Discover Welsh wildlife all year round

There are so many native creatures to see across Wales that it can be hard to know where to start. To help you out, here’s a list of where you need to go to encounter some of the fascinating wildlife that populate our coast and countryside.

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Throughout the year, a wide variety of animals, birds and unique insects make their homes in Wales. If you know when’s best to visit, and where to look, you can see wildlife common to Wales including red kites, dolphins and puffins. You might be lucky and spot some of our rarer creatures too – red squirrels, ospreys and even beavers!

Here are some of the best places to find wonderful Welsh animals.

Dolphins, seals and porpoises

Cardigan Bay is home to a large population of bottlenose dolphins and harbour porpoises, and one of the finest dolphin sightseeing locations in Wales. Take a walk on the Wales Coast Path and there’s a good chance you’ll see them swimming and jumping among the waves. Get a closer look by taking a dolphin spotting boat trip from the harbour town of New Quay, which will bring you face to face with these amazing marine mammals. Find out more about our coastal environment at Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre, also in New Quay.

Dolphins making a splash in Cardigan Bay.

Dolphin spotting in Cardigan Bay, Mid WalesView Credits

Anglesey is another Atlantic grey seal, Risso’s dolphin, bottlenose dolphin and porpoise spotting hotspot, although the most numerous animal population on the island is sheep! Follow the Wales Coast Path between Porth Llechog and Cemaes on Anglesey to see cetaceans playing in the bay. Boat trips from Beaumaris take a tour along the Menai Strait to Puffin Island, home to a seal colony and birdlife.

A glimpse of a porpoise's back and fin breaking above the waves.

A glimpse of a Harbour Porpoise, and the Wales Coast Path at Porth Llechog (Bull Bay), Anglesey, North WalesView Credits

Strumble Head in Pembrokeshire attracts large numbers of porpoises, including mothers with calves, all year round. As well as porpoises, the area occasionally attracts basking sharks, sunfish, humpback whales, minke whales and orca. You can help conserve the porpoise by taking a Sea Trust Survey boat trip, where you record your trip sightings.

Pembrokeshire’s Marloes Peninsula is a jagged spit of land which is delivery ward and nursery for grey seal pups, born during the autumn. It’s also a great place for winter birds, with plenty of playful choughs on the cliff tops. Nowadays, Marloes Mere is a good spot for winter waterfowl and birds of prey, though it used to be famous for supplying leeches to the medical profession.

The islands off the Pembrokeshire coast, Skomer, Skokholm, and Grassholm, are some of the best places to see grey seals in Wales. Between September and November you can often spot seals and their white-coated pups on the beaches and in caves around the islands. The easiest way to get close is via one of the boat trips to the islands, which run from 1 April to 31 October.

Find out more ways to encounter nature on Wales’ coasts and where to find wildlife watching tours.

Six grey seals basking on a seaweed covered rock by the sea.

Seals on the Pembrokeshire coast, West WalesView Credits

Welsh birds of prey

The return of the red kite has been one of the big success stories of Welsh conservation. While they were extinct almost everywhere in Britain, they survived, just, in remote pockets of Mid Wales. Nowadays they’re a common – but never commonplace – sight all over Mid and West Wales. The red kite is a graceful bird, with a distinctive forked tail, making it relatively easy to spot in the skies.

Mountain bikers and red kites flock to the visitor centre at Bwlch Nant yr Arian in Ponterwyd, near Aberystwyth. It became a red kite feeding station in 1999, designed to give the small numbers of kites a helping hand and to encourage them to gather together. Nowadays around 150 birds swoop to daily feedings, which take place at 3pm in the summer. For the best display of all, daily feedings at Gigrin Farm, Rhayader, attract up to 600 of these stunning birds as well as a supporting cast of buzzards and ravens.

A red kite in flight.
red kite birds flying.

Red kites at feeding time, Gigrin Farm, Rhayader, Mid WalesView Credits

Ospreys have also returned to Wales following the success of nests at Cors Dyfi Nature Reserve and Hafren Forest in Mid Wales, the Glaslyn Osprey Centre and Llyn Brenig in North Wales. Watch out for their graceful diving for fish in our lakes and estuaries, or you can watch their nests live online via the relevant webcams.