SUFFOLK BIRD REPORT 1975 Editor W . H . PAYN
and The County Records Committee H . E . AXELL, B . J . B R O W N , C . G . D . C U R T I S , G . J . JOBSON
and
A. E . VINE
Acknowledgements. Once again our thanks are due to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, for providing us with records from its logs, and to the Editors of the Norfolk Bird Report, The Cambridge Bird Club Report, The Lowestoft Field Club Report and the Suffolk Ornithologists' Group Bulletins for passing on valuable information. Information Required. Our knowledge of the presentday status of most of the waste-land birds is very incomplete and breeding-season records of such species as tree pipit, woodlark, stone curlew, whinchat, etc. are particularly needed. Records for 1976 should reach the Editor at Härtest Place, Bury St. Edmunds by the end of January next at the latest, NOT, please, in mid-March or later. A Brief Review of the Year Suffolk did not participate to any marked degree in the phenominal influx of new species and rare vagrants that took place over much of Britain during the year. Nevertheless 1975 produced plenty of interest for resident and visiting ornithologists. Two new species were added to the County List—a Petchora pipit from eastern Russia and—at long last—a pratincole. Among other vagrants were a short-toed lark and a buff-breasted sandpiper, the second occurrence in the county of this American species. Raptors were again prominent. The usual red kite occurred on the coast and one is tempted to guess that it may be the same individual in each instance. There were one or more goshawks, a species which seems to be on the increase here and may yet establish itself in our fir forests. Several rough-legged buzzards— such a feature of the '74 autumn—lingered on well into April. Fewer returned in the autumn.