(porzana porzana)
In Scotland the Spotted Crake is an uncommon localised summer breeding bird. It favours large marshy areas of long grass, reeds and rushes and is nearly impossible to see. However, it can give away its presence by its far carrying 'whip-whip' call usually performed after dark early in the breeding season. Once birds have paired up they no longer call. At RSPB Loch Lomond we conduct Spotted Crake surveys each spring which some years will turn up a few calling birds.
The best chance of seeing a Spotted Crake is in early autumn when birds starting their migration south occasionally hang around a pond or marsh and sometimes show themselves quite openly. In the Clyde area, autumn birds have been found on the Black Cart by the airport and at RSPB Baron's Haugh. The bird in these photos was on a small tidal marsh pool at Doonfoot, Ayr.