• 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

YvonneB

OH Bird Recorder
A perfect evening for heading out to do some Storm Petrel ringing in South Uist overnight last night, it was mild and hardly a breath of wind. We managed to catch and ring 16 birds which included one bird that was already ringed elsewhere - we are waiting to hear where it was ringed, all we know so far is that it was originially ringed in July 2020.

IMG_3679.jpg
Around 11pm and the nets are set ready

IMG_3682.jpg
Twenty minutes before midnight and just before we started catching stormies

IMG_3684.jpg
People are always asking me "what is your favourite bird?" My answer is always Storm Petrel, these amazing birds live most of their lives out at sea, only coming ashore to breed (we were ringing non-breeders last night). These tiny petrels last night weighed in at 23g to 26g - less than your average House Sparrow!

IMG_3686.jpg
We packed up at around 3:30am, about an hour after the last bird had been ringed, it was getting light already
 
Top