Wednesday 27 September 2017

Værøy 2017 day 6 SIBERIAN STONECHAT

It was unlikely that my last day of Værøy 2017 could beat my second to last day but a good day it was. It started a bit too windy (but from the east) but soon calmed down however it was pretty much a cloudless day and many birds had cleared out. I only saw 10 Yellow-browed Warblers although I do realise that for anywhere in Europe the word “only” would be replaced by “an amazing” ;-) I heard an Olive-backed Pipit and Tree Pipit and for the first time believed that even I can tell them apart on call. Neither was seen though and surprisingly the Tree Pipit is my first for both Værøy and Nordland county.

We had a couple of Hawk Owls including one which was delivered to us after having hit a window and didn’t look like it would recover, I enjoyed myself with a couple of Bar-tailed Godwits (will get their own posting) and 4 Blackcaps doubled my sightings of sylvia warblers for the whole trip.


These though were only the sideshow for the day’s highlight which as usual was found by Kjell. A Siberian Stonechat was my third Norwegian and second Værøy record of this species whilst I have still to see its European cousin which evens breeds occasionally in Norway. This bird showed quite well although not in the same league as the bird I saw here in 2012. I’ll only post pictures and a video of this species now and will come back with more later.

Siberian Stonechat (asiasvartstrupe) - next stop that way is the North Pole














2 comments:

  1. really interesting blogg for sure. How often is there birders on rost? Also, can you get there by boat? i mean a regular boat with like a 30 hp engine.

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  2. Røst which is the nieghbouring island to Værøy is served by a daily ferry and flight from Bodø so is easy to get to. In the autumn there are a birders on Røst in the last week of September and first week of October. Check out Røst Fuglestasjon on Facebook

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