• 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
Westrn Isles / Outer Hebrides bird sightings today, 3rd January 2021. Updated throughout the day

Tiumpan Head, Isle of Lewis.
An adult Little Gull and a juvenile Iceland Gull flew north today between 10:50 - 11:00

Balranald, North Uist
70 Snow Buntings were seen on the reserve early afternoon and two Glaucous Gulls were nearby at Loch na Reivil

Ardivachar Machair, South Uist
A Ruff was an unusual winter find with other waders on the pools near the rifle range

Askervien, South Uist
A Short-eared Owl was seen there today

Rubha Ardvule, South Uist
Counting period: 09:05-11:05
Weather: Wind NNE - N f 2-3, bright and sunny. 1-2 c.

A 2 hour seawatch this morning produced 14 Eider (5S 9N), 1 Long-tailed Duck (N), 7 Red-breasted mergansers (N), 2 Gannets (N), 8 Shag (N), 1 Cormorant (N) and 1 auk sp (N).
Also present in the area were Greylag Goose 21, Shelduck 2, Gadwall 2, Wigeon 25, Mallard 169, Teal 42, Tufted Duck 19, Great Northern Diver 1, White-tailed Eagle 1, Oystercatcher 93, Lapwing 63, Golden Plover 91, Ringed Plover 86, Curlew 21, Turnstone 46, Sanderling 80, Dunlin 25, Purple Sandpiper 54, Jack Snipe 1, Snipe 6, Redshank 16, Black-headed Gull 1, Common Gull 74, Great Black-backed Gull 6, Glaucous Gull [juvenile] 1, Hooded Crow 8, Raven 2, Skylark 1, Rock Pipit 1 and Twite 160
 

YvonneB

OH Bird Recorder
Day three out birding from dawn until dusk and we're now up to 72 species. Today took us to the north end of South Uist and around Benbecula. Most of the lochs are frozen, even Loch Bee has a vast frozen area though there is still some open water - on arrival we had great views of an otter running across the ice towards us, eventually coming to shore nearby on the south west corner - amazingly enough watched by two White-tailed Eagles who were perched up on rocks a short distance away. A Ruff was seen on the machair near Ardivachar , there are very few records of this species during winter. Coot Loch was also almost frozen over with just a very small area of open water which held many ducks and swans. No sign of any Coot which left me wondering where do they go when the loch is frozen?

20210103-IN8A3898_Otter-and-WTEs.jpg

20210103-IN8A3920_Ruff.jpg
 
There was four Coot on the Loch on New Years morning but maybe they were scared of by the six white tailed eagles that were also by the side of the Loch. I’m only up to 51 species but that’s only from the garden and an hours watching on New Years morning on Benbecula
 
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