Cycling my way to glory, of sorts

At noon I really felt that things were going Pete Tong and I was contemplating chucking in the towel. The winds today were from WNW and occasionally gusted at around 15m/s. This combined with frequent showers made birding unpleasant and initially unproductive. My pre-breakfast check of Nordland gave zero warblers, zero Goldcrests and just 2 Coal Tits of any interest although these were present yesterday. So the change in the weather hadn’t resulted in new birds but had allowed birds to move on from Værøy.

With John having gone home I was reliant on a bike to get around the island. It worked out very well and to be honest birding by bike here is much better than a combination of car and walking. It is less tiring, allows you to cover a lot of ground and you get to check out some areas (not necessarily productive ones) that you would have just driven past before.

The cycle from Nordland to the first gardens in Sørland took 20 minutes and I then headed directly to the Plantation as I reckoned this would be the most sheltered area of the island and have the biggest concentration of birds. A number of Coal Tits had congregated there with a minimum of 15 but other birds were present in very small numbers. I detected only 8 Goldcrests, 5 Chiffchaffs and 2 Yellow-browed Warblers so yet more sign of birds having cleared out but nothing new having arrived. As the morning wore on I had a little uplifting moment when one of the Yellow-browed’s call penetrated the drizzle and reminded me how lucky I was to be watching this great species so the day couldn’t be that bad really…. About this time small mixed flocks of thrushes appeared and were flying around calling and giving the impression of being very disorientated but also raising the hope that some birds may be arriving during the day.

As I cycled around the gardens I had another couple of groups of vocal Coal Tits but no more warblers of any kind and I didn’t see Hawk Owl or Great Grey Shrike. The two young male Ruffs were still present in their favoured garden but yesterday’s female has moved on. It was now noon and I was thinking that the only possibility to salvage something from the day was to cycle back to Nordland and try some seawatching. But wait a minute what was that call? It’s a Citrine Wagtail! And there it was above me not that I could see much more than it was a wagtail but shorter tailed than a White. It looked like it went down amongst some rocks but just then a squall came through and I could not find it again despite waiting and searching for a good half an hour. Reckoning that it would not be leaving the island in this weather I went about searching freshly cut lawns and any pools I could find to see if I could refind it. This did not result in anything other than a few White Wagtails and I then widened my search and checked out one of the areas of fish drying racks which normally holds good numbers of seedeaters. There was a very large flock of House Sparrows feeding here and amongst them yet another Værøy first: a Tree Sparrow. The fourth Værøy first of the trip (or at least according to Artsobservasjoner) but none of them has exactly been exciting..

Also here a few Redpolls and amongst them were two very smart Arctic Redpolls plus a number of birds that could well have been Arctics but who knows and given that the science is now telling us that all the redpolls are just one species which develops different plumage characters depending on where it lives then it would make sense that there are lots of intermediate looking birds.

I made the most of these Arctics because DNA aside they are really smart birds and one was when it flew a proverbial flying snowball. After these I was ready for another search for the wagtail. I had a hope that the Ruff garden would be a good place and would you believe it but 2 hours and 10 minutes after my initial encounter there was a smart Citrine Wagtail sitting by the road. Unfortunately it was not like last years bird and was quite flighty but did call loudly every time it flew. It soon flew a few hundred metres to the north and then a minute later I heard a Citrine to the south of me. I was wondering how it had managed to relocate without me noticing when the one from north flew towards me calling and then there were 2 Citrine Wagtails flying together. I saw roughly where they landed and cycled as quickly as I could in that direction only to inadvertently flush them from beside the road. They then flew to a large recently mown lawn where I watched them at distance in drizzle. Two Citrine Wagtails together – what a way to salvage the day!! The birds were quite different although both were 1cy. One had much more grey on the flanks and had a less distinct white border to the ear coverts but never-the-less was a Citrine. I didn’t manage to get too close to them so the pictures are just of the documentation variety but maybe tomorrow I’ll have another chance.

At 1530 I really was finished and headed for the north with the plan to have a long warm shower and then man up for a bit of seawatching. I put my plan into action and at 1640 was sat with the scope looking out North West over the sea. Gannets and Kittiwakes were flying around but nothing more interesting until at 1700 I had a Norwegian tick – a Sooty Shearwater (grålire) headed south and gave a great display of shearing with high bounding arc on stiff wings which I was able to follow for a couple of minutes. 15 minutes after this a bank of cloud and rain came in and I cycled as fast as I could back to the hotel. And that was my birding day – 11 hours birding, 1 Norwegian tick, a Værøy X and a couple of Citrine Wags – got to be happy with that!

the first Citrine Wagtail (sitronerle)

same bird

same bird

the two Citrine Wagtail gether. The bird on the right is the same as the bird above whereas the bird on the left has much duskier flanks and a less obvious white frame/border to the ear coverts

bird one together with a White Wagtail

 

Tree Sparrow (pilfink)

spot the odd one out

for a long time I thought this would be the picture of the day but luckily things improved

 a better picture of Yellow-browed Warbler (gulbrynsanger)

 

Some Arctic Redpolls (polarisik)



the bird on the right is a classic "snowball" but the bird on the left is less clear although was also an Arctic for me

the Snowball

an intermediate bird with perhaps too many black feathers in the undertail coverts

another bird that is difficult but has a tiny bill and nice beige colours but again probably too many and too large black feathers in the undertail coverts to fit the classic description of an "Arctic" but where do you draw the line in a clinal morphological species?

should be little doubt about this one

but what about this one?

the snow ball again with a couple of other sp.

looking good

snow ball - note a single thin black feather in undertail coverts

snow ball but notice the long black flank streak

this streaked individual is not an arctic but is it a Scandinavian bird or from further west?

one of at least 31 Coal Tits (svartmeis) today

part of a large flock of House Sparrows (gråspurv)

female House Sparrow

Male House Sparrow

 



Værøy 2015 day 3

Well today didn’t live up to expectations despite there being cloud cover overnight and some drops of rain in the air. Nordland which we bird between dawn at 0630 and breakfast at 0830 had much fewer birds and the only warbler was a Chiffchaff. There were also very few birds in the air and little sign of any new birds having arrived except for 2 Coal Tits which were moving quickly through the bushes heading east suggesting that they had overshot Værøy during the night and had reoriented and had come in from the west.

