A pleasing number of records for this secretive species were submitted. Birds were seen from January to April and from September to the year-end. In the first winter period singles were regular at Otley Gravel Pits in January and February with up to three birds observed at Stockbridge in January followed by an individual here in March and at Marley Sewage Works and Elland Gravel Pits in January. A single bird was seen at Elland GP in February and one was at High Royd Sewage works from January until March.

In the second winter period up to two birds were regular at Stockbridge from 13th September until late December. Otley Gravel Pits played host to up to three birds in December.

Stockbridge remains the most reliable site to see this species in the recording area, with up to three present in the latter months. Views at this site are often very close, as the birds feed out in the open directly in front of the hide. High Royds Sewage Works, Otley Wetland and Esholt Sewage Works had up to two birds in the early months, and, in the case of Otley, at the year end as well. Singles were noted at Marley Sewage Works, Doe Park Reservoir and Sun Lane, Burley.

Twenty-five records is now about average for this skulking species and came from three new sites, as well as the regular ones.

In the first winter period, a single bird was seen at Otley Wetland in January with two in February. January also produced two birds at Esholt Sewage Works, and Sandbeds Flash, a new location, had a bird at the end of March. In contrast, High Royd Sewage Works, in the south-west corner of the recording area, has long been a reliable location, and two birds were present at the end of February, and up to three on several days in the following month. In the same general area, there was an increasingly infrequent record of a bird at Elland Gravel Pits on 27th March.

Two birds were seen at Stockbridge Nature Reserve on 5th October, with three by the month-end, and one was seen or heard irregularly to the end of the year. About this time, a bird was heard at St. Ives (another new site) on 5th November, and the Aire Valley had another record, with a single at Marley Sewage Works on 14th December. The final month also produced records of two birds at Otley Wetland, three at High Royd Sewage Works, and a single at a private site, where the species has been previously unrecorded.