Wales is full of wildlife sites and in Wild Places television naturalist Iolo Williams picks his favourite forty from the many nature reserves scattered around the country. From Cemlyn on Anglesey to the Newport Wetlands, from Stackpole in Pembrokeshire to the Dee Estuary, Williams criss-crosses Wales. His list takes in coastal sites from marshes to towering cliffs – plus Skomer and other islands – mountains, valleys, bogs, meadows, woods and land reclaimed from industry. These wild places vary in size from the vastness of bog at Tregaron to the hidden gem that is the daffodil wood at Coed-y-Bwl. They include sites of international significance, like Skomer Island, and the managed beauty of the former open cast site, Parc Slip.
As this informative and lavishly illustrated book demonstrates, all the sites are packed with the widest variety of trees, plants, birds, animals and insects. Williams draws on his considerable knowledge to guide readers and visitors to the natural delights of each site. Wild Places will reveal rarities like the Snowdon lily and the Snowdonia hawkweed, where to find twenty different species of dragonfly and damselfly and a colony of the shrill carder bee, and the site for an incredible 797 species of moths. You will learn where to find birds, both rare and in huge numbers, where hares box and otters swim, where to spot dolphins and salmon, and where to see Wales’ great variety of hawks and other birds of prey.
Each entry includes a survey of what is to be found there, a brief description of the facilities, and directions to reach the site. Illustrated in beautiful detail and with glorious images of the site by Wales’ top nature photographers, Wild Places confirms Wales’ pre-eminence as a country rich in stunning landscape inhabited in abundance by all manner of life. Author and book aim to introduce a new audience to the delights of natural Wales, be they armchair naturalists or, more importantly, visitors to the forty sites Williams has selected.