163
BIKD REPORT
Walberswick. The first immigrant rooks and jackdaws arrived from the east that day. Goldcrests were also prominent at Minsmere and Benacre at the end of the month. Also calling for comment was the unusually high number of little gulls passing down the coast during October. November brought little of interest bar a lone lapland bunting at Minsmere on the 18th. There were fewer great grey shrikes than for some years and no more than six rough-legged buzzards. In mid-December an unusually large migration of shelduck took place off Lowestoft, with flocks heading south on a broad front throughout the whole of one morning. The year ended with a pomarine skua at Minsmere on December 24th to 26th. W.H.P.
SYSTEMATIC L I S T
Records refer to single birds unless otherwise
indicated.
Black-throated diver.—R. Orwell, Woolverstone/Freston, Dec. lOth to end of year (AB, SC, PM); R. Aide, Oct. 3Ist (JWP). Great northern diver.—The bird present on R. Orwell in latter part of 1975 remained there until Feb. 26th at least. It appeared again on Nov. 6th and was still there at end of year. Red-throated diver.—Very few indeed and mainly single birds on coastal broads and estuaries and off-shore at Benacre/ Dunwich during both winters. This is a very marked decrease compared with, say, twenty years ago. Great crested grebe.—Breeding pairs at Beccles, Homersfield Pits (two); Barham Pits (two); Sproughton, Holbrook Lake (three); Minsmere, Bosmere, Culford, Bures, Redgrave (three); Weybread (six). Red-necked grebe.—One, sometimes two, on R. Orwell up to Ipswich Docks, Feb./Mar. (SA, AB, CGDC); Benacre, Feb. 29th (GWM); R. Aide, April 24th (SOG) and—an unusual inland record—one at Bury BF Ponds on Feb. 15th (RWG). Slavonian grebe.—Woodbridge, Jan. 4th (JELP); Benacre, possibly oiled, Feb. 22nd (GWM) and Bawdsey, Dec. 22nd (MM). Black-necked grebe.—R. Orwell, Pinmill to Ipswich, Jan./ Feb. (AB, PM); Bawdsey, Feb. 29th (MM, PM); Alton Water, Sept./Oct. (AMG, PM, SOG).