Fatbirder's Top 1000 Birding Websites

Sunday 29 July 2018

Little Tern, Little Owl...and a little half naked dash in the rain!

After visiting Skomer Island a few weeks ago I immediately fell in love with the Pembrokeshire coastline so decided to book a 3 day stay near Solva with my family!

  We stayed at The Nogg Cottages, delightful accomodation on an old farm dating back to the 1400s, in the middle of beautiful peaceful countryside a short drive to the coast!
We absolutely loved it, and will definitely be going back, hopefully for a longer stay next time!
Here is their website;

http://thenoggcottages.com/

Unfortunately I didn't get time to do much nature photography, but thoroughly enjoyed our time in this stunning part of the world! Solva is a delightful fishing village, St Davids is the UKs smallest City and the cathedral and grounds are beautiful!
   We walked to the barren and rugged St Davids Head next to Whitesands beach and saw Chough and Peregrine Falcons, but unfortunately hadn't anticipated a particularly violent rainstorm! I had 2 cameras with zoom lenses with me with no bag or protective cover at all!
   i only had on shorts and T shirt and had to use them to wrap my cameras up in when the heavens opened up! It was a mile at least walk back to the car in my boxers, desperately hugging the cameras to my chest trying to keep them as dry as possible under the clothing, which was dripping wet!
I got some strange looks from people in the cafe by the cra park when I eventually got back to the car, but luckily my cameras seemed to have survived the soaking wet trip! Next time I won't hike anywhere vwithout bin-liners to put my equipment in!!
  This part of Pembrokeshire is stunning and wild though, and I would've enjoyed the soaking if I hadn't been so worried about my expensive camera gear at the time!!

    We also paid a visit to Marloes Sands beach at the other end of St Brides bay, not far from Skomer. What a gorgeous beach it was!! It instantly overtook Woolacombe as my fave, despite requiring a half mile walk to get there! The views are stunning from the cliffs above, and there were Butterflies everywhere, including plenty of Painted Ladies and Wall Browns!
  The actual beach itself was incredible, gorgeous sands, amazing rock formations, wonderful rock pools for the kids to enjoy, and the warmest sea water I've ever been into in the UK.
   All in all, we had a fantastic 3 day stay, the only downside being the drive back, the traffic was terrible in places and we avoided the M5 completely once we finally reached Bristol!

Below are some pics from our Pembrokeshire visit, plus other photo's since my last blog post, including A Little Owl near Moorlynch, Green Woodpeckers and Stock Doves in my home Somerset village, plus Little Terns, Sandwich Terns and Mediterranean Gulls at stunning Chesil Beach in Dorset! :)







^Above^ - Little Owl near Moorlynch in Somerset this evening!











^Above^ - Green Woodpeckers in my home Somerset village.





^Above^ - Greenfinches in my village.





^Above^ - Stock Doves in my village.


^Above^ - Woodpigeon in my village.


^Above^ - Woodpigeon and Stock Dove in my village.






^Above^ - Young Starlings in my village.


^Above^ - Lesser Whitethroat in my village.


^Above^ - Hiding Whitethroat in my village.




^Above^ - Rabbits in my village.


^Above^ - Goldfinch in my village.




^Above^ - Blue Tit in my village.


^Above^ - Grey Heron in my village.



^Above^ - House Sparrows in my village.


^Above^ - Dunnock in my village.





^Above^ - Butterflies in my village.





^Above^ - Red Admiral Butterflies in my village.






^Above^ - Comma Butterflies in my village.


^Above^ - Honey Bee in my village.







^Above^ - Peacock Butterflies on Buddleia in my garden.


^Above^ - Red Admiral on my Buddleia.





^Above^ - Cabbage White Butterflies in my garden.



^Above^ - Bumble Bee on my Buddleia.



^Above^ -  Dragonflies in my garden.


^Above^ -  Herring Gull against a moody sky outside my office window.


^Above^ - Lesser Black Backed Gull outside my office.



^Above^ - Black Headed Gull at Weston Super Mare.









^Above^ - Lesser Black Backed Gulls at Weston Super Mare.










^Above^ - Sandwich Terns and juveniles at Chesil Beach in Dorset.


^Above^ - Distant Little Tern through a heat haze at Chesil Beach.












^Above^ - Mediterranean Gulls at Chesil Beach.


^Above^ - Mediterranean Gull and Sandwich Tern at Chesil Beach.


^Above^ - Stretching Black Headed Gull at Chesil Beach.


^Above^ - Ringed Plover at Chesil Beach.


^Above^ - Pied Wagtail at Chesil Beach.




















^Above^ - Meadow Pipit at Chesil Beach.




^Above^ - Little Owl near Bleadon in Somerset.






^Above^ - Young Moorhens on the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal in Somerset.


^Above^ - Mallard and ducklings on the canal.




^Above^ - Rudd in the canal.







^Above^ - Red Eyed Damselfly on the canal.


^Above^ - Grey Wagtail in Cannington, Somerset.


^Above^ - Pied Wagtail in Cannington.



^Above^ - Wasp in Cannington.



^Above^ - Green veined White butterfly in Cannington.



^Above^ - Peregrine Falcon above Marloes Sands beach in Pembrokeshire.


^Above^ - Stonechat at Marloes.


^Above^ - Stonechat and Whitethroat at Marloes.




^Above^ - Whitethroats at Marloes.





^Above^ - Painted Lady Butterflies at Marloes.


^Above^ - Six Spot Burnet Moth at Marloes.



^Above^ - Small Copper Butterflies at Marloes.



^Above^ - Gatekeeper Butterflies at Marloes.








^Above^ - Common Blue Butterflies at Marloes.




^Above^ - Wall Brown Butterflies at Marloes.


^Above^ - Green Veined White Butterfly at Marloes.


^Above^ - Beautiful Bumble Bee at Marloes.


^Above^ - Rock Pool fish at Marloes....not sure which!


^Above^ - Kestrel at Marloes.





^Above^ - Jackdaws at St Davids cathedral in Pembrokeshire.










^Above^ - Feral Pigeons at St Davids cathedral.





^Above^ - Meadow Pipits at St Davids headland.


^Above^ - Chough at St Davids headland.








^Above^ - Young Swallows being fed by their parents at the Nogg Cottages in Pembrokeshire.



^Above^ - Herring Gulls at Solva harbour in Pembrokeshire.


^Above^ - Bathing Hetting Gulls and Lesser Black Back Gulls at Solva.



^Above^ - Beautiful Solva harbour.





^Above^ - Stunning Marloes Sands beach!



^Above^ - Dog in the surf at Marloes.


^Above^ - My other half and Flat Coated Retriever Charm at wild and magnificent St Davids head.

Nogg Cottages

^Above^ - The beautiful Tack Room cottage at Nogg Cottages where we stayed!



^Above^ - Beautiful wild flowers at the Nogg Cottages.



^Above^ - Our Flat Coated Retriever Charm playing on the huge lawn at the Nogg Cottages.

Nogg Cottages

^Above^ - My other half Nick and Charm at the Tack Room, the Nogg Cottages.



^Above^ - Beautiful wild Poppies at Cannington.






^Above^ - Backlit grasses in my home village.



^Above^ - Backlit leaves in my village.



^Above^ - Ragwort in my village.





^Above^ - My friends Richard and Louises little dog!


^Above^ - Friendly dog in my village.