Røst day 2

My second day on Røst, although the first in daylight was a great success even if there was no major rarity (Norway’s second Two-barred Greenish Warbler which was found earlier in the week has unfortunately moved on now). This is actually my third visit to Røst after a summer visit in 2000 when I saw Snowy Owl and a visit in late September 2003 when I stayed for a couple of days without seeing too much (although my name is the NSKF rarities report for being a co-finder of an American Golden Plover which I remember very little about).

We were 8 birders on Røst today and the nature of the island makes it much easier to cover on foot than Værøy and with far less vegetation then we should discover a far higher percentage of the birds present than on Værøy. Røst has far more wetlands than Værøy so there are many more waders and ducks but there are fewer passerines especially thrushes and finches.

I have walked 28,473 steps today and am rather knackered so I will keep this brief now😊. The two highlights for me were an adult Gyr Falcon close enough for photos (all my previous sightings of Gyr have been long distance) and hearing, and of course seeing, Yellow-browed Warbler which is a very necessary part of every autumn.

Other good birds were Olive-backed Pipit, Tree Pipit (which is rarer here than OBP), Taiga Bean Goose, Arctic Redpoll and my first Black-tailed Godwit in Norland. The full eBird checklist can be seen here.

Looking north with Værøy to the right and the rest of the Lofoten islands

Sunrise on Røst

Looking south

Yellow-browed Warbler (gulbrynsanger)

Adult Gyr Falcon (jaktfalk)

Olive-backed Pipit (sibirpiplerke)

And for comparison a Tree Pipit (trepiplerke)

Black-tailed Godwit (svarthalespove)

Arctic Redpoll (polarsisik)

Golden Plover (heilo)

Long-tailed Duck (havelle)

Taiga Bean Goose - a large billed bird that may come from a long way east in Russia

Røst day 1

Although I arrived after dark I have still had some good birding today. The 3 and a half hour ferry trip on flat seas gave me a  White-billed Diver, 5 Storm Petrels and a Sooty Shearwater!

Then once I arrived at my base (John Stenersen’s «cabin») I was straight out to look for Jack Snipe! My thermal camera worked wonders in the dark and 5 were found! We also found Common Snipe, Golden Plover and Dunlin. 4 Olive-backed Pipits were found today so my hoped for tommorrow are very high!

Some pictures

White-billed Diver (gulnebblom) taken from inside the ferry

Then the picture quality fell - this is a Sooty Shearwater (grålire)

Jack Snipe at night

Værøy…

Storm Petrel (havsvale…)

Røst

Jack Snipe photographering

More Jack Snipe

 I couldn’t resist trying out the thermal imager again yesterday and found no fewer than 6 different Jack Snipe and didn’t flush a single one!

I am sitting on the bus to the way to the airport and my trip to Røst so my thoughts turn to different birds. I will not get there until dark this evening so will not be seeing any sibes until tomorrow but will have the ferry journey from Bodø which may give me some seabirds.

here it is almost possible to identify the bird just from its thermal image

3 birds close to each other

close up of back feathers

can you find the Jack Snipe?

Thermal Imager

 Over the last couple of years I have seen that more and more birders (mostly UK rather than Norwegians) are using thermal imagers to help find birds. They don’t just work in the dark for finding for example owls but also work very well in the daytime with well camouflaged species that choose to rely on their camouflage and sit motionless. One of very favourite species, and my obsession last winter, Jack Snipe is a species that I have noticed to be often found with the use of thermal imagers.

The choice of models is increasing and price falling and I wished for one for my birthday and was lucky enough to be lucky 😊. I had taken it with me on my trip to Store Færder but it had not revealed anything other moths flying around  in the dark so at least I knew it worked with small subjects. Today I decided to take it with me to a favoured snipe site and put it through its paces. My first sweep over the wet field revealed loads of hot spots but switching to binoculars I could see no birds. I eventually located a couple of Meadow Pipits but there were far more things out there. It was difficult to judge range and size but after some Common Snipe flew up I got a better idea of what I was seeing. I then started to really study the hot spots and use my bins and eventually found a motioneless Jack Snipe hidden in the grass. I have of course managed this before but it will be far less hit and miss now and hopefully result in less flushing of birds. I was also able to locate Water Rail in the reedbed and Song Thrushes in long grass that I would otherwise not have seen. This technology is a real game changer but does feel a bit like cheating.

 

I am off to the famous vagrant island of Røst on Thursday (I was supposed to go to Værøy for the first time since Covid but circumstances necessitated a change of plans ad I think Røst will do very nicely) and I am now looking to finding loads of locustellas hiding in the grass  with my new toy😊 

Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin) through the thermal imager

and through the bazooka

the colours on the back are just amazing

and a Common Snipe (enkelbekkasin) that allowed itself to be viewed

spot the birdy

a couple of unexpected waders were 2 late Curlew (storspove) and a Greenshank (gluttsnipe)

the new kit

Parrot Crossbill (furukorsnebb) is one of the most infuriating species we have - is it really a species? or just a clinal extreme? and where do you draw the line beween a large billed "Common" Crossbill and a small billed "Parrot". This bird does I think safely come in to thesall billed Parrot category and there seems to be a small invasion of them at the moment