Saturday 24th November 2012
	The highlight of the day was a Desert Wheatear in Denbighshire at Rhyl; identified this morning after first being located there yesterday. Elsewhere, a Ross's Goose was new in Dumfries and Galloway at Loaningfoot, whilst in County Down the Bonaparte's Gull returned to Larne, and in Lincolnshire the Ferruginous Duck reappeared at Barton-upon-Humber. Lingering rarities confirmed as still present comprised two American Buff-bellied Pipits together in County Down, Red-breasted Geese in both Argyll and Hampshire, Lesser Yellowlegs in Lancashire, four Hornemann's Arctic Redpolls together on the Shetland Isles, Richardson's Canada Goose in Dumfries and Galloway, Northern Harrier in County Wexford, Black-bellied Dipper in Norfolk and Glossy Ibis in Pembrokeshire. In Britain, Waxwings were recorded across 48 counties between Argyll, the Orkney Isles, London and Glamorgan, with peak flocks including 200 in Greater Manchester, 180 in Dumfries and Galloway, 150 in Nottinghamshire, 135 in Clyde, 130 in Highland, and 100 in both Ayrshire and South Yorkshire. Significant late news concerned a Blyth's Reed Warbler present yesterday at Ferry Meadows, Cambridgeshire. Only the fourth ever to be discovered inland - following singles in Cheshire on 26th August 2000, London on 6th-28th October 2001 and Essex on 16th June 2003 - and the second latest on record, the latest being on the Shetland Isles on 29th November- 1st December 2009.
-  Chris Batty, RBA