Farewell to Winter

Farewell to Winter A leisurely 5 day exploration of the Dysynni Valley, Talyllyn and surrounding areas as we bid farewell to winter and its waders and wildfowl, and say hallo to spring migrants and nesting in the amazingly diverse habitats of this area. We go in search of likely haunts of the brown hare, and visit the spectacular red kite feeding station at Gigrin Farm.

Day 1: Arrival and Ynys Hir. If travelling by train, we’ll meet you at Machynlleth station (just over 4 hours from Euston), suggested arrival by 14.46 at Machynlleth (or earlier if you can make it!). Days will be getting longer by now, so we’ll make directly for Ynys Hir RSPB reserve and look out or ducks and waders over some of the pools, and towards the heronry. There are plenty of hides at Ynys Hir and wildfowl galore – winter birds include widgeon, teal, shovelers, white-fronted geese and barnacle geese out on the marsh, as well as lapwings, golden plover, curlew and birds of prey. Breeding wetland birds include herons, redshank, lapwings, shoveler, teal and mallard. This short visit will give us a good taste of this wonderful range of habitats, although you’ll certainly want to come back! Barn owls and otters can also be seen at Ynys Hir, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed that we’ll be lucky.

View over Ynys Hir in winter

We can stop until dusk starts to fall and the birds begin to settle, as the Gwesty Minffordd Hotel is less than 30 minutes’ drive from Ynys Hir. We’ll arrive at the hotel in time for you to unpack and unwind before dinner. We can have a drink before dinner, browse through your information pack and go over the rest of the itinerary for your holiday, fine tuning it for weather, recent sightings and your preferences.

Day 2: Bird Rock and Hare Safari Starting at a time to suit you, we’ll spend the day exploring Wales at its wildest. In the upland between the Dysynni and Talyllyn valleys, just behind the village of Abergynolwyn, there is a little used meandering lane, providing access to 5 dispersed and isolated farmhouses. This is an area where I often see hares, so we’ll plan a very slow exploration of this area, with some short walks and long watches, taking in the birdlife and any early spring migrants. Stonechats and wheatear breed here later in the spring, so we may see some early arrivals. We’ll bear in mind that we’re most likely to see hares earlier in the morning and evening, and we’ll plan our day accordingly. Although wild and little- explored, this area is only 20 minutes’ or so drive from your hotel. Even when sighted, hares can be notoriously difficult to photograph, turning tail quickly if we’re not very quiet and still!

Turning tail – hare by the track in early April Female stonechat on gorse by the track, April

As we move towards later morning, we can decide whether to leave the car for a while and walk leisurely part way up Craig yr Aderyn, Bird Rock, for our picnic lunch. Thousands of years ago, Craig yr Aderyn stood by the seashore with waves lapping at its base, nesting cormorants calling and wheeling out across the sea. As time passed, the sea receded, but long-memoried cormorants still fly up the valley for 4 miles to nest on this lofty rock. We’ll watch as the cormorants call and wheel out across the valley as they have for thousands of years. In addition we should see ravens, and a range of gulls, with a good chance of the scimitar, red-billed chough, peregrine, red kite, buzzards and possible kestrels, all of which nest here on Bird Rock.

Craig yr Aderyn Cormorant Flying out from Craig yr Aderyn

We may spot wheatears among the tumbled rocks of the crag or the rocks of the ancient fort near the top, looking for nest sites or already nesting in the walls. We should also spot pied wagtails and hosts of pipits. We’ll find a suitable site, and settle for a well-earned snack, and to do some watching across the valley from our bird’s eye view. To our left in the distance is Broadwater and the AberDysynni, and to our right is lofty Cadair Idris and beneath, the luckless Castell y Bere . From our high point, we should start to understand more about the birds’ breeding season behaviour - ravens and birds of prey are seen as threats by smaller birds, and we may see some excellent displays of mobbing. We’ll also start to understand more about the cormorants, as we see them going back and forward to their prospective nests and we’re likely to hear the call of chough, and see them as they approach from further up the valley.

