Mwnt wildlife

Wales - We climbed Mwnt's hill, descended to the beach to pick up shells and sea-worn pebbles, refreshed ourselves with tea and ice creams in the café and then decided to follow a short walking trail around the headland. There is a coastal path along the whole of Cardigan Bay but it was a warm day and we decided to take it easy... a good decision, as we were stopping every few minutes to enjoy the views and watch the wildlife.

The little bird was hopping around the bracken fronds. It's a stonechat.  They are not uncommon in the right areas, though you wouldn't see one in Saltaire! I also saw a rare chough flying past, a black crow with a distinctive red-orange beak.

Cardigan Bay is a Special Area of Conservation because of a thriving population of bottle-nosed dolphins, as well as the porpoises and seals that frequent the bay. The only other sizeable British population of dolphins is in Scotland's Moray Firth.  We'd been told you can sometimes see them from the cliffs, though many people take special tour boats that go out to search for them. We sat watching the lobster fishermen and the tour boats cruising up and down and were eventually rewarded by the sight of a couple of dolphins quite close to shore, occasionally almost breaching the water. At least, we were pretty sure they were dolphins, though dolphins and porpoises can be hard to tell apart at a distance. Dolphins are bigger and have a scythe shaped dorsal fin. These two were a long way away but with my lens on its maximum telephoto and then cropping the picture drastically I managed to achieve the shot below, which I am extremely proud of!