UK Bird Watching and Walking Holiday in Wales

The Swansea Valley region is a delight to birding enthusiasts and those on a walking holiday as it consists of a number of habitats in a small area - a sandy coastal strip gives way rapidly to forested valleys surrounded by high moorland. Bwthyn Y Saer holiday cottage is located on the edge of a forested valley some 8 miles from the coast. A walk to the high moorlands behind the cottage gives wonderful views of Swansea Bay and Brecon Beacons National Park.

Visitors are free to roam over 120 acres of beautiful countryside of delightful contrasts, home to a wide variety of birds from stonechats to swallows and nuthatches to buzzards. Visitors to Wales are amazed to find buzzards so common. Indeed, in some areas of Wales, buzzards reach the highest population densities in the world. Wales is also famous as being the home of the red kite, of which there are now approximately 180 breeding pairs.

The Swansea area boasts a mild climate due in measure to its proximity to the coast and the barrier against cold north winds created by the surrounding mountains.

1. Cwm Clydach RSPB Reserve

Cwm Clydach RSPB Reserve (SN 682053) is 5 miles from Bwthyn Y Saer Holiday Cottage. The kinds of wildlife you may see depending on season includes buzzard, sparrowhawk, raven, pied flycatcher, wood warbler, badger and fox. The reserve has a car park and hides.

2. Blackpill Mudflats, Swansea

Blackpill beach and mudflats (SS620900), 15 miles from Bwthyn Y Saer, is famous as the place where the UK’s first Ring-billed Gull was found and is a must for any gull-watchers, particularly during the winter, with a large gull roost including all the common species - Common, Black-headed, Herring, Lesser and Greater Black-backs as well as rarer gulls such Iceland, Glaucous, Little and Mediterranean Gulls as well the Ring-billed Gulls. It is also an excellent spot for waders including Oystercatchers, Grey and Ringed Plovers, Dunlin, Sanderling, Redshank, Curlew, Whimbrel, Bar-tailed and Black-tailed Godwits, Knot and Greenshank. 

The farm buildings are a haven for perhaps our best loved summer visitor, the Swallow. Having spent the winter in Africa, individual swallows return to nest in our sheds and outhouses, often making for the shed in which they were reared.  The twittering song, often uttered as the bird perches on a wire outside the cottage or in a courtship chase through the farmyard, is particularly sweet and attractive.  Parties of Swifts are often seen swooping gracefully in the sky above the swallows.

The farmyard is also a favourite haunt of the Pied Wagtail which may be spotted taking a short bounding flight up to the roof of the cowshed, running nimbly along, and fluttering up to take the dancing midges. Later in the year, the cowshed roof may be occupied by a flock of Starlings, displaying their extraordinary medley of whistles, squeaks and chattering noises. They add to the effect by flapping their wings as they sit, singing away.

Come evening, take a short stroll onto the paddock outside the holiday cottage and it is likely that you will see a Song Thrush hoping around amongst the mole hills looking for worms, or twittering Swallows swooping low amongst the idle cows and chirrupping House Martins chasing insects.  The trees that surround the fields are often occupied by members of the crow family - the "krah" of a Crow and "chak" of a Jackdaw are often heard.  Occasionally, a Pheasant will be seen wandering aimlessly and following rain, it is not unusual to spot a pair of Mallards, standing in a large puddle that forms in a slight hollow in the field. 

Visitors are free to roam a six acre area of broadleaved woodland through which the River Clydach flows.  In 1997 we embarked on a rhododendron clearance program within the woodland to prevent loss of habitat and ensure regeneration of the woodland.  This led to a Forestry Commission Wales Award for Woodland Management as native species such as bluebells, honeysuckle, hazel and holly spread into the previously densely shaded areas of the woodland. We have placed oak benches in the bluebell woodland for walkers and are currently installing bird nesting boxes to encourage the bird population.  Rare varieties of rhododendron, in varying shades of red, pink and white have been spared and may be enjoyed by May/June visitors taking a riverside walk to the woodland. We are grateful to all visitors who help us to identify new species within the woodland, be they birds, trees, wild flowers, grasses, fungi or other animals. 

"Our walk to the woods began at the weir, some 20 yards from the holiday cottage. Here we spotted between ten and fifteen rainbow trout swimming in the pool below and a grey wagtail bobbing around at the top of the weir.  As we continued along the river bank, we passed some enormous beech trees in which we spotted a pair of nuthatches, plucking aggressively at the moss coated branches. We then walked through a yew tree archway and past some badger sets before stopping to rest on an oak bench on the river bank to enjoy the tranquility. Within a few minutes we saw a pair of spotted flycatchers perched on a prominent dead branch, their upright stance and pale breasts looking unfamiliar at first, but a quick twisting flutter after a passing insect soon gave them away.  A speckled wood butterfly fluttered past. The males occupy sun-flecks as territories, while the females fly high in the canopy, choosing from the dancing males illuminated beneath them.  A squawking jay disturbed the peace temporarily and a mouse like wren captured our attention as it crept along the forest floor searching for insects.  We also saw some beautiful wild flowers including red campion, birds foot trefoil and a splendid yellow flower on the river bank that we identified as yellow archangel using the nature books provided in Bwthyn Y Saer."[Richard 23/05/01].

"I was attracted in the direction of the old pond area by the unmistakable song of a chiffchaff.  It was perched high above the flowering rhododendrons on a prominent dead branch belonging to a tall Sycamore tree.  Having failed to locate the source of a repetitive warbling song coming from the bushes, I ventured into the woodland. A male bullfinch landed on a rotting stump some 10 feet from the path and a female blackcap moved among the branches of a sweet chestnut, hard to see amongst the growing foliage.  I saw a nuthatch, a pair of spotted flycatchers, a chaffinch, a blue tit and a pair of great tits before stopping at the oak bench.  I sat listening to the stream and looking into the woodland.  A treecreeper spiraled its way up a big oak tree on the other side of the river. I crossed upstream and walked through the bluebells towards the Norway Spruce plantation. I stopped to watch a thrush in full song on the stone wall that bounds the woodland. On my return to the holiday cottage, I couldn't resist popping back to the old pool area. I was suprised to see and hear (for the first time) three buzzards having some sort of a disagreement before they dropped behind the trees. I have never been that close to buzzards in the wild and it was great."[Catherine 07/06/01].