The records, all of which are listed below, include the latest spring record for the County, a bird which remained on Alton Water to May 23rd (many obs.). The previous record, of May 18th, was only set in 1994 off Covehithe. It seems likely that even more Great Northern Divers are occurring off Suffolk during the winter, but submitted details have been very poor and many claims are unacceptable. In the records below, the Covehithe sightings of November and December are accepted as involving four different birds, based on plumage characteristics. Covehithe: imm., May 9th; south, Oct. 22nd; singles north, Nov. 3rd, 4th and 18th, and Dec. 16th. Southwold: north, Sep. 27th (adult, summer plumaged); Nov. 5th. Felixstowe: Landguard, out of Orwell, Mar. 4th; singles south, Oct. 22nd and Nov. 4th. Trimley St. Martin: Loompit Lake, Jan. 24th. Ipswich: Wet Dock, Jan. 8th to 17th. Holbrook: Holbrook Bay, Jan. 7th. Alton Water: Jan. 29th to May 23rd, two Jan. 29th to Apr. 9th. LITTLE GREBE Tachybaptus ruficollis Common resident, winter visitor and passage
migrant.
The total of 49 breeding pairs from 21 sites is on a par with figures for recent years. This is unlikely to be a true reflection of the species' breeding status in the County as many pairs on small lakes and ponds may go unrecorded. North Warren remained the best of the recorded sites with an increase from last year's 13 pairs to 16 this year. Lackford also did well with a total of three pairs (which raised 14 young) being the best recorded there for four years. Minsmere bucked the trend by reporting a further decline to three pairs from four in 1994 and eight in 1993. Analysis of WeBS data shows that, although the River Deben remains the most important estuary in the first winter period, the Aide has also become an important wintering site for this species in Suffolk. On a non-WeBS count, 37 were on the Deben at Woodbridge on Dec. 11th. F A M A N D J M S O Blyth n/c n/c Aide/Ore 17 27 16 n/c n/c n/c 16 36 38 51 Deben 66 42 19 10 n/c n/c 15 22 17 9 22 Orwell 32 22 22 11 n/c n/c 12 11 9 4 4 1 0 1 12 9 Alton Water 0 9 25 1 n/c 1 1 n/c Stour (Suffolk) 0 13 0 0 0 1 0 1 n/c Stour (Essex) 0 0 0 0 n/c 0 GREAT CRESTED GREBE Podiceps cristatus Common resident, winter visitor and passage migrant. Reports of only 44 pairs from 17 sites, compared with 60 pairs from 26 sites in 1994, may be due to under-recording and probably represents a stable population. However, only 14 juveniles were reported and for the second successive year breeding success at Alton Water was very low. The latter was probably due to disturbance and fluctuating water levels. It is hoped that these factors are not being duplicated elsewhere. More comprehensive recording of breeding success would clarify the matter. On a more positive note, the size of the wintering population continues to grow, at least offshore. WeBS counts were as follows: J F M A M A S O N D Aide/Ore 0 0 1 n/c n/c n/c 2 9 13 5 Deben 25 8 14 16 n/c n/c 7 5 20 6 32