Bruce Taylor

Young Cuckoos are still popping up around Barra. This is one of at least two being attended by Meadow Pipits at Cuithir.

Another young Cuckoo keeping the Meadow Pipits busy behind our house today. It looks like Cuckoos have had a good breeding season on Barra.

Juvenile Cuckoos are now appearing on Barra, just a few days after the last of the adult birds departed. Meadow Pipits are their usual host here and they've got their work cut out keeping up with the demand for caterpillars!

Evidently Common Crossbills are still on the move. This streaky juvenile dropped into the garden where I was working at Bruernish today, then sat up calling for a few minutes before bounding off high to the south. The first I've seen on Barra for several weeks.

Bottlenose Dolphin, one of seven cavorting in Brevig Bay this afternoon. Although they are resident around Barra, they tend to be reported most frequently in the summer months when the sea is calmer and there are more folk looking.

Mediterranean Gull is still a very scarce visitor to Barra, but careful searching through flocks of young Common Gulls in late July can sometimes reveal a juvenile Med, which is exactly what happened at Scurrival this afternoon.

Birding on Barra today has felt distinctly autumnal, with damp, misty conditions grounding several hundred migrant waders, mainly Dunlin and Sanderling, on the island's beaches.

Lucky to get close views of this Corncrake "crex-ing" beside the road this morning. The season is flying by and there's only a couple more weeks until these birds stop calling and the days and nights on Barra get quieter!

And still they come. There was another wave of Violet Sea Snails washing ashore on the west side of Barra this afternoon. We've seen about 150 in the past few days. For context, during the '22 influx we had only 35 in the whole of July and August.

Violet Sea Snails were pushed ashore on Barra's west coast by brisk westerly winds today. We counted 35 in just over a mile at Traigh Eais among hundreds, possibly thousands of By-The-Wind Sailors.

Fabulous views of Short-eared Owl (a scarce visitor here) yesterday evening, along with Corncrake, 3 species of tern, displaying Snipe and Moss Carder Bumblebee: the highlights of a session guiding for Barra and Vatersay Ranger Service at Eoligarry.

Six-spot Burnet Moth on a Pyramidal Orchid behind Barra airport yesterday- both are out in large numbers at present.

Beachcombing at the far end of Traigh Eais when we had a call about a Ring-billed Gull at Cleat. Cue our best "Chariots of Fire" impression as we legged it back down the beach! Luckily it was still there when we got to Cleat, our first Ring-bill out here since 2018.

A Violet Sea Snail freshly washed ashore on the west side of Barra this evening, complete with its raft of bubbles to keep it afloat and hitch-hiking barnacles.

A lovely family of Red-breasted Mergansers, one of two broods we encountered on Barra this morning.

Birding highlights today included this flock of 23 Common Scoters wheeling about over the sea at Cleat before heading SW, one of the biggest flocks I've seen here. Also a Hobby going south over Eoligarry this morning, only the 5th I've seen on Barra.

Plenty of chacking and tacking in the bushes at Nask this morning as the next generation of Common Whitethroats appears. This species continues to go from strength to strength on Barra.

Sandwich Tern heading south past Cleat this evening. We get a few on Barra in early spring and again in late summer/early autumn but don't often see one in June.

The Snow Goose that we first saw on Wednesday is still on Barra, trying to blend in with the Greylags but sticking out like a sore thumb!

It's hard to concentrate on anything else when there's a brood of Common Sandpipers outside the lounge window!