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
31st Aug 2006	White Wagtail	single at Harrapool (DR)
31st Aug 2006	Waders	movement through Broadford Bay - Dave Rogers had 40+ Ringed Plover, 25 Dunlin, 6 Redshank, 3 Sanderling, a single Turnstone and in the evening 4 Knot - all at Harrapool.
30th Aug 2006	Ringed Plover	good count of 60 at Ashaig (A&EHorner)
30th Aug 2006	Storm Petrel	single from Small Isles Ferry - off Aird, Sleat.
29th Aug 2006	Whinchat	late juvenile at Breakish
29th Aug 2006	Linnet	small flock of 14 at Ashaig
28th Aug 2006	Cuckoo	young bird of rear noted at Dunvegan (P.Elford)
28th Aug 2006	Arctic Skua	two recorded at Broadford - also group of 30+ Terns - mixture of Common and Arctic. (D.Rogers)
26th Aug 2006	White Wagtail	at least a single showing at Point of Sleat.
26th Aug 2006	Whitethroat	two birds showing near Point of Sleat, probably migrants.
26th Aug 2006	Knot	6 at high tide at Harrapool (5 yesterday) (MB)
26th Aug 2006	Sanderling	2 at Harrapool am (MB)
25th Aug 2006	Whimbrel	5 in Harrapool area (Martin & Carol Benson)
24th Aug 2006	Linnet	family party of 4 at Roag, Dunvegan.
23rd Aug 2006	Sandwich Tern	Dave Rogers had a count of 25 at Ardnish to-day - a significant count and the largest we are aware off on Skye - mostly we get 2-5.
23rd Aug 2006	Wigeon	count of 9 on Ardnish is earlier than normal (A&EH)
23rd Aug 2006	Whimbrel	single on Ardnish (A&EH)
22nd Aug 2006	Black-tailed Godwit	2 at Harrapool in evening (DR)
22nd Aug 2006	Red throated Diver	report of 2 in Broadford Bay (DR)
22nd Aug 2006	Hoopoe	report via Al MacNee of a Hoopoe on Raasay - original report from Donnie and Kirsteen MacLeod - our last report of this species was 3 years ago.
21st Aug 2006	Knot	up to 7 at high tide at Harrapool - could have been more as our neighbourhood Peregrine may have had one for supper (MB & RMcM)
21st Aug 2006	Goosander	count of 13 at Loch Portree
20th Aug 2006	Golden Eagle	report from Martin Benson that a juvenile flew over Broadford Bay causing consternation amongst the waders and wildfowl.
20th Aug 2006	waders	reports of single Bar-tailed Godwit, Whimbrel and Knot in the Broadford Bay area (MB, DR, A&EH)
20th Aug 2006	White Wagtail	at least 3 at Harrapool - in addition count of 34 Pied including many juvs (MB)
20th Aug 2006	Grasshopper Warbler	1st report for some time - a late reeling bird at Harrapool (DR)
18th Aug 2006	Black-tailed Godwit	7 at Harrapool late afternoon along with a single Knot (DRogers)
17th Aug 2006	Whinchat	some passage through the area with two juveniles at Breakish (see photo)
17th Aug 2006	Greylag Goose	numbers building up with 57 at Ardnish
17th Aug 2006	Arctic Skua	still two around Broadford Bay - a light and dark phase (A&EHorner)
15th Aug 2006	Red-breasted Merganser	post breeding flock of 34 at Loch Ainort.
15th Aug 2006	Goosander	group of 7 males at Loch Portree
15th Aug 2006	Curlew	excellent count of 115 at Loch Portree
11th Aug 2006	Twite	numbers building up with 60 on the Elgol croftland.
11th Aug 2006	Whimbrel	4 at High Tide at Harrapool(MB)
9th Aug 2006	Lesser Black-backed Gull	On 6th July Peter Elford reported a tagged bird at Dunvegan (Yellow T). Details have now been obtained that the bird, a male, was ringed and tagged at Badajoz, Spain on 22.1.06. There was another sighting in Guipuzcoa, Spain on 24.2. It was then seen at Rutland Water on on 14.4 before Peter spotted it at Dunvegan.
