Wednesday 20th September 2017
	Shetland produced two great birds today; a Siberian Thrush on Unst and a Yellow-breasted Bunting on Out Skerries. Siberian Thrush has occurred annually on Shetland for the last four years (but has so far been untwitchable from Mainland UK) but today's bird is the first Yellow-breasted Bunting to be found on the archipelago since 2011. Elsewhere lingering rarities comprised the elusive Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler in Norfolk, Semipalmated Sandpiper on Isles of Scilly, Spotted and Baird's Sandpipers in Dorset, Long-billed Dowitchers in Kent and Lincolnshire, Snowy Owl in Co Mayo, Forster's Tern in Co Louth and Western Bonelli's Warbler in Borders. New discoveries included a Greenish Warbler in Norfolk, Lesser Yellowlegs in Co Mayo and Carmarthenshire and a report of two Red-rumped Swallows in Devon. The best of the rest included Red-breasted Flycatcher (East Yorkshire), Purple Heron (Cornwall), Rose-coloured Starling (Cumbria), Marsh Warbler (Shetland), Golden Oriole (Shetland), two each of Hoopoe and Spotted Crakes, three each of American Golden Plover and Red-backed Shrikes, four Barred Warblers, six Common Rosefinches and at least nine Buff-breasted Sandpipers.
-  Stuart Piner, RBA