| Wednesday 27th October 2021 | ||
An American passerine of the highest calibre was found on Papa Westray, Britain's second Varied Thrush. The previous British record famously involved a colourless individual at Nanquidno, Cornwall, in 1982—widely considered a one-off. Non-birder residents reported the bird to have already been present for several days. The only other significant find of the day was a Red-flanked Bluetail at Swining on Mainland Shetland. Meanwhile, lingering rarities included the Arctic Warbler in Cleveland, Brown Shrike in Cornwall, White-tailed Lapwing in East Yorkshire, King Eider in Moray, Lesser Scaup and Spotted Sandpiper on Scilly, the other Lesser Scaup in Somerset; Red-flanked Bluetail, Hume's Warbler and Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll in Shetland; Ferruginous Duck in Staffordshire and Snowy Owl on St.Kilda. The Taiga/Red-breasted Flycatcher remained on Westray, Orkney. The best of the rest included two Black Brants (Dorset), Snow Goose (Merseyside), 86 Taiga Bean Geese (Clyde), American Wigeon (Lincolnshire), five Green-winged Teal, seven Ring-necked Ducks, two Surf Scoters, two American Golden Plovers, four Pectoral Sandpipers, Sabine's Gull (Cornwall), seven Little Auks, six Glossy Ibises, four Hoopoes, Wryneck (Scilly), Great Grey Shrike (Norfolk), nine Shorelarks, Red-breasted Flycatcher (Scilly), and Richard's Pipit and Serin (both Scilly). |
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| - David Campbell, RBA | ||