I had been planning on visiting the Welsh Wildlife Centre in Cilgerran, Cardigan for quite awhile and on Saturday 15th November 2014 we finally made the trip. The weather was pretty good with a little bit of sunshine now and again. We arrived at the centre around 10.30pm and made our way to the impressive visitor centre which contains all the information you need and a lovely eatery called the Glasshouse Cafe.
The centre is run by The Wildlife Trust of South & West Wales and is situated on the Teifi Marshes Nature Reserve, which covers over 250 acres. It is a nature lovers paradise with a wide range of habitats to explore: these include ponds, reed beds, meadows, river and woodlands. There are a few hides scattered around that all offer great views of the reserve and the chance to see otters and other wildlife that reside there.
I keep up to date with The Wildlife Trusts via social media so I was aware that a kingfisher had been sighted recently and that starling murmuration could be seen over the marshes. These were the two main things that I wanted to see and the friendly staff in the visitor centre were more than helpful in telling me where I could see them.
Everything is well sign posted and there are a number of routes you can take: Woodland, Wetland, Explorer and Gorge trails - we decided to start with the Wetland Trail, which is signposted red and is almost 2 miles long. Within the first few minutes of the trail we saw a number of birds in the bushes, including pipits, tits and robins. Our first stop was the kingfisher hide.
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| Beautiful Pipit (photo by Dan Turner) |
All of the hides are in fantastic condition and we sat quietly, hoping we would get a glimpse of the kingfisher. Unfortunately this wasn't meant to be but we did however spot a beautiful small grebe, teal, mallard and a number of moorhen. The view from the hide is beautiful and so peaceful, I could have easily sat there for a few hours. With the days drawing in the light wasn't on our side so we headed to the next hide.
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| The view from the kingfisher hide |
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| A little grebe (photo by Dan Turner) |
On the way to the next hide we spotted a number of fungi and lichen on the trees and it wasn't long before we arrived at the Creek hide, which overlooks a lot of the wetlands. We took our seats and once again waited patiently for Mr Kingfisher to appear, but once again nothing. We did see teal and a number of curlews though. We were also joined by a very curious robin that actually sat on the hide for ages and didn't seem bothered when we were pointing a camera at him.
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| A bracket fungi |
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| Lots of bushy lichen |
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| A number of teal and curlew on the wetlands |
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| Curlew at the Creek hide (photo by Dan Turner) |
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| The curious robin that sat on the Creek hide |
From here we continued to make our way around the wetland trail, passing reed beds and ripe bushes full of berries. After walking through a gate and over a boardwalk we climbed up to the Heron Hide, where you get fantastic views of the reserve and the river. With nothing much to report apart from some chaffinches and wood pigeons we made our way back down to the wooded area. Here we saw plenty of fungi.
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| Red berries with reed beds in the distance |
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| The fantastic view from the Heron Hide overlooking the reserve. |
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| Some of the fungi we spotted on the wetland trail. |
The next hide we found was the Otter Hide - a beautifully mud-clay hut. We sat in here for awhile to see if we could see the otters, but the only activity was a pair of swans and mallard. In the summer they have water buffalo on the reserve and this is a good spot to watch them. It's a lovely hide and quite near the car park if you did the walk in reverse. On the way back to the car park we saw a number of squirrels and I also spotted a goldcrest but unfortunately I couldn't get a pic.
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| The Otter Hide |
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| A swan near the Otter Hide |
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| A squirrel in the trees |
The Wetland Trail ended back at the car park where we were greeted by another robin. From here you can start the Woodland trail but, as it was getting a little chilly, we headed to the cafe for a tea. Once in the cafe we got a table that overlooked the bird feeding stations where there were coal, blue and great tits, chaffinches, bullfinches and robins all enjoying the food that had been put out for them.
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| Another cheeky robin |
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| The Wildlife Centre |
By now the time was getting on and we knew in a few minutes the starlings would make their presence felt. We asked a helpful member of staff where the best place was to see the murmuration and they suggested down in the Creek Hide overlooking the marshes so that's where we headed. Before heading down we took time to admire the giant badger sculpture situated at the visitor centre and watched the birds on the feeder once again.
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| Blue Tits on the feeders. |
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| Dan and myself with the badger |
We got to the Creek Hide around 4pm, almost dusk, and the murmuration had already started - it was absolutely fantastic with thousands of starlings joining up with each other to perform spectacular acrobatic shapes over the marshes. We watched them for about half and hour before they settled in the reed beds. Please check out the video below to see them in their full glory...
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| Fantastic shape made by the starlings |
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The murmuration over the marshes
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By the time we got back to the car it was very dark and we knew we had to call it a day. Unfortunately there were a few routes we didn't get chance to do like the Woodland and Gorge trails but that was OK, because it's something to look forward to when we return.
The reserve is brilliant and you can easily spend a day there watching birds, discovering nature and exploring all the different trails. We only had a tea in the coffee shop because we brought a packed lunch - next time though we will defiantly try the food in the cafe.
I cant recommend this reserve enough, if you love nature you won't be disappointed - there is so much to see and the landscape is beautiful. I can't wait to return in the Spring, I just wish I lived a bit nearer - I would be there everyday!
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| The badger sculpture in the sunset |
For more information on the centre check out their website
here
Here is a list of all the birds we saw:
- Goldcrest
- Jay
- Teal
- Little Grebe
- Starings (murmation)
- Swans
- Mallad
- Blue tit
- Coal tit
- Great tit
- Chaffinch
- Black bird
- Rook
- Raven
- Curlew
- Chaffinch
- Bullfinch
- Robin
- Pipit
