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 Peter Stronach ( 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
31st Jul 2006	Waders	a mixture now passing through Harrapool/Waterloo with 6 Knot (am) and a single Black-tailed Godwit, 56 Dunlin and 4 Turnstone present pm (MB)
31st Jul 2006	Merlin	report from Dave Monks of adult chasing Pipit at Loch CillChriosd
31st Jul 2006	Greenshank	4 at Pool Roag (Tom Wells)
31st Jul 2006	Sandwich Tern	4 at Broadford Bay (Tom Wells)
30th Jul 2006	Arctic Skua	single off Ardnish harassing Terns (A&EH)
30th Jul 2006	Peregrine Falcon	The tern colony on Loch Dunvegan is not only suffering harassment from Arctic Skuas but a Peregrine took a recently fledged young, which it subsequently dropped under intense pursuit from the rest of the Terns. (Peter Elford)
30th Jul 2006	Sandwich Tern	up to 4 at Broadford (DR)
30th Jul 2006	Twite	count of 40 at Ardelve (Tom Wells)
29th Jul 2006	Common Sandpiper	still moving through with 8 at high tide at Kilmarie, Loch Slapin.
29th Jul 2006	Black-headed Gull	breeding records for this species are very scarce on Skye and the presence of adults feeding recently fledged young at Ashaig might indicate local breeding success. (A&EH)
28th Jul 2006	Black-tailed Godwit	report from Margaret Jones of 2 at Loch Portree.
28th Jul 2006	Turnstone	report of 20+ at Loch Brittle (Margaret Jones)
27th Jul 2006	Greenshank	max of 16 at Ardnish, Broadford (RMcM & DR)
27th Jul 2006	Purple Sandpiper	4 at Ardnish, Broadford (RMcM & DR)
26th Jul 2006	Black-tailed Godwit	7 at Harrapool, Broadford in late evening (MB)
26th Jul 2006	Little Grebe	report of 3 back on the sea at Ardelve - the first having been noted on the 22nd (BN)
26th Jul 2006	Siskin	flock of 30+ at Carr Brae, Dornie (BN)
26th Jul 2006	Razorbill	single adult with a half grown young at Reraig, Loch Alsh - a long way from breeding grounds and at least an indicator of breeding success in what may have been a very poor season.
25th Jul 2006	Greenshank	alarming bird at Loch a Choire Riabach (near Loch Coruisk) suggesting young in area - this is extremely late and suggests birds may have failed during bad weather in June and repeated.
23rd Jul 2006	Goosander	big count of 31 on Shiel Saltings which is another interesting post-breeding phenomenon on Lochalsh (BN) - such numbers have never been recorded on Skye.
23rd Jul 2006	Greenshank	Brian Neath reports 4 on Shiel Saltings and 6 on Croe Saltings, Lochalsh.
23rd Jul 2006	Knot	report of 4 at Ardnish by Alan & Elaine Horner where other waders are also beginning to pass through with - 50 Ringed Plover, 40 Dunlin, 30 Curlew and 24 Redshank.
23rd Jul 2006	Sandwich Tern	still a few about with 3 at Ardnish, Broadford.
23rd Jul 2006	Arctic Skua	single harassing Terns at Coral Beaches, Dunvegan (Margaret Jones)
22nd Jul 2006	Whimbrel	single in Broadford Bay (MB)
22nd Jul 2006	Twite	numbers building up at Carr Brae with post-breeding flock of 30 (BN)
22nd Jul 2006	Whooper Swan	single bird still present at Loch Snizort Beag
21st Jul 2006	Sandwich Tern	2 at Ashaig, Broadford (A&EHorner)
21st Jul 2006	Short-eared Owl	report of a single near Fairy Bridge, Dunvegan (Val Hunkin)
21st Jul 2006	Common Sandpiper	birds on the move south with 7 at Kilmarie Bay, Loch Slapin
21st Jul 2006	Great Skua	single flying over Ullinish (GLeatherbarrow)
19th Jul 2006	Arctic Skua	two birds harrying Terns off the Quarry, Kyleakin (A&EHorner)
19th Jul 2006	Storm Petrel	4-5 seen from the Small Isles ferry between Point of Sleat and Mallaig (D Rogers) with similar numbers seen by RMcM on the 20th.
