Monday 5th October 2009
	The highlight of the day was the discovery of an Eyebrowed Thrush on North Ronaldsay, Orkney Isles. Elsewhere around the archipelago both Spotted Sandpiper and White-billed Diver were found alongside American Golden Plover, Little Bunting, Rose-coloured Starling and two Yellow-browed Warblers. On the Shetland Isles River Warbler, Great Snipe, Citrine Wagtail and Red-throated Pipit were all new arrivals, joining Taiga Flycatcher, Veery and two each of Pechora Pipit, Blyth's Reed Warbler, Arctic Warbler and Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll, all supported by six Yellow-browed Warblers, three Common Rosefinches, two Barred Warblers, a Short-toed Lark, Bluethroat and Surf Scoter. Meanwhile, on the Isles of Scilly the Long-billed Dowitcher, Common Rosefinch and Pectoral Sandpiper all remained on Tresco. Elsewhere, brief encounters included an Eleonora's Falcon over Great Warley, Essex and a Fea's Petrel passing both Spurn, East Yorkshire and Farne Islands, Northumberland whilst other rarities included a showy Steppe Grey Shrike in Nottinghamshire, American Buff-bellied Pipit in County Clare, Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll on the Western Isles, Snowy Owl in County Mayo, Long-billed Dowitchers in both Cheshire (2) and Lancashire (2), Amercian Golden Plovers in County Cork and County Kerry, Lesser Yellowlegs in Lothian, Blue-winged Teal in Cleveland, Lesser Scaup in Warwickshire and single Glossy Ibises in Cambridgeshire, Lancashire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire and Somerset. Belated concerns the eighth Nearctic landbird of the autumn; a dead Yellow-billed Cuckoo found yesterday at Almondbank in Perth and Kinross.
-  Chris Batty, RBA