Manxies and Marsh Harrier

When it comes to birding, I'm a pretty early riser, but when I arrived at Borth lifeboat station this morning a couple from Sussex, Colin and Janet Holter,  had been there for some time, having decided to have a short break up here in the hopes of connecting with the Manx Shearwater gathering.

Luckily, their timing was spot on, and by the time I arrived Colin had already had counts of 10-12000 Manxies, ca150 Gannets and ca200 Sandwich Terns.

Many of them had moved on, but we still enjoyed some spectacular birding in the glorious early morning sunshine. 

Like Jon, we also had 19 Med Gulls. 

At one point I picked up a raptor over the sea and passed it off as a Buzzard. It wasn't until it came inshore around the area of the monument and continued inland that I realised it was a fem/imm Marsh Harrier. A warning to myself not to be lazy and jump to conclusions.