• 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 19th November 2017

Hawkeye

Eyes and Ears Everywhere
Borve, Berneray
There was a flock of 40 Snow Buntings at Borve.

Berneray
The Snow Goose was reported to be on the sea just south of Berneray. 28 Common Scoters were off the west side of the island and a Pintail was on Loch Bhrusda

Newton, North Uist
The *Crane* was in the area this morning. 2 Ruff were nearby at Clachan Farm

Oban Trumisgarry, North Uist
The *American Wigeon* is still being reported as present

Loch Mor/Fada, Benbecula
Two *Little Egrets* are present this morning - See post below (news from Andrew).

South Glendale, South Uist
2 female Blackcaps were there today.
 

YvonneB

OH Bird Recorder
A walk along the beach this afternoon, Askernish to Frobost. Nothing unusual seen. Plenty of the usual waders - Sanderling, Oystercatchers, Golden Plover, Ringed Plover plus a handful of Bar-tailed Godwits. A Great Northern Diver was just offshore.

There was hardly any wind so plenty of insects were active on the rotting seaweed - giving the Pied Wagtail, Starlings and Meadow Pipits plenty to eat. I didn't notice until I downloaded the photo that the Pied Wagtail has a ring!

In Askernish there were four Whooper Swans on Keeper's Loch and a small number of Redwings were also in the township.

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Pied Wagtail
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Sanderling
 

Hawkeye

Eyes and Ears Everywhere
News from @Andrew Stevenson

Two little egrets this morning on Benbecula – 1 in the NW corner of Loch Mor and one at Loch Fada. 7 shoveler and 8 gadwall on Coot Loch.

12 slavonian grebes, 48 long-tailed duck, 15 RTD & 30 GND off Blagarva. Also 4 porpoise there.

2+ Lapland buntings and 37 barnacle geese on the machair at Ardivachar, with a 2nd w glaucous gull on the floods at West Gerinish.

Chiffchaff still in my garden.

2w-glauc_1.jpg LittleEgret-LochFada_1.jpg
 

Bruce

Senior Member
On Barra, a male blackcap was at Nasg. A chiffchaff was still at Northbay and Ian had singles at Glen and Garrygall. The 2 long-tailed tits were still at Northbay along with a siskin. Not many gulls at Ardveenish this morning, but the ringed glaucous gull was still there along with an Iceland gull. A woodcock and a siskin was at Creachan this afternoon. The flock of long-tailed ducks off of Craigston/Allasdale is still increasing; today there were 147 birds.

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MisterT

Always Birding
Here at Askernish, I managed to control yet another of Mark Oksien’s birds ringed on Barra, this time a Greenfinch. Judging by the ring number, it was ringed shortly after the House Sparrow, ie early September of this year.
One of the ringed Chiffchaffs was joined briefly today by a Siberian Chiffchaff, a patch “tick” for me. It called repeatedly during it’s 5 minute stay making it’s identification that much easier.

Update:- The Greenfinch was ringed at Northbay, Barra by Mark on 11th October 2017
 

BrianR

Senior Member
At Carinish, North Uist this morning six Whooper Swans came from the E and flew over towards Baleshare.

At Aird an Runair, North Uist a herd of 21 appeared from around the end (possibly newly arrived) and headed inland. I just managed to obtain a photo of a family of six withinn the group as they passed.
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On the machair nearby were at least 600 Barnacle Geese and a Brent Goose (might not have been Pale-bellied and too distant for a reasonable photo).
 
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