokeshire, is the project instigator and is keen to see whether the currently restricted known population of dormice in the north of the county (includes Pengelli Forest) is more widespread in their distribution and range of habitats.

A recent publication of a book called ‘Living with Dormice’ by Sue Eden has brought new evidence that this small mammal may not be restricted to hazel stands and bramble as once thought. Her many years of research have led her to the conclusion that the dormouse is, in reality, a widespread, tough, opportunistic omnivore that appears just as at home in low coastal scrub and conifer plantations.
We are therefore keen to see if this may be the case within Pembrokeshire and have chosen 11 sites, spread evenly across the county, including a variety of habitats, from wet / dry open heaths to coastal scrub and small wooded areas. On each site, 50 nest tubes have been installed and will be checked in May, August and September for the presence of this species. The tubes provide an ideal location for the dormouse to nest (along with other small mammals such as bank voles and wood mice!) and are easy to check without causing too much disturbance to the animal. They will be removed in late November to be reused at other new sites next year. Four Wildlife Trust reserves, Teifi Marshes, West Williamston, Dowrog Common and Llannerch Alder Carr are among the project sites in 2010, and it will be an exciting discovery if a dormouse is found where not previously recorded.
If you would like to get involved in checking the nest tubes at the times stated above, please contact Nathan Walton, the Wildlife Trust Officer for Pembrokeshire.

Annie Haycock
County mammal, reptile and amphibian recorder

Data mobilisation project draws to a close.

The Data Mobilisation project funded by CCW is now coming to an end after three years. The aim of the project was to mobilise paper records held in their regional offices, from protected sites and from the wider countryside. Over the course of the project two members of staff have been employed to visit the offices in Aberystwyth, Llandeilo and Pembroke Dock and transfer their records into our Recorder database. This has resulted in over 100,000 records being mobilised for CCW and these records will be incorporated in to our database and used in our reports. A big thank you to all the staff at CCW who have co-operated and helped firstly Laura, and later Madeline to access their files.