Saturday 3rd October 2009
	Once again birders on the Shetland Isles enjoyed the best birding with Taiga Flycatcher, 2 Veerys, American Buff-bellied Pipit, four Pechora Pipits, Blyth's Reed Warbler, five Hornemann's Arctic Redpolls, three each of Yellow-browed Warbler and Lapland Buntings, two Barred Warblers, Buff-breasted Sandpiper and Common Rosefinch all recorded around the archipelago. Meanwhile, on the Isles of Scilly the Long-billed Dowitcher remained along with a Common Rosefinch, Dotterel, and Pectoral Sandpiper. Elsewhere, rarities included American Buff-bellied Pipit in County Clare, two Hornemann's Arctic Redpolls on the Orkney Isles, Snowy Owl in County Mayo, Lesser Yellowlegs in Lothian, White-rumped Sandpiper in Essex, Long-billed Dowitchers in Cheshire (2), County Cork and County Galway, King Eider in Lincolnshire, Lesser Scaup in Warwickshire, Ferruginous Duck in Somerset, Hooded Merganser in Cleveland, Glossy Ibises in Cambridgeshire, County Wexford, East Yorkshire, Kent (5), Northumberland and Somerset (5), Cattle Egrets in Hampshire (2) and Gloucestershire (4) and Great White Egrets in Lancashire (2) and Worcestershire. West coast seawatching produced two Fea's Petrels passing County Cork, Great Shearwaters (including 100 passing County Kerry), Sabine's Gulls (including three passing County Mayo), five Long-tailed Skuas, Pomarine Skuas (including 306 passing County Mayo), Leach's Petrels (including 40 passing Lancashire), Grey Phalaropes (including 12 passing County Mayo), Balearic Shearwaters (including seven passing Cornwall), Sooty Shearwaters (including 556 passing County Mayo) and Blue Fulmars (including 12 passing County Galway).
-  Chris Batty, RBA