October and start November

 The last month has been hectic, birdwise, with many really good birds found. To go through every birding day would be a literary hassle, I will write the highlights:

Red-eyed Vireo! first record for Faroe Islands, found by me and Frederik Johansen in Dalur, Sandoy 30/9-2025. What a bird! Offered absolutely insane views and is the bird of the autumn.

Hume's Leaf Warbler 2nd record for Faroe Islands, Haldórsvík, Streymoy, 28/10-2025. Was in the village for two days at least, twitched by four people.

Hornemann's Redpoll, 4th record for Faroe Islands, found by me at Húsavík, Sandoy, 30/9-2025, seen with Frederik Johansen and Kristoffer Høyer

Olive-backed Pipit, 4th record for Faroe Islands, Sandavági, Vágar, 3/10-2025, in the plantation, seen by me, Frederik Johansen, Kristoffer Høyer

Sandwich Tern, 7th record for Faroe Islands, Sandagerið, Tórshavn, 20/10-2025, found by me, seen by multiple birdwatchers over several days

Grey Phalarope, 8th record for Faroe Islands, Miðvági, Vágar, 7/11-2025, found by me, seen by Sarah Partridge

Sabine's Gull, 11th record for Faroe Islands, Nólsoy, 22/10-2025, found by me, an 2cy+ bird migrating south.

Marsh Warbler, 20th record for Faroe Islands, Sørvági, Vágar, 5/10-2025, found by me and seen by Frederik Johansen, Kristoffer Høyer and Bartal G. Simonsen

Glossy Ibis, 2 individuals, 8th record for Faroe Islands, Sandavági, Vágar, 5/11-2025, found by me, migrating NE.

So plenty of nice rarities, with other birds found by other birdwatchers, such as Rustic Bunting, Siberian Stonechat, Little Bunting, Dusky Warbler, Goldfinch, Melodious Warbler and a Scarlet Tanager, that was only seen by a non-birder through his window. 

Of scarcities, Yellow-browed Warbler was somewhat scarce with "only" ca. 30 individuals seen, Common Rosefinch 2, Bluethroat 2, Tree Pipit 6-8, Ring-necked Duck 3 (1 ad. male, 2 1k), Great Cormorant 1, European Turtle Dove 2, Quail 3, Whinchat 6, Barred Warbler 10-15, Bar-tailed Godwit 4, Eurasian Coot 1, Little Egret 6, Eur. Kestrel approx. 10, Crossbill 1, Jackdaw 1, King Eider 1, Wood Warbler 3, Spotted Flycatcher 6-8, Pied Flycatcher 10-14!, Hawfinch 1 and plenty other birds that I don't remember.

Other highlights were 650+ Sooty Shearwaters, 160+ Manx Shearwaters and 3 Euro. Storm Petrel at Æðuvík 1/10-2025, which was an absolutely crazy sightning and shows how much unrealised potential as a seabird-watching location.

We are slowly reaching the end for the "autumn" season, and are gearing into winterbirding with ducks, gulls and maybe a rare alcid.

Bluethroat 1cy, Sørvági, 3/10. Was once a report-species but is regarded as very scarce to rare visitor

Skulky but charismatic, this pipit showed itself reasonably well and was a great mood-lifter

1 hour before I dropped of Kristoffer and Frederik, I found this LBJ jumping around in a tiny bush. Initially we thought hippolais/iduna, but quickly the ID landed on Marsh Warbler.

A species I never get tired of is Yellow-browed Warbler, which several of the ones I found showing incredibly well

Finally a proper yank-duck!

While it rained and stormed, I checked the local beach to see anything was blown in, I was treated with great views of this quite rare species. First autumn record for Faroe Islands too.

A huge fallout of blackcaps all over Faroe Islands. On Nólsoy atleast 50 of them across the day were seen, with regular flocks perching on the fences crisscrossing the island

A very scarce visitor, though more common than we thought, as I have found on my own, atleast 5-6 of them

Common Crossbill/"British Crossbill" call-type N6

Absolute stunner on a very grey and cold day, this phylloscopus was feeding in the trees with two goldcrests and 1 siberian chiffchaff

Like a tristis YBW

King Eider was once thought to be a scarce visitor, but this is apparently the first record for Faroe Islands since 2021, also a female at Kirkjubø - Might end up as report-species?

