• When here in the Outer Hebrides and looking at a bird, have you ever wondered how rare it is? The status of all species can vary enormously from island to island. How rare is Shoveler on Barra, has Stock Dove been seen on Harris, does Dotterel occur on Benbecula in the autumn, and how common is Blue Tit on North Uist? Well, fret no longer! The Status and Distribution of birds here on the Outer Hebrides has been completely updated and summarised for every species and each of the main islands and outliers. Available as an online resource at https://status.outerhebrides-birdreports.org/ or via our shop

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Local Rarity 19th January 2018

Hawkeye

Eyes and Ears Everywhere
Berneray
An Iceland Gull was present this morning

Carinish, North Uist
A 1st winter Glaucous Gull was present this morning

Rubh' Arnal, North Uist
4 Iceland Gull ( adult, 3rd winter and 2 x 2nd winter), 3 juvenile Glaucous Gulls, 20 Brent Geese were and 4+Pied Wagtails were seen today

Ruhba Ardvule, South Uist
A two hour seawatch this morning produced 2 Pale-bellied Brent Geese (N), 11 Eider (7S 4N), 9 Long-tailed Ducks (5S 4N), 1 Red-throated Diver (S), 1 Great Northern Diver (S), 2 Gannets (1S 1N), 42 Shag (3S 39N) and 2 Cormorants (S).
Also present in the area were Greylag Goose 31, Shelduck 2, Wigeon 64, Teal 3, Tufted Duck 15, Long-tailed Duck 12, Goldeneye 3, Red-throated Diver 4, Great Northern Diver 5, Shag 14, Cormorant 35, Golden Plover 26, Ringed Plover 104, Bar-tailed Godwit 27, Sanderling 43, Purple Sandpiper 7, Dunlin 35, Black-headed Gull 1, Hooded Crow 3, Rock Pipit 1

South Glendale, South Uist
The Brambling is still to be found in a garden there

Tiumpan Head, Isle ofLewis
4 Iceland Gulls (2 juveniles, adult and 3rd winter) were seen the today

Shulishader, Isle of Lewis
A Snow Bunting was there today

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Iceland Gull courtesy of Coaralbox
 

Bruce

Senior Member
A juvenile glaucous gull was in the bay at Brevig late this afternoon. At Traigh Mhor the brent goose count had increased to 23.

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MisterT

Always Birding
An enforced early WeBS count today around Loch Bee had us wrapped up well in colder than usual weather conditions. Dabbling duck numbers were higher than usual for this time of year with 720 Wigeon, 274 Teal and 154 Mallard while diving duck numbers were down with only 44 Tufted, 2 Red-breasted Mergansers and 1 Goldeneye found. There were just 2 Whooper Swans while Mute Swans numbered 414 with several dead birds in evidence, be this due to the weather or the fact that there had been up to 5 white-tailed Eagles in the area recently. Gulls were more in evidence with 24 Herring, 26 Common and 17 Greater Black-backed Gulls around the loch. Wader numbers were low as usual with just 3 Snipe, 20 Dunlin, 18 Redshank and 45 Curlew. 350 lapwings and 93 Golden Plover were also present. Greylag Geese totalled 590 while there were 52 Barnacle Geese on the west bank plus 3 groups of Greenland White-fronts totalling 117 birds, which are always good to see. 2 Fieldfares were amongst the 446 Starlings on the machair.

South ford was “quiet” probably due to the low tide. The only count of note was the low numbers of Grey Plover with just 27 found.

Elsewhere there were 15 Pale-bellied Brent geese at Stoneybridge.

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One of six dead Mute Swans & Fieldfare
 
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