I am trying to create a formula whic will allow me to count how many
things
happened in a particular month. I have successfully got the formula to
scan
the worksheet to return the month code (which I then run a second formula
across to count the occurrences). The problem I have is that when Excel
encounters a blank cell it returns a month value of "1" (I assume this is
the
default date of 1-Jan-1900). How do I stop this? I would ideally like
to
return a message "date not found" in this instance.

You didn't show us your function or the range you are working with; hence,
if my guess is wrong, you will need to adjust the formula...

=IF(A1<"",MONTH(A1),"Date not found.")

Rick