Curlew Sandpipers wintering in Lancashire.--On 2nd January i960, I saw a Curlew Sandpiper {Calidris testacea) on the mud-flats of the Ribble Estuary at Lytham, Lancashire. O n 12th February there were three there and from then until April up to six were seen almost daily by various observers including N . Harwood and P. Carah as well as myself. The birds may also have spent the early part of the winter at Lytham; at least four were seen there during the autumn of 1959 and they could easily have been overlooked afterwards. The last time any of the party were seen was on 26th April when there were two, but previously they had been missing from the 9th to the 18th and during those ten days a marked change in their appearance took place. On the 8 th all were still in full winter plumage, whereas by the 19th four were in almost complete summer dress, though a fifth has only irregular brownish markings underneath and the sixth had not altered. This bird was still unchanged on 26th April when it was one of the last two seen. K. W. CLEMENTS [Identification details have been supplied. Curlew Sandpipers are rarely observed in Britain in winter and we know of no previous record of such a party, though several other species of waders, formerly regarded simply as passage-migrants, are now seen to an increasing extent between autumn and spring (e.g., Brit. Birds, 49: 167-171; 50: 544; and 51: 525-527).--EDS.] H u