2. Capel-y-Ffin The beautiful little chapel that gives this hamlet its name is dedicated to St Mary and dates back to 1762. Lying on the banks of the River Honddu, it is surrounded by the high tops of the Black Mountains.

3. Brecon Mountain Railway This is one of Wales' ‘great little trains' and runs 5.5 miles from Pant Station near Merthyr, through Pontsticill and on to Torpantau on the old abandoned Brecon and Merthyr line. On a sunny summer's day, the views are outstanding!

4. Llangorse Lake This is the largest natural lake in Wales and is famous for its coarse fishing, water sports and crannog, an artificial island dating back to the 9th century that was used as a dwelling. The lake is also excellent for wildlife and supports healthy populations of water voles, reed warblers and hunting hobbies.

5. Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal This 35-mile canal runs along the Usk Valley for most of its length and although originally built to carry coal and iron, today its rural character and tranquility attracts thousands of tourists each year. It's also a great place to see the elusive otter.

6. Mynydd Illtyd This area of common land is conveniently situated adjacent to the Brecon Beacons Mountain Centre near Libanus. It makes for excellent low-level walking with an abundance of wildlife, and excellent, home-made food at the Mountain Centre cafe makes for a perfect end to the day.

7. Llyn y Fan Fach A small dammed lake on the northern edge of the Black Mountain, Llyn y Fan Fach is surrounded by the high peaks of the Carmarthen Fans and is steeped in Welsh legends. The walk up to the lake along the River Sawdde and on to the high tops is one of the most picturesque walks in the whole of the Beacons.

8. Sgwd Henrhyd Henrhyd waterfall near the village of Coelbren is the tallest waterfall in south Wales. A lovely walk leads from the car park above the falls down the wooded Nant Llech valley. Henrhyd is best viewed after heavy rainfall and is a photographer's dream.

9. Beacons Way This 95-mile walk follows most of the high ridges from the Skirrid in the east to the small village of Bethlehem in the west. A recently-devised linear walk, it has become very popular with walkers from all over the world.

10. Pen-y-Fan Okay, so this is probably the best-visited site in the whole of the Brecon Beacons, but 250,000 visitors a year can't be wrong. At 886 metres (2,907 feet) above sea level, it is the highest peak in southern Britain and the 360 degree panoramic view from the top is absolutely spectacular.

Last year I travelled around Wales with Iolo and the team filming wildlife in four different parks. Singleton Park is the first programme in the series. For every fine day in Swansea we had a couple of atrocious ones. There is a scene where Iolo is sitting in the teeming rain in the dark waiting for foxes and you can hear the thunder rolling in off the sea. I think I can speak for all the crew when I say that the thing uppermost on our minds at this time was the restaurant just down the road. That said, concentration is key, because the law of wildlife filming states that the moment your mind wanders something interesting will happen… only this time it didn’t. Nothing happened! Wildlife filming isn’t all about getting the shot at the last minute; sometimes, with the best will in the world you fail.

For all the native wildlife we filmed throughout the year at Singleton, Pontypool, Wepre and Holyhead I will always remember this series for one species. Not the elusive adders of Holyhead, the freshwater crayfish of Pontypool or the great crested newts of Wepre. The award goes to… the ring necked parakeet of Swansea.

Just before starting the ‘Great Welsh Parks’ series I had been filming a documentary called ‘Planet Parrot’, which is about parrots living in cities around the world. That film took me to LA, where red-headed Amazon parrots live in their thousands; Phoenix, where lovebirds nest in holes in the huge saguaro cacti; Buenos Aries, where Monk Parakeets are part of the cosmopolitan city life; and Mexico, where scarlet macaws are being bred and released back into the jungle. When I heard that we would be trying to film a parakeet in Singleton Park I could hardly believe my luck!

Making good wildlife programmes is hard work. If you think it’s easy you’re not trying hard enough. Wildlife camera people do get all the glory, but none of it is possible without a great team, and as a team we are always thinking about the end result and what the people sitting at home will get out of viewing our programme. I hope the series encourages people to get out there and see what they have on their doorstep.

Catch up on Iolo's Great Welsh Parks on BBC iPlayer or watch highlight clips from the series.

We needed sharks for the series. We knew there were sharks in Welsh waters, sea fishermen regularly catch them. It was a 6.45am start for the crew and all our fingers and toes were crossed that the weather would be on our side. We headed from our hotel to the little harbour of Dale in South Pembrokeshire where we were meeting skipper Andy Truelove. The intention was to join Andy and some other local people who are currently working on a shark tagging project to travel about 25 miles off the south Wales coast into the Celtic deep.

