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Only a few years ago I couldn’t imagine I would be visiting a raised bog in Mid Wales during the summer  holidays. These are different times and there’s no doubt about it my tastes have changed.

We visited Cors Caron National Nature Reserve in the hope of seeing some birds. We saw few birds and I photographed even less. In fact all I managed was a red kite just as we were entering the reserve.

According to Wikipedia Cors Caron

“is a raised bog in Ceredigion, Wales. Cors is the Welsh word for “bog”: the site is also known as Tregaron Bog, being near the small town of Tregaron. Cors Caron covers an area of approximately 862 acres (349 ha). Cors Caron represents the most intact surviving example of a raised bog landscape in the United Kingdom. About 44 different species groups inhabit the area including various land and aquatic plants, fish, insects, crustaceans, lichen, fungi, terrestrial mammals and birds.”

We very much enjoyed the walk but, apart from the red kite, the best thing was the wonderful views across the bog of the lovely Ceredigion countryside.

After this we made our way, via the famous tourist attraction of Devil’s Bridge (not stopping), to the red kite feeding station at Bwlch Nant Yr Arian. I had read that they were varying the normal feeding time of  3 pm to avoid large crowds but I hedged my bets and arrived for 3 pm, reckoning that no one would have told the red kites about Covid_19. As it turned out we were very pleased with the number of kites that turned up.

The one red kite I had seen at Cors Caron seemed rather pitiful after all this.