Saturday 18th July 2009
	Lingering rarities confirmed as still present today comprised the Franklin's Gull and Great White Egret together on the Orkney Isles and the singing Little Bittern and Great White Egret together in Somerset. Notable seabirds included a Great Shearwater off County Cork, a Sabine's Gull off the Isles of Scilly and Cory's Shearwaters from Cornwall, East Yorkshire, Norfolk and the Isles of Scilly. Significant late news was released of a male Brown-headed Cowbird present in a garden at an undisclosed location in southern Pembrokeshire earlier this week, but not found today. Prior to 2009 there was just one British record of this common North American species - at Ardnave, Islay, Argyll on 24th April 1988 - but this spring and summer has seen five separate reports of single males of this species (Belford Northumberland 1st-2nd May, Weybourne Norfolk 7th May, Fair Isle Shetland Isles 8th-10th May, West Runton Norfolk 3rd June and now southern Pembrokeshire 13th-15th July; with all records away from Norfolk supported by photographs).
-  Chris Batty, RBA