Saturday 30th May 2009
	The highlight of the day was a Stilt Sandpiper seen briefly at Grove Ferry, Kent. Other brief encounters included an Alpine Swift on the Western Isles, Red-footed Falcon in Northumberland and a Great White Egret in Norfolk. A Bee-eater lingered on St Agnes, Isles of Scilly. Lingering rarities included the Squacco Heron still in Cambridgeshire, Forster's Tern in County Wexford, Savi's Warbler in Essex, Bee-eater in Cornwall and Ferruginous Duck in Somerset. On the Shetland Isles there were two Great Reed Warblers, a Lesser Scaup, Icterine Warbler, Common Rosefinch, Common Crane, Honey Buzzard and two Golden Orioles. Scarcities elsewhere comprised four Purple Herons, two each of both Common Rosefinch and Surf Scoter and singles of Short-toed Lark (Norfolk), Melodious Warbler (Cornwall), American Wigeon (Lancashire), Red-necked Phalarope (Leicestershire), Grey-headed Wagtail (Berkshire), Ring-necked Duck and Green-winged Teal (both Western Isles). Significant negative news concerned the disappearance of the pratincole from Pagham Harbour, West Sussex. Present on 28th and 29th May and identified in the field as a Collared Pratincole, photographs show that the bird was actually an Oriental Pratincole - only Britain's sixth record - although probably actually only the fourth individual - and the first since a mobile bird visited Norfolk, East Sussex and Suffolk in 1993 (with others in Suffolk in 1981 and Kent in 1988).
-  Chris Batty, RBA