Stormy weather can bring unexpected birds from strange places.

We are used to getting gannets and guillemots blown off course, but we didn’t expect a Manx shearwater to be picked up in Paisley.

Not surprisingly the finder didn’t know what the bird was. He said it was black and white, but didn’t think it was a magpie. He said it was low on the ground and not very mobile. He was happy to bring it in to us.

When Andy opened the box he was surprised to see a Manx shearwater.

Manx shearwaters are oceanic birds. They fly low over the water and the amazing thing about watching them is that they seem to alternate between white and black.

The black upper surface feathers are replaced by the white lower feathers as the birds bank and turn. Like all petrels, shearwaters are tube noses. The tube on top of the bill exudes salt.

Shearwaters are fish eaters, picking up herring fry, sprats and sand eels as well as crustaceans and cephalopods.

They rarely make any noise at all when fishing during the daytime, but when they return to their colonies at night they are spectacularly noisy.

Birds can recognize the calls of their mate but not their offspring. Once young shearwaters leave the nest, they are on their own.

Shearwaters nest in burrows and under boulders. Once the chick leaves the nest the colony will be deserted. All shearwaters are migratory, heading south of the equator for winter.