'A British Trust for Ornithology scheme to map the distributions of British and Irish breeding birds is outlined in the latest issue of B.T.O. News. The intrinsic interest and long-term values of such an ornithological atlas are obvious; what would we give for an atlas of bird breeding distribution for 1870, and how useful a comprehensive 1970 survey will be to our great-grandchildren in 2070.' 'The Wildfowl Trust has completed the outright purchase of 400 acres of marshland in the Welney Washes, on the Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border, as well as die shooting rights over an adjacent 100 acres. This promises to be one of the most important wildfowl refuges in western Europe.' ' 'Fair Isle Bird Observatory . . . may well receive a boost. The island's old airstrip has been cleared, and a new one is to be built; die firm of Loganair, of Kirkwall Airport, Orkney, is available for charter flights to the island . . . the flight from Kirkwall to Fair Isle (which takes 30 minutes) will cost approximately five guineas return.' {Brit. Birds 61: 237-239, May 1968) Also in May 1968, a Lesser Kestrel Falco nawnanni at St Ives, Cornwall, on 31st was greeted as die twelfth British record and the first since 1926, while five Purple Herons Ardea purpurea at Minsmere, Suffolk, on 23rd were regarded as likely to be die prelude to imminent breeding in eastern England.