Left home early this morning without having decided where to go and so, approaching the main road at Llanfarian the decision had to be made; left to New Quay or right to Ynyslas.
Decided to head south and, despite having just read the previous postings on the blog, am quite happy with that choice, having had a great morning's birding.
First had a look at the sea at Aberaeron where large numbers of manxies and Gannets, a couple of Sandwich Terns and 6 Common Scoter in the space of a few minutes persuaded me to continue south.
A good start on arrival at the car park in New Quay, with a Swift overhead and a Whimbrel calling.
From the fish factory, large numbers of the usual species included a feeding raft of ca450 Manx Shearwaters and a flock of ca220 Kittiwakes.
Small parties of terns began to move through, predominantly Sandwich and commic, then two Little Terns, followed shortly afterwards by a party of eight Black Terns, three of which were in summer plumage.
My final counts were of around 55 each of Sandwich and commic, most of which were Common.
At one point a Bonxie approached from the south and joined the feeding flock of manxies and Gannets.
It was still there about 20 minutes later when another went by, heading south. (Why can't I find an Arctic Skua?)
Another Swift, well offshore, and 11 Common Scoter and that was about it.
Still a bit jealous of the Sabine's Gull, though.