Late autumn is always exciting as you still never know what’s going to turn up. With the main bulk of autumn migration well and truly over, certainly for sub-Saharan African migrants it seems ludicrous to think a bird like a Garden Warbler could still appear but that’s what happened up at our ringing site on Ballard this morning. Avery late and lost individual! Also ringed on Ballard were 4 Fieldfare, 7 Goldcrest, 9 Chiffchaff, 2 Firecrest, 3 Blackcap and 2 Song Thrush. Off Middle Beach, Studland there were 2 Black-necked Grebe and 4 Common Scoter and off the Brownsea southern shore there was no sign of the Black Guillemot sadly but the 1^st winter Eider was there again along with 7 Black-necked Grebe, c15 Red-breasted Merganser and 2 Sandwich Tern. In Shell Bay the Slavonian Grebe was present again along with 13 Fieldfare overhead and 3 Sandwich Tern. Off Jerry’s Point there were 4 Bar-tailed Godwit, 9 Red-breasted Merganser, 27 Great Crested Grebe and 45 Dunlin. From the Middlebere hide there were some good counts of 364 Avocet, 284 Teal, 23 Grey Plover, 5 Spotted Redshank, 291 Dunlin, 208 Lapwing and 15 Curlew. At Bestwall there were just 2 Cattle Egret today with another 7 in a field along Nutcrack Lane and at Lytchett Fields 281 Lapwing, 133 Redshank, 13 Dunlin, 2 Green Sandpiper, 200 Teal and 231 Wigeon were in the bay.