• 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
Outer Hebrides bird sightings for today, 2nd March 2018

Ness, Isle of Lewis
5 Snow Buntings were again in the Cross area today.

Borve Berneray
The *Crane* is still to be found on the machair there

Rubh' Arnal, North Uist
At least 2 Kumlien's Gulls, 20 Glaucous Gulls and 40+ Iceland Gulls were present there today

Coot Loch, Benbecula
The drake *Ring-necked Duck* is still to be found on the loch

Stinky Bay, Benbecula
A Whimbrel was seen briefly there today

Ruhba Ardvule, South Uist
Weather: Wind E F6, mix of 4/8 cloud and sunny spells, temp 1.0C increasing to 1.8C. No snow here, even on hilltops.
A near 3 hour seawatch this morning produced 40 Eider (21S 19N), 6 Red-throated Divers (N), 9 Gannets (3S 6N), 112 Shag (14S 98N), 1 Cormorant (S), 1 Kittiwake (N) and 5 Razorbills (N).
Also present in the area were Greylag Goose 12, Shelduck 16, Wigeon 47, Mallard 119, Teal 35, Long-tailed Duck 16, Red-throated Diver 1, Great Northern Diver 1, Shag 16, Cormorant 21, Lapwing 13, Golden Plover 3, Snipe 11, Curlew 10, Purple Sandpiper 28, Black-headed Gull 1, Common Gull 150, Rock Dove 4 and Rock Pipit 2

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Crane, courtesy of Cathrine Yeatman
 

Bruce

Senior Member
At least 6 Iceland gulls and 1 glaucous gull at Ardveenish today. 36 brent geese were at Traigh Mhor. A jack snipe was showing well in an icy ditch by the football pitch at Castlebay this afternoon.

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Hawkeye

Eyes and Ears Everywhere
Ness News from Tony Marr

In the teeth of the easterly gale today, a flock of large gulls by the roadside pool near the lighthouse this afternoon included 5 Icelands (two adults) which all flew off when I poked the camera out of the car window at them (record shot attached).

I’ve been back in Port of Ness since Monday 19 February. The only notable birds since then have been an adult Iceland Gull around Loch Stiapavat on 26th and on 1st March; a juv Glaucous there on 23rd; and a Ruff there on 26th and 28th (my first winter one here). The regular wintering flock of c80 Barnacle Geese is present every day and flies off south to roost somewhere down the east coast near Cellar Head. A few very small flocks of Whooper Swans have passed through the Loch Stiapavat area.

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