(calidris bairdii)
The Baird's Sandpiper is a rare vagrant to Scotland with only about 40 records. It is a North American breeding bird which occasionally gets storm blown to the wrong side of the Atlantic Ocean. In the last few years I have been lucky enough to see two of these birds, one at Threipmuir reservoir near Edinburgh in September 2003 and one on White Sands beach just north of Barns Ness near Dunbar in December 2009. It is likely that the latter bird will over winter somewhere hereabouts which would be only the second ever occurrence of this in Britain. All but one of the images here are of the Barns Ness/White Sands bird which is a first winter (juvenile) bird. I have included one image of the Threipmuir bird just to show that my photography, or at least my equipment, has improved a bit in the last six years ....