Værøy 2018 Day 3

The weather today was conducive to birding with no rain after 10am and little wind but there were no new passerines to find with one notable exception. Kjell (who else?) found a Red-flanked Bluetail but it was not seen properly by anyone else and not seen in any form by yours truly.

A 1^st winter Iceland Gull was new and showed very well and is a very early record and there were also some large, brown Redpolls which were probably also from Greenland/Iceland so the westerly winds have deposited some birds here (along with yesterday’s Redwing).

The good weather did allow us to find what was hanging around and I had 7 Yellow-browed Warblers along with Pied Fly, Lesser Whitethroat and Garden Warbler. Raptors were also up in the air and I had White-tailed and Golden Eagles, Merlin and Sparrowhawk.

Tomorrow is my last day and should be the best day based on the forecast so let’s hope it is.

snow fell overnight on the higher peaks in Lofoten (here looking north from Værøy)

the 1st winter Iceland Gull (grønnlandsmåke) in the surf

the outer webs of the primaries are dark which from memory might make this a kumliens

although look how on this picture the outer webs look pale

Merlin (dvergfalk)

Starling (stær)

adult White-tailed Eagle (havørn)

the obligatory shot of a Yellow-browed Warbler (gulbrynsanger)

Bar-tailed Godwit (lappspove)