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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
Local Rarity 12th December 2022
- Thread starter Bruce
- Start date
YvonneB
OH Bird Recorder
Monthly WeBS counts today - a very cold day and we'd had freezing rain overnight making the side roads treacherous at first light, later there were occasional sleety showers, the light made for poor viewing.
Loch Bee - Roughly 30% frozen and seemed fairly quiet compared to usual, only managed to count c200 Mute Swans, a low figure for this time of year, not sure where the rest were hiding, plenty of Mallard with 73 and a very good number of Teal with 155 counted, c180 wigeon, not as many as i'd expect at this time of year. c80 golden Plover, 18 Whooper Swans, then 70+ Greenland White-fronts were put up by a White-tailed Eagle. Probably the most amazing sight there today was of eight White-tailed Eagles loafing on the loch shore and a ninth slightly to the right of them! One Otter, always good to see.
South Ford - Again very quiet out there and the wintry light made for poor viewing. 30 Wigeon, 3 Greenshank, 73 Greylag Geese, a single Bar-tailed Godwit, 25 Grey Plover and a small flock of 20 Twite. 66 Shelduck was a good count, a single Mute Swan was fairly unusual for this site, one Great Northern Diver on the east of the causeway on the tidal outflow.
Low light conditions over the South Ford
Quite a lot of the ice had been blown into the south-west corner of the loch
8 of the nine White-tailed Eagles in the gloom
Loch Bee - Roughly 30% frozen and seemed fairly quiet compared to usual, only managed to count c200 Mute Swans, a low figure for this time of year, not sure where the rest were hiding, plenty of Mallard with 73 and a very good number of Teal with 155 counted, c180 wigeon, not as many as i'd expect at this time of year. c80 golden Plover, 18 Whooper Swans, then 70+ Greenland White-fronts were put up by a White-tailed Eagle. Probably the most amazing sight there today was of eight White-tailed Eagles loafing on the loch shore and a ninth slightly to the right of them! One Otter, always good to see.
South Ford - Again very quiet out there and the wintry light made for poor viewing. 30 Wigeon, 3 Greenshank, 73 Greylag Geese, a single Bar-tailed Godwit, 25 Grey Plover and a small flock of 20 Twite. 66 Shelduck was a good count, a single Mute Swan was fairly unusual for this site, one Great Northern Diver on the east of the causeway on the tidal outflow.
Low light conditions over the South Ford
Quite a lot of the ice had been blown into the south-west corner of the loch
8 of the nine White-tailed Eagles in the gloom
Hawkeye
Eyes and Ears Everywhere
Western Isles / Outer Hebrides bird sightings for today, 12th December 2022. Updated throughout the day
Allasdale, Barra
The adult *European White-fronted Goose* was seen there again today
Allasdale, Barra
The adult *European White-fronted Goose* was seen there again today