• 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

Colour ring sightings and ringing recoveries June - September 2023

Hawkeye

Eyes and Ears Everywhere
A colour ringed Great Skua seen on Mingulay in July had been originally ring on Canna, Inner Hebrides on 25th July 2017. Great to see that it has survived the recent avian flu outbreaks.

bonxie, mingulay chris (ranger.jpg Bonxie, Canna to Mingulay.JPG
Bonxie (C) Chris Chachia-Zammit
 

MisterT

Always Birding
Nights spent ringing Storm Petrels have been less frequent this year and when out, numbers caught have been greatly reduced. One theory is that the unusual high Atlantic water temperatures have seen suitable feeding areas move much further north rather than avian influenza being the problem.

We have however had our first recovery of the year, that of a bird ringed here at Askernish on 31-July being controlled (caught and released) on Lunday, Devon on 23-August, a distance of 693km and a duration of 23days and represents our most southerly recovery to date.

Stope askernish - lunday.JPG
 

MisterT

Always Birding
A colour ring, BTH, found in a White-tailed Eagle pellet on Benbecula late August has been tracked down and found to belong to a Hen Harrier. The ring was fitted to the youngest (male) of a brood of three on Benbecula, Outer Hebrides on the 30-June and had a camera on the nest which recorded until the 12-July. BTH was only present until the late afternoon of the 04-July after which only the two older chicks used the nest. The second oldest chick in the brood (female) was fitted with a satellite tag at the same time which fledged and is now on Skye. The ring was found only 2km away from the nest.

Many thanks to Fiona and John Moir who found the pellet and to Robin Reid for providing the information and image of the chick

colour ring from wte pellet benbecula 120230829_174200.jpg Colour ringed HH BTH.jpg
 
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