(actitis macularius)
The Spotted Sandpiper is a North American bird which is a rare vagrant to Scotland. Up to 2009 there had only been 15 accepted records of the species. Remarkably, in 1975 a pair nested unsuscessfully in Skye. The photos here are of two birds, one which wintered in 2007/08 near Kinneil on the Forth and one which was present for three weeks on the Endrick Water near Killearn. The latter bird was eventually driven away by the big freeze - on my last visit to check for it the slow flowing parts of the river were frozen over. Not much chance of digging for earthworms then.