Tuesday 11th August 2015
	Another great day for Black Storks, with a single still in Aberdeenshire, another in east Dorset - moving from Portland to West Bexington - and two in Lincolnshire: the lingering bird at Croft, and another moving between Covenham Reservoir and South Somercotes; the latter bird being the French-ringed bird previously noted in East Yorkshire at Spurn on 3rd-10th August. Other rarities comprised new White-rumped Sandpipers in both Norfolk at Titchwell, and Kent at Oare, the Paddyfield Warbler still on the Shetland Isles, Lesser Scaup in Somerset, two Bee-eaters at the nest in Cumbria, with another heard briefly in Staffordshire. Scarcities included Melodious Warbler (Cornwall and Dorset), Red-backed Shrike (Essex), Hoopoe (Kent and County Waterford), Purple Heron (two in Suffolk), Spotted Crake (East Yorkshire and Norfolk), Pectoral Sandpiper (Lincolnshire and Northumberland), Ring-billed Gull (Lancashire), Sabine's Gull (Greater Manchester), and Long-tailed Skua (County Kerry).
-  Chris Batty, RBA