VOL. XIV.] NOTES. 96 



reached Shetland and been recorded before, but it cannot 

 be a common visitor. It seemed perfectly strong and well, 

 but was very tame. A man told me he had noticed it about 

 the road near his house for some days. 



E. G. B. Meade-Waldo. 



[The Turtle-Dove is a regular visitor to Shetland and Fair 



Isle on the spring and autumn passage, but in quite small 



numbers ; mid- July is, of course, quite an exceptional date 



for one to be found there, though not unprecedented. — Eds.] 



LARGE NUMBERS OF COMMON SANDPIPERS ON 

 THE COASTS OF ALDERNEY AND DORSET IN 



SUMMER. 



I WISH to call attention to the very large numbers of the 

 Common Sandpiper {Tringa hypoleuca) which are to be met 

 with this year, not only in Alderney, but also on the opposite 

 coast of. Dorset. I refer to presumably non-breeding birds 

 seen by me in Alderney in May and July and at Weymouth 

 in June, they are normally not uncommon, but this year 

 their numbers are quite unprecedented, so far as my experience 

 goes. It would be interesting to know if this increase is 

 only local or whether the same thing has been noticed 

 elsewhere. W. R. Thompson. 



[Those seen in May, and a proportion of the June birds, 

 may quite well have been passage-migrants halting on their 

 way north, and unless a careful watch and record were kept 

 from day to day the movement would not have been apparent. 

 — Eds.] 



BLACKHEADED GULLS RETURN TO THEIR OLD 

 NESTING-SITE IN DELAMERE FOREST, CHESHIRE. 



In British Birds (Vol. XL, p. 68) I reported that in 1917 

 a colony of Black-headed Gulls {Larus r. ridibundus) had 

 abandoned the nesting-site they had occupied for some thirty 

 years, during which time their numbers had increased to 

 perhaps five hundred. The only reason suggested was the 

 firing of the gorse surrounding the pool. We afterwards 

 found the birds nesting in reduced numbers, on a pool where 

 the forest is submerged, less than two miles away. Last 

 year they were still at the new site, in spite of the fact that 

 a colony of woodcutters, assisted by German prisoners, must 

 have seriously disturbed them. This year about a hundred 

 birds are to be seen at the submerged forest, while about 

 fifty are back at the old site, which is more secluded and 



