The Farm & a visit to Snowdonia National Park.

Tuesday 29th October 2024.

The view from the train around Llyn Padam Lake of the cloud shrouded mountains.

It was a bit of a sightseeing tour around the Welsh mountains today as my lovely wife wanted to visit Portmeirion; however, she did not do her research for not only was it £20 a head to get into the place, but they wouldn’t allow dogs (apart from assisted dogs). Yes, we drove there only to discover this and so then  thought of an alternate place to visit; so she came up with Llanberis in the Snowdonia National Park; a place where we visited some ten years ago. The drive through Snowdonia National Park was amazing, though I probably missed a good percentage of it as I was carefully negotiating the windy roads up in the mountains. But when we pulled over, the views were simply amazing.

Wern Fawr Manor Farm:

This female Peregrine flew over the Farm and scattered all the Wood Pigeons.

Before we went exploring some of the best places North Wales has to offer, I checked the garden this morning on the Farm and although there was no sign of yesterday’s Yellow-browed Warbler, I did have a superb female Peregrine flying over; which in turn flushed a very large flock of Wood Pigeons out of the trees nearby! Also nearby, along the main Farm road, a small flock of Long-tailed Tits were flitting about the roadside bushes. One of the Grey Wagtails flew over from the fields and landed on the Farmhouse roof again and showed well searching for insects in the guttering. A sizable flock of Redwing flew over and a few Goldcrest were seen in the bushes by our Cottage.

Above, this Goldcrest flew out of a small tree near the Farmhouse and below, the Grey Wagtail returned.

Last night, as the sun was setting, I thought I would hang out by the garden hoping for a possible Owl or Woodcock flying over; but to no avail. The best I could muster was a very small Bat species flying over the garden; though I wouldn't have a clue what species it was but it seemed smaller than a Pipistrelle. The Tawny Owls were heard again around 5am this morning for the second morning running.

The resident Farmyard ducks on their back to their small pond.

Llanberis & Snowdonia National Park:

We pulled over from one of the viewpoints to take a few photos of the terrific views within the National Park.

As mentioned before, the views while we were driving through Snowdonia National Park were amazing, with a lot of the mountain tops covered in thick clouds; but occasionally, the sun shone through and the mountains looked stunning. On the way to Llanberis, I had sightings of a male Goosander flying over a large lake and a few Common Buzzards were seen. 

Mute Swans on Llyn Padam lake.

We took the small train from Llanberis to the other side of Llyn Padam lake and although I took both my binoculars and camera, all there was on the water were a pair of Mute Swans, several Mallards and a flock of Herring Gulls. It wasn’t really what I wanted to do, but my wife insisted and so we jumped onboard this small cramped train carriage and made our way around the near empty lake. It was virtually overcast throughout our trip here and looked good for a huge rain shower, but fortunately for us, the rain kept off. Afterwards, it was a long, but pleasant drive home (bar some silly sod who cut us up on one of the main roads). 

Just a few photos at dusk from our Cottage here on the Farm.