All Notes submitted to British Birds are subject to independent review, either by the Notes Panel or by the BB Editorial Board.Those considered appropriate for BB will be published either here or on our website (www.britishbirds.co.uk) subject to the availability of space.The note on persistent searching for prey by a Eurasian Sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus (Brit. Birds 96: 653-654) prompts me to recall an individual of this species which I observed at Leighton Moss, Lancashire, on 3rd September 2003. The bird appeared in flight over one of the pools and perched out in the open on a dead branch. During the next 15 minutes, I watched it fly across the water to the reed edge, a distance of at least 150 m in the direction from which it had first come, and, without landing, turn and fly back to the same perch. It then repeated the same manoeuvre three more times, always taking the same direct flight path Peter Woodruff 50 Avondale Road, Lancaster LA1 4BY to the same area of reed edge, always turning without landing and returning to its original perch. On each occasion, flight was fast and direct, but noticeably not as rapid as it would have been when chasing prey. On its fifth flight, the hawk disappeared into the reeds at the precise point at which it had turned on the preceding four sorties, and emerged with a small, unidentified prey item before flying off. As far as I could see, this individual appeared to know that