Turnstone
This colourful wader, its plumage a striking mix of chestnut, black and white, is widespread around our coasts in winter.
Breeding in the Arctic, the Turnstone is primarily a winter visitor; summering birds are usually younger individuals that have not attained breeding condition. The species can be found in any coastal habitat, although has a preference rocky shores.
Turnstones forage on the tideline, flipping over small stones in the search for small crustaceans and insects. But Turnstone are famously indiscriminate in their diet and there is a small sub-genre of the scientific literature enumerating the things they have been recorded eating – from packets of artificial sweetener to decomposing corpses!
Turnstone
This colourful wader, its plumage a striking mix of chestnut, black and white, is widespread around our coasts in winter.
Breeding in the Arctic, the Turnstone is primarily a winter visitor; summering birds are usually younger individuals that have not attained breeding condition. The species can be found in any coastal habitat, although has a preference rocky shores.
Turnstones forage on the tideline, flipping over small stones in the search for small crustaceans and insects. But Turnstone are famously indiscriminate in their diet and there is a small sub-genre of the scientific literature enumerating the things they have been recorded eating – from packets of artificial sweetener to decomposing corpses!