Norway in the birding limelight

I decided not to go birding today (other than a lightening trip into Maridalen to see if I could see a Yb Warbler that was reported there yesterday, argh!). There were still strong winds today but they had shifted more to the SW so I thought the chance of any seabirds in the inner Oslo fjord would be even less than yesterday so discounted the thought of another day’s sea gazing. Turns out that was a bad idea as an albatross (presumably Black-browed) was seen heading north in the middle of the day past Horten and would then most likely have been visible from where I was watching yesterday…….

Norway is having a great autumn for birds. In addition to all the goodies on Værøy, there have been another THREE White’s Thrushes this week, the (presumed) Alder Flycatcher that Tor found, a Western Bonelli’s also found by Tor and now a Red-necked Stint which was initially identified as a palmated-less Semi-P but then magnificently correctly identified as Europe’s first (live) 1cy Red-necked Stint by Tor (I want his babies!). Yoav Perlman has for some reason written an article on the Birding Frontiers website on this bird which rightly gives credit where it’s due but also doles out credit where it isn’t due such as to myself who I can safely say had no input into the correct ID of the bird other than perhaps liking a comment or two ;-)