Tuesday 2nd May 2006
	Bird of the day was a Gull-billed Tern in southeast Devon. First seen briefly on the Axe Estuary at Seaton it soon flew off west and was relocated on the Exe Estuary in the evening. Other highlights included an Alpine Swift over St Martin’s, Isles of Scilly and a singing Bonelli’s Warbler species briefly at Rutland Water, Leicestershire. A Woodchat Shrike at Long Eaton, Derbyshire was an excellent local record, as was the Montagu’s Harrier that remained at Belfast Harbour Estate, Co Down. A good passage of Pomarine Skuas was more routine with maximum day counts of 25 off Bowness-on-Solway, Cumbria, 11 Selsey Bill, West Sussex and six at both Dungeness, Kent and Thurlestone Bay, Devon. A female aythya duck at Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, that was originally identified as a Redhead, eventually showed well and photographs proved the bird to be hybrid of unknown parentage; and certainly not a pure Redhead.
-  Chris Batty, RBA