Rangers and volunteers at Pembrey, Gelli Aur and Llyn Llech Owain Country Parks spent a Sunday morning during Wales Biodiversity Week sifting through moth traps that had been set up the night before seeing what mothy surprises lay in store. The range of moths that use our habitats is amazing and most are rarely seen during the day - largely nocturnal, they hidden during the night using a range of camouflage techniques.

Moths traps give a great opportunity to discover the wonderful range of moths that occur in our different habitats and to see some amazing colours, shapes and sizes including the large, colourful elephant hawk moth and the amazingly twig-like Buff tip.

A couple of scarce species turned up In Gelli Aur Country Park – Devon carpet is nationally scarce species but locally common in Carmarthenshire and the Poplar grey is scarce in the county.  Twenty-six species were recorded here.

At Pembrey Country Park, our county moth recorder, identified a bumper find of over 60 species – 16 different species were found in the toilet block attracted to the lights there!!

Population levels of hundreds of common moths have decreased since the 1960s, many very dramatically. Moths make up a significant part of our biodiversity and are very important as herbivores, pollinators and as prey for other animals.

With names like Peach Blossom, Sharp-angled peacock and Setaceous Hebrew Character it’s hard not to be in intrigued by these fascinating species!

On Saturday 12 June Burry Port Yacht Club hosted a marine wildlife event. Marine experts from the Countryside Council for Wales, National Museum of Wales,  Marine Conservation Society, The Green Blue and Carmarthen Bay & Estuaries European Marine Sites were on hand with displays on the marine environment, including a life-size leatherback turtle, a tank of rock pool creatures and a reproduction of the sea floor!

Keep Wales Tidy had led a beach clean the week before and displayed some of the plastic, metal and netting that had been collected and which can have such an adverse effect on our marine environment.

CCW marine experts led a fascinating guided walk along the beach looking at the life of the seashore and Valerie Bartlett, an environmental artist created a turtle beach marked by flags created by Burry Port Junior School when she worked with them the week before. The school’s display of banners and netting with marine litter, along the harbour railings, with the strong message of protecting our marine environment clearly displayed the theme of the day – Save Our Seas!!