Autumnal Sibe Jays

The hour and a half’s birding I had on my final day on Røst was a wet, windy and birdless affair but I had a feeling something would turn up later in the day and sure enough I received a photo of a Little Bunting trapped in the garden of our house as I sat waiting for my flight home from Bodø. The ferry ride gave many Fulmars and a single Storm Petrel. The ferry ride out was on calms seas and gave no Fulmars but the return trip was in windier conditions which obviously suited these stiff winged wanderers of the seas.

We are now in the mountains of Beitostølen. A trip on to Valdresflya was cold and the first snow of the year had fallen. The lakes which last year had held a surprising variety of wildfowl were completely birdless this year but there was a very heavy southward passage of Fieldfares with around a thousand birds passing in only half an hour.

The forests have given up Siberian Jays at a usual spot and there is clearly an invasion of Great Spotted Woodpeckers which was also evident on Røst.

Siberian Jay (lavskrike)

Must have just eaten something sticky!

Fieldfares (gråtrost) migrating south over Valdresflya

Winter at 1390m

But still autumn at 860m

Værøy seen from the ferry back from Røst