Pembrokeshire Holiday

We spent a few days away last week in Wales, we stayed in a cottage on a cliff top with a sea view pretty much in the middle of nowhere...........and it was lovely!

Within the first 10 minutes of exploring the garden I saw a new butterfly for me with two Walls in the grass - the first of many.

Speckled Wood

Common Blue

Small White

Small Tortoiseshell

Magpie Moth, I saw this in the same part of the garden every morning

Being an early riser (even on holiday) I was up by 6.30 most mornings and sat in the garden watching Gulls, Ravens, Crows, Swallows, Jackdaws overhead and in the garden itself a pair of Robins, Magpies, Chiffchaff, Dunnock Blue and Great Tits, Goldfinch, Blackcap, Linnets and a Pied Wagtail that spent a lot of time filling its beak with bugs off the lawn. It was the perfect way to start the day.

Pied Wagtail

Robin

Chiffchaff

Linnet

Jackdaw

Gulls

Goldfinch

Blackcap

Linnet

Magpie

Great Tit

We were about a five minute walk from Abereiddy beach, which was a really pebbly beach and very popular with coasteering and there were lots of (organised) groups doing this during the day.

A little further on from the beach was the Blue Lagoon, a former slate quarry, which during the day was very busy with the coasteering and cliff jumping! The first time we walked here it was early evening and deserted apart from a young Wheatear at the bottom of the cliffs.

I'll do a separate post for the coastal path itself.

In the reeds behind Abereiddy beach we saw more Linnets and a small group of birds together which I finally confirmed as Common Whitethroat, an adult and possibly three or four young ones but they didn't stay out in the open for long.

We also saw this Beetle on it's back on a path nearby, it couldn't seem to turn over so I helped it get right side up again, i'm not sure what it is though, a Dor Beetle maybe? It looked like it had little shoes on!

Though you can't tell from the photo this mushroom was almost a foot high

Elsewhere we saw quite a few Red Kites, Kestrels and Buzzard including this young one that regularly sat on a telegraph pole near where we were staying. Excuse the wonky photo it was taken from the car window!

Swallows were everywhere

We checked out Newgale beach along the coast, it was busy with people but so long there was enough space for everyone. 

Oystercatchers

This clam kept opening and closing and with a wave ended up clinging to a piece of seaweed

Mermaids Purse

The views from the garden were stunning, this was the sunset on our last evening

I've got a couple more posts to do including our day on Ramsey Island.