I had a very enjoyable two-hour sea-watch at New Quay from 7.45am with a steady stream of Gannets, Kittewakes and Manx Shearwaters flying south plus some Mediterranean Gulls and a few Common Scoters and Fulmars. Just about the closest bird was this Great Skua, so near I took these photos with my little compact camera:
Half an hour later, this bird or another one was on the water, quite far out beside a dead gull.
Just as luck would have it, one of the nearest shearwaters was a Balearic Shearwater which gave me the closest and most prolonged view I have ever had of this scarce species.
Back at Aberystwyth there were 40 Mediterranean Gulls in the harbour with some more colour-rings for me to note, including this one:
I was just about to have lunch when Harry called saying he had found a Grey Phalarope in the ditch which crosses the big meadow at Tanybwlch. Sure enough, there it was, quite close to the path behind the beach:
Beside the ditch was this Wheatear which we thought may have been a Greenland bird:
