Day 6 and my last day on Værøy was not the day I had hoped
it would be. The weather felt perfect with easterly winds and clouds but a
check of the weather maps shows the easterly wind to be just a local phenomenon
and not part of a weather system originating much further east. There were
definitely no new birds today although there ended up being some photo
opportunities which I will post tomorrow.
Two messages on the Bird Alarm did get pulses up. First a Cattle Egret (kuhegre) just north of Bodø by Skaug (an area I know well from annual summer visits to friends) had me briefly considering whether I could see it during my stopover in Bodø on the way home but I quickly dismissed that thought as that would be far too much like twitching ;-) The second message was of a Siberian Thrush (sibirtrost) ringed on Træna. Træna is one of three islands in Nordland county that attract birders in September (in addition to Værøy and Røst) and being quite a bit further south it seems to attract a more varied selection of birds than we manage to find on Værøy. This was an exceptional find though.
My birding started with the Rb Shrike (tornskate) and a Barred Warbler (hauksanger) still in the north and a short seawatch gave 4 Pomarine (polarjo) and three Arctic Skuas (tyvjo). In the south I searched quite diligently but a Lesser Whitethroat (møller) was the scarcest passerine with believe it or not NO Yellow-browed Warblers (gulbrynsanger) today. Searching for waders I scared up two Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin) from under my feet before getting in the zone and starting to walk slowly and scan just a few metres ahead. This gave results as I suddenly saw a third Jack Snipe just 2 metres from me. It sat completely still and even allowed five other birders to come and see it (we were 10 on the island today). I switched to my 18-55mm lens and the mobile phone camera and was able to hold the camera less than 20cm from the bird. I could even see tiny flies walking over the bird!! Quite simply mind blowing.
Two messages on the Bird Alarm did get pulses up. First a Cattle Egret (kuhegre) just north of Bodø by Skaug (an area I know well from annual summer visits to friends) had me briefly considering whether I could see it during my stopover in Bodø on the way home but I quickly dismissed that thought as that would be far too much like twitching ;-) The second message was of a Siberian Thrush (sibirtrost) ringed on Træna. Træna is one of three islands in Nordland county that attract birders in September (in addition to Værøy and Røst) and being quite a bit further south it seems to attract a more varied selection of birds than we manage to find on Værøy. This was an exceptional find though.
My birding started with the Rb Shrike (tornskate) and a Barred Warbler (hauksanger) still in the north and a short seawatch gave 4 Pomarine (polarjo) and three Arctic Skuas (tyvjo). In the south I searched quite diligently but a Lesser Whitethroat (møller) was the scarcest passerine with believe it or not NO Yellow-browed Warblers (gulbrynsanger) today. Searching for waders I scared up two Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin) from under my feet before getting in the zone and starting to walk slowly and scan just a few metres ahead. This gave results as I suddenly saw a third Jack Snipe just 2 metres from me. It sat completely still and even allowed five other birders to come and see it (we were 10 on the island today). I switched to my 18-55mm lens and the mobile phone camera and was able to hold the camera less than 20cm from the bird. I could even see tiny flies walking over the bird!! Quite simply mind blowing.
Plan A for this species relies completely on its camouflage
and it truly believes that it cannot be seen if it just crouches down and
doesn't move. In the end I decided to test out quite how trusting it was and
only at less than 10cm range did it tense its body and get ready to execute
plan B - fly baby fly and at 5cm it flew off in a whir.
The others who have 4 more days have an uncertain time ahead with a change in the weather forecast which must be good considering how quiet it currently is but very strong SSW winds and rain are not necessarily much better......
The others who have 4 more days have an uncertain time ahead with a change in the weather forecast which must be good considering how quiet it currently is but very strong SSW winds and rain are not necessarily much better......
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