Saturday afternoon As we descend after lunch, we should look out for stoats and weasels, which lurk between the boulders of the valley. We’ll return to the car and wend our way back to the road and across to the Dysynni Valley. We’ll admire Craig yr Aderyn from below and maybe stop briefly for some refreshments, especially if the cormorants are displaying and uttering their guttural barking calls. If the weather is good, we’ll stop in a few places along the roadside to listen out for early chiff chaffs – this is one of the first places to spot them in the spring. 2

Kestrel mobbing raven at Craig yr Aderyn Chough in flight at Craig yr Aderyn

As the afternoon draws towards evening, we’ll drive the short distance across the valley floor, away from Craig yr Aderyn and over Pont y Garth, into the Peniarth Estate, a beautiful wooded area and another good spot for hares, both in the woodland and the open grazing pastures. We’ll spend some time appreciating the woodland and its birds, just gently walking, watching and waiting in the hope some hares will oblige! As evening draws in, we’ll return to your hotel close by, even though we seem to have been in a different world all day!

Evening at Pont y Garth and Peniarth Woodlands Young hare at Peniarth

Day 3: Talyllyn Lake, Dolgoch Falls, Broadwater and the AberDysynni After breakfast, our first stop is to explore the lovely Talyllyn Lake. There are lots of stopping points around the lake where we can use the car as a hide (with hot refreshments!), and walk along the edge of the lake to look out for cormorant, mergansers, little and great crested grebe, late teal chattering on the far side of the lake. There’s a chance we might see a bobbing dipper at the end of the lake, and we’ll also look out for small birds along the wooded shore: groups of long tailed tits, treecreepers and reed buntings. We’d have to be very lucky, but there are also otters in the lake, though rarely spotted.

Otter on Talyllyn Lake

Talyllyn Lake

Next we stop at Dolgoch Falls, taking in the wonderful falls and the beautiful ravine. Our first impressions of Dolgoch ravine must be the magnificent viaduct of the Talyllyn Railway, soaring high above the river and the path. We walk underneath one of those inspiring arches and see the skeletal branches of the trees seeming to hang over the river. In the bare branches, it’s much easier to see the woodland birds such as blue tits, great tits and robins, with blackbirds and the retiring dunnock possibly foraging in the undergrowth. Dippers are regularly sighted in fast flowing bubbling streams such as these and there may be a ‘kronk kronk’ of a raven or the harsh call of a grey heron flying overhead – so we need to keep our eyes peeled.

Dolgoch Ravine in Winter Winter blue tit, Abergynolwyn

We’ll head on down to the seaside town of Tywyn to the mouth of the Dysynni River. As it approaches the sea, the Dysynni dramatically opens out into a broad, flat coastal lagoon which is barred by extensive sand dunes and shingle banks along the coast. Broadwater is a gem of an area for winter/spring birdwatching – a host of ducks, geese and waders overwinter here, sometimes in large numbers. The short grazed turf also often attracts feeding chough, and is habitat for meadow pipits. There’s also a small group of mute swan here, and some of last year’s cygnets might still be with their parents. As well as its birds, Broadwater also offers stunning views over Cadair Idris and Bird Rock, Craig yr Aderyn, and, on sunny days, unbelievable reflections.

Day 3: Afternoon We can have our picnic lunch at Broadwater, although possibly in the shelter of the car, as the wind comes straight in from the Atlantic here! As we walk along the banks of Broadwater, we may still see overwintering teal, Canada and other geese and many mallard as well as cormorants spreading their wings on the far side of the lagoon. We should also look out for waders, possibly ringed plovers running around on the shore line, redshank and godwits in the shallows.

If the tide’s still low enough, we can turn around and walk under the railway bridge of the Cambrian Coast Railway, and up along the shingle banks out to the shore, alongside the Afon Dysynni as it flows into the sea. This short walk is often rewarded by some excellent sightings. Maybe a peregrine very close to the path, followed by the call of a pair of chough coming over Broadwater, and alighting to feed on the short turf. When we reach the seashore, we should see cormorants and greater black backed gulls perching on the rocks just past the water’s edge, while a few curlew, good numbers of oystercatchers , black headed gulls and crows were feed along the shoreline. If we’re lucky there may even be some waders such as the tiny sanderlings feeding along the foam. It’s worth looking out to sea too – there are often Eider duck offshore in the winter, and groups of scoter can often be seen flying low over the water.

Beacon Hill and Broadwater Many teal overwinter on Broadwater

We’ll head back inland through the tiny village of Llanegryn, and up the northern side of the Dysynni Valley with fabulous views over Craig yr Aderyn and Cadair Idris, which will bring us back to Peniarth Estate again, for another quick evening watch for hares. We’ll continue up the valley and across through the old slate quarrying village of Abergynolwyn, watching out in the hills for hares all the while. Then we’ll go back past the Talyllyn Lake to the Gwesty Minffordd and dinner.

