habitat INFO

09/12/2025

update on Orla the owl, after the thumbs up from our raptor vet Tom Bailey we opened up the aviary to release our owl. Seems Orla had grown accustomed to the fast food supplies and refused to budge for two weeks. Eventually though her wild life beckoned and she hasnt been back since for food. We have seen her twice quartering over the wild meadow and hope she finds a new home somewhere nearby...

it's funny how injured raptors seem to know to find their way to Ffion Rees, and then to the 'hawk hotel'! We are now caring for "Orla" a beautiful Barn Owl that was found on the Croes Goch road (where there have been a few owl casualties in the recent past). Orla was lying next to the road perfectly still with one eye closed and Ffi feared the worst that we wouldnt be able to do anything for her and helped her to feed for a couple of days. But owls are good actors, and when introduced to the roomy aviary, Orla stood up and revealed that she could actually fly around! and feed herself. great news! she is currently feasting on 3-4 chicks per day so pending an inspection by our local raptor vet Tom Bailey we are hopeful for her release again soon. She let me do this water-colour sketch of her..
Falcon Boats

25/07/2025

partridges sighted
2025-07-19T09:12:00

partridges sighted July 19, 2025 | No Comments | sightings Ketch flushed two adult partridges from one of the barley fields at Llanunwas! amazing that some have survived and great encouragement for us rewilders. Confirmed by Mandy who raised most of them. and Daff Rees sighted a covey near BroDawel....

25/07/2025

https://habitatinfo.com/partridges-sighted/

25/07/2025

Ketch flushed two adult partridges from one of the barley fields at Llanunwas! amazing that some have survived and great encouragement for us rewilders. Confirmed by Mandy who raised most of them. and Daff Rees sighted a covey near BroDawel over the winter on one of his runs.

partridges sighted July 19, 2025 | No Comments | sightings Ketch flushed two adult partridges from one of the barley fields at Llanunwas! amazing that some have survived and great encouragement for us rewilders. Confirmed by Mandy who raised most of them. and Daff Rees sighted a covey near BroDawel....

20/07/2025

In case it’s of interest.. White-tailed Sea Eagles went extinct in Wales in 1816 but dedicated people are endeavouring to bring them back! Read the full story at https://ragdavies.art/eagle-and-the-salmon/

25/04/2025

for Porpoises...

🌊 Our Big Give Campaign is LIVE! 🌊

Find out more and donate here 👉
https://donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05WS000001oJYLYA2

We are on Day 3 of the Big Give, and we've reached just 11% of our target! 😔

🌟🌟Every donation will be doubled until 29th April. Please donate today if you can. 🌟🌟

Please help us spread the porpoise love by LIKING and SHARING! 🌊💙

We need to reach as many people as possible!

We are raising much-needed funds for our Citizen Science Porpoise Photo ID project. These funds will go towards:

🐬 Important research on the overlooked and understudied Harbour porpoise. Porpoises face many threats, and we have seen huge declines in other small cetaceans. We want to protect our porpoises.

🙌 Community engagement and outreach, so we can continue our talks, public events, wildlife surveys, and school sessions, inspiring people to care about and protect the ocean!

👩‍🔬 Volunteer recruitment and training, providing learning opportunities for people to train as Citizen Scientists.

Find out more and donate here 👉
https://donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05WS000001oJYLYA2

15/08/2024

Cape Verde with Laurie. Cool place.
just so lucky to witness a female Loggerhead Turtle crawl out of the Atlantic last night to lay her hundred or so eggs. courtesy Jonathan and Ali Jones who run their amazing company Exlplore Cape Verde from here and St Davids! a local NGO marked this nest to relocate the eggs to a hatchery because of local light factors which might hinder the hatching.

09/08/2024

if anyone is feeling despondent about the state of our planet and has not yet heard of my great friend Carl Jones and learned about what he and his team achieved for Mauritius, then please listen to this podcast by Ben Goldsmith.
Not only is it a masterclass in how to turn around the fortunes of nature and to do this on a tiny island with a million people living there, but it is also a pretty darn good interview - very informed and drawing out the storyteller, instead of trying to be the storyteller like many other presenters..

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6OSHxdFxynUq4nbM88xCPg?si=IrbpLMekQ0mvQGGqwUvaXg&t=103

Rewilding the World with Ben Goldsmith · Episode

31/05/2024

new book out!

Our book on our journey through the Cork and Holm Oak Savannas of Portugal and Spain is in print! (and in kindle edition), available to purchase from The Natural Gallery website or through Amazon or Ingram Spark

https://www.rookwoodstudios.com/product/our-journey-through-the-cork-oaks/

We had a very fun launch for the book and exhibition of paintings and photographs here on 9 May which was a lovely sunny evening. Some wonderful friends came along and enjoyed a bit of sangria and tapas amid the scenes of Extremadura and Alentejo.

Thanks to them we are able to pass £227 on to the Vulture Conservation Foundation for May, our chosen charity for this project. We are donating 10% of proceeds to help them with their great work to keep vultures soaring aloft over these precious habitats which are proving vital to many wildlife species thanks to the efforts of a few visionaries.

If you would like to read about these wildlife-friendly savannas that we have in Europe and share our experiences there, please buy a copy and it contains links to all the paintings, prints and photographs that are still available. It really is an extraordinarily wild, hidden-away part of Europe. Our exhibition will run another couple of weeks until 15 June, and we still have signed copies of the book for sale in the gallery at the launch price of just £10.

(and, if you want to plan a visit for your own savanna experience, you may find our 'Dehesa' map and year-planner useful!)

Rob and Amanda

25/05/2024

new lives!

03/04/2024

We have a fantastic new infographic displayed at Habitat Info near the entrance to The Natural Gallery, Solva, which describes all the nature recovery work that Llanunwas farm has benefited from as a result of a 2 year Nature Networks Fund project to connect the wildlife habitats on the St Davids peninsula. The project was led by our neighbours The Bug Farm who also designed the beautiful infographic featuring wonderful artworks by Nikki Pontin..

The project has been hugely influential on nature recovery at this local farm site: with Southern Marsh Orchid appearing in the wild meadow, ducks and moorhens finding the wildlife pond, Harvest Mice and pollinator plants returning to margins around the food production areas.

Read all about it and follow links to an amazing video on the project here:
https://www.habitatinfo.com/common-connections-nnf-project-infographic/

Come and see the wildlife outcomes for yourselves, and perhaps visit our current art exhibition in the Natural Gallery on the wildlife-rich cork oak savannas of Spain and Portugal

The Common Connections collaborative project was administered by the Pembrokeshire Nature Partnership and delivered by the National Lottery Heritage Fund on behalf of the Welsh Government