As a group, we have been observing and giving protection to Honey-buzzards Pernis apivorus in the New Forest, Hampshire, for the past 50 years. Normally, we do not publish our findings, but in recent years there has been such wild speculation as to the numbers of `HBs' in this country (for example, Brit. Birds 96: 37-39) that we feel obliged to comment. In our experience, Honey-buzzards in Britain are simply a `happy accident', and will probably continue to be so. Although they are common on the continent (with, for example, some 8,000-12,000 pairs in France alone; BWP Concise), we believe that if they had the potential to become common here they would have done so long ago. The Honey-buzzard was apparently also rare in Gilbert White's time (the mid eighteenth century), and subsequent records show it to have been a scarce summer visitor since then. Occasionally, but generally rather haphazardly, new Honey-buzzards do arrive Britain to breed, generally appearing here in June or early July. Sometimes there are multiple arrivals, for example those bringing five new pairs to the New Forest in 1963 and five new pairs to Inverness-shire in 1972, but mostly these newcomers are represented by just one or two pairs. Already paired when they leave the wintering grounds, these new birds are hell-bent on finding a territory, drifting over the landscape vetting likely looking nest-sites by a trial-and-error process. Established birds are quick to show them which areas are spoken for. Confrontation between new arrivals and local