Skye Birds Website

12th December 2013

We hardly realised ourselves, but the first records for this website were entered in December 2003 and we have now reached our 10th anniversary. Back in 2003 maybe 50 records were sent from Skye to the Highland Bird Report which is the official publication for the area, and now about 1000 records are sent in annually. In the beginning we included records from Lochalsh and this has now extended as records are being sent in from the Mallaig and Morar areas and also from the Small Isles. As most people know the website is non-profit making, and our 10 years of archive, freely available to all. We know that the website and the archive are widely used by professionals and other subscription based websites and it would be encouraging to get the occasional acknowledgement and be included as a source of information. The technical parts are looked after by my son Colin and I am very grateful to him for dealing with the occasional glitch which inevitably occurs - however we are rarely down for as long as some well known banks! We try our best to keep the system up to date and many thanks for our regular locals, and the many visitors for keeping the records coming in. We have had an exceptional few years for rarities and many would have gone unnoticed had it not been for the website, which we hope is an excellent local example of 'people science'. We were very happy to support a conference at Sabhal Mor Ostaig last year in conjunction with the SOC and the image shows Martin Benson and myself at the stand.

Bob

THE BOOK

"A glorious little gem"

AMAZON

"A book such as this has to look backwards and the author does so succinctly, looking at the work of several of the pioneering naturalists before picking out the publications of JA Harvie-Brown and the Rev. Hugh Macpherson. I know this book fills a real gap in the information available for the Isle of Skye and it will surely sell well at local bookshops."

Andrew Currie Miscellany West Highland Free Press

"A total of 238 species have been recorded, with 14 of those 'red listed' as of high conservation concern ... another innovation has been the inclusion of Gaelic names for some birds. While this is not uncommon in a few other books, the addition of some regional Gaelic names is very unusual and very welcome."

Ray Collier Country Diary 'Up in the Skye' The Guardian

"Illustrated with beautiful photographs of current birdlife on the island, the publication also features sketches by Jean Thomas of The Little Gallery, Portnalong, stimulating the reader's interest further and allowing them to identify species they encounter on Skye."

The Hebridean