9th Aug 2006	Manx Shearwater	Big movement off Strathaird Point between 7-9a.m. following strong overnight westerlies - minimum of 2000 birds.
9th Aug 2006	Bar-tailed Godwit	small group of 7 at Ashaig, Broadford - also a single Knot and a Whimbrel.
8th Aug 2006	Whimbrel	excellent flock of 18 at Harrapool which flew towards Breakish.(David Rogers)
8th Aug 2006	Oystercatcher	numbers building up again with 185 at Harrapool (DR)
7th Aug 2006	Black-tailed Godwit	2 at Ashaig, Broadford (pm) along with 4 Knot.(A&EH)
6th Aug 2006	Great Skua	ap to 2 at An Aird, Braes with one in particular observed in an attack on a Gull which was killed - the brutish side of this species (Bill Marshall)
6th Aug 2006	Whimbrel	small flock of 5 at Ardnish, Broadford.
6th Aug 2006	Greenshank	minimum of 11 at high tide at Ardnish
6th Aug 2006	Cuckoo	report from Richard Clayton of a female at Duntulm - always a difficult species to get departure dates for.
6th Aug 2006	Tufted Duck	count of 6 adults and a juv. on Loch Mealt (Tom Wells)
6th Aug 2006	Linnet	two at Kilmaluag (Tom Wells)
5th Aug 2006	Arctic Skua	some activity off Elgol Jetty with 3 Arctics and 2 Bonxies + good nos Gannets, Kittiwakes, Auks etc. Also a single Arctic and a Bonxie in Broadford Bay (DRogers)
5th Aug 2006	Dunlin	excellent count of 325 at Harrapool (DR)
5th Aug 2006	Sanderling	count of 6 at Harrapool (DRogers)with another 7 coming in later - total of 13 (MBenson)
4th Aug 2006	Whooper Swan	report from Heather Wilson that summering bird is still present at Loch Snizort-Beag
4th Aug 2006	Waders	Counts of waders in the Broadford area at this time of year are always interesting because so many birds pass through and the situation is always fluid. For example David Rogers had 43 Dunlin then later Martin Benson had 65 which were joined by another 25. This does not reflect discrepancies in counting but does reflect a constant turnover of birds on the move and why it is worth checking and counting these stopover points on a regular basis. There were also 1-2 Sanderling, a Turnstone and 3 Greenshank. It is also likely that different birds entirely may re-fuel in the Ardnish/Ashaig area.
4th Aug 2006	Turnstone	group of 6 at An Aird, Braes (Bill Marshall)
3rd Aug 2006	Knot	generally quiet again on the wader front other than a single Knot with Oystercatchers at Broadford Bay (MB)
3rd Aug 2006	Bar-tailed Godwit	4 at Loch Portree (Tom Wells)
2nd Aug 2006	Lapwing	still 5 at Loch Dunvegan (Tom Wells)
2nd Aug 2006	Whimbrel	4 at Loch Dunvegan (Tom Wells)
2nd Aug 2006	Sand Martin	good count of 15 at Loch Suardal, Dunvegan (Tom Wells)
2nd Aug 2006	Linnet	two among Twite at Dunvegan (Tom Wells)
1st Aug 2006	Arctic Skua	a dark phase bird harassing Terns off Ardnish, Broadford (am) and two later - two also seen on the 2nd.
1st Aug 2006	Little Stint	single bird observed a.m. at Harrapool/Waterloo in company of c70 Dunlin - not seen on subsequent search (RMcM)
1st Aug 2006	Sanderling	report of 4 at Harrapool/Waterloo (MBenson)with groups of 6 and 4 at Ashaig later (A&EH)
1st Aug 2006	Common Sandpiper	count of 10 at Kilmarie, Loch Slapin at high tide
1st Aug 2006	Black-tailed Godwit	single at Ashaig (A&EH)
1st Aug 2006	Knot	3 at Ashaig (A&EH)

Bird sightings on the Island of Skye and the neighbouring area

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