Red-flanked Bluetail - Adrian Webb

An excellent week of autumn birding in Kent. The bird of the week was a 1st winter Red-flanked Bluetail which was first seen on the 18th at Margate Cementery. It was elusive, but with patience showed well at times throughout the week. This is only the 10th record for Kent. It was also an amazing week for rare and scare 'Phylloscopus' warblers, headlined by a Radde's Warbler that was found on the morning of the 17th at King George VI Memorial Park, Ramsgate. It performed better than last week's bird at Reculver, showing off and on till about mid-afternoon to assembled birders. A Hume's Warbler at Bockhill was also a great find on the 17th. There have only been 21 previous records of this species in the county. An amazing four Pallas's warbler were seen this week (at Dungeness, Margate Cementery, King George VI Park and Warden Point), while some 20 Yellow-browed Warblers were seen, primarily in the east of the county. The final 'Phyllo' of note, was Siberian Chiffchaff with one seen at Kingsdown and one caught and ringed at Dungeness.

Radde's Warbler - Jonathan Dodds

Further highlights included a Shore Lark along the seawall at Conyer, a Richard's Pipit fly-over at Worth Marshes and juvenile Red-footed Falcons at Elmley and Dungeness. The Great Grey Shrike remained at Worth till the 18th. The number of Glossy Ibis in the county seems to be reducing with only a handfull reported this week. Ring Ouzels were at Langdon Hole, Herne, Worth Dungeness and a nice inland record at Knole Park, Sevenoaks. The Snow Bunting remained at Swalecliffe.

Snow Bunting - Gary Howard

Seawatching delivered some decent birds, although storm Benjamin on the 23rd perhaps didn't quite live up to expectations. Best was a Black Guillemot past Dungeness on the 19th, while a Little Auk on the 23rd past Tankerton (and later past Shellness) was a first for the Kent year list. Several Pomarine Skuas were seen throughout the week along the north coast, as were a few Black-throated Divers, Velvet Scoters, Red-breasted Mergansers and a couple of Slavonian Grebes. 

Pallas's Warbler - Martin Casemore

We are getting to late October when anything can show up. Good luck.

Peter Eerdmans

Siberian Chiffchaff - Nigel Jarman

(Thanks to all the observers who posted their records on the KOS Sightings website, BirdGuides, eBird and/or the main Kent Birding WhatsApp groups, Thursday-to-Thursday. Apologies for any omissions. If anyone has any photos they think may be useful for the weekly, please send to me by Wednesday. All records of rarities are still subject to official confirmation by the relevant rarities committees)