19th Jul 2006	Great Skua	4 seen to-gether off Point of Sleat (DRogers)
18th Jul 2006	Greylag Goose	2 separate creches on Ardnish, Broadford, totalling 28 birds.
18th Jul 2006	Greenshank	5 separate birds on Ardnish, Broadford.
18th Jul 2006	Black-tailed Godwit	single on Ardnish, Broadford.
17th Jul 2006	Swift	single at Harrapool (DRogers)
16th Jul 2006	Greenshank	4 in Loch Beag, Bracadale.
16th Jul 2006	Sandwich Tern	report from Martin Benson of a single bird in Broadford Bay.
16th Jul 2006	Auks	we have reported a number of unprecedented auk sightings of the coast of Skye in recent weeks and speculated that this may be reflecting breeding problems. Martin Benson has picked up several corpses of Razorbill and Puffin at Glas Eilean in Broadford and we would welcome any further reports of birds in poor condition or corpses.
15th Jul 2006	Great Skua	single in the Narrows of Raasay
15th Jul 2006	Common Tern	report from Brian Neath of c120 terns, mainly Common with a few Arctics, nesting at Glas Eilean, Avernish on Lochalsh. Brian reckons that this is the biggest count since 1992 perhaps suggesting that along with other sites on Skye, Terns may have made a bit of a comeback.
15th Jul 2006	Greylag Goose	Terrific count of 330 at Glas Eilean, Avernish, Lochalsh - the largest count Brian Neath has had at the site.
14th Jul 2006	Common Guillemot	report from Peter Elford of first young Guillemots seen in Loch Dunvegan - at least this reflects some breeding success although it will be some time before the overall picture emerges.
14th Jul 2006	Black-tailed Godwit	single with Oystercatchers at Braes
13th Jul 2006	Redshank	group of 24 at Ardnish (EHorner)
12th Jul 2006	Knot	Report from Ardnish of two in beautiful summer plumage - also 6 Dunlin and 8 Ringed Plover so waders starting to move through. (A&EH)
12th Jul 2006	Great Skua	single at Lower Milovaig (AStables)
12th Jul 2006	Puffin	Two off Meanish Pier (A Stables)
9th Jul 2006	Great Skua	3 in Broadford Bay (D.Rogers)
9th Jul 2006	Razorbill	count of 100 in Broadford Bay (D.Rogers)and a count of 100+ in Loch Ainort (Bruce Dix)
9th Jul 2006	Whooper Swan	single bird still summering in the Loch Eyre/Snizort-Beag area (Bruce Dix)
8th Jul 2006	Purple Sandpiper	report of 3 at Ardnish, possibly failed breeders on return - cannot recall another July record of this species on Skye (A&EHorner)
8th Jul 2006	Great Skua	single at Ardnish, Broadford (A&EH)
8th Jul 2006	Greylag Goose	Creche of 20 adults and young at Ardnish, Broadford (A&EH)
8th Jul 2006	Great Skua	Pairing soaring above the cliffs near Elgol - further territorial behaviour (Dave Monks)
8th Jul 2006	Black-tailed Godwit	single at Lower Milovaig (A Stables)
4th Jul 2006	Sandwich Tern	report from Peter Elford of single amongst Common Terns at Dunvegan
3rd Jul 2006	Whooper Swan	following the report of a pair at Struan probably the same birds were traced to an inland loch - no evidence of breeding but appear to be summering.
3rd Jul 2006	Crossbill	single female observed in VicAskill Forest
3rd Jul 2006	Peregrine	report of a single at Ardnish (A&EH)
3rd Jul 2006	Linnet	pair of Linnets reported at Ullinish - one of the regular spots on the island. (G.Leatherbarrow)
2nd Jul 2006	Whooper Swan	single bird, probably a straggler on Loch Snizort Beag (Bruce Dix)

Bird sightings on the Island of Skye and the neighbouring area

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