Occasional, but increasing visitor, and passage migrant which has bred.

Seen increasingly regularly at Fairlands Valley, flying over the town in small numbers and, birds resting on buildings in the Town Centre.

The most seen together at Stevenage are: 12 on unrecorded playing fields on 31 July 1981; 13 at Fairlands Valley Lakes on 28 May 2017; 20+ at Fairlands Valley Lakes on 22 July 2022; 26 at Fairlands Valley Lakes on 11 June 2023; c.30 at Fairlands Valley Park in early 2024.

A pair were seen mating at Fairlands Valley Lakes in May 2016 and, juvenile birds were seen there in July 2019 which may have been locally bred.

In 2022 breeding at Stevenage was confirmed when an adult was seen feeding young on the roof of Asda Supermarket, Monkswood Way on 23 June. Three adults and seven young were seen at Asda on 30 July 2024 and at least three chicks were seen on the store roof on 17 June 2025.

A bird ringed in Norfolk was seen at Fairlands Valley Lakes on 9 August 2019, a bird ringed as a chick on the Suffolk coast in 2011 was seen at Fairlands Valley Lakes on 9 June 2021 having been previously seen in Leicestershire in 2013 and Cordoba, Spain in 2015 and a bird ringed H287V as a fledgling on the Friesian Island of Amrum, Germany on 1 July 2023 was seen at Fairlands Valley Lakes on 2 June 2025 having been previously seen at Cotesbach, Leicestershire on 11 April 2024 and Milton, Cambridge on 31 January 2025.

The 2012 Winter Atlas confirmed their presence from eight of the tetrads covering Stevenage.