The south of the island had a bit more to offer and today we breached double figures for Yellow-browed Warbler with 11 birds seen. Coal Tits totalled 20 birds which is a significant arrival and they were all very noisy unlike most of the warblers which we had to work hard to find. We had 13 Chiffchaff, 2 Willow Warblers and a Blackcap. Sylvia warblers have been very scarce this year and I have still to see Lesser Whitethroat or Barred Warbler which are normally regular here. The only obvious new bird of the day was a single Pied Flycatcher although there were now 2 Hawk Owls. The Great Grey Shrike was still present although I’ve received feedback that it is well within the variation of Scandinavian breeding birds so nothing really points to it being homeyeri although I do think the bird is quite different to ones I am used to seeing.

We had a very interesting warbler which we had at first taken to be a worn adult Chiffchaff but simultaneously both John and I were watching it again and got a feeling of Bonelli’s. We watched it for a long time but couldn’t see a bright rump but neither did we hear it call and just felt perplexed as to what it was. Eventually though after over half an hour it did call and revealed it to be a Chiffchaff but it was a very strange bird (see pictures).

We found a Jack Snipe in flight which came at us along the road before swerving away from John and landing close by. We were unable to locate it on the ground but it flew up just a couple of metres from our feet.

John has left now so I will be birding the island on my own for the next two days. Winds tomorrow are switching to NW which doesn’t sound ideal except for some seawatching but there will be rain so maybe there will a fall of passerines aswell – always the optimist!

Yellow-browed Warbler (gulbrynsanger)

 

Hawk Owl (haukugle)

Hawkie in natural habitat

very dodgy Chiffchaff but in the end call gave it away. It was also constantly tail wagging normal Chiffchff manner. I found the pale bill especially unusual.

Pied Flycatcher (svarthvit fluesnapper)

female juvenile Ruff (brushane)

Wigeon (brunnakke)

another Wigeon

1cy Merlin (dvergfalk)

 

Værøy 2015 day 2

It’s been a long day – over 12 hours in the field - and up until mid-afternoon I was thinking the day had been a success but then a couple of (not that rare) birds changed things. Despite the easterly winds there is too little cloud cover to push many birds down so there was no big fall although in the morning there was some viz mig and during the afternoon a number of obvious birds popped up which we hadn’t seen in the morning suggesting that they had arrived during the day.

As it’s late and I need to hit the sack to be ready for whatever tomorrow has in store for me then I’ll try to keep things short. A minimum of 8 Yellow-browed Warblers would at most localities have made the day but this being Værøy, the Yellow-browed capital of Europe, then this was a poor count. The Wood Warbler was still present, at least two smart Redpolls of the Arctic colour morph/form/species/subspecies/whatever you choose to call it and 6 species of raptor (including Rough-legged Buzzard and Golden Eagle) were quality. Goldcrests were very common, indeed commoner than I can remember on any previous visit and 12 Coal Tits including a fast moving flock of 9 were new in and very scare here (these are part of an invasion which saw 50,000 counted recently in the space of only 5 hours in Estonia).

The two birds that made the afternoon were first a Hawk Owl in the plantation which we hadn’t seen in the morning and then a Great Grey Shrike which again we hadn’t noted previously. We heard the shrike calling and then hovering at some height seemingly looking for food. This bird had a lot of white in the wing, tail and a very noticeably white rump which are features that suggest an easterly origin (ssp. homeyeri).

It would also appear that we had 2 3 new species for Værøy: Coal Tit, Great Grey Shrike and Rough-legged Buzzard. Today was therefore something quite special even if nothing was rare on a national level.

It is supposed to cloud over tonight so we have high expectations for tomorrow and have to at least match the Red-flanked Bluetail found today on the neighbouring island of Røst.

 

Arctic Redpoll (polarsisik) left, Common Redpoll (right) and a juvenile of one of the forms at the bottom

Two adult like Arctic Redpolls and a juvenile Redpoll sp

2 fast moving Coal Tits (svartmeis) part of a flock of nine and seemingly Værøy's first record

a slow moving Coal Tit

Goldcrest (fuglekonge)

Great Grey Shrike with feature suggesting ssp homeyeri. This is also Værøy's first record of GG Shrike

Hawk Owl

This Herring Gull (gråmåke) has been fitted with a device to record where it goes. It was fitted in June 2014 at the breeding sight 185km from where we saw it but has not been sighted again before today and the device has obviously not been removed and the data read. Let is hope this bird has not been the unwilling subject of citizen science for nothing

the electronic circuitry of the impressive piece of technology can be easily seen

Rough-legged Buzzard (fjellvåk) apparently Værøy's second first record

Yellow-browed Warbler (gullbrynsanger)