Skye Birds - A Birding Guide to the Isle of Skye

Bird sightings on the Island of Skye and the neighbouring area

The objective of these pages is to keep everyone, locals and visitors, up to date with what birds are about. It is therefore dependent on everyone contacting me as quickly as possible to ensure I can update the site so that others might benefit from the observations. In the case of rarer species details would also be passed on the Highland Recorder Peter Gordon (  who may require a full description before the record was accepted. This website will very much be locally focused but has become part of the SOC local recorder system and other networks and we hope we can enhance these systems. We will also have complete discretion as to what information is added to these pages and will try to avoid any details which might reveal breeding sites of vulnerable species.  It is impossible to record everything reported and for the more regularly observed species, we would encourage the use of 'Birdtrack' - http://blx1.bto.org/birdtrack.

Date Species Image Details
29th May 2004 Goosander View Image Small groups of what appear to be non-breeding birds often appear in the Skye sea lochs around this time. Loch Slapin is a favourite haunt and 9 males to-gether was an impressive sighting.
28th May 2004 Whimbrel View Image Still a few stragglers about and Tom Ostrand, a visitor from New Jersey, had a single at the head of Loch Slapin.
25th May 2004 Osprey View Image Report from Roger and Pat Cottis of a bird seen near Shiel Bridge. Though there have been sporadic records from Skye and Lochalsh, breeding has never been proved and the expanding Scottish population seems loathe to move to the west coast - lets keep our fingers crossed.
25th May 2004 Whooper Swan View Image An adult bird, presumably a straggler, was seen on a loch near Shiel Bridge. The 1st year bird which was on the small pond at Feulin near Loch Slapin was last seen on 19th May.
23rd May 2004 Short-eared Owl View Image single bird seen in forestry plantation near Balmeanach. There was also a report of a single bird seen near Sligachan on 18th April - this species is now extremely scarce in the Highlands and all sightings are being collated as an add-on to the current Hen Harrier breeding census - all records are therefore extremely valuable.
22nd May 2004 Long Tailed Skua Report of 2 seen off Kyle of Lochalsh
22nd May 2004 Puffin Count of 60 off Kyle of Lochalsh - obviously birds heading back to their breeding colonies.
18th May 2004 Pomarine Skua View Image With the strong westerly winds some passage off Strathaird Point with count of 4 birds during a morning sea watch
18th May 2004 Long - tailed Skua Single seen off Strathaird Point heading north during strong westerlies.
16th May 2004 Dunlin View Image Flock of 68 reported from Ardnish - every likelihood at this time that these are 'Arctic' birds moving north.
16th May 2004 Whimbrel View Image report of a single bird at Ardnish - also another off Strathaird Point on the 18th indicates that birds are still trickling through.
15th May 2004 Great Skua View Image report of a single bird seen off Scalpay
6th May 2004 Hawfinch Report of a bird seen in the vicinity of the Cuillin Hills Hotel, Portree on consecutive days - this is an exceptional record and a 'first' for Skye - it is interesting that there was a record in Morvern in May 2003.
1st May 2004 Great Skua View Image Pair reported from Rubha Hunish in Trotternish
1st May 2004 Whooper Swan View Image An immature bird was present throughout all of April moving between Loch Cill Chroisd and a small pool at Feulin on Loch Slapin - it has remained into May. A few stragglers often summer in the north and west of Scotland.

© 2013 Skye Birds