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Western Isles Wildlife

Tours to look for birds (eagles, corncrake, skuas, divers, red-necked phalarope and much more), otte

19/04/2025

Another excellent early spring visit to southern Cyprus produced some cracking birds including great views of Bimaculated Lark, Caspian Plover and Blue-cheeked Bee-eater. We even had Demoiselle Crane from the hotel during breakfast! Warm, sunny weather, eastern migrants with always the chance of something totally unexpected - what's not to like? If you fancy joining us in 2026 the tour will run from 25th March - 1st April. You can find out more details on the website: www.western-isles-wildlife.co.uk or email me: [email protected]

05/02/2025

Holy moly: an adult Ross's Gull at Ardivachar, South Uist today. Not a bad day when you add in Lesser Scaup, Green-winged Teal, Jack Snipe and finally freeing the screws from the broken handle to the back door.

27/11/2024

A regular sight in the Western Isles these days: 2 White-tailed Eagles in a close fly-by over North Bay / Mol Mor, South Uist this afternoon.

30/10/2024

When ever you get a half decent day in the Outer Hebrides at this time of year the raptors are out in force. The morning was lovely but the afternoon not so. The day began with a couple of Sparrowhawks fighting with a pair of Hoodies. One of the hawks then went on to bigger things with a pair of Ravens until finally even a young Golden Eagle wasn't safe! In other news a Curlew Sandpiper was lingering at Peninerine, S Uist and 15 Snow Buntings were also there. More on local sightings can be found here: https://www.western-isles-wildlife.co.uk/Templates/latest_sightings_outer_hebrides_birds.html

26/10/2024

Last Sunday was somewhat breezy and wet with causeways and some coastal roads in Uist and Benbecula closed for a while as the most recent storm whipped up the sea as well as lots of rocks and w**d. It also appears to have dropped a healthy scattering of White-rumped Sandpipers along the west coast as I've been lucky enough to bump into 3 in the last few days. The first 3 images below are of 1 (of at least 2) juvenile at Loch Paible, N Uist today; and the second 3 of an adult at Mol Mor, S Uist on Thursday. Happy Days.

26/09/2024

Buff-breasted Sandpipers are a classic autumn migrant to the Outer Hebrides. It's not been the most exciting September but getting up close to one of these corkers certainly brought a smile to the face.

Normally they appear earlier in September and we manage to catch up with them on our Autumn in the Outer Hebrides trips: https://www.western-isles-wildlife.co.uk/Templates/autumn_in_the_outer_hebs_a_birding_bonanza_2024.html but not this year. Hopefully the October tour will produce something out of the ordinary!

14/07/2024

Some stunning views of a couple of Risso's Dolphins in Loch Euphort, North Uist yesterday. When we saw them during a day tour they were over 4 miles inland from the mouth of the sea loch.

23/06/2024

Still a long way to go but 14 weeks before the Lochness Marathon to get into fine fettle! Hoping to raise a bit for dementia research. If you can spare a few pounds please have a look at my Just Giving page: https://www.justgiving.com/page/stephen-duffield-2024?utm_medium=fundraising&utm_content=page%2Fstephen-duffield-2024&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=pfp-share

24/04/2024

Headed out for a trip around Loch Bee, South Uist with Martin Gillingham this morning. Not much happening in the cool, northerly breeze although plenty of White Wagtails around as well as Black-tailed Godwits and Whimbrel. Whilst out wandering the machair a call from John Kemp enlivened things when he mentioned he'd seen a Gull-billed Tern near the southern end of the island at Orosay. A short while later after some slow traffic heading south we arrived on site where JK pointed out the tern was sat on the beach. 10 minutes later it was hawking insects along the dune edge so we got in position to capture some images only to discover that there were 2!
An hour to two later and 700+ images on the camera we headed back north picking up 150 Pink-footed Geese, heading towards Iceland and 2 drake Green-winged Teal on the Howmore River.

Just goes to show, you never know.

There's still space on our Autumn Tours if anyone is interested?

19/03/2024

A trip to Northern India is an amazing wildlife experience and as a bonus provides lots of great photographic opportunities. These are just a selection of some of the 375 species of bird that we saw during the 17 day tour.

We are running a similar tour from 29th Jan - 15th Feb in 2025 although there will be an even better chance of picking up tigers. The trip will involve 5 safaris into Ranthambore, 4 in Corbett and a boat trip on the Chambal River. The tour starts and ends in Delhi and takes us from the northern plains into the foothills of the Himalayas.

If you're interested in taking part on this tour in 2025 please don't hesitate to get in touch as the safari's can quickly get booked up well in advance.

The cost will be £3,400 (plus flights - around £500 - £600) which is significantly cheaper than any other regular providers; and includes a UK guide as well as an excellent Indian guide throughout the 17 days.

23/02/2024

As we were leaving Corbett Nat Park yesterday evening this beauty crossed a dry river bed. Brought tears to my eyes! 🤩

26/01/2024

Another incredible encounter with an immature White-tailed Eagle on North Uist today. This time was whilst walking the dog along Baleshare beach. The young eagle took off a large rock and flew over to have a look at us; coming too low to get the whole bird in frame at times before it headed off down the beach; only to return for a second look. Was very inquisitive and appeared more interested in me than the dog.

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