• 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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Hawkeye

Eyes and Ears Everywhere
Western Isles / Outer Hebrides bird sightings for today, 16th Novemebr 2019. Updated throughout the day

Knockintorran, North Uist
The two ***Cackling Geese*** and the Snow Goose were there again today. 21 Snow Bunting were nearby at Loch Paible

Coot Loch, Benbecula
2 Pink-footed Geese, 16 Shoveler and 6 Coot were seen on the loch

Ruhba Ardvule, South Uist
Counting period: 07:50 - 10:35
Weather: Wind S-SSE f2, 8/8 cloud, temp 3.7 - 5C

A near 3 hour seawatch this morning produced 5 Eider (2S 3N), 18 Long-tailed Ducks (15S 3N), 10 Red-throated Divers (4S 6N), 3 Great Northern Divers (2S 1N), 81 Shags (2S 79N), 2 Cormorants (S), 1 Glaucous Gull [juvenile] (N) and 1 auk sp (S).
Also present in the area were Greylag Goose 30, Teal 41, Tufted Duck 29, Long-tailed Duck 54, Goldeneye 3, Red-breasted Merganser 2, Red-throated Diver 6, Great Northern Diver 11, Cormorant 5, Golden Plover 22, Curlew 16, Bar-tailed Godwit 8, Purple Sandpiper 12, Merlin 1, Hooded Crow 8, Raven 2, Meadow Pipit 1, Rock Pipit 2 and Twite 1
 

Bruce

Senior Member
A couple of hours on Vatersay this morning produced 47+Black-throated Divers, a similar number of Great Northerns but only a single Red-throated Diver. The 2 Velvet Scoters were still off Caolas. A Whooper Swan came in from the north, landed briefly near the township, before leaving in the direction of Mingulay and a Grey Plover (unusual here) was on the crofts near the cemetery.
On Barra, a Waxwing was at Creachan before flying east with Redwings. A/the Long-tailed Tit was by the football pitch at Castlebay and the Ring-necked Duck remained on Loch Tangasdale. 8+Black-throaed Divers and 6+Slavonian Grebes were off Ardmhor this afternoon and nearby 63 Pale-bellied Brents were at Traigh Mhor.

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YvonneB

OH Bird Recorder
Time for the first WeBS count of the winter. Covered our regular count areas of Loch Bee and South Ford then checked out Stinky Bay, Loch Mor, Loch Fada and Coot Loch on our way back from Balivanich. The day started early and with a stunning sunrise - worth getting up for :)

Conditions were chilly but very calm.

Of the 45 species recorded in the count area the highlights at Loch Bee and The Range were: 500+ wigeon, 65 Teal, 77 Golden Plover, 6 Scaup, 6 Goldeneye (my first of the winter) and 3 Long-tailed Duck. 2 White-tailed Eagles, a Peregrine, a Kestrel and a Merlin were occassionally stirring up the birds! I was pleased to record the presence of 83 Greenland White-fronted Geese, the wintering population has sadly been declining in recent years and it's always a relief to see them return to this site.

The count at South Ford took place on a falling tide and it was fairly quiet with most of the wader species being quite distant. 26 species recorded, highlights being: 72 Grey Plover, 177 Dunlin, and 32 Knot. Quite a number of Shelduck with 42 being noted.

At both sites there were small groups of Redwings and Meadow Pipits. A flock of 58 Twite were on The Range. Nearby at Balgarva 5 Slavonian Grebes were seen in the bay. There were 26 Long-tailed Duck at Stinky Bay and a couple of Great Northern Divers offshore.

Sunrise_20191116.jpg
Stunning sunrise this morning

teal.jpg
Teal

Tufted Duck.jpg
Tufted Duck

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Wigeon
 
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