Værøy

We are on the island of Værøy now at the end of the chain of Lofoten Islands. The ferry journey from Bodø gave me Storm Petrel (havsvale), Great Skua (storjo), Artic Skua (tyvjo), Gannet (havsule) and Fulmar (havhest).  On the island there have been no big surprises yet but 5 young Pintail (stjertand) indicate local breeding and a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls (sildemåke) are of the race graellsii with one intermedius. Graellsii is the race breeding in the British Isles and Intermedius the race breeding in southern Norway. So with the fuscus i saw a few days ago I have seen all three of the European races. Passerines are scarce here but Ring Ouzels (ringtrost) breed and are always a nice sight. Razzorbills (alke), Puffins (lunde) and Black Guillemots are common around the island and breed but have I yet to see Guillemot ( lomvi) which is becoming a very scarce breeding bird. Three White-tailed Eagles (havørn) and a Kestrel (tårnfalk) are the only raptors we have seen.