Kenfig Nature Reserve - Summer Solstice 2014

Saturday 21st June 2014

The weather was beautiful and seeing as it was the longest day of the year we wanted to make the most of it by going to a place where we could have a good walk as well as seeing some fabulous wildlife – so we choose Kenfig Nature Reserve.

Kenfig Nature reserve is a SSSI (Site of Special Scientific interest) with over 1,000 species of animals and plants. It is situated near Porthcawl, Bridgend and I only live about 20 minutes away - a short drive down the M4. There’s plenty of free parking and the visitor centre has lots of information as well as toilets. There are a number of routes you can do (all colour coded) – but we tend to just start on one and end up exploring another – there’s so many paths and trails – the best advice I can give is just explore.

From the car park we headed to the left of the visitor centre, our intention being to walk down to Sker beach. We made our way through the high sandy hedgerows and within the first few minutes of walking we had already seen a number of wildlife – an abundace of butterflies, damselflies and dragonflies making the most of the sunny weather, plus loads of colourful wild flowers in bloom and bird life everywhere (including blackcaps, greenfinches and dunnocks).

Kenfig Nature Reserve visitor centre.

The sandy paths with an abundance of shrubs and plants.

Common Blue Damselfly.

Dunnock.

The route we took takes you through Pyle and Kenfig golf course, you are allowed to walk over the greens (following the path) and there are signs warning you of golfers playing to either your left or right. Even on the golf course wildlife was thriving with rabbits, birds and butterflies, as well as wild flower.

A pair of magpies working out their handicap :)

Small Tortoiseshell butterfly.

We continued following the path until Sker House started appearing in the distance – A historical building which was a originally built as a monastic grange of the Cistercian order over 900 years ago. It fell into dereliction during the 19th century and in 1979 it was declared unsafe. In March 1999 the building underwent significant restoration which ended in July 2003. Today it’s privately owned and is painted yellow. Quite a charming building with a few tales to tell, including the odd ghost story!

Around the house were impressive thistle plants that were in bloom, the flowers were huge and the bees were loving them. There were also a number of meadow pipits flying around.

Sker House

Fantastic thistles in bloom

Not far from Sker House is a rather large pond. There were a number of huge dragonflies flying around, mostly broad-bodied chasers and a herd of black cattle were chilling out nearby. Whilst taking some pics of the cattle I happened to see an unusual looking bird sitting on the back of one of the cows. I had my binoculars with me and took a closer look – it was a bird I couldn't identify. Dan managed to get some good pics and we scratched our heads trying to work out what it was.

Pond with Welsh Black cattle grazing nearby

The mysterious bird on the back of a cow (Photo by Dan Turner)

When I got home I looked through all of my bird books and online to try and identify the bird – I couldn't find it anywhere! We were puzzled and seeked help on Twitter. The one and only (and rather witty) Bill Oddie tweeted Dan with this:

So what we saw was a bird from Asia called the Bank Mynah and after a number of comments off other people we came to the conclusion that it wasn't migrating but had probably escaped from a private collection.

From here we made our way down to Sker beach (or Kenfig Sands) - it is a 2 and an half mile long beach, reaching from Sker Point at the south end to the Kenfig River at the north end. It's a very pebbly beach with a number of rock pools. The horizon was very clear and you could see Exmoor in the distance.

Kenfig Sands with Sker Point in the distance

A sailing boat on the horizon with Exmoor silhouetted in the distance

Time out to cool our feet down and have a little paddle exploring the rock pools

This part of Kenfig Sands is very quiet, I suppose being a pebble beach it doesn't appeal to the bathers and they choose the much sandier section the other side of Sker Point. This was great for us of course, because it meant the wildlife was undisturbed and we got to see a  number of coastal birds. Oystercatchers and gulls congregated on the rocks, whilst a solitary ringed plover hunted for food among the seaweed. We made our way along the pebbles towards Sker Point where we saw many fishermen casting out to sea.

Oystercatchers and gulls

Ringed Plover

We decided that this was a nice spot to have some lunch so we climbed up on the banks where we were treated with views of Swansea Bay and South Gower. As we were tucking into our sandwiches we noticed a number of red and black moths flying around us, finally one settled nearby and we realised it was a five spotted burnet. We literally saw hundreds of them on our walk :)

The sandy part of Kenfig with Port Talbot Steelworks in the background and Swansea Bay on the horizon.

Five spotted Burnet on flower

From here we decided to make our way back into the nature reserve and started walking over the sand dunes. In the 13th and 15th centuries wild storms and huge tides created the Kenfig dunes as they threw vast quantities of sand up over the coast. This buried the borough of Kenfig and its castle. The dunes now make up part of the largest active sand dune system in Europe, they are also home to a variety of rare species of plants, including the fen orchid. I didn't find that orchid but I did see a number of other plants and these attracted lots of butterflies and moths.

