Visiting Teifi Marshes Nature Reserve in Cardigan, Wales

A towering wicker otter greets us in the car park for the Welsh Wildlife Centre as we arrive on a Friday morning to explore Teifi Marshes Nature Reserve in Cardigan, mid-Wales.

We've already stopped on the road to watch water buffalo grazing serenely in the watery meadows. Magpies came to catch the flies buzzing around the buffalos' noses, and the buffalos seemed grateful, slowing their head movements as as not to scare the birds off. They were a funny sight, huge animals with thick, curving horns, faces adorned with clownish monochrome.

We start off along a track bordered with lichen-clad blackthorn heavy with sloes. Ferns and wildflowers make up the understory, sunlight washing the green leaves golden.

The first hide is the Kingfisher Hide. We spend fifteen minutes looking at the peaceful scene of reeds and mallards. A young coot picks at vegetation in the shallows and long tailed tits flit above the reeds.

Then, a flash of blue. The kingfisher teases by sitting around a corner until we're about to leave, when he obligingly comes to sit on a perch just outside the hide window.

We watch in wonder as he takes his time looking for prey in the water below. He catches a small prawn and eats it, then seems to take us on a tour of his home. He moves from perch to perch, testing out which offers the best fishing this morning.

A tall, angled branch at the rear of the water channel seems to offer the best pickings. Translucent prawns are shaken before being eaten, some of them putting up a fight and falling from the kingfisher's beak and back into the water, only to be snatched back up moments later.

As the kingfisher goes about his business, the young coot edges up the branch towards him. When he leaves, she makes it to the top and looks down, as he did. I wonder if she's trying to learn how to find her own food.

Two forked branch tips lie low above the water and offer a geometric image, another kingfisher's form reflected perfectly in the water below. This perch proves unproductive for fishing, and the newcomer moves to a spectacular lichen-clad branch.

From here, the kingfisher catches several more prawns. This is the longest I've ever been able to watch a kingfisher. For a moment, he watches me back, as if checking that we're witnessing his prowess.

When he tires of the lichen-clad branch he moves closer again, sitting with his back to us and showing off his bright cyan strip.

When he moves to sit on a tangle of branches low over the water these magic colour-changing feathers flutter in the ripples created by the upturned mallards.

A man tries to come into the hide with a yapping dog pulling at the lead and we usher him out. The damage is done, though, and the kingfisher hides in a tree for a long while before returning to hover over the water, angel-like.

We listen to the sounds of him diving into the water until he's had his fill for the day and flies off to a higher tree.

Other hides boast special views too. Little grebes bob around, their fluffy bums and red faces pretty in the morning light. Mallards snooze at the edges of the reeds and a harrier flies overhead. The tidal stretch of the Afon Teifi (River Teifi) is quiet at high tide but alive with busy waders when the mud is visible.

Teifi Marshes Nature Reserve is a special place, with accessible paths and hides and a fantastic visitor centre and café. We were intrigued by the hide visible from Priory Bridge, and we're so glad we checked the reserve out. We're also hugely grateful to the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales for maintaining such a beautiful place.