Cardiff Bay Wetlands Reserve is located in

Cardiff Bay Cardiff Bay (; colloquially "The Bay") is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it is the river mouth of the River Taff and River Ely, Ely. The body of water was converted into a lake as part ...

in the city of

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

. It covers an area of approximately 8

hectares The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. A ...

(19.8 acres). The area was officially opened as a wildlife reserve on 25 July 2002 in what was previously an area of

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

(SSSI) up until the opening of the

Cardiff Bay Barrage Cardiff Bay Barrage () lies across the mouth of Cardiff Bay, Wales between Queen Alexandra Dock and Penarth Head. It was one of the largest civil engineering projects in Europe during construction in the 1990s. History Origin The origin of ...

in April 2001. The area had previously been

salt marsh A salt marsh, saltmarsh or salting, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. I ...

, but the Barrage created 200 hectares of freshwater lake, and from this the reserve was developed.

Construction

The site was chosen by

Cardiff Harbour Authority Cardiff Harbour Authority (CHA) is the managing authority for Cardiff Bay under the Cardiff Bay Barrage Act 1993, and was established on 1 April 2000. It took over responsibility from Cardiff Bay Development Corporation and is responsible for t ...

, which manages

, to create an important new environment from the previous

, and to help compensate for the loss of the Cardiff Bay mudflats. Edmund Nuttall Ltd. won the GB£120,000 contract to build the Reserve, and work was completed by the end of November 2003. In 2001, a landscape architect, Phil Williams from the

Landscape Institute The Landscape Institute (LI) is a UK based professional body for the landscape profession. Its membership includes landscape architecture, landscape architects, urban designers, landscape planners, landscape scientists and landscape managers. ...

, was appointed. He said: After the Wetlands Reserve was constructed,

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...

s of debris had flowed down from the

River Taff The River Taff () is a river in Wales. It rises in the Brecon Beacons as two rivers, the Taf Fechan ("little Taff") and the Taf Fawr ("great Taff") before becoming one just north of Merthyr Tydfil. At Cardiff, it empties into the Bristol Chan ...

and collected near the reserve, so in 2003

built a 450-metre floating boom to prevent debris from entering the reserve.

The reserve

Wetlands A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

are a transitional habitat between water and land; they provide an important habitat for many bird, fish, animal, and plant species. The Cardiff Bay Wetlands Reserve can be found near St David's Hotel close to

Mermaid Quay Mermaid Quay () is a waterfront shopping and leisure district in the Cardiff Bay area of Cardiff, Wales. The development was opened in 1999, and includes restaurants, bars, cafes and shops. History Mermaid Quay was at the centre of the regene ...

. Prior to the construction of the

, this area was made up of mudflats and

. The wetlands reserve was created in the new freshwater lake. The reserve is a

biodiversity Biodiversity is the variability of life, life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and Phylogenetics, phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distribut ...

hot-spot within

. The reedbed, a UK Biodiversity Action Plan habitat, along with other aquatic plants, are very productive vegetation. A number of bird species including

common reed bunting The common reed bunting (''Emberiza schoeniclus'') is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae, a group now separated by most modern authors from the finches, Fringillidae. The genus name ''Emberiza'' is from Old German ''Embritz'', a ...

reed warbler The ''Acrocephalus'' warblers are small, insectivorous passerine birds belonging to the genus ''Acrocephalus''. Formerly in the paraphyletic Old World warbler assemblage, they are now separated as the namesake of the marsh and tree warbler famil ...

s, and

sedge warbler The sedge warbler (''Acrocephalus schoenobaenus'') is an Old World warbler in the genus ''Acrocephalus (bird), Acrocephalus''. It is a medium-sized warbler with a brown, streaked back and wings and a distinct pale supercilium. Sedge warblers are ...

s, use this habitat in which to build nests. Reedbed is not only important for birds, but also for invertebrates, fish, and amphibians. Interesting birds and wildlife can be seen here – not only in the summer, but year-round. The types of birds and their activity level will vary depending on the season. In the spring, when some birds breed on the Reserve, birds can be seen and heard singing – especially early in the morning. The autumn and winter bring visitors like

teal alt=American teal duck (male), Green-winged teal (male) Teal is a greenish-blue color. Its name comes from that of a bird—the Eurasian teal (''Anas crecca'')—which presents a similarly colored stripe on its head. The word is often used ...

and

European stonechat The European stonechat (''Saxicola rubicola'') is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a subspecies of the common stonechat. Long considered a member of the thrush family, Turdidae, genetic evidence has placed it and its relative ...

