Old boys at Ynys-hir, plus King Eider

John, Bob and I had one of our occasional outings today, to a dull, drizzly and generally gloomy Ynys-hir.  Sat in the Marian Mawr hide wondering why we had bothered, then a juv Marsh Harrier appeared and treated us to a slow fly past.

After that the birding, if not the weather,  improved as from the Domen Las hide we picked up two Common Sandpipers, four Black-tailed Godwits, then at last the female King Eider.

Back to the Marian Mawr from where, looking up the valley we could see  four Ospreys perched in the vicinity of the nest and, a few minutes later from the hide we watched another one down the estuary.  Obviously on a fishing trip, it kept hovering above the river, but never quite plunged in until we lost it in the next band of drizzle sweeping up the estuary.