Birds, Bees and Outer Hebrides

On the afternoon of 30th December whilst out birding with John Kemp we came across an odd, medium sized wader in a flood pool on the machair near Kyles Paible. North Uist. It was probably around...

http://wildwarblings.blogspot.com/2013/12/marsh-sandpiper-on-north-uist-30th.html

November is often thought to be the end of autumn and the start of a long winter but in reality the 11th month of the year has produced some great birds and the Outer Hebrides seem to come into t...

http://wildwarblings.blogspot.com/2013/12/november-is-often-thought-to-be-end-of.html

I arrived in from a day tour yesterday only to find the crippling news that there was a White-throated Needletail in Tarbet, Harris. With only 10 previous occurrences and the often fleeting or fa...

http://wildwarblings.blogspot.com/2013/06/needletail-swift-in-tarbet-harris.html

We had a pretty decent selection of wildlife whilst taking our day trip today (Western Isle Wildlife) in Uist and Benbecula with 2 Otters, Red Deer and both Grey and Common Seals. Flowering plan...

http://wildwarblings.blogspot.com/2013/06/we-had-pretty-decent-selection-of.html

The 11th May dawned wet and calm in contrast to the forecast that had predicted north-westerly winds around force 5 - 6. In the light of this I got back in bed and took a rather relaxed approach ...

http://wildwarblings.blogspot.com/2013/05/skua-passage.html

At last we seem to be out the other side of winter and heading for some warmer weather in the Outer Hebrides. The last week of April and first day or two of May were very cold for the time of yea...

http://wildwarblings.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-north-wind-shall-blow.html

Since the 1st winter male Harlequin was spotted bobbing about on the sea off Balranald on 18th February, I have made regular visits in an attempt to get a decent photo. The first visit left me ...

http://wildwarblings.blogspot.com/2013/03/harlequin-shows-well-in-north-uist.html

On returning home with a car load of trees and shrubs on the afternoon 10th March I noticed the south-east slope of Ben na Coille, North Uist ablaze. The wind was a south-east to easterly, force ...

http://wildwarblings.blogspot.com/2013/03/muirburn-havoc-in-north-uist.html

It was school half term and Johanne had to renew her first aid certificate so as fate would have it we found ourselves on the mainland and staying at the Dolphin Bay Suites in Ardeseir for a few...

http://wildwarblings.blogspot.com/2013/02/from-desert-to-glen_25.html

Some days you have good ones and some days not so good but Mr Rabbitts certainly hit the jackpot when he found a 1st winter male Harlequin Duck at Traigh Iar, Balranald yesterday. There are 11 pr...

http://wildwarblings.blogspot.com/2013/02/harlequin-duck-makes-100.html

The drizzle began to clear, the fence had been repaired and the requested agenda emailed off; so it seemed like a good time to go and look for the reported small Canada Goose at Balranald. 15...

http://wildwarblings.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-couple-of-hours-on-north-uist.html

Happy New Year and here's to a good birding year. A bit of a late start being the 4th January and getting back to the Outer Hebrides around mid-day today in the drizzle wasn't particularly a pro...

http://wildwarblings.blogspot.com/2013/01/listing-in-2013.html

  Any birder living in Uist at the moment would be forgiven for thinking that Christmas had come early with all the reports of white-Gyr's during the last month. The first sighting came on 1...

http://wildwarblings.blogspot.com/2012/12/im-dreaming-of-white-gyr-christmas.html

"Better have a look at that white blob on the fence post" I thought as I walked back towards the visitor centre at Balranald this morning and so glad I did. The probable plastic bag, that can oft...

http://wildwarblings.blogspot.com/2012/12/gyr-falcon-on-north-uist.html

Eaval, lying on the south-east side of North Uist reaches only 347m above sea level so you might think that there's not much to it, but rising like a rocky pyramid straight out of the boggy moo...

http://wildwarblings.blogspot.com/2012/11/eaval.html

For too many years I've been whizzing through Skye on my way to or from the Outer Hebrides with occasional visits to the Black Cuillin for some superb mountaineering but very little in the way of...

http://wildwarblings.blogspot.com/2012/11/over-looking-skye.html

On the 31st October I photographed this pipit at the south-west end of Benbecula around Borve Point. Having heard a slightly unusual pipit call in flight that was similar to Rock Pipit but "thi...

http://wildwarblings.blogspot.com/2012/11/pipit-conundrum.html

Whilst out birding today I spotted an otter in the distance on an isolated rock quite close to the shore line of a tidal loch. I hoped that with a bit of luck I could get a reasonable view of it ...

http://wildwarblings.blogspot.com/2012/10/close-encounters-of-otter-kind.html

juvenile American Golden Plover, Baleshare, Sept. 2010 The autumn of 2012 is likely to be long remembered for the 3rd British record of Semipalmated Plover which was found by John Kemp at So...

http://wildwarblings.blogspot.com/2012/10/how-many-agps.html

Lucky for me Johanne agreed to take Friday 7th September off work and look after the youngest, Freya. This freed me up so that I could try my luck at finding some stray birds in North Uist as the...

http://wildwarblings.blogspot.com/2012/09/semipalmated-plover-in-south-uist.html

The lure of a day looking at difficult to identify macro moths at the Aigas Field Centre in Beauly accompanied by our very own Hebridean Moth Man was hard to resist; and so on a wet and windy Fri...

http://wildwarblings.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-moth-man-that-wanted-to-be-beaver.html

A warm, breezy day in North Uist with the car thermometer reading up to 23 degrees - not sure how accurate it is but it was certainly warm despite the strong wind from the east. Adrian Lee, Wildl...

http://wildwarblings.blogspot.com/2012/08/eagles-and-otters-fine-day-out-in-north.html

We (Finlay, Freya, Johanne and I) just got back from a few days on the mainland staying one night at Braefield, on the road to Cannich and two nights in Drumnadrochit. It was another of our short...

http://wildwarblings.blogspot.com/2012/08/mountains-moths-and-other-beasties.html

On the 2nd August 2012, Tony Marr found a Black-winged Pratincole as it dropped onto the machair adjacent to Loch Stiapabhat, just 1.5 miles south of the Butt of Lewis. This is only the 4th recor...

http://wildwarblings.blogspot.com/2012/08/black-winged-pratincole-in-outer.html

It's not always easy to find otters in the Outer Hebrides although you regularly bump into them when you're least expecting to. Today was one of those days and although the light was poor and my...

http://wildwarblings.blogspot.com/2012/07/otter-on-benbecula.html