Værøy day 2

When the first bird you see when you walk out of the door at 0630 is a Barred Warbler (hauksanger) then that must be a good omen and when you find bag a self found Norwegian tick then the day has to be go down as a good one.

After the Barred Warbler it was actually quite quiet and I didn’t have a Yellow-browed Warbler (gulbrynsanger) until gone 2pm although 3 more quickly followed. I did also have 4 separate sightings of Barred Warbler although can only be certain they refer to 2 separate birds. A Bluethroat (blåstrupe) was a good autumn record although they do breed on the island – in fact over the last 4 autumns there have been more September records of Red-flanked Bluetail (blåstjert)!

What was the self found tick? A Citrine Wagtail (sitronerle). I picked it up first as it flew over calling although couldn’t be completely certain that it wasn’t an eastern Yellow Wagtail. Not too long afterwards though it flew over again and this time landed on a roof top. It showed well and allowed its identity to be confirmed before then joining a couple of White Wags (linerle) in a garden and showing very well and allowing everyone including the house owner to enjoy it. I refound the same bird later in the day in another part of the island again in the company of white Wags and walking on the road – not exactly how you expect to find this bird.

Other decent birds were Brent Goose (ringgås), Glaucous Gull (polarmåke), Lesser Whitethroat (møller) probably of an eastern race and Garden Warbler (hagesanger). There was only one good species I missed which was Sooty Shearwater (grålire) which rather embarrassingly, as I was kindly reminded,  would be a Norwegian tick for me.

1 cy Citrine Wagtail (sitronerle)

it found quite a few insects to eat

feeding on the road later in the day

Glaucous Gull (polarmåke) assumed to be a 4cy

Barred Warbler (hauksanger)

some wing bars