• 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
Western Isles / Outer Hebrides bird sightings for today, 9th March 2020. Updated throughout the day

Balranald,North Uist
The two ***Cackling Geese *** and a dark juvenile Iceland Gull were seen there today. An immature Glaucous Gull, drake Pintail and 60+ Snow Buntings were nearby at Aird an Runair

Loch Sandary, North Uist
The *Snow Goose* was by the loch and the Coot was still present

Ruhba Ardvule, South Uist
Counting period: 07:25 - 09:40
Weather: Wind W f4 easing to WSW f3. 8/8 cloud, dull. Temp 7C

A 2+ hour seawatch this moring produced 15 Eider (11S 4N), 1 Long-tailed Duck (S), 1 Red-breasted Merganser (N), 2 Red-throated Divers (S), 2 Fulmars (S), 4 Gannets (2S 2N), 54 Shag (12S 42N) and 6 Kittiwakes (S).
Also present in the area were Greylag Goose 9, Mute Swan 1, Shelduck 1, Wigeon 36, Teal 4, Tufted Duck 9, Red-breasted Merganser 3, Great Northern Diver 2, Shag 22, Cormorant 35, Bar-tailed Godwit 22, Purple Sandpiper 58, Common Gull 70, Hooded Crow 3 and Raven 3
 

Chris Johnson

Senior Member
A day late with the WeBS count. The persistent south-westerlies have cleared the Ardivachar beach of many wader species and many gulls.
Ardivachar
Gulls: black-headed 8; Common 26; herring 48; great black-backed 27. The only wader was oystercatcher: 199. 3 whooper swans; 8 long-tailed ducks.
North Bay
The only significant waders were: c400 bar-tailed godwits; 740 sanderlings; 120 oystercatchers. (lacking at both sites: redshank, turnstone, ringed plover, purple sandpiper.)
 

Hawkeye

Eyes and Ears Everywhere
News from Tristan

A Coot was swimming around the boats in the inner harbour at Stornoway this morning. It's a scarce species on Lewis (most records from Loch Stiapabhat), and this individual seemed particularly out of place.

Also, a pair of Siskins in my garden were the first I've seen locally for some time.
 
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