Finally! It was my turn to see a Glossy Ibis, as I found these two coming in from the sea, continuing towards NE. These were the 3. and 4. individuals this autumn, though since yesterday we might be up to 6 now, along with rumors of a flock of 10 were seen somewhere on Vágar.

Quite the surprise as I found this one migrating in from the sea, landed for 2 minutes, before returning back to the sea. Surprisingly it is a report-species.

Autumn continues 11/9 - 14/9

 11/9 I decided to go on a half-day trip to Kirkjubø and Eiði with Barbara, a local birdwatcher. Kirkjubø didn't yield anything too crazy, so we went to Hvalvík plantation to meet up with Bartal, another young local birdwatcher. 1 1/2 hour yielded 1 Hawfinch, 1 Reed Warbler, 4 Willow Warblers and 4 Blackcaps. Hawfinch is a very scarce visitor with very few records annually, so a nice addition. We then went to Eiði, where we immediately saw a large amount of passerines everywhere and good amount of birds on the northern shoreline. Barbara had to leave, so it was just me and Bartal left to check the entire village, which proved to be a very fruitful endeavour. After almost 4 hours of birding we were left with a, for faroese standards, very impressive list! Highlights were: 2 Pied Flycatchers (1-5 pr. year), 1 Spotted Flycatcher (5-20 pr. year), Sedge Warbler (1-3 pr. year), 1 Reed Warbler (5-20 pr. year) and 2 Bar-tailed Godwits (1-2 pr. year). Otherwise large numbers of blackcaps, willow warblers and 1 Garden Warbler.

Pied Flycatcher

Sedge Warbler

Bar-tailed Godwit

13/9 I picked up Bartal and went to the northernmost village reachable by car, Viðareiði, one of the best hotspots in Faroe Islands. We arrived around 7 in the morning and immediately started checking the gardens and immediately we found the first few passerines. It was a busy morning and after six hours of birding we had checked the village twice. Highlights were: 1 Icterine Warbler, 15th record for the Faroe Islands, 1 Sedge Warbler, 1 Spotted Flycatcher, 1 House Martin, 1 Ruff and numbers of Blackcaps, Willow Warbler and Lesser Whitethroat. We drove south and checked some other villages while driving back to Tórshavn, with highlights being Common Swift, Garden Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat and Slavonian Grebe.

Sedge Warbler

Icterine Warbler

Painted Lady, a rare butterfly on Faroe Islands

Ruff

Tired from the day before, I decided to go to Nólsoy as the southeasterlies were looking promising. I arrived at 0950 and started checking the village, with the first warbler I flushed from a garden being a Barred Warbler! A very scarce autumn visitor with 1-10 pr. year. The first few rounds didn't yield too much, with Willow Warbler and Blackcap being the dominant species, though 1 Spotted Flycatcher was seen shortly. I decided to wait for the next arrival of passerines, that usually reach Faroe Islands around 1300-1400 from Shetland and Norway. I started checking the gardens again at 1330 and immediately I found a second Barred Warbler and more willow warblers and blackcaps. Other new arrivals were 1 Goldcrest, 1 Spotted Flycatcher, 1 Garden Warbler and a total of 2 Barred Warblers, so a day total of 3 Barred Warblers! Though the most exciting bird was a Grasshopper Warbler that I flushed in the old Helgoland Trap garden. It posed for a full minute before scurrying away like locustellas usually do. I messaged everyone and Bartal decided to twitch it and two hours later he arrived and we managed against all odds to find it again and even get even better photos of it! He also saw two of the Barred Warblers, Spotted Flycatcher and Garden Warbler.

A funny fact about the Grasshopper Warbler records on the Faroe Islands, is that the first two records were caught in the helgoland trap in 1997 and this record, 18 years later this bird was found only 10 meters away from the helgoland trap, where the two other records were caught!

Barred Warbler nr. 1

Exceptionally confiding Grasshopper Warbler

Barred Warbler nr. 2

Spotted Flycatcher

Now, 15/9, I am waiting for the next trip to Suðuroy with the faroese ornithological association, where we are staying in Sumba for three days.