Surveys of Potential Oystercatcher Prey, Pembrey Sands (2009)
dataset
https://portal.medin.org.uk/portal/start.php?tpc=007_4f4c4942-4343-5764-6473-313135313233
The Burry Inlet Special Protection Area (SPA) supports nationally and internationally important populations of wildfowl and waders. Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) are studying the food requirements of oystercatcher and knot, to develop monitoring targets and to assess the implications of shellfish fisheries on the bird populations. As part of that study, surveys of the cockle and mussel stocks in the Burry Inlet have been carried out every autumn since 2004, using a standard methodology. Significant populations of oystercatcher also feed in the Three Rivers and along Pembrey Sands and it is known that they are part of the same population that feed in the Burry Inlet SPA, but the information is limited. Data from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) on oystercatcher distributi
on along the Pembrey coast showed that they concentrate in the central section of the Sands and confirmed that they are feeding at low tide. It is known from previous survey work that the sediment fauna found along the Pembrey coast are likely to include a variety of shellfish (but not cockles and mussels), however data is limited. The purpose of this data capture was to provide data on the abundance and distribution of the potential prey species for the oystercatcher along the Pembrey Sands due to limited data availability. This data aimed to determine the potential prey of the oystercatcher in Pembrey Sands, examining the abundance and distribution of the sediment fauna. Previous findings showed that high numbers of the main prey species of the oyster catchers (cockles and mussels) were
not found in the area.
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