Phenomenal fliers effortlessly performing awesome aerobatics…. It’s easy to get carried away and, at the same time, difficult to describe adequately in words the flying skills of members of the Tern family. It also proved extremely difficult, even with my new camera, to get good photographs as they swooped and swerved, dipped and dived, feeding on tiny insects both on and above the water.

These are juvenile Black terns (Childonias niger), rare visitors to south Wales, so it’s been a treat for many birders this week to have seen first one, then yesterday a second bird, feeding over the lake in Cardiff’s Parc Tredelerch. I spent several magical hours with a friend at the lake yesterday, watching and marvelling at these thrilling fliers.