The wildlife of Bluestone, Pembrokeshire - March 2016

From 21st March 2016 we stayed for a few days at Bluestone National Park Resort, Narberth, Pembrokeshire. It's a fantastic place to get away from it all and a great place to spot wildlife. It is surrounded by woodland and has it's own large lake. We were lucky enough to have a lakeside lodge and even from our window we were confronted by an abundance of wildlife.

Monday 21st March 2016
We arrived late afternoon, but already had a number of birds flying around our lodge...

Male blackbird singing a beautiful song in a nearby tree.

Moorhen foraging on the grass

We came prepared with some bird seed and mealworm and placed some on the balcony of our lodge. It wasn't long before we had visitors like this blue tit...

...and this male chaffinch.

Being nature lovers we were so excited to see birds so close, we couldn't wait to go to bed and wake up the next day to see what else would visit us :)

The sun setting over the lake (this was the view from our lodge) x

Tuesday 22nd March 2016
We woke up nice and early and looked out of our bedroom window to see what the weather was like. It was a bit overcast, but wasn't raining! There were already several birds on the picnic table outside...

Male sparrow waiting for his breakfast

We put some meal worm on the picnic table and it wasn't long before we had a crowd of them:
Blue tits, chaffinches & sparrows 

Then the big boys arrived, starlings...

...and jackdaws

But they seemed to feed nicely together, here they are looking at me
"Hey, we are running low here!"

We watched them for ages and a new face showed up...this adorable Great Tit

In the resort there are a few different walking routes, including a marked nature trail. So we managed to drag ourselves away from our feathered friends and went exploring.

The nature walk goes through deciduous woods, over streams and along boardwalks. There was lots of bird life, but the weather was a bit grey so we couldn't get many good photos. We continued following the numbered trail and saw two small birds flying in and out of trees. Upon closer inspection they were in fact a pair of Goldcrests. We couldn't believe it and they started doing a repetitive mating dance that lasted 10 minutes (you can see part of it in the video below).

A pair of Goldcrest perform a mating dance

Such beautiful birds and seeing them so close and doing such a wonderful display made our day. They eventually flew off and we continued our walk along the path which eventually reached one of Bluestone's eateries 'Camp Smokey'. We stopped for some refreshments and were greeted by a friendly robin. Dan was amused with the setting, this is where the zip wire activity takes place and he thought he was in Ewok territory 'Endor' (Star Wars fans will get this lol)

Camp Smokey

Friendly Robin

Endor?

We continued back on the trail, which lead us up higher into the woods - we reached a pathway with trees either side and remembered that last year in May they were full of bluebells, but we were here too soon this year. Once again we were greeted by an even friendlier robin and also a blackbird singing a lovely song.

The trees without bluebells March 2016

The trees with bluebells May 2015

Lovely, friendly robin

A singing blackbird

It was a lovely little nature trail and we made our way back to our lodge, as soon as we got there we already had a few birds waiting for us...

...including this Blue Tit...

...male Chaffinch...

...and this lovely Great Tit.

Wednesday 23rd March 2016
On our third day in Bluestone we had two new visitors outside our lodge: a pied wagtail and song thrush. We decided to walk a bit further out of the resort and into Canaston Woods, which is accessible from the resort.

Pied wagtail in a nearby tree

A Song Thrush looking for worms.

One of the ways out of the resort and into Canaston Woods.

It was a lovely walk around the woods and we saw a number of birds including a gorgeous buzzard sitting in a tree, we also saw numerous amounts of fungi and found these other interesting things...

Buzzard sitting in a tree

A big pellet full of bones near where the buzzard was hunting

A fox (?) skull

King Alfred's Cakes fungi

Some weird orange slime fungi

Lovely snowdrops in flower

The weather was grey and cold, so we finished our walk quite soon. We stopped to visit the castle on the way back - Castle Coch dates back to the 14th century and surrounded by trees from Canaston Woods. Again we could hear lots of bird life, but the bad lighting prevented any photos.

