Værøy day 7 photos

Here are the photos from the last day on Værøy. It took a long time to go through them as I had taken over 600 plus some video. As always it is a joy just going through the pictures and remembering the creatures depicted. Hope they will be just as enjoyable for the readers of this blog although I suspect I will publish far too many…

My third sighting of Olive-backed Pipit (sibirpiplerke) and finally a self-found bird without ring and which allowed good photo 

with the island of Mosken and the Lofotens in the background

together with a Meadow Pipit (heipiplerke)

which then annoyed the OBP

Gyr Falcon (jaktfalk) - despite the range and poor photo this is my best views of this species

Rock Pipit (skjærpiplerke) in a tree 

Twites (bergirisk) were very numerous this year

Killer Whalte (spekkhogger)

a mother and youngster

the dorsal fin on the bull was so large that it was floppy

one of the younger animals was playful

here the whale is at around 2km range and the snow capped mountains are in the Bodø area and are around 75km away!!

clear tracks from an Otter with the tail having left its mark

among the Otter tracks were also these smaller tracks which must be from Brown Rat that I guess had follwed after the Otter in the hope of find a fish carcass and some food

this Small Copper (ildgullvinge) is the latest record in Nordland county by a few weeks

Small Tortoiseshell (neslesommerfugl) and Painted Ladies (tistelsommerfugl)

Photos from Nordland

Here are a selection of photos from around Bodø and Værøy.

11:55pm looking north from Værøy- the sun shines strongly

midnight. The sun sets (real midnight sun is restricted to a few days at the end of June at this latitude)

First some of the different Lesser Black-backed Gulls (sildemåke). First off, the fuscus from Valnes, notice the dark wings without any real border to the black wing tips.

presumed fuscus Lesser Black-backed Gull

presumed fuscus Lesser Black-backed Gull - notice how the light can change the appearance of the upperparts

Some from Værøy:

A fairly easy graellsii

An obvious graellsii in the middle with a Herring Gull (gråmåke) on the right and a darker LBBG on the left which I take to be an intermedius.

A difficult bird which could be dark graellsii or pale intermedius.

Another difficult bird which was quite small and cute so probably a female. The flight shot shows significant contract between the wing and wing tips so this is a graellsii I reckon. Also the photo was taken at 10pm so the grey back probably looked darker than it would have looked in the middle of the day.

I’ve read that the intermedius types in northern Norway might be the result of hybridisation between fuscus and graellsii. I don’t know about this but I can say that LBBG’s come in the whole range of colours up here. I also saw one dark graellsii type seemingly paired with a Herring Gull which could result in some even more difficult looking offspring.
EDIT: of course I had not considered the possibility of HEUGLINI when I wrote the original entry. I don't believe there are proven records of this sub-species in Norway but it is probably just as likely at this latitude and longitude as Graellssi

Some other pictures:

Killer Whale (spekkhogger)

3 Killer Whales including a youngster

Otter

Common Seal

Also some scenic botanical shots from Værøy

A pale Whimbrel (småspove) – Slender-billed Curlew look alike

A group of five young Pintails (stjertand)

1k Pintails - the green on the wing of the right-hand bird shows it to be a males

The lack of green shows this bird to be a female

Gannet (havsule)

Gannet and Fulmar (havhest)

Juvenile Herring Gull

Killer Whales

Værøy didn't have many new birds to offer today although a hunting dark phase Arctic Skua (tyvjo) put on a good show as it harrassed a Common Tern (makrellterne). We also had three Wrens (gjerdesmett) singing from north facing scree slopes where grass was the only vegetation. Mammals though gave a really good showing. On a walk along the north coast we had a Grey Seal (havert) that kept surfacing in the same spot and having a good look around. Returning past the same spot the seal was still there and then I noticed something in the corner of my eye. Putting my bins up I saw there was something moving fast just under the surface of the water alongside some rocks a couple of hundred metres oØut. Then a fin surfaced. My first words were dolphin but I had 't taken a breath before I changed to KILLER WHALE!! (spekkhoger). There wad a pod of three animals including an obvious youngster and by their behaviour they werMe clearly hunting seals. They headed towards land and started to swim only 50 metres from the beach before they were lost to our sight behind around the corner of the cliff. We made our way the 50 metres to give us a better view as fast as we could on the treachorous path but never saw them again. Another Grey Seal further along that kept bobing up and looking nervously around was probably a sign that they had made their presence known. Driving back to the south of the island where the road cuts over the innermost part of the harbour we had an Otter swimming in the water and then surfacing only metres from the car before diving again and disappearing. Quite an unforgettable day.