National Wetlands Centre Wales

[DaiTheDragon]

How many of you have been there and would you go again.

Dai

[Jon_C]

Hi Dai,

I have been there. Can't say I'd rush back mainly because it's mainly a bird zoo rather than a place to go and see wild birds. Just not my scene. Probably a nice place to go with children as there are lots of very nice birds.

Jon

[DaiTheDragon]

Seems this was a bit of a waste of time. Maybe I should start my own Wild About Wales forum.

Dai

[Dae]

Now I wouldn't necessarily call the Wales WWT centre a waste of time. Yes there is the section primarily showcasing the waterfowl that are/aren't native to the UK. But this is only a fraction of the size of the reserve.

IF you step outside of that into the natural reserve, the place is amazing for wildlife, not just birds. I adore going there, and even though it's over an hour to drive, I repeatedly return to it. It's a massive 450 acres of land. If you click the following link here, you'll see a map of what I mean. The cluster of numbers to the right of the map is where the waterfowl are (which I still find interesting, even if it is only a showcase), but if you go off to the left, there's acres and acres of wild area which are ideal for bird watching. Also if you go down to the inlet, there's loads of wildlife there as well.

[DaiTheDragon]

All WWT's have areas where people can see foreign wildfowl but they also have hides that look out over natural habitat with wild british wildlife.
I live 5 minutes away from Wales WWT and visit 2 or 3 times a week and if you look at my web site, about 50% of my bird photographs were taken there, all native species. Also most of my Dragon/Damselflies, Weasel, Reptile, and other stuff.
Jon, to say it's a zoo is an insult to Peter Scott.

Dai

[Jon_C]

Dai,

I hadn't realised you only wanted positive replies
I just told you what I thought.
I am quite prepared for you to extol its' virtues and tell me what I missed. When I went it was a day in autumn and started to rain so that will have coloured my view. There was also some sort of fair so there were a lot of visitors there. However when me and my wife half stayed in Swansea last weekend and were looking for places to watch birds, her reply when I suggested Llanelli was "that's the place with the ducks" and proceeded to remind me what it was like. In the end we went to Kenfig.
So how about trying to sell it to me, and her, as a place for another visit. When is best to visit? Where are the best places to go?
I would also like to know about other places worth going to in Wales for bird watching. I've been to Oxwich but never really seen much do you go there where are the best places around there?

Jon

[galanthus]

I live about an hours drive away and volunteered to work at the centre, did this for about 2 years. The collections are there to encourage families and young people to visit the centre and the money made goes towards maintaining the wild habitats. It's fab that it tried to educate young people about their environment and how water is used and sometimes wasted.

The wild sections are amazing and we often go there just to walk around and see what pops up. Great place.

[forevergreen]

Ive only been once and i went when i was young but my mother said its a lovely place and it sounds like a good place to get some footage/photos of wildlife thier. Does it have herons and kingfishers?

Kenfig pool is also a great place i go walking down thier often.

[Dae]

forevergreen, yes there are both herons and kingfishers there.

For jon, I'm sad you found it a waste of time. As you already admited, your whole experience was colored by an excess of visitors and poor weather. I'd give it another go in good weather, or even bad weather, and have a look around the larger wild area of the reserve. It's worth a repeat. If you look at their website they Will advertise their event days, so avoid these days if you'd like a quieter day.

For me, the waders they have in the marshy areas or the salt flats was highlight for me. Those and the warblers singing everywhere you go in the springtime. In the wintertime you'll oftentimes get flocks of the winter visitors in their hundreds on site taking advantage. If you even just stay in the main park (with the ducks) and go off to the hides, you can see the WILD wigeon in their droves, along with WILD shelduck, goldeneyes, tufted ducks, shovellers, swans of all types, and geese in their hundreds and thousands. The whole park is a highlight to me. If none of that is what you're looking for, by all means, look elsewhere.

So there's my 2p, I apologize for the ramble, but I just enjoy wildlife so much...and to call any place that preserves wildlife a waste of time just makes me sad.

[DaiTheDragon]

forevergreen, you can almost guarante the Herons will be there and there are afew spots that you can see Kingfishers, got to have a bit of luck though.

Dae, glad you like the place, I agree with every thing you say. There is one hide that the telescope boys don't bother with much where I can be as close as several yards of defferent wild ducks and geese. A few weeks ago I was about 4 or 5 yards from a Snipe.

Dai

[Dae]

I remember my first few of a snipe (actually one of my only good views) was there at that park. I almost missed it and was so excited to see one I only had my fuji p&s at the time so never got a great shot, but what a day that was!

[galanthus]

That's the only place I've seen little egrets on every visit and I love the godwits. I also seem to recall that the reserve has all the british owl species

[WhiskyBottle]

I've been a number of times and like it there, but as I live close to Slimbridge I get there much more often.

[Dae]

Whiskybottle: Lucky you! I'm an hour, at best, away from slimbridge, and about an hour and a half from the wales centre...so I don't make it to either nearly as much as I'd like to.

[NicolaB]

It's an excellent place to visit...I worked there as a full time volunteer for about a year after graduating from Swansea Uni 10 years ago, and it's a great place for wild birds as well as the "duck zoo"!

During my time there I saw several spoonbill, a long billed dowitcher (American migrant) and many of the more usual British wildfowl and waders.

It's also a hotspot for birds of prey, who hunt on the Marshes of the Burry Inlet..Peregrines are spotted almost daily, and Merlin, Hen Harrier, Sparrowhawk, short and long eared owls, are also fairly frequent.

It's only 10 minutes from my house, which is also a bonus!

[NicolaB]

It's an excellent place to visit...I worked there as a full time volunteer for about a year after graduating from Swansea Uni 10 years ago, and it's a great place for wild birds as well as the "duck zoo"! The Burry Inlet is a RAMSAR site, and attracts large numbers of waders.

During my time there I saw several spoonbill, a long billed dowitcher (American migrant) and many of the more usual British wildfowl and waders.

It's also a hotspot for birds of prey, who hunt on the Marshes of the Burry Inlet..Peregrines are spotted almost daily, and Merlin, Hen Harrier, Sparrowhawk, short and long eared owls, are also fairly frequent.

It's only 10 minutes from my house, which is also a bonus!

[GerryNick2]

Top of our list of places to visit when we are in the area this summer, really looking forward to it.

Gerry

[RockHopper]

Whereabouts in S Wales is the centre ? Is it near the Botanical Gardens ?

Sounds a nice place.



Edit: Oops sorry Dae just seen your link, thanks.

[welsh.lensman]

I've been a member of the National Wetlands centre Wales for just over 2 years now, and I must confess its money well spent, I only wish I had discovered the centre before.
I'ts only about 15 min. away by car from my home, so I try and get there ( work permitting) at least twice a week, (or when the misses lets me).
All the photo's that I have posted in the gallery were taken at the Wetland centre, so you can see there is a vast variety of insects, dragonflies, damsel flies, butterflies and other wildlife to see. There's even been a pair of Otters spotted in the large lake.
I'm sorry Jon that you were unlucky enough to catch a bad day at the centre, with crowds of people there, if you ever decide to go there again please go out the other side of the building into the 450 acres of wild area, I'm sure you won't be disappointed, you could spend the day there and not see another person.
Unless your unlucky enough to bump into me and DaiTheDragon on our travels