Skye Birds - A Birding Guide to the Isle of Skye

Bird sightings on the Island of Skye and the neighbouring area

The objective of this page 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 John Poyner ( who may require a full description before the record was accepted. This website will very much be locally focused but some records will be included in the SOC Highland website www.highlandbirds.scot. and may also reach national sites. We 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. Records sent to us are also submitted to Birdtrack.

Date	Species	Details
29th Sep 2005	Albino Redshank	Amongst the Redshank at Harrapool to-day Martin Benson found an albino example. This is possibly an Icelandic bird passing through so it will be interesting to see where it turns up next.
29th Sep 2005	Whooper Swan	Further birds arriving with 7 coming in off the sea at Camas Mor, Kilmuir.
28th Sep 2005	Leach's Petrel	single only, off Strathaird Point in late afternoon.
27th Sep 2005	Pomarine Skua	Seawatch at Strathaird Point recorded two separate birds, tracking south in strong westerlies.
27th Sep 2005	Barnacle Goose	single bird in high winds at Strathaird Point, probably lost and looking for its mates - first report of the autumn.
27th Sep 2005	Whooper Swan	report from Sylvia Porter of 7 resting on the sea in Staffin Bay.
25th Sep 2005	Red-throated Diver	Good count of 17 between Camas na Sgianadin and Moll with the best numbers in Loch Ainort.
25th Sep 2005	Whooper Swan	First arrivals with 6 on the Storr Lochs and 4 at Kilmuir.
25th Sep 2005	White-tailed Eagle	Following the report on the 23rd, young bird (Red 7) causing mayhem amongst the waders, duck and gulls on Loch Portree. This bird fledged from Canna this year.
25th Sep 2005	Brent Goose	Still 13 remaining on the saltings at the head of Loch Ainort.
24th Sep 2005	Scaup	Report from Martin Benson of a flock of 22 birds in Broadford Bay. These are possibly Icelandic migrants temporarily held up by the strong southerlies.
24th Sep 2005	Great Skua	Duncan Ritchie reports another 3 flying south at Loch Bracadale.
23rd Sep 2005	White-tailed Eagle	Hard on the heels of a report of 6 Golden Eagles to-gether is a report from Dave Monks of 5 White-tails to-gether just south of Portree above the main road at the Varrigal Bridge - 4.30p.m. this afternoon.
23rd Sep 2005	Brent Goose	further report from Simon Dix of 35 on the saltings at the head of Loch Ainort. These are the pale bellied 'hrota' race which breed in West Greenland and high arctic Canada and are on route to winter in Ireland. A number of birds were radio tagged this summer and flights can be seen on www.wwt.org.uk/supergoose.
23rd Sep 2005	Great Skua	with the strong westerlies at least 10 moving north during a 2 hour watch at Strathaird Point.
22nd Sep 2005	Great Skua	report from Duncan Ritchie of 5 south at Loch Bracadale
21st Sep 2005	Black-tailed Godwit	Still a group of 7 at Harrapool/Waterloo - also 2 at the Obbe, Kyleakin.
21st Sep 2005	White Wagtail	report of 5 at Armadale.
20th Sep 2005	Brent Goose	The first group of the autumn (18) were at Glas Eilean, Broadford, to-day.
20th Sep 2005	Black-tailed Godwit	Two separate groups of 4 and 8 in the Ardnish and Waterloo areas.
20th Sep 2005	Slavonian Grebe	First record of the autumn with a single bird in Pabay Sound, Broadford Bay.
20th Sep 2005	Gadwall	report from John Bannon of 3 (1m&2ff) on the sea off Tokavaig, Sleat - this is an extremely scarce passage migrant and they are probably Icelandic birds.
20th Sep 2005	Common Swift	report of a single at Ord, Sleat, on what is an extremely late date - in general terms there have been few reports this year.
19th Sep 2005	White Wagtail	Group of 4/5 at Ashaig were probably Icelandic birds.
19th Sep 2005	Linnet	Interesting flock of 20 at Lower Breakish feeding on thisle heads - also in the flock were Goldfinch, Reed Bunting and Lesser Redpoll.
19th Sep 2005	Raven	Good count of 27 at Ord.
18th Sep 2005	Linnet	flock of 20 south over Ord - we have few reports of flocks of this size but sightings are becoming more frequent.
16th Sep 2005	Ringed Plover	Report from John Jones of flock of 70 at Ashaig, Broadford Bay - probably migrants.
12th Sep 2005	Merlin	Report of a foraging bird near Dunvegan - possibly a migrant.
12th Sep 2005	Osprey	this is a scarce wanderer so a report from W.Davis of a single bird at Sconser was interesting.
11th Sep 2005	Gadwall	report from W.Davis of 3 Gadwall at Loch Suardal - a location where this scarce migrant was seen at much the same time in 2004.
10th Sep 2005	Golden Eagle	We rarely record Eagle sightings on the site for reasons of security. A report from Peter Elford of 6 birds soaring to-gether north of Dunvegan near Claigan was obviously spectacular and well worth recording.
8th Sep 2005	Ruff	A single bird, probably an imm. at Broadford Bay. This is an excellent record from Martin Benson, only the second known for Skye.
8th Sep 2005	Great Skua	Dave Monks recently sailed round Skye and reported 'Bonxies' widely distributed in moderate numbers. Best count was 7 off South Rona on this date.
4th Sep 2005	Bar-tailed Godwit	count of 15 between Ardnish and Waterloo, Broadford Bay.
4th Sep 2005	Black-tailed Godwit	Martin Benson and David Rogers had a good count of 22 in Broadford Bay - as well as 3 Whimbrel.
3rd Sep 2005	Little Grebe	Brian Neath reports 7 in the Ardelve/Eilean Tioram area of Lochalsh.
2nd Sep 2005	Arctic Skua	report of a single bird off Ashaig, Broadford.
2nd Sep 2005	Wigeon	Numbers already building up with 15 at Balmacara Bay.
2nd Sep 2005	Goosander	Count of 14 at Shiel Saltings, Lochalsh.
1st Sep 2005	Short-eared Owl	Report from Helen and Steve Birch of a bird at Lower Breakish - unfortunately this species remains scarce on the island.
1st Sep 2005	Arctic Skua	pale phase bird chasing terns in Broadford Bay.
1st Sep 2005	Whimbrel	still some through passage with 4 at Harrapool in the early evening.
1st Sep 2005	Lapwing	Few reports of recent times so 9 at GLen Drynoch was interesting.
1st Sep 2005	Goshawk	Interesting report of a single bird near Ullinish.

Bird sightings on the Island of Skye and the neighbouring area

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