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Photo M. Sarjeant
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The red kite
is Wales' national bird, and Blaen-y-ddôl is a perfect base
for birdwatching, and for visiting: |
Accommodation at
Blaen-y-ddôl
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Bwlch Nant-yr-arian, where red kites are fed daily |
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the Kite Country centre at Gilfach |
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the RSPB reserves at Ynyshir and Dinas |
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Tregaron Bog (Cors Caron) National Nature Reserve. |
Though we specialise in accommodation for walkers, Blaen-y-ddôl's
facilities and setting make it just as suitable as a base for birdwatching.
Our library includes many books on birdwatching and other aspects
of natural history, and we have information on all the nature reserves
in the area. Our new sun-lounge is hung with bird-feeders, so our
guests can watch the local bird life at close quarters. The most
common visitors are tits - great, blue and
coal - and chaffinch, but we
also regularly get great spotted woodpecker,
nuthatch, greenfinch and siskin.
A winter visit from a blackcap was
our most unusual. Elsewhere in the immediate locality, apart from
such ubiquitous species as robin, blackbird etc., we see kingfisher
(rarely), dipper (occasionally)
and goosander (fairly often) down by
the river; kite (of course!) and buzzard,
redstart, pied flycatcher, and a variety of warblers.
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Mid Wales is sometimes referred to as Kite Country.
It was the only area of Britain where this beautiful raptor
held on into the 20th century, after years of persecution
by gamekeepers and egg collectors. Measures to protect the
survivors and their offspring, starting about a century ago,
permitted a gradual recovery in the numbers, and now there
are over 100 breeding pairs in Mid Wales. Consequently, sightings
now are happily an everyday occurrence, and very few of our
walkers fail to see at least one.
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Birdwatching at
Bwlch Nant-yr-arian
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For those who want to be sure of seeing kites, there are several feeding
centres in the area, the nearest being at Bwlch Nant-yr-Arian Forestry
Visitor Centre, on the A44, 25 minutes drive from our accommodation
at Blaen-y-ddôl. Red kite are now fed there year-round at 3pm BST, 2pm
GMT, and if the weather is fair, there are commonly 2 dozen to be seen.
Dinas RSPB reserve, south of Tregaron, is a "special place" for
birdwatching - a wooded, rocky hill by the River Tywi, with a beautiful
trail round its foot.
Tregaron Bog (Cors Caron) National Nature Reserve is 10 miles
away, and whilst it is chiefly valued for its rare raised bog habitat
and flora, it is also a rich source of food for birds, and attracts many
birdwatchers to take the easy walk along the old Aberystwyth-Carmarthen
railway trackbed to an excellent hide-on-stilts overlooking a wetland
area.
Tregaron itself has a Kite Centre and Museum, which includes
information about the wildlife of Cors Caron and the other surrounding
countryside.
Ynyshir RSPB reserve, north of Aberystwyth, encompasses a wide range of habitats, from moorland, through woodland and pasture, to marsh and estuary. Each habitat has a hide, and the hides are joined by pleasant footpaths, so Ynyshir is a place where any birdwatcher is sure to be in heaven!
Gilfach, owned by the Radnorshire Wildlife Trust, is a "farm that
time forgot". Neglected for decades, it escaped the agro-chemicals and
intensification which impoverished the wildlife of Britain after World
War II, until it was bought by the RWT in the late 1980s. They have restored
the magnificent farmhouse as a visitor centre, and during the breeding
season it has live video camera coverage of several bird nests on the
reserve.
The cliffs of the Ceredigion Heritage Coast offer yet another
habitat, where a wide range of common sea birds can be seen, as well as
less common species, rarest of which are the cliff-nesting chough
(around 2 dozen pairs in Ceredigion) and the peregrine
falcon. There are also stonechat and
wheatear in the summer, and turnstone
and purple sandpiper in the winter.
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