Castell Coch

Castell Coch

Thursday 24th March 2016
This day was a bit of a wash out, it rained almost all of the day. We did however see a few birds: a Cormorant on the lake, a Long Tailed Tit in the nearby bushes and a Carrion Crow in the grass.

Carrion Crow foraging in the grass

Cormorant on the lake

Long Tailed Tit in the bushes outside the lodge
(sorry about the photo, it was taken through a rather wet window)

A soaking bird on the balcony :(

In the evening the rain eventually eased off and we went for a bite to eat at the King's Tafarn, came second in the pub quiz then went looking for frogs, newts and toads. Armed with a torch, we couldn't believe the amount of toads next to the lodges - Bluestone is primarily a no car zone and people travel around in buggies - we lost count of how many times we stopped buggies and pointed out toads were crossing!

The toads were out in force and lots were mating, including a pair on our doorstep! We also saw lots of Palmate Newts, but no frogs.

Mating Common Toads on the path outside the lodge
(look at the size difference between male and female)

l

More mating Common Toads - Two's company, three's a crowd!

A posing Common Toad giving the 'don't mess with me' look

Palmate newt crossing the road

Another Palmate newt

...and here's another pair :)

We were so happy we saw so many toads and newts, they seem to be thriving in Bluestone and hopefully we saved a few potential road kills.


Friday 25th March 2016
So today was our last day staying at the resort, it was a completely different day than yesterday and the sun was finally shining. We had to check out quite early so we had one more walk around the lake before we made our way to Stackpole (this will be my next blog). This is what we saw on our last day...

The view from our window

One of the paths down to the lake

A Dunnock & Song Thrush seeking out juicy worms

The Toads were still at it! - Underwater, you can see the size difference!

A Mallard chilling out

A Herring Gull on top of our lodge bidding us goodbye.

Our stay at Bluestone was wonderful, we saw so much wildlife without even leaving the lodge. When we did leave the lodge we were treated to birds like buzzards and goldcrests. I would recommend Bluestone to anyone who loves nature and just wants to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life. We will definitely be back :)

Penllergare Valley Woods, Swansea - 5 March 2016

Penllergare Valley Woods is a hidden gem just 15 minutes away from Swansea City Centre. Situated off the A48 it is easily accessible and open 24/7 to the public. There is a car park with a coffee shop, but seeing as we were there before 8am we parked in the layby next to the Lezzet Cafe and entered the woods through that entrance.

Notice board with map and information about the woods.

We headed right towards the upper lake - the reason being there has been a kingfisher spotted on this lake over the last few weeks and we are desperate to spot one this year :).

The view of the lake from the bridge.

The upper lake (fish pond).

It was not even 8am and there were already lots of birds around: mallard on the pond, robins, blackbirds and great tits flying in and out of trees and bushes.

We walked slowly along the river, desperately trying to spot the kingfisher that has been sighted numerous times recently. After half an hour we gave up and decided it was time to explore the rest of the woods...maybe we would get to see him on the way back?

Male Blackbird.

Great Tit.

Female Mallard (there were males on the pond too). (pic by Dan Turner)

At the other end of the pond you can clearly hear running water and, after one last look back to see any flashes of blue and orange, we decided to check out the cascade.

It looked beautiful today and it wasn't long before a dipper made an appearance. I love watching dippers bobbing up and down and splashing in and out of the water. They are lovely little birds and every time we visit Penllergare we always see them. Another regular visitor showed up too: the grey wagtail, infact there were two of them flying around the waterfall.

The upper pond from the other side.

The cascades.

Dipper. (photo by Dan Turner)

Grey Wagtail (there were a pair). (Photo by Dan Turner)

We continued walking along the river and near the Llewelyn Bridge we saw a blackbird and song thrush having a dispute. When we crossed the bridge we were greeted by lots of birds: great tits, long tailed tits and a rook in a tree on the hillside.

