Viz Mig Magic

After a long pause it was time for a Rune and Rix outing. We left early with a goal of getting to Håbu at the southern tip of Hvaler just after dawn to see if there was any viz mig going down and boy was there!

We were on site just after 7am by which time it was already light and were greeted immediately by the sound of various finches. Crossbills (grankorsnebb), Bramblings (bjørkefink), Chaffinches (bokfink), Siskins (grønnsisik), Hawfinches (kjernebiter) and Redpolls (gråsisik) were continually going over. Most numerous were Brambling with around 2000 heading south east whilst we were there. We left at 0945 but the majority of birds moved over in the first hour. Chaffinches were not far behind with ca.1500 and Siskins numbered around 800.

45 Hawfinches was a pretty good total but were eclipsed by Crossbills which numbered 125. But it wasn’t just finches that were on the move. Great Spotted Woodpeckers (flaggspett) have been moving through Scandinavia this autumn in large numbers and we had 45 migrating over which was a new sight for me. We also had regular sightings of Woodlarks (trelerke) in the area although these birds didn’t seem to be migrating. Small numbers of tits were also moving through and we had 17 Coal Tits (svartmeis), 7 Long-tailed Tits (stjertmeis) and 2 Nuthatches (spettmeis) migrating. Three Lapland Buntings (lappsove) also flew over as did a single Ring Ouzel (ringtrost).

There were not that many birds in the bushes and certainly nothing scarce but many of the migrating birds would stop briefly before flying over to the next island and at one point four Great Spotted Woodpeckers were on the last telegraph pole on the island!

After the migration slowed down we checked out other sites on the island and had four Wood Larks in a garden which showed exceptionally well. Raptors were scarce but a juvenile Honey Buzzard (vepsevåk) showed well if distantly as it headed south and thermalled for a while whilst gaining great height.

This Woodlark (trelerke) was one of four in a garden that showed exceptionally well

We headed towards Kurefjorden and Common Buzzards (musvåk) were a regular sight but sadly no Harriers of any description. At Kurefjorden there are still a number of waders and we had 104 Dunlin (myrsnipe) plus two each of Black-tailed (svarthalespove) and Bar-tailed Godwit (lappspove).

I am off to Værøy on Monday and the first birders arrived there this evening. In the couple of hours they had available in the evening they found Red-flanked Bluetail (blåstjert), 7 Yellow-browed Warblers (gulbrynsanger), plus more – I can’t wait!! Next door island of Røst had a staggering 44 Y-b Warblers today after recording just one yesterday so there has been a huge arrival today.

juvenile Slavonian Grebe (horndykker) at Sorgenfrigropa

a late Spotted Flycatcher (gråfluesnapper) close to Kurefjorden

This Painted Lady (tistelsommerful) was an unexpcted site