My first full day on Værøy 2013 has to be one I can be happy
with.
Things started slowly as we checked the area around Nordland
where we are staying and it was immediately apparent that many birds had moved
on as there was hardly a Yellow-browed Warbler to be heard (or seen for that
matter). This was a bit disappointing as the winds were from the east and there
had been some rain just before dawn. However as it turned out some new birds
had arrived even though a lot of other had left.
The day ended up for me with singles of Richard’s Pipit
(tartarpiplerke), Olive-backed Pipit (sibirpiplerke), Red-flanked Buetail
(blåstjert), male Red-breasted Flycatcher (dvergfluesnapper), 19 Yellow-browed
Warblers, Barred Warbler (hauksanger) plus 3 Hawk Owls (haukugle) and 2
Tengmalm’s Owls (perleugle). Alongside these were 100’s of Ring Ouzels
(ringtrost), many White-tailed Eagles (havørn), a single Golden Eagle
(kongeørn) and a Peregrine (vandrefalk).
I was also very lucky today as I hardly missed anything but
best of all I was also the finder of three of the days best birds: the
Bluetail, Dick’s Pipit and R-b Fly.
I didn’t manage to get that many good photos today except
for of the Tengmalm’s Owls. Kjell Mjølsnes texted to say he had found one but
by the time I got there he had found two. They were ridiculously confiding as
they roosted in small trees and the only problem we had initially was with the
light as bright sunlight was illuminating one side of the most confiding bird.
I tried using flash but that gave red-eye! Later though one bird moved and gave
fantastic photos opportunities. I also discovered the remains of a bird (one
leg and some feathers) in the branches right by one of the owls which turned
out to be a Snow Bunting (snøspurv) and which most likely had been eaten by the
owl.
Here are the best of photos that I’ve managed to look at so
far but I took a couple of hundred of the owl plus some video so there will be
probably be a separate post later in the autumn.
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| Tengmalm's Owl (perleugle). Maybe even better than Hawkie |
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| Yellow-browed Warbler (gullbrynsanger) |
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| Tengmalm's Owl |
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| I took this picture at an angle, so it wasn't actually stood like this |
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| hello baby |
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| young White-tailed Eagle (havørn) |
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| Red-flanked Bluetail (blåstjert) |
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| male Red-breasted Flycatcher (dvergfluesnapper) |
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| the red throat shows this to be a male although perhaps not fully adult |
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