I’ve wanted to visit this wildlife reserve in Wales for a while as it has great facilities and is really not very far from Manchester.
I stayed in Criccieth for the weekend so I bobbed in after visiting South Stack on my way home.
The reserve is well signposted but there is only one entrance by road off a roundabout, you can also get there by walking along the coastal path.
It costs £5 for a adult if you’re not a member which sounds expensive but it has really good facilities including good hides like this one and a park for children, the paths are accessible so good for a family day out.
The good thing about the glass is that sounds are less likely to travel to the birds but they can see you through the glass! You won’t get wet but equally its annoying to take photos behind glass, there are plenty of places you can stand outside to take photographs though.
There is a boardwalk where you can look for reed dwelling birds if they don’t hear you coming first!
Here are all the birds that you are likely to see, I saw 19 birds in total:
- Shelducks (many, some mating)
- Oystercatchers (being very noisy)
- Black-headed gulls
- Common gulls
- Little grebe
- Redshank
- Curlew
- Coot
- Moorhen
- Grey heron
- Little egret
- Tufted ducks
- Teal
- Gadwall
- Mallard
- Canada goose
- Cormorant
- Herring gull
- House sparrow
On the other side of the lake you can see the sea, which was full of shelduck, curlew and redshank but it is of course tide dependent!
As a bonus there was a great view of Conwy castle.
Here is a poor shot of the ponies that graze the land to make it more habitable for birds.
Here is the mudbanks that the birds love to feed on!
As you walk around the pool some hides reveal better views than others and you never know what you may see. Here is a coot, I was hoping for a water rail or a bittern but beggars can’t be choosers!
I took this of a heron along with some Canada geese and a bunch of horny shelducks!
And finally, I had an apple and chocolate cake as well as a cappuccino. This is a poor photograph of what was actually quite an enjoyable moment!
I have to say I was very sad to go back as I had such beautiful weather and saw such lovely birds!
I’ll be back soon Wales.