Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
BroadPoolisanimportantbreedingsiteforamphibiansandsupportsarichaquaticinvertebratefauna,
including fourteen species of dragonflies. The black darter
Sympetrum danae
, the male of which as its
name implies has a completely black body and legs, seems to be increasing in numbers near Broad Pool.
The pool also supports five species of water boatman and four species of water beetle. Particularly obvi-
ous invertebrates include the large black horse leeches
Haemopsis sanguisunga
, which can often be seen
swimminginclearwater.TheonlyfishinBroadPoolseemtobethree-spinedsticklebacks,althoughrudd
occur in pools elsewhere in Gower and were reported some years before the drought.
FIG
135.
Wood sandpiper, a rare migrant, near Broad Pool in August 2004. (Harold Grenfell)
Thepoolisalsoaveryattractive siteforvisitingbirdsandawiderangeofspecieshavebeenrecorded
including migrants such as ruff
Philomachus pugnax
, spotted redshank
Tringa erythropus
, wood sand-
piper
Tringa glareola
(Fig. 135), whooper swan
Cygnus cygnus
, Bewick's swan
C. bewickii
, goldeneye
Bucephala clangula
, common sandpiper
Actitis hypoleucos
and Jack snipe
Lymnocryptes minimus
, to-
gether with common species such as water rail, grey heron and little grebe
Tachybaptus ruficollis
.
OTHER WATER BODIES
Broad Pool lies at the centre of a scattering of smaller pools on the north side of Cefn Bryn Common,
which because of the hydrology must be regarded as part of the same complex. Near the pool itself are
several small depressions, up to 5 metres across, which contain standing water during the winter but dry
out completely in most summers. About 10 metres northeast is a much larger depression, which is con-
siderably deeper than the pool. It appears that this depression has no boulder-clay plug and that water
can drain freely, since it is always dry with bracken growing in it. The large-scale Ordnance Survey map
of 1877/8 shows two smaller pools, one about 200 metres north and one 200 metres northwest of Broad
Pool. The smaller one is still full of water during the winter, but is very shallow and usually dries out
