• 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 22nd December 2017

Chris Johnson

Senior Member
A quick tour round the patch this morning. Good numbers of waders including Bar-tailed Godwits but too spread out with an ebbing tide to get a useful count.
At South Loch Bee a flock of 360 Golden Plovers drop in with 200 Lapwings. They looked tired and reluctant to move as I got quite close with the vehicle.
 

MisterT

Always Birding
Birding en route to Balivanich today via the range where there was circa 30 Greenland White-fronted Geese to the west of Loch Bee and a 1st year Glaucous Gull on the range. Most probably the same Glaucous Gull was at North Bay and a Little Egret was in the channels at Balgarva.
On Benbecula, there were 2 Shoveler and 4 Gadwall on Coot Loch and another Little Egret on Loch Mor.

glauc.jpg Egret.jpg
Glaucous Gull in the mist at north bay & Little Egret Loch Mor
 

MisterT

Always Birding
News from the BTO today regarding one of the Blackbirds I controlled (ringed elsewhere) here in Askernish on the 15th November this year and reported on a previous post The bird was originally ringed at Twinyess, North Ronaldsay, Orknay 8 days previously and had travelled 377 km during that time. This is not the first record of an island hopping Blackbird as one ringed on Grimsay in October 2013 was controlled (caught and released) on Skokholm Island, Pembrokeshire in November 2016, some 655 km distant

Blabi North Ron-Askernish.JPG Blabi Skockholm.JPG
Blackbird movements - Orknay to S UIst, Grimsay to Skokholm
 
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