Thursday 9th August 2018
	Two classic August rarities were found today: a Greenish Warbler was at Newtonhill in Aberdeenshire and a Baird's Sandpiper was on Tresco in the Isles of Scilly. The latter location also provided a memorable pelagic trip this evening with a bumper count of 14 Wilson's Petrels as well as 43 Great Shearwaters.  There were also 2 Great Shearwaters and 6 Cory's Shearwaters seen from the Scillonian on the crossings to and from the islands. The Franklin's Gull was relocated in a stubble field near Guisborough in Cleveland and other lingering rarities comprised Lesser Scaup in Cornwall, Forster's Tern in County Louth and Bonaparte's Gull in Kent. A Roseate Tern was a great inland find at Farmoor Reservoir in Oxfordshire, there were Spotted Crakes in Cheshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk, Red-backed Shrikes in Yorkshire and Essex, a Rose-coloured Starling in Shetland, Glossy Ibises in Essex, Devon and London, a Pectoral Sandpiper in Northumberland and Purple Herons remained in Leicestershire and Somerset.
-  Pete Hayman, RBA