Monday 19th March 2007
	Bitter northerly winds and snow in some parts of the country meant that it was long-staying rarities rather than an influx of spring migrants that created today's headlines. These included the showy White-billed Diver and Spotted Sandpiper in Cornwall, Laughing Gull in Devon, Long-billed Dowitchers in Kent and on the Suffolk/Essex border, Pacific Diver in Pembrokeshire, American Herring Gull in Cornwall, Lesser Scaup in Somerset and Snowy Owl on Lewis, Western Isles. In Somerset the Hoopoe continued to entertain and a scattering of Leach's Petrels were observed off the north Wales coastline. In Ireland the 1st-winter female Lesser Scaup in Co Cavan was relocated on another lake near Belturbet, the Long-billed Dowitcher remained in Co Louth and the American Herring Gull was still in Co Galway.
-  Stuart Piner, RBA