I like to think of myself as a “glass half full” rather than a “glass half empty” man, but this week the weather in Pembrokeshire has tested my resolve. So, no trips out to the islands off the coast to see the wonderful sea birds that breed here. However, so far we have had two sunny (if not particularly warm) days and we have been able to make the most of it.

On the first of them we visited Dyffyn Fernant, a gem of a garden, between Newport and Fishguard. I don’t have a lot of bird photos to show from here as I missed a grey heron in flight and the red kite which I saw was too distant to photograph. However, there were a pair of barn swallows flitting around the garden and there were lots of ringlet butterflies. Nonetheless, a very inspiring garden created in difficult terrain.

Our second “nature” trip was to Picton Castle near Haverfordwest. Here the gardens were much more formal, but we especially loved the walled garden with many plants which benefit from the temperate climate here (it has not seemed particularly temperate this week though).

Ajacent to the walled garden was a vegetable garden which, along with some feeders, attracted lots of garden birds.

The castle buildings attracted huge numbers of house martins.

Picton Castle is also home to The Welsh Owl Garden and, as much as I don’t like seeing birds in cages, there were two sessions with a great opportunity to see, first of all, rescue owls up close and in flight and, later in the day, some of the larger rescue raptors in flight.

I will publish a separate blog with photos from these two sessions.