Tuesday 3rd March 2009
	The highlight of the day was the discovery of the first Ivory Gull in Ireland in a decade. Found at Baltimore, County Cork, this juvenile bird showed well into the evening and appears likely to be the same bird as earlier present 600 miles to the southeast on the Atlantic coast of France at Gujan-Mestras, Gironde between 21st January and 26th February 2009. Gull news from elsewhere included the American Herring Gull still in County Galway and totals of 42 Glaucous Gulls (including 21 on the Western Isles), 34 Iceland Gulls (including 16 in County Galway), eight Ring-billed Gulls, four Caspian Gulls and three Kumlien's Gulls. Lingering rarities included the Lesser Scaup in Glamorgan, Black-bellied Dipper in Norfolk, Cackling Canada Goose and Taverner's Canada Goose together in Dumfries and Galloway, and a Great White Egret in Suffolk. Cattle Egret reports totaled eleven birds in seven counties comprising five in Devon and one each in Norfolk, Pembrokeshire, Wiltshire, Isle of Man, Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.
-  Chris Batty, RBA