• 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 4th April 2019. Updated throughout the day

Bornish South Uist
3 Black-tailed Godwits were on the machair

Askernish, South Uist
47 Greenland White fronts flew north over the township early this morning

South Glendale, South Uist
4 Goldcrests were in a garden there

Ruhba Ardvule South Uist
Counting period: 07:10 - 10:10
Weather: Wind ENE backing NE f4. 8/8 cloud, dull with rain developing. Temp 6C.
A 3 hour seawatch this morning produced 1 Barnacle Goose (N), 13 Eider (8S 5N), 5 Long tailed Ducks (1S 4N), 3 Red breasted Merganser (N), 2 Red throated Divers (N), 18 Gannets (2S 16N), 33 Shag (N), 1 Cormorant (N), 1 Kittiwake (N), 1 auk sp (S) and 1 Meadow Pipit (N).
Also present in the area were Greylag Goose 1, Shoveler 1, Wigeon 5, Tufted Duck 13, Long-tailed Duck 21, Red-breasted Merganser 4, Red-throated Diver 1, Great Northern Diver 10, Shag 5, Cormorant 12, Common Buzzard 1, Purple Sandpiper 18, Black-headed Gull 77, Common Gull 140, Great Black-backed Gull 8, Raven 2, Pied Wagtail 2, Meadow Pipit 2
 
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BrianR

Senior Member
After a day and a half of pretty miserable weather the sun reappeared in the afternoon and I made a brief visit to the Rubh' Arnal area, North Uist. There were plenty of Barnacle Geese around but I couldn't pick out anything unusual among them and with the usual large number of gulls were single Iceland and Glaucous.
_DSC8647.jpgIceland Gull
_DSC8656.jpgGlaucous Gull
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Bruce

Senior Member
On Barra there were 22 Whooper Swans resting on the sea at Scurrival this afternoon and the 3 wintering birds were still at Eoligarry. The parvipes Canada Goose was still at Borve Point and the Great Tit still at Creachan. This evening 3 flocks of Barnacle Geese totalling 223 birds and a flock of 23 Greenland White-fronts flew north-west over Brevig in the half hour before nightfall and my first Manx Shearwater of the year flew north.

One of the most striking features over the past couple of weeks has been the number of Goldcrests around the island. Unlike most of the obvious spring migrants that are here for a day then gone, these birds have been singing strongly, establishing territories, pairing up and as I witnessed yesterday starting to collect nest material. Barra usually has between 2 and 4 breeding pairs, but today I made the effort to do a thorough count around the island and counted no fewer than 15 singing males.

DSCN6525 (2).JPG
parvipes Canada Goose, Borve.

DSCN6550 (4).JPG
Goldcrest.
 
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