Værøy 2026 day 5

My last full day was again a day where the weather forecast was thankfully wrong and the 11m/s winds that were being forecast were replaced with often windless conditions.

Unfortunately there was still a lack of new and exciting birds with one very obvious exception. Yesterday evening Kjell and Stein had driven to the north of the island whilst I stayed in the south. When they were leaving as it was getting dark a Hoopoe had flown up in front of the car only to vanish. I drove out at sunrise this morning and the bird was by the road in exactly the same spot! I was able to drive back and collect the other two and we saw it well at a distance before it suddenly walked off the edge of the road and just vanished which is quite good going for such an obvious species as a Hoopoe.

A good couple of hours later as we were trying to get views of a skulky warbler the Hoopoe flew over us but again just disappeared after looking to land 100m away. We never found out what the warbler was and only ever saw it in flight for a couple of seconds but Blyth’s Reed would be the most likely candidate.

Otherwise the Wood produced a Redstart although I would have preferred something similar with blue in the name. The Rosefinch was still present but I finished the day without a Yellow-browed Warbler which is good going on Værøy!

I leave at 1330 tomorrow and will take the ferry to Bodø before flying back to Oslo. I chose the ferry as it gives the chance of seabirds such as shearwaters and petrels. The forecast is for strong winds though which can make for a very uncomfortable crossing so I may be spending most of time bent over the toilet… I will hopefully get some birding in before I leave as long as the winds are, again, less than forecast.

Hoopoe (hærfugl)

Today’s sunrise at 07:33

The ferry I will be taking tomorrow

Looking to the south

On the left is the Wood (skogen) and to the right the area where bird ringing is carried out