Spotted Sandpiper, Croy

The long staying spotted sandpiper at Croy Shore in Ayrshire is now really living up to it's name. When this bird first appeared here last autumn it was a spotless 1st winter bird, but now it looks very like an adult which is presumably what it will be when it completes its moult. 

  

It's such a wonderfully confiding bird and I'm so lucky to be working close by giving me the opportunity to see it. If you just sit and wait it will walk right past you within just a metre or two.

There's obviously plenty of  food on the beach with invertebrates such as this crab plentiful in the rock pools and flies and bugs in amongst the masses of washed up and rotting kelp. 

What a difference 24 days makes. Since my first sighting of this bird on 15th February (left) it's developed a lot more spots which have also become larger and it's started to moult. The white patch on either side of the bird (right) which wasn't apparent on my first visit is actually the white wing-bar of the flight feathers, usually only visible when the bird flies, but currently on view because it is in the process of moulting it's coverts. It would be interesting to know if the spots follow any particular pattern or if they are just random. Random I would guess.

 

I was pleased to find this flock of pale-bellied brent geese on the beach at Croy today. Apparently they've become a regular feature at nearby Maidens, but I wasn't expecting to see them here.

Culzean castle and Ailsa Craig from Croy shore beach. I was a little surprised at how few gannets there were at sea considering that Ailsa Craig is home to one of the largest gannet colonies in the world. Just a handful offshore today.

This partially melanistic coal tit was hanging around the car park last time I was here. As usual I never get a good photo of birds on feeders, the light always seems to be so poor.