Day 4: Elan Valley and Red Kite Feeding at Gigrin Farm An earlyish start today, as we have a lot to fit in! Subject to it not being icy, we’ll head south into the depths of Mid Wales, across the spectacular mountain ridge drive between Machynlleth and Llanidloes. We pass a stunning viewpoint with a commanding view of the Dovey valley and the mountains to the north, marked by a memorial and toposcope dedicated to the great Welshman, writer and broadcaster, Wynford Vaughan Thomas. If we have time, we can stop on our way back as night draws in across the Dyfi Valley and we see the twinkling lights of cottages and farmhouses for miles around. Continuing over the mountain road, we pass the beautiful Llyn Clwedog and finally descend into the ancient market town of Llanidloes with its impressive half-timbered old market hall presiding over the town.

We’ll continue south through rolling hills which have been described as “typical hobbit country” and head straight to the Elan Valley Centre. The Elan Estate has been managed to protect the quality and quantity of the reservoired water since 1892. The 70 square miles of moorland, bog, woodland, river and reservoir are of national importance for their diversity of lower plants and the Estate is the most important area for land birds in Wales. Over the last twenty or so years the area has gained goosanders and goshawks whilst peregrine, red kite, siskin and crossbill have all greatly increased. Winter visitors to the estate from the north and east include goldeneye, pochard, brambling and fieldfare and dippers are relatively common on the bubbling streams here. We can explore the valley and ravine, and have and early lunch in the Visitor Centre which is open all year round.

Day 4 afternoon Amateur Photographer Magazine has described Gigrin Farm as “The best place to see and photograph red kites in Europe" – we are in for a real treat! Situated just outside Rhayader and very close to the Elan Valley, the centre has a small exhibition and tea room and is focussed exclusively as a feeding station for red kites. It was the first centre which helped to re-establish red kites back to their stronghold in Wales, and the 2pm winter feeding schedule brings large numbers of red kites - and a range of other opportunists - down to an area very close to comfortable covered

5 hides. Get settled in, make sure you have spare cards and batteries handy, and wait for views of red kites like you’ve never seen!

Red kite at Gigrin Farm

The birds stay around for quite some time after feeding, and we may like to visit the exhibition and small shop, and have a warm drink before heading back north, hopefully to some spectacular sunsets over Llyn Clwedog and across the Dyfi valley from our ridge road to Machynlleth.

Day 5: Castell y Bere and Aberdyfi

Castell y Bere

After breakfast, we’ll put your luggage in the car and drive the short distance up the valley to the historic but luckless Castell y Bere, built by Llewellyn the Great, captured by Edward I and finally destroyed by Welsh forces all within the 13th century. We’ll walk leisurely up through sessile oak woodland, stopping to look out for more small woodland birds, early chiff chaff and woodpeckers. At its lofty remains and dominating presence over the valley there are magnificent views looking back to Craig yr Aderyn, where we may see the cormorants flying again. Close by at Llanfihangel y Pennant is the ruin of the home of Mary Jones, famous for her barefoot walk to Bala for a bible and on getting back from the castell, we’ll drive down to Llanfihangel to look at the tribute to her.

Day 5 afternoon No trip to mid Wales is complete without a visit to the picturesque old fishing village of Aberdyfi. And this time of year there might be some interesting seabirds in the harbour. It’s on our route back to Machynlleth, so we’ll drive on around the coast to Aberdyfi and have our picnic lunch looking out to sea and over to Ynys Las on the other side of the estuary, where remains of ancient forests can be seen partially buried in the sand at low tide.

Penhelyg, Aberdyfi Moorings at Aberdyfi

You never know, we might even catch a glimpse of the Lost Land, Cantre'r Gwaelod, which was swallowed up by the sea eons ago, but whose church bells can sometimes be heard, it is said, ringing through the sound of the waves at low tide……! Aberdyfi is famous for author Susan Cooper’s sequence of five children’s books, The Dark is Rising, based broadly on Arthurian myths and Celtic and Norse legend. The last book, Silver on the Tree, is set in Aberdyfi and tells the tale of how the world is saved from evil powers in the Cantre'r Gwaelod. Depending on the tide, and if we have time, we can stop on the way around the estuary to Machynlleth, on the lookout for waders. We’ll arrive at Machynlleth station in good time for the 16.07 train.

Brown Hare at the Peniarth Estate