The harbour was calm and everyone was in good spirits because if all went to plan - catching, tagging and diving with blue sharks in Welsh waters – today would definitely be a highlight of the series.

But the dive team doesn't travel light and before we could set off we had a huge pile of diving and filming kit to shift from the sea wall to the boat. Half an hour later we set off slowly from the jetty and into Milford Haven waterway. But soon we were soon scrambling around the boat when we saw a pod of three Risso's dolphins. We quickly got some shots of the dolphins whilst Iolo got into position so that he could do a piece to camera with the dolphins in the background. They started to breach, doing small leaps out of the water and crashing down again, a behaviour not very often seen this close to shore as they prefer deeper waters. Iolo, still clutching his breakfast and full of excitement, got straight into his piece to camera. Within half an hour of leaving the jetty we already had an unexpected and lovely little sequence to add to the day's filming.

Once you travel past St Ann's head this is when the true nature of the sea really reveals itself; no longer in the shelter of the bay you get the full force of the wind and waves coming from the Atlantic. We had several hours of being bumped and rolled around, with Wales' coastline becoming more and more distant until we arrived at a spot with no land in sight and were told this was the best place to start fishing for sharks.

Greg Laycock is a local fisherman whose task it is to catch the sharks. He began to set up his rods around the boat. We did our best to start setting up all our kit while the boat rocked and rolled on the waves and water gushed over the deck. Poor Iolo, who has never been sea sick in his life, was ill for the first time at sea. We were all taken by surprise for the second time when Greg caught a shark within 10 minutes and we filmed as he let Iolo take over the rod to slowly reel the shark in.

Once on board, Lloyd Jones who leads the tagging part of the project with the help of Andy and Greg, began taking the shark's measurements. We decided to try and get Iolo in the water so that he could wait for another shark to come to the boat and could get a better understanding of how they moved in the water. Iolo, joined by underwater cameraman Gavin Newman and local safety diver Ceri Jones, waited patiently about three meters underwater next to the boat. They were holding on to a guide rope that had been dropped to stop them drifting off out to sea on the current.

It took a while, but Iolo did get a glimpse of a blue shark swimming in the gloom of the deep sea water. But it was a third surprise that really topped the whole day off and was a first for Iolo. While waiting in the water for the sharks to swim past we had obviously caught the attention of a passing pod of common dolphins.  All in all, it was probably one of the best days filming in Wales we had ever had despite the rolling waves and long hours at sea. To top it off we were accompanied by jumping dolphins on and off all the way back to the Pembrokeshire coast.

The final episode of Iolo’s Welsh Sea is on Sunday 9 March, BBC One Wales at 5pm. You can catch up on iPlayer.

Iolo Williams at the new boardwalk opening.

"The boardwalk is a fantastic resource which really brings nature to life and gives you the chance to get up close and personal with the environment," said Iolo.

"It's not just a lovely walkway with amazing views, you can actually get your hands dirty and feel the natural habitat under your skin."

Dinefwr Park, famous for its ancient woodland, white park cattle and fallow deer, is the only area of parkland in Wales to be designated a National Nature Reserve.

An action-packed outdoor activity programme is planned for the year ahead, ranging from den-building, tree climbing and orienteering.

A number of special activities are planned for Sunday, March 20 to celebrate the new boardwalk which is opening in partnership with the National Trust, the Wildlife Trust of South West Wales and the Welsh woodlands association Tir Coed.

Activities include 'discovery-pack' rucksacks crammed full of items to make the journey through the park fun for all the family. Among the goodies inside are torches for peering into dark crevices, magnifying glasses to help spot tiny creatures, walkie-talkies plus a sheet of activity suggestions for an afternoon of discovery. The fun starts at 11am through to 4pm.

Dinefwr is open 11am-5pm daily. Normal admission charges apply (National Trust members are free).

For more information please call 01558 823902/824512 or email Dinefwr@nationaltrust.org.uk

Great crested grebe in a courtship display at Roath Lake by Anthony Cronin.

On the Lleyn Peninsula near Trefor he looks at why one colony of shags nest earlier than any others in Wales and in Pembrokeshire he finds out where house martins nested before they used our buildings.

Iolo looks at the variety of places birds like to nest, from little ringed plovers on shingle banks along the River Tywi to puffins underground on Skomer.

Let us know if you're enjoying the new series and what you've spotted recently in the comment area below.

Gull

In episode one, he investigates how and why birds communicate, looking at the reasons snipe use their tail feathers to make a very distinctive noise and what's happening when thousands of starlings participate in stunning aerial displays in Aberystwyth.

Missed episode one? Watch again on BBC i-player.