Large Skipper

Silver-barred Sable moth (Pyrausta cingulata)
Thanks to the Nature Watch group (Especially Stuart Williams) on Facebook and
@ukbutterflies & Justin on Twitter for helping me ID this moth :)

A Pyramidal Orchid in bloom
(Thanks to @npaulroberts on Twitter for helping me ID this flower)

The further you walk back into the nature reserve the more it becomes boggy and a lot of natural ponds star tot appear, full of dragonflies and wild flowers. There are also newts here but unfortunately we didn't see any. The bird life is also thriving in the wetlands, with a lapwing spotted flying high above us.

Bogs and wetland flowers appear - creating a haven for dragonflies.

There are lots of pocket's of wetlands in the reserve, all thriving with different wildlife.

Lapwing flying in a cloudless sky.

From here we started making our way towards Kenfig Pool, the paths remain sandy and are lined with beautiful wild flowers all the way. We saw an interesting beetle named the poplar leaf beetle, very similar in look and size to a ladybird minus the spots.

The pretty wild flowers that line the paths.

Poplar leaf beetle

When we reached Kenfig Pool we headed straight to the hide so we could have a sit down and see what waterfowl was around. The hide overlooks the 70 acre lake with the hills of Margam in the distance. Kenfig Pool is infact the second largest natural freshwater lake in South Wales and is a valuable stopping point for migrating birds. A number of rare birds have been sighted there, including the elusive Bittern.

Whilst we were there we could see a lot of commotion in the water and when we looked very closely we could see huge amounts of small fish. Among the reeds were coots and lots of dragonflies, whilst a wedge of Swans flew past the hide.

The view of Kenfig Pool from one of the hides

A wedge of Swans fly pass over Kenfig Pool.

Many fish in Kenfig Pool.

After a little break in the hide we started walking around the lake to get to the castle. A little muddy in parts, we gradually made our way around and again saw a number of wildlife on the way including a common frog and a number of tiny toadlets. We reached a stile and made our way onto farm land where the castle is situated.

Common Frog.

A tiny toaldet.

Dan crosses over the stile towards the castle.

After walking a little while we started seeing the top of the castle through the vast amount of shrubbery that had grown over it. It is said that the castle was built by the Normans around the same time as the town in the late 1140s, originally constructed using timber. It suffered many attacks and in the 15th century there was encroachment of sand that covered the castle and town, leaving both abandoned. Since then, there has been virtually no disturbance to the landscape, with remains of the town buried beneath sand dunes at depths as deep as 30 metres. In the 1920's the castle was partly excavated where they found pottery, leather and various iron artifacts. Today, all that is left is just the top of the castle, who knows how much is left under the sands?

We sat by the castle for while where earlier in the year we had seen buzzards. We thought we would wait to see if any appeared - as we were waiting we did see a fox and a herd of cows and just when we had given up hope a buzzard flew past us and perched in a nearby tree. What a treat! We had only ever previously seen them flying high above.

Kenfig Castle.

Buzzard

The time was getting on so we decided to make our way back to the car. Firstly we had to cross back over the stile and make our way back around the lake. On the way we were surprised how many dragonflies were basking in the sun.

Broad-Bodied Chaser Dragonfly.

Common Darter Dragonfly

By the time we reached Kenfig Pool the sun was already setting. It was  beautiful to see flocks of Canadian Geese silhouetted against the sunset and a swan was swimming with her cygnets. The only wildlife we weren't enjoying were the midges that were out in force - thankfully so were the swallows having a good feast on them.

The sun sets on Kenfig Pool silhouetting flocks of Canadian Geese 

The midges were out in force!

A swan and her cygnets on the lake

We sat near the solitary tree that is so iconic to many who photograph Kenfig and watched as the rest of the sun set. It was so quiet and a truly wonderful evening. It was topped off when we glanced above and saw a large group (or siege) of grey heron's flying above us. I have only ever seen herons on their own, possibly a pair - but never a siege like that.

So beautiful...the Summer Solstice sun sets on Kenfig Pool

A siege of grey herons fly overhead

Dan and I enjoying the sunset after a perfect day :)

Kenfig Nature Reserve truly is one of the hidden gems in South Wales. The vast amount of wildlife, beautiful scenery and awesome walking routes make this one of my favourite places to visit. I recommend you pack a picnic, pick a nice day and go spend it down Kenfig - I promise you won't be disappointed. I will be returning very soon :)