The scenic river.

The Llewelyn stone bridge - a new bridge which was built in 2013.

Song thrush.

Long tailed tits (Pic by Dan Turner).

Great tit.

After seeing the rook in the trees in the upper part of the woods, we made our way up the incline. The views from here are fantastic and you appreciate how big Penllergare is. There were lots of daffodils flowering up here and a flock of great tits were in a nearby tree.

The path up to the higher section of the woods.

Great panoramic of the woods and ponds.

Daffodils.

Walking along the path we saw a Dunnock and as well as daffodils there were a few snowdrops flowering...spring is definitely on it's way.

Dunnock.

Snowdrops

From here we started making our way back down the valley, lots of birds like robins and wrens were in and out of the bushes and we noticed one of the paths was closed off. Unfortunately a small section of the woodland has been infected by a fungal disease and hopefully they will be able to keep it under control and fix it.

The path into the valley.

Robin.

The path off limits due to fungal disease.

We eventually reached the river again and we crossed one of the narrow bridges, we followed the path around and arrived at the big old oak tree. Who knows what lives in this tree that must be a good few years old.

The narrow bridge crosses over the river.

The old oak tree.

From here we continue on the path and eventually reach the other lake in the woods, this one is called the lower lake and we could see some mallard and coots. A few weeks prior we had seen cormorants and heron on the lake, check out the video below...

Lower lake

A coot.

Mallard flying about the lake.

After a nice break and waiting to see if any other birds arrived we decided to leave the lake and make our way back on the path. On the way we heard a carrion crow making a racket in a nearby tree and plenty of great tits flying around. We headed down the Cadle Mill side of the woods to see if there were any tadpoles in one of the ponds.

Carrion Crow

The path leading to Cadle Mill

Great Tit.

There was plenty of life down this side of the woods, Marsh Marigolds were flowering on the bogs and we spotted plenty of frogspawn and tadpoles in one of the ponds. We also saw newts, but we couldn't get a photo or tell which type they were.

Bogs full of life.

Marsh Marigold.

One of the ponds full of tadpoles...

...and frogspawn.

From here we made our way back on the path and up to the higher point of this part of the woods. Many times I have seen buzzards in this section, but unfortunately there were none today but we did see a greater spotted woodpecker.

On our way up the mountain.

Greater spotted woodpecker.

The views up here are amazing, you can see so much of Swansea. It's so peaceful its hard to think you are in a busy city. We had a little sit down watching the woodpecker fly from one tree to the other. From here we made our way back down, passing a few old trees where we have seen woodpeckers in the past and spotted a treecreeper looking for grubs in a mossy tree.

The view of Swansea.

Dan enjoying the view and watching the woodpecker fly in and out of the trees.

Making our way back down...

Treecreeper.

We took one of the earthy paths back down to the main section of the woods and when we got to the bottom we were confronted by huge redwood (sequoia?) trees. Along the river we looked out for dippers again, but they weren't around - what was around was a lovely little wren singing it's heart out.

On the way down to the main part of the woods.

Passing huge redwoods (nb Dan is 6ft 4, so you can see the size of them).

Walking back along the river

Wren.

We passed the cascades again and walked slowly along the upper lake, hoping the kingfisher would show itself and make our day even better. Unfortunately it wasn't to be today and our quest to see a kingfisher goes on...

The cascades.

The upper lake...still no sign of Mr Kingfisher!

Cute sticker on the dog poo bins and was photobombed by this doggy :)

Penllergare Valley Woods is indeed one was Swansea's hidden gems, I can travel over 50 miles looking for wildlife and see nothing - But every time I venture here (only 15 minutes away) I always see something new. It's my go to place when I need to be with nature. I have to give credit to the all the people who are restoring it, they are doing an awesome job making it a beautiful place to visit all year round.

Check them out on facebook and their website.