Wildlife watching tours on the Welsh coast

Despite the name, Anglesey’s Puffin Island isn’t the best place in Wales for puffin-watching – Skomer and Skokholm have bigger colonies. But on a spring or early summer cruise around the island with Seacoast Safaris, RibRide or Starida, you’re likely to see a few, along with crowds of guillemots and razorbills, jostling for space on the cliffs, plus sandwich terns, eider ducks and cormorants.

Colin Evans of Bardsey Island Boat Trips comes from a family of lobster fishermen who has lived on the Llŷn Peninsula for generations. He runs crossings and day trips to Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island) from the appealing village of Aberdaron. When the weather’s good you can cruise Bardsey Sound, watching seabirds, seals and dolphins, while hearing about the region’s maritime history.

Black grouse are rare in Wales and even rarer in England. If you’d like to see one, Coed Llandegla in the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB is the place – 50 per cent of the Welsh population of these charismatic birds live within one mile of here. In the breeding season, from late March to May, RSPB officers lead guided walks through the forest to a display area known as a lek, where the males screech and mock-charge each other to win a mate.

Dolphin Survey Boat Trips offer fascinating dolphin-watching cruises from New Quay, lasting from an hour upwards. On a full-day trip, you’ll accompany researchers from the Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre as they collect important data and listen in on the dolphins’ conversations via an underwater microphone. 

From New Quay pier, Dolphin Spotting Boat Trips will take you on a scenic journey within the protected area of the Special Area of Conservation, where you can admire the stunning landscape and see dolphins, porpoise and seals living freely in their natural environment. 

A Bay To Remember offers fun RIB trips from Cardigan, Gwbert and Poppit Sands.

Tenby Boat Trips run hour-long cruises around the hidden coves of Caldey Island, just off the Pembrokeshire coast. Along the way you’ll have close encounters with the native grey seal population, which swim almost close enough to the boat to touch. You may also see nesting seabirds like puffins and cormorants on Caldey’s cliffs.

This summer birdwatching tour from Thousand Island Expeditions is led by an RSPB warden. Setting out from the historic St Justinian’s lifeboat station, you’ll circle Grassholm, the world’s fourth-largest gannet colony, home to 39,000 pairs. Later, you land on Ramsey, where you’ll hear about the island’s history and ecology. You’re then free to explore, looking for choughs, kittiwakes, peregrine falcons and seals.

The 300-acre Parc Slip at Tondu, near Bridgend, is the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales’ flagship nature reserve in South Wales: its meadows and wetlands support over 1,000 wildlife species. Guided walks take place on a regular basis, starting from the visitor centre and focusing on moths, butterflies, dragonflies or birds.

Voyages of Discovery in St Davids have been perfecting the art of whale and dolphin watching in West Wales since 2002. Their detailed knowledge of Pembrokeshire’s coastal and offshore waters ensures regular sightings of resident and migrating dolphins (common, bottlenose and Risso’s), whales (minke, sei and fin), orcas and sharks. May to September are the best months, particularly June.

Launching from Martin’s Haven near Marloes, Pembrokeshire Islands offers gentle trips around the bird-rich islands of Skomer, Skokholm and Grassholm, with commentary from the crew. On a spring or summer sunset cruise, you’ll see puffins, gannets and other seabirds returning to home base after a day’s fishing. High-speed sea safaris by RIB in the Skomer Marine Nature Reserve are also available.

In the summer months Ynys-hir RSPB reserve in Ceredigion organises fun, informative guided tours and activities for kids. Choose from Wildlife Explorer afternoons - with pond-dipping and bug hunts - and Story Walks, tours with a professional storyteller who weaves stories from the natural world into the experience.