Luckily the weather we had throughout the week was actually not too bad for the most part, which is especially good considering the horrible weather we had in December. Even though the weather was generally decent when we were there, some of the fields in the surrounding area were flooded from the amount of rain prior to our visit.
Luckily, the place we were staying in wasn't covered in water which was a nice bonus. The photo below shows the house that I was staying in. There was about 20 people in total, with 11 staying in this house, and the other 9 people split between two smaller houses across the road.
And a picture of the house from the other side of the road where the other little cottages are:
The next set of photos were taken throughout the week on various different walks around the area we were staying.
The next few photos were taken at a small local wildlife reserve. The site includes a wetlands area with reeds and a couple of islands, and some scrub/woodland in the surrounding area, with a couple of hides. We spent 2 or 3 hours walking around the reserve, popping into both of the hides for a while. In terms of wetland birds, it was actually pretty quiet and there wasn't a lot to be seen. It is only a small reserve, so it was always unlikely to attract huge numbers of wildfowl.
Most of the bird activity, as is often the case at nature reserves, could be seen when walking between the hides in the scrub areas. All of the small common birds you would expect to see, we saw. There were a couple of unusual things to be seen though. I was very surprised by the number of Bullfinches in the area. We saw them 4 or 5 times when walking around the reserve, sometimes on their own, and more often than not, in a group with a couple of other individuals feeding on berries of various plants.
Unfortunately, Bullfinches as I'm sure you're aware are relatively shy birds and it really is quite difficult to get close to them. This makes photographing them a bit of a pain, and as I was there, I was only really able to get a couple of record shots. Bullfinches aren't rare exactly, but it would have been nice to get some better photos of a bird that isn't seen all too often. Not only this, but I missed all the opportunities to take pictures of the male bird with its distinctive bright pink front. The photo below is the best I could manage of a female bird we encountered on our way to the first hide.
Another bird we encountered was a friendly little Dunnock...
Once we had got into the first hide, there wasn't an awful lot to be seen. We did spot a Wren flitting around in the reeds though, which caught our attention for a while. They're such interesting birds to watch, but for something so common, they're surprisingly difficult to see. Even when you have spotted one, its often just for a few seconds or even less before it flies off into the undergrowth where it can't be seen.
This particular bird stayed around a bit longer than normal, allowing a few pictures to be taken. Even though it stayed put, the bird was at quite a distance, and was obviously very small, so my 300mm lens really couldn't get particularly close to it. A very average cropped picture can be seen below.
We saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker on the way to the second hide, and a few other interesting species such as Teal and Great-crested Grebe could be seen from the second hide, but after a while we decided to head back. On the way back to the car though, we saw a tiny Goldcrest flitting through the scrub, a Jay, a Red Kite and a Kestrel. By the end of the day, we had seen a decent number of species for such a small reserve which was pleasing. Throughout the week, we saw other species such as Treecreeper, which was good to see. I've seen them a few times before, but its always fascinating to watch their unique behaviour as they climb up trees like mice.
This reserve was just one of many in the local area around the house we were staying in. Wales generally really is a fantastic place to see birds, largely due to the fact that so much of the country has been left untouched. Pretty much every time I've been there I've ended up seeing an impressive range of species without really making an effort to go to many nature reserves.
I think I'll leave today's post at that. I'm starting to run out of photos on my computer that I haven't posted yet so hopefully I'll have my SLR camera back from being repaired before too long. I also might try and add a couple of posts in 2012 to fill in the gaps I missed. Until then, have a great week :D
