This morning I had planned to spend a few hours at the lagoon on the rising tide but due to the taxi failing to arrive I missed the rise of the tide and so I decided to take the ferry over to the other side of the strait. Upon arrival at the main town of Anadyr I decided to walk along the beach to check the gulls present. 
Vega gulls dominated the area with a single glaucous gull was only present a short while. I decided to sit and take a few photos of the vega's (above and 3 below)
Photo above was just to try and get a close look at the closed primary tips and below was just to get the open, upperwing shot.
After this I walked up along the river and on to the marsh area where wood sandpipers, red necked phalaropes just seemed to be every where I looked. A few common sandpipers were on the river along with both a few of red necked and temmink stints. A walk back in to town and along by the harbour allowed time to sit and watch the Beluga's once more and I just seem to enjoy watching these great "white whales" There seems to be more youngsters present today but I think it is just because the sea state has turned real calm and they seem to be more visible for longer. I sat there and as we left I put away my camera and just sat at the front of the boat enjoying the sun.
After about a third of the way I thought that I really should stand up and scan the sea ahead of me like I usually do. As I scanned ahead I saw 2 auks sitting on the water in the distance and as I raised my bins I was pleased to see that they were in fact 2 horned puffins. They sat on the water until the boat got to close for their comfort and they flew up and passed the boat. I then scanned ahead again and the usual ringed seals and belugas were present and then out of the corner of my eye I noticed a bird coming in at eye level, it was a tern and it was ashen grey above and as I raised my bins and could clearly see the white forehead and the all dark dagger like bill "yes at last" there coming in right in front of the boat was an Aleutian Tern "back of the net" I watched the bird as it carried on in its way over to the other side of the bay. I was disappointed that I never had my camera ready. This is only the second ever Aleutian Tern I have seen after the first sighting off of the east coast of Malaysia some years back on a pelagic with Dave Bakewell. Again that was a similar story where the bird just flew through but I was happy to have now seen this species of smart looking tern (I do think that the "Onychoprion" group is the best looking group of all the Terns) in their breeding quarters. As the boat came closer to the pier another 3 horned puffins were sitting on the water and they flew off towards the island above where several pairs of both horned and tufted are believed to nest. The boat arrived and so I disembarked and grabbed the bus back to the hotel. I then recieved a text from Roland telling me that a roast chicken dinner with roast potatoes and veg was waiting for me.. " Another result" so I went and had dinner with Roland, Xinia and Liz.
