Værøy 2023 Day 4

As it turned out Day 3 was not over when I blogged yesterday evening. I decided to go out with the thermal imager at 2130 and didn’t get back until 0030!!

First I found feeding Common Snipe, Jack Snipe and Golden Plover. Then I noticed the northern lights above me, then I started hearing nocmig (Redwing, Song Thrush, Snow Bunting and Reed Bunting) and then I joined in Storm Petrel ringing. It was a very succesful session with me seeing what I thought was an impressive 13 birds but the session carried on until 5am with 44 caught including 4 with Norwegian rings from before.

I was then buzzing a bit too much and couldn’t sleep until gone 2am and was awake at 7 so am rather tired now. BUT today m, or at least the early morning, has been a good day. When you walk out the door and the first bird that greets you is a clearly newly arrived Yellow-browed then you know the day has potential. New birds were discovered in quick succession with a Little Bunting, an Olive-backed Pipit and then a Red-flanked Bluetail all before breakfast. It felt natural to assume that once we searched more of the island as the day wore on that we would find something big. But in fact there was precious little to see after that. Two Grey-headed Woodpeckers were decent enough but not of the calibre that the morning glory had promised.

Red-flanked Bluetail (blåstjert). As can be seen this bird was caught and ringed (in a mist nest). Not quite as cool as finding one in the field but a great chance to see it up close

Look at that tail!

Olive-backed Pipit (sibirpiplerke)

Little Bunting (dvergspurv)

A glimpse of one of the six Yellow-browed Warblers (gulbrynsanger) I saw today

Arctic Redpoll (polarsisik)

Merlin (dvergfalk)

Waxwing (sidensvans)

Sedge Warbler (sivsanger) breeds on the island but is less than annual for us in September

A tristis Siberian Chiffchaff

The first Grey-headed Woodpecker (gråspett) hid in a rowan tree

Whilst the second was calling from the top of a hill

Storm Petrel (havsvale) caught for ringing

Røst day 2

My second day on Røst, although the first in daylight was a great success even if there was no major rarity (Norway’s second Two-barred Greenish Warbler which was found earlier in the week has unfortunately moved on now). This is actually my third visit to Røst after a summer visit in 2000 when I saw Snowy Owl and a visit in late September 2003 when I stayed for a couple of days without seeing too much (although my name is the NSKF rarities report for being a co-finder of an American Golden Plover which I remember very little about).

We were 8 birders on Røst today and the nature of the island makes it much easier to cover on foot than Værøy and with far less vegetation then we should discover a far higher percentage of the birds present than on Værøy. Røst has far more wetlands than Værøy so there are many more waders and ducks but there are fewer passerines especially thrushes and finches.

I have walked 28,473 steps today and am rather knackered so I will keep this brief now😊. The two highlights for me were an adult Gyr Falcon close enough for photos (all my previous sightings of Gyr have been long distance) and hearing, and of course seeing, Yellow-browed Warbler which is a very necessary part of every autumn.

Other good birds were Olive-backed Pipit, Tree Pipit (which is rarer here than OBP), Taiga Bean Goose, Arctic Redpoll and my first Black-tailed Godwit in Norland. The full eBird checklist can be seen here.

Looking north with Værøy to the right and the rest of the Lofoten islands

Sunrise on Røst

Looking south

Yellow-browed Warbler (gulbrynsanger)

Adult Gyr Falcon (jaktfalk)

Olive-backed Pipit (sibirpiplerke)

And for comparison a Tree Pipit (trepiplerke)

Black-tailed Godwit (svarthalespove)

Arctic Redpoll (polarsisik)

Golden Plover (heilo)

Long-tailed Duck (havelle)

Taiga Bean Goose - a large billed bird that may come from a long way east in Russia