The Wetlands food web

The various species which inhabit the Cardiff Bay Wetlands exist in a dynamic

food web A food web is the natural interconnection of food chains and a graphical representation of what-eats-what in an ecological community. Position in the food web, or trophic level, is used in ecology to broadly classify organisms as autotrophs or he ...

. Very small creatures such as midge larvae and worms live in the mud underneath the wetlands. These are eaten by several bird species such as

common snipe The common snipe (''Gallinago gallinago'') is a small, stocky wader native to the Old World. Distribution and habitat The breeding habitats are marshes, bogs, tundra and wet meadows throughout the Palearctic. In the north, the distribution li ...

. Other insects also use this transition zone between water and land to spend various phases of their lives –

dragonflies A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the infraorder Anisoptera below the order Odonata. About 3,000 extant species of dragonflies are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threate ...

live in the aquatic zone as larvae and adults. Sometimes

black-tailed skimmer The black-tailed skimmer (''Orthetrum cancellatum'') is a dragonfly belonging to the family Libellulidae. Distribution This species is widespread in Europe and Asia. It is found throughout European continent including the Mediterranean islands ...

s can be observed hunting their territories in the

reen A rhyne (Somerset), rhine/rhyne (Gloucestershire), or reen (South Wales) (all pronounced "reen"; from Old English ''ryne'' or Welsh Language, Welsh ''rhewyn'' or ''rhewin'' "ditch") is a drainage ditch, or canal, used to turn areas of wetla ...

part of the reserve. The relationship between plants and animals – birds or insects, can be surprising.

Cinnabar moth The cinnabar moth (''Tyria jacobaeae'') is a brightly coloured Arctiinae (moth), arctiid moth found as a native species in Europe and western and central Asia then east across the Palearctic to Siberia to China. It has been introduced into New Ze ...

s feed on

ragwort ''Jacobaea vulgaris'', syn. ''Senecio jacobaea'', is a very common wild flower in the family Asteraceae that is native to northern Eurasia, usually in dry, open places, and has also been widely distributed as a weed elsewhere. Common names inc ...

whilst in their caterpillar phase. Fish are also visible in the shallow areas of the Reserve. A number of coarse fish species benefit from the warm water and abundance of submerged aquatic vegetation which exists almost exclusively in this part of the Bay. The water provides excellent nursery conditions, cover, and food for small fish. Some species of bird spend a lot of time in the reserve because they can feed on fish there.

Grey heron The grey heron (''Ardea cinerea'') is a long-legged wading bird of the heron family, Ardeidae, native throughout temperate Europe and Asia, and also parts of Africa. It is resident in much of its range, but some populations from the more norther ...

s and

common kingfisher The common kingfisher (''Alcedo atthis''), also known as the Eurasian kingfisher and river kingfisher, is a small kingfisher with seven subspecies recognized within its wide distribution across Eurasia and North Africa. It is resident in much of ...

s are often seen on the reserve.

Access

A footpath crosses the reserve from St. David’s Hotel to the Yacht Club on the

. At the end of this footpath, a boardwalk goes out into the water, allowing good viewing across the Reserve, and also provides a good spot for watching the fish shoaling in the shallow waters. Although public access is not permitted onto the main body of the reserve, this is to allow excellent breeding and feeding conditions to develop for the species present. It is possible to view many bird species from the public area with the naked eye, and binoculars will allow an even better birding experience. Also visible is a floating boom that surrounds the reserve. Under conditions of high river flows on the Rivers Taff and Ely, water-borne debris can be washed down into Cardiff Bay from the upstream catchments. This boom prevents this debris from entering the reserve, and impacting upon the species that are found there.

Notes

External links