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

Værøy 2017 day 3

My hopes for today were met (although one can always hope for a bit more…)

The day started with an Olive-backed Pipit that for once showed well and allowed itself to be photographed. This was just the first of a number of encounters with the species during the morning with two overflying birds calling a lot and another bird being caught and ringed.

After yesterday’s dead Jack Snipe I was not quite sure what to feel when I found a dead Hawkie. As the pictures show I was quite happy to be holding my favourite bird (despite my trying to look sad due to the gravity of the situation). I found it dead face down in a field and like the Jack Snipe had no body fat and had probably just died of hunger. Judging by the location it had probably been flying and then just dropped dead – obviously pining for the fjords! Hawk Owls can look quite large birds when perched on top of a telegraph pole but in the hand they are surprisingly small.

After this we located a calling Little Bunting but views were brief and photos nothing to write home about. A Common Rosefinch was trapped and ringed, a Short-eared flew past, I finally saw the very rare Carrion Crow that has been around a week or so, I saw a single Arctic Redpoll, 25 Parrot Crossbills flew over and a few (but not many) Yellow-browed Warblers revealed themselves including my first calling bird. An adult Glaucous Gull was unexpected and a couple of juvenile Peregrines that flew around making a hell of noise were the noisiest species of the day.

Apart from very brief views of a Garden Warbler yesterday I have not seen a single Sylvia warbler and there is very visual evidence of the lack of this family on the island – all the redcurrant bushes in the gardens are still full of berries whereas normally there are very few again.

The only bird I missed today was two Jack Snipes which were seen very close to our house but I was on food duty (I had foolishly started cooking whilst it was still light outside).

Olive-backed Pipit (sibirpiplerke)

same bird

dead Hawk Owl

looking far too happy

adult Glaucous Gull (polarmåke) with Herring Gulls

an obscured Arctic Redpoll (polarsisik)

Carrion Crow (svartkråke)

a Little Bunting (dvergspurv) - honest

Common Rosefinch (rosenfink)

Short-eared Owl (jordugle)

Værøy harbour

Yellow-browed Warbler (gulbrynsanger)

I'm going on a Sibe Acc Hunt

Today was the day for the big Siberian Accentor Hunt. I had delegated all family responsibilities to Mrs.OB, was up at 5am and out of the house for 13 hours. Did I find one? Of course not but I did hear a number of unidentified accentors and when I played Sibe Acc call to a couple of them they responded…….but they turned out to be of the Hedge variety. I heard the first calls when it was still dark (could well have slept 45 minutes more) and I did get myself well and truly excited thinking that I had flocks of Sibes flying over but will never know. I could actually see the site in Sweden where there has been a Sibe Acc the last few days and took a picture at 12km range which I’m sure if I blow up enough will reveal my target ;-)

So I didn’t succeed in my main target but I did find a pretty damn good bird for the parts in the form of a Little Bunting. I was riding quite high off this but felt that some of the air leaked out of the balloon when I got messages that a Desert Wheatear was at Fiskumvannet (where I was yesterday…), then a picture from Kjell M who had found a Tawny Pipit (but then again I have no chance of competing against him due to geography), then another Sibe Acc was pulled out of a net on the west coast (it is pretty embarrassing collectively for us Norwegian birders that we can’t find one in the field) and the last message was of an unidentified swift in Oslo from a birder without bins needing assistance (do any self-respecting birders ever go out without bins, or at least a superzoom in their pocket? I can see the makings of a joke there..).

So the day’s plan was to head to the island of Søndre Asmaløy right in the south east of Norway and an area which has good viz mig and a history of scarce and rare birds. I started at Håbu from 0720 to 0910 but it wasn’t until 0800 that I could see anything. There was lots to hear though from the moment I left the car with a steady, if light, passage of finches, thrushes and tits (including Long-tailed of which I must have had over 100 in the day).  Nothing too scarce here though so I headed for the area around Vikerkilen and Skipstadkilen. Here I worked hard but for a long time three Wheatears were all I had of interest. A Lapland Bunting flew over and finally I felt I had found something worthy of an October day.

Shortly after a migrating flock of Blue Tits was buzzing around in low vegetation and whilst watching them I thought I saw a small warbler fly into a bush (was probably a Goldcrest). As I raised my bins to the bush I saw a bird I immediately realised was a Little Bunting! I panicked a bit as I got my camera out of my bag and then couldn’t the bird again. I searched and searched and then decided to follow the Blue Tit flock as they were the only other birds in the area and maybe it was associating with them. A bunting flew up and away and then turned round and came back and landed in a bush where the tits were. The Blue Tits were flying out and feeding on the ground and thankfully the bunting did the same and I got really rather good views!!! It interestingly did not call once. After it flew into some bushes I retreated to send out the news and then just waited as I didn’t want to risk scaring it. The first birder arrived after about an hour and a few more after that but I left them to look (unfortunately in vain) as I was by now starving. On the way back to the car I put up two Short-eared Owls and had another Lap Bunting. Nice!

It was now 1330 and I felt I had used my luck up so instead of searching other places for Sibe Acc I decided to work my way home via a number of previously reported birds. At the Great Big Dump, Øra I had Brent and  White-fronted Goose. At Lysakermoa I had Bewick’s Swan (becoming very rare in Norway) and more White-fronts. There have been a lot of White-fronts in Norway the last few days and the ones at Lysakermoa were two juveniles. It is interesting that they had already managed to lose their parents as the Taiga Bean Geese seem to keep together as a family group until the next spring. Continuing into Akershus I had a large flock of Greylags at Hemnesjøen. I couldn’t find any Beans here (had them last week) but did find a family party of 5 White-fronts. Then at Hellesjøvannet I had a single juv White-front with Greylags. I first saw this bird in flight and it was tiny such that I got quite excited until I got to see it properly on the water. So White-fronts at four locations is certainly not something I have ever experienced before.

A very good day!

The day's undoubted highlight a momentarily photogenic Little Bunting (dvergspurv)

here in the unlikely company of Blue and Great Tit

Short-eared Owl (jordugle)

Bewick Swans (dvergsvane). The inset show an adult pair with a juvenile. To the right of the picture is the fourth bird which was a 2cy

Brent Geese (ringgås) at Øra

Scaup (bergand) at Øra. Note the left hand bird is a 1cy male (grey feathers on back)

15 White-fronted Geese (tundragås) at Øra

juv White-front with Greylags at Hellesjøvannet

family of 5 White-fronts at Hemnesjøen

2 juv White-fronts at Lysakermoa

The cloest I got (12km or so) to a Siberian Accentor although surely I must have heard one (there must thousands of them out there!)