Sunday 20th August 2006
	A busy autumn day with the highlight being a Little Shearwater watched flying west past Pendeen Watch, Cornwall. Elsewhere discoveries included a Blue-winged Teal at Hanningfield Reservoir, Essex, a White-winged Black Tern at Meare Heath, Somerset and a Ferruginous Duck at Chew Valley Lake, Somerset. The first-winter Woodchat Shrike, present since Friday, on Fair Isle, Shetland shows advanced moult and a large amount of white in the primaries suggesting it may well be of the eastern form niloticus. The east coast between Shetland and East Yorkshire enjoyed a good showing of drift migrants with six Greenish Warblers (three in Aberdeenshire, singles in Cleveland, East Yorkshire and Northumberland), 17 Barred Warblers, nine Icterine Warblers, ten Wrynecks, seven Red-backed Shrikes and a Common Rosefinch all logged. An unusual autumn phenomena was the arrival of five Dotterel trips totaling 188 birds and including 51 together at Terrington Marsh, Norfolk. The Stilt Sandpiper remained all day on Brownsea Island, Dorset but the Broad-billed Sandpiper at Aberlady Bay, Lothian only put in a brief appearance during the morning. Popular Aquatic Warblers remained at both Simbridge, Gloucestershire and Seasalter, Kent.
-  Chris Batty, RBA