Wheatear

I spent the morning rummaging around the graveyard of St. Marcella's, one of the finest Medieval churches in Wales. Highlights included the grave of Twm o'r Nant, a vampire snail with a taste for angels and Comma and Red Admiral butterflies.

My eldest brother then invited me for a walk on Pen-y-cloddiau, one of the Iron Age hillforts that lies on the other side of the Vale, part of the Clwydian range. The forest that lies on the lower slopes has changed a lot since I orienteered in it during my youth. Most of the old Forestry Commission plantation has been felled, and a natural woodland is regenerating nicely.

Following a stretch of the Offa's Dyke path to the top there were fine views north to the coast and Merseyside, east to Cheshire and the Pennines, south down the Clwydians and east across the Vale, with the Snowdonia mountains on the skyline.

On the way down we met this Wheatear, which paused long enough for an unusually (for me) clear photo in front of the hills receding to the south.