• 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, 12th September 2022. Update throughout the day

Loch Ordais, Isle of Lewis
The Little Stint was there this afternoon. A Curlew Sandpiper was in the area

Griminish Point, North Uist
86 Sooty Shearwaters flew past this morning during between 09:45 - 12:45. Also seen were 2 Arctic Skuas, Bonxie, 2 Arctic Terns, 3 Common Scoter, 4 Tufted Duck, 3 Teal, 29 Wigeon and 22 Pintail

Loch Sandary, North Uist
2 Ruff were seen there today

Carinish, North Uist
The Pied Flycatcher was seen there again today. 72 Pink-feet were at Baile Iochdrach

Stinky Bay, Benbecula
A Curlew Sandpiper was there today.

Ardivachar Point, South Uist
3 Curlew Sandpipers, a Little Stint and a Ruff were seen there this morning. At least 11 Curlew Sandpiper, 4 Little Stint, 2 Ruff and a Pintail were seen there later in the day

Stilligarry, South Uist
60 Black-tailed Godwits and 2 Ruff were there this afternoon

Askernish, South Uist
A Turtle Dove was seen in the township late evening

Rubha Ardvule, South Uist
5 Curlew Sandpipers, 2 Little Stints, 6 Ruff and 80 Black-tailed Godwits were there this evening

turtle dove BN Askernish.jpg
Turtle Dove (C) Bill Neill
 
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Doing our own WeBS counts today. Partly sunny, partly cloudy, breezy with squally showers.

Loch Bee
38 species, most numerous being Wigeon which seem to have arrived in large numbers, with c600, mostly in two large flocks, one near The Range buildings side of the loch and the other flock to the east of the causeway. c410 Mute Swans and just two Whoopers. Early on a White-tailed Eagle had a fly around and put everything up but the birds soon settled. Far less Greylag than last month with only 76 (there were c240 last month). Lapwings seemed to be everywhere with at least 300 in several flocks, some with c100 of the c200 Golden Plover counted. Plenty of Mallard with c240 there. 44 Dunlin and 27 Knot were on a loch-side pool in the south-west corner. There were 14 Ruff on crofts that had been harvested plus another couple of individuals elsewhere. Plenty of Pied Wagtails, Meadow Pipits and Wheatears seemed to be passing through today.

South Ford
21 species. Fairly quiet to start as the tide hadn't long started falling. 122 Grey Plover was a good count, a good number of which were still in summer plumage, c160 Dunlin, 80 Bar-tailed Godwits and 28 Knot were other waders out on the estuary. Passerines consisted 13 Meadow Pipits, 3 Wheatear, 6 Swallow and a small mixed flock, 50+ birds, with Goldfinch, Linnet and Twite.

14 Ruff, Kilaulay, S Uist sep-22.jpg
Ruff on Kilaulay machair - part of the Loch Bee WeBS count area.
 
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