• 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

    New - now available as an ebook

Hawkeye

Eyes and Ears Everywhere
Outer Hebrides / Western Isles bird sightings for today, 19th July 2018

Borve, Barra
The Rose-coloured Starling is still be be found on the machair
 

MisterT

Always Birding
The Glaucous Gull was on the Askernish golf course driving range this morning and 2 Black-tailed Godwits were nearby on Loch Hallan. 3 Whimbrel were on the beach as well as the first noticeable flock of waders which included 110 Ringed Plover, 58 Dunlin and 37 Sanderling. The Sanderling were all adults and I shall forward this and all subsequent Sanderling sightings to Jeroen Reneerkens who, as part of his long term study, is endeavouring to assess the consequences of this years non-breeding season after prolonged and persistent snows in Greenland

glauc1.jpg whimbrel.jpg
Sleepy Glaucous Gull and Whimbrel
 

MisterT

Always Birding
A quick response as ever from Jeroen with regards to the Sanderling sighting:

Thank you very much Ian,

This is already useful, just to see whether adults will arrive in Europe earlier than in other years, because they have not bred.

Also in "normal years" the first juveniles can not be expected in Europe before mid August, so for a useful comparison of the reproductive success of Sanderlings this year with other years we will need such counts from mid August until mid November (after mid November, adults and juveniles are difficult to distinguish). Thank you very much for giving publicity to my project on the local website, that is very much appreciated and I truly hope for many participants this and in other years!

best wishes,

Jeroen
 
Top