Trees, Eurasian Teal and Little Egret in Rheidol Valley and Ynys Hir nature reserve, West Wales

I am afraid I am still on catch-up with my blog posts - I've got lots of catching-up to do!  Now I am at the end of March when I went on holiday to Gwbert, near Cardigan, in West Wales with my sister, brother-in-law and a couple of friends.  We stayed in a great self-catering house with picture windows overlooking Cardigan Bay.

On the day after we arrived, Saturday, we went on the Vale of Rheidol steam railway that runs along the edge of the valley between Aberystwyth and Devil's bridge.  At the station I saw this gull promenading along the opposite platform.

The view from the train was really lovely.  There were lots of bare-branched trees so we saw more than we would have done had we been there in the summer when the leaves would have been blocking our view.

There was a river running along the bottom of the valley, which could be seen through the trunks of the many trees that lined the route.

The sun was shining and there were lots of rolling Welsh hills in the distance.

In one section of the valley there was a large reservoir that was bordered by a wood along one side.

I have to say that the view from the railway line was very spectacular during the whole journey.

Here there is a waterfall running down from one of the hills on the opposite side of the valley.

At Devil's Bridge we stopped for a while as the steam engine was uncoupled.  It was moved along the track to the other end of the station before travelling back along the second rail to the front of the carriages ready to be rejoined for our journey back to Aberystwyth.

We are now on our way back along the railway line.

After we got back to the house, in the late afternoon, my sister and I walked to the end of the cliffs in Gwbert.  There, below us on the rocks, were three oystercatchers.  Unfortunately, they were some distance away so I could not take a very clear photograph.

On Sunday we went to visit Cardigan castle, which is very small and not really worth photographing as it is more-or-less just a rebuilt manor house, with very little of the original building left.  It was very hot and sunny so we decided to go for a walk on Poppits Sands.  Here we saw a man with a trotting pony and colourful blue cart/trap.  The pony was trotting backwards and forwards along the beach and in the sea.

Later the same day we went to the RSPB nature reserve at Ynys Hir.  Here I saw this male Eurasian Teal.

 And this female Eurasian Teal.

There were several male and female Eurasian Teals swimming around in one of the lagoons. 

I also saw this white Little Egret which, unfortunately, was in the distance and so I could not get any clear photographs of it.

It was moving along the water's edge at quite a speed, paddling with it's big yellow feet.

I hope to soon post more news of the rest of the week's wildlife spotting, which includes red kites at a feeding station, domestic Cayuga ducks, group of Wigeon and another Little Egret in the Teifi estuary.