Wharf wild plants in March

Strangely yellow Buddleia davidii leaves among stonecrop (possibly Sedum acre) beside the Wharf

I am thoroughly enjoying my lunchtime explorations of a new habitat this year – the Wharf (the old East Bute Dock) next to Cardiff’s County Hall in the Bay. As spring arrives there are so many little wild plants coming to life on the stone and concrete surfaces around the water, making do with whatever nutrients there are in hollows and cracks (or nooks and crannies, if you prefer the cliché). In some ways these little beauties remind me of those found in an alpine habitat.

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Festive birds and tree lichen

Robin (Erithacus rubecula) at Dunraven on Christmas Day 2016

When it’s fine on Christmas Day we often go to Dunraven Castle at Southerndown in the Vale of Glamorgan to eat pâté and pickle sandwiches in the walled garden – our main meal of roast beef and Brussels sprouts is in the evening. This year the weather was good, with a cold, brisk wind that kept the cloudy sky interesting.

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Porthcawl rock

Yellow lichen and broken red rock on the wall of Porthcawl Pier

This time last year I took lots of pictures of Porthcawl on the Glamorgan coast, one of my favourite places, but somehow I never got around to “processing” the photographs and blogging about them. Now I have put together many Porthcawl pictures into a gallery or two, but I decided to pick out in particular the images of lichen and rock on the pier.

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The wetlands of Penclacwydd

The start of the Millennium Wetlands at WWT Llanelli…

I did say I would share some more pictures from the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust at Llanelli, a couple of weeks ago when I showed you the birds themselves.

These images are from the wild area of the estuary, beyond the grounds where

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The little white church at Mwnt, Ceredigion

Gravestones at the Church of the Holy Cross, Mwnt, Ceredigion

Although I haven’t yet finished showing you all my pictures from Dorset this summer, we also visited West Wales, so I thought I’d start sharing those memories, too.

First up is Mwnt, a little place on the coast of south Ceredigion, four miles or so from the county town of Cardigan and not far from the Pembrokeshire border.

It is most famous for

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A wildlife walk to the Pembrokeshire coast

View from a top-floor bedroom at the Warpool Court Hotel, St David's, with Skomer Island in the distance. Must go over to the island to see the puffins one day...

In August we stayed at the Warpool Court Hotel in St David’s, Pembrokeshire, for a few days. Not cheap and not modern but with great food, great character and amazing views!

This post is

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Wildlife through the year: December

A male blackbird (Turdus merula) on bare ash twigs in early December...

Well, at last I come to the end of my nature journey through 2010. I have been revisiting the little green wildlife book that accompanied my childhood and trying to tick off the plants and animals featured in its monthly sketchbook pages.

The book is “Wild Life Through the Year” by Richard Morse and it was published in 1942. You can read about earlier months here.

Well, it has given me a focus and made me open my eyes to the nature around me again after all these years…

December 2010 in South Wales has been very cold, with snow that is not usually expected this early in the winter. This has made it

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Wildlife through the year: November

Whitebeam berries on a frosty morning in November 2010

Throughout 2010 I am revisiting the little green nature book that accompanied my childhood and trying to tick off the plants and animals featured in its monthly sketchbook pages. I’m enjoying the journey – only one month to go now…

The book is “Wild Life Through the Year” by Richard Morse and it was published in 1942. You can read about earlier months here.

November 2010 in South Wales has felt very much like a bridge between autumn and winter. There have been clear, sunny days starting with a frost, heavy rain, strong winds and at the end of the month we are in the middle of an Arctic snap with below-freezing temperatures – we even had snow on November 27 (see my pictures here).

Nearly all the autumn leaves have fallen by the end of the month, with

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Wildlife through the year: October

October is a time of spider webs in the garden

Throughout 2010 I am revisiting the little green nature book that accompanied my childhood and trying to track down the plants and animals featured in its monthly sketchbook pages. I’m learning a lot as I go along.

The book is “Wild Life Through the Year” by Richard Morse and it was published in 1942. You can read about earlier months here.

October 2010 in South Wales has been typically autumnal, with some very nippy, dry, clear days and some wet and blustery, depending on the wind direction, cold North/East or warm South/West. There was also sometimes

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Wildlife through the year: January

Grey squirrel in snow, January 2010 - they don't properly hibernate

The little green book that accompanied my childhood in a country village was “Wild Life Through the Year” by Richard Morse. I was only eight years old when I wrote my name in it, having inherited it from my much older brothers, who were the type of lad, in those days, who collected birds’ eggs and pinned butterflies.

Male blackcap in the garden in January 2010 - the female has a chestnut cap...

It was published in 1942 – before the words global warming were thought of – and it is probably

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