OSLO BIRDER: Værøy day 1

Well I made it to Værøy but my 3 day old telephone has decided to stop working as a telephone although will still connect to the wireless network where I am staying. This lack of a telephone will make it rather difficult to get around (I was going to use taxi to get from the north to the south of the island) plus how am I going to phone out the news when I strike gold?

No gold yet but the day started incredibly unexpectedly. I had a two hour layover at Bodø airport and as I have also done the last two years I went to the cemetery just 5 minutes walk from the terminal. My hope has always been to find a Yellow-browed Warbler here and although this has yet to happen there have always been a lot of birds to see there. On the walk from the terminal I did not register a single bird and as I walked into the cemetery it was also silent. Then finally I saw a bird, it was medium sized and flying straight towards me. My first reaction of Wood Pigeon was almost immediately switched to WTF a Hawk Owl!! One of my absolute favourite birds here?!? It showed really well as it looked for rodents in long grass along the edge of the cemetery where it received quite a bit of unwanted attention from a Crow.

Other than this there were hardly any birds to see with a couple of Chiffchaffs the only warblers.

So what did Værøy have to offer? I only had just over 2 hours and spent this around where I am staying in Nordland. I did have a Værøy tick in the form of a Wood Warbler but only one Yellow-browed Warbler was hardly what I was expecting. The bird didn’t even call either and the call is half the excitement with this species. Let is hope that the next few days and some clouds and rain will change things.