• 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

Local Rarity 7th January 2018

Hawkeye

Eyes and Ears Everywhere
Ardveenish, Barra
A possible Kumlien's Gull seen there today - see Bruce's post below

Ness, Isle of Lewis
25 Snow Buntings were still there this morning

Loch Mor, Benbecula
Three Little Egrets were again on the loch - see Andrews post below

Ruhba Ardvule, South Uist
A 1.5 hour seawatch this morning produced 8 Eider (3S 5N), 3 Red-breasted Mergansers (S), 4 Red-throated divers (S), 2 Great Northern Divers (N), 2 Gannets (S), 14 Shag (1S 18N) and 1 Kittiwake (S). Also present in the area were Greylag Goose 4, Shelduck 1, Wigeon 55, Teal 32, Tufted Duck 12, Eider 53, Long-tailed Duck 12, Goldeneye 2, Red-breasted Merganser 1, Great Northern Diver 5, Cormorant 14, Lapwing 15, Bar-tailed Godwit 31, Curlew 13, Redshank 17, Purple Sandpiper 21, Black-headed Gull 2, Hooded Crow 5 and Raven 7.
 

MisterT

Always Birding
Rather quiet on the patch at Askernish recently but today there were 3 Snow Buntings on the beach plus another 4 in amongst a flock of 250+ of Twite on Frobost machair.

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Stonechat, Askernish beach
 

Hawkeye

Eyes and Ears Everywhere
News from Andrew Stevenson

Bit of a trawl round Uist today:
Berneray: Crane still there at south end of Borve machair, also 20-30 snow buntings, c1000 barnies, no sign of the snow goose (though fewer than usual number of greylags there, presence of juvenile golden eagle and ad WTE might have had something to do with that). 3 slavonian grebes off Backhill.

North Uist: Drake american wigeon on Oban Trumisgarry again, with ruff and c250 barnies at Clachan Sands.

Benbecula: 3 little egrets on Loch Mor (2 flew in from Loch Balfindlay direction) also 3 Greenland white-fronts near Nunton; 6 gadwall and 4 shoveler on Coot Loch

South Uist: Glossy ibis in the ditches by the track to the green shed at Kilaulay. c125 Greenland white-fronts at NW corner of Loch Bee with 45 barnies still on the machair there. 8 PB brent geese on the South Ford.

crane.jpg glossy ibis.jpg
 

BrianR

Senior Member
At Baleshare this morning there were 44 pale-bellied Brent Geese on Traigh Leathann (same flock more often than not at Rubh' Arnal), the male Pintail that has been around for some while was on Loch na Paisg and an Iceland Gull was on the flooded area at Eachkamish. _DSC1658.JPG
A pair of Mute Swans flew S towards Benbecula and were followed, some way behind, by six juveniles. Some 15 minutes or so later a lone juvenile followed on the same path.
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Bruce

Senior Member
On Barra today c30 snow buntings were at Traigh Mhor along with 8 brent geese. Gull numbers are still low at Ardveenish but there was a single white-winger present, either a juv kumlien's or a very well marked Iceland with a brown wash over the primaries. Views were somewhat distant but with windy conditions forecast for the next couple of days, there's every chance it'll stick around so the id can be firmed up.

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