This is one of the scarcest visiting waders to Paxton Pits, with records only occurring since avocets began to breed in Cambridgeshire in 1998.  If numbers breeding inland in eastern England continue to grow, perhaps one day this delicate black-and-white wader might nest at Paxton Pits?

Selected as the RSPB's logo in the 1950s, following their return to Britain as a breeding bird during World War II, avocets have so far been exclusively spring visitors to Paxton, the latest record being in May following flooding of the Ouse Washes which destroyed their breeding chances there.