Brilliant birding in a historic island location
This is a great place to find some superb birds. The area has an amazing history of birds and people, with a Viking settlement on the machair one of the biggest in Scotland, and a Bronze Age broch on the point. Sea watching is a major theme and has added some great birds to the Uist list, with Barolo Shearwater one of the highlights.
WHERE TO WATCH
1 Park by St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church and scan Loch Bhornais for wildfowl and waders. Check the gulls and terns for any migrants – Sabine’s and Kumlien’s Gull have both been recorded here.
2 Walk across this amazing piece of machair along the rough track checking the breeding waders and the spring and autumn flocks for anything different. Freshwater waders are a good bet, with some Americans in passage periods – records have included American Golden Plover, Semipalmated, Buff-breasted, Pectoral, White-rumped and Spotted Sandpipers, Grey Phalarope, Little Stint, Jack Snipe and Whimbrel. Buff-bellied Pipit and Subalpine Warbler have been found.
3 Once reaching the rough point area scan the bay on your left for feeding waders, gulls and terns. Check the loch for gulls and wildfowl. Check your Fulmars in case a ‘blue’ form from the Arctic passes by.
4 The Point is a major sea watching spot and has the main skua passage on South Uist, with all four species possible in May. Look for Leach’s Petrel in autumn, while other great finds have included Sooty and Great Shearwater, Surf Scoter, and King Eider. Long-tailed Ducks pass by, plus Little Auk in winter. Divers can be present all year.
5 Walk around the loch to view the coast looking for feeding waders, and buntings (Snow and Lapland). Walk back across the machair.