Immigrant from the PNW is still hanging around!

It has been quiet on the Faroe Islands, not much is happening, but that is to be expected as the period from late february to start april is usually quiet, except all the breeding birds are slowly trickling in.

28th february I decided to check Eysturoy and there was not much to see, except large numbers of Great Northern Divers and Slavonian Grebe. I went to Gjógv, the northernmost village on Eysturoy and extremely isolated. It was one of the last spots on the Faroe Islands where Tree Sparrow was breeding and also the last spot I saw them, back in 2021. I drove straight up there, a long trip high up in the mountains, before slowly descending into the valley, the village is situated in. A quick scan of the sea yielded two Iceland Gulls and 46 Long-tailed Ducks! Which is an insane number for Faroe Islands. A walk in the village yielded no sparrows, no House Sparrows or Tree Sparrows, so I put up the scope and decided to check the sea. Nothing worth mentioning, except that five Long-tailed Ducks were swimming inbetween the rocks below, so I got a nice photo sesh out of it. I drove to Eiði to see if anything was swimming around and the local Velvet Scoter was surprisingly still hanging around, otherwise nothing worth mentioning. Hvalvík was also checked on the way home and the local Moorhen was also hanging around at the exact spot I found it in 23/11-2025. 

1st March I went to Vágar hoping the strong winds and rain had pushed anything interesting to the shores. I started near the tunnels where a Common Scoter and loads of gulls were hanging around, which is always a good sign, so I quickly jumped into the car and headed straight for Miðvági, where there again were plenty of gulls, but I could find anything rare, though 130 black-headed gulls is quite a high number for Faroe Islands. I could also see that it was a quite strong low tide, exposing large swaths of the beach, which means that Sørvági have a very low tide, which indicates that there will be loads of gulls. And indeed there were. Inbetween all the herring gulls and black-headed gulls I saw a familiar face: the Short-billed Gull I found 4th january was walking around on the beach!!! I called Silas and then I slowly walked towards the gull to see if I could get some nice photos, but the strong wind blew me around like a plastic bag, which made it hard, but not impossible. It took off and landed on the opposite end of the beach so I let it be and drove to my special seabirdwatching spot. Many eiders and alcids, but nothing crazy, except 15 Harbour Porpoises were swimming around in the waves, which was quite cool! After an hour of obs I drove to the beach again to see if anything new had arrived. Nothing new had arrived but I could see the Short-billed Gull fishing near a pier, so I drove to the pier in hopes of getting some close up views. I started throwing bread out and among the many gulls that arrived, there it was! What a redemption! I got some okay views when I first found it, but finally I could indulge in this cool-looking visitor from PNW! After some time it went back to the beach, where got some last photos and then I drove back home.

So nothing new, but plenty of familiar faces.

The flying polar bear is honoring us with a visit - a five star weekend

 In the weekend from 22/11-23/11 I was doing a geese survey for the Faroese National Museum, counting the wintering population of geese and swan. Me and Bartal surveyed Suðuroy on 22/11 and Streymoy 23/11. Of course the main goal was counting geese but we were hopeful of finding something "fun" ie. rare. The survey on Suðuroy took us all over the place with highlights being 51 Purple Sandpipers at Famijn and a Great Cormorant at Hvalba, and after finishing surveying the entire island, we hurried back to Hvalba to give at last do-over at Kjógvavatn, the nr. 1 gull-spot in Faroe Islands. Parked the car and immediately a smaller gull standing next to the black-headed gulls. I got the scope out and saw pink/flesh coloured feet, black bill and greyish neck - Bonaparte's Gull! 4th record for Faroe Islands, a last minute bird and it very quickly flew off, showing of its dainty, ternlike features and translucent wings, like an arctic tern.

Flesh coloured legs and dainty black bill = Bonaparte's Gull

I was surprised how tiny it was compared to the black-headed gulls, I thought that first I was looking at a Little Gull

Me and Bartal were excited and the sun set in west, we then went to the ferry harbour and waited for the boat. While waiting, we talked about the we only needed to find Ivory Gull and Ross's Gull and then we are set with rare gulls on Faroe Islands, with a crazy streak of Caspian Gull, Mediterranean Gull and Little Gull (all of them actually seen at the same spot as the Bonaparte's Gull), but while talking we found out that someone had asked in the FB-group "Fuglar í Føroyum" if the bird he had taken a video of was "an albino gull" - NOPE, IVORY GULL! Immediately we started planning when and how, but we knew that it had to wait 24/11, since we had one day of surveying left, and we started counting the seconds until we could go see it.

The next day we started the surveying on Streymoy, with high hopes of finding something fun once again. Bartal wanted to see Common Moorhen and Bullfinch, both annual, both rare birds on Faroe Islands. After several hours of driving we were finally heading to Saksun and we started talking about the ducks we wanted to see, and we started talking about how it had been a few years since the last American Black Duck was seen on Faroe Islands, and no kidding, when we reached the lake right before Saksun, there were five ducks, two teals, two mallards and one American Black Duck! We got out and got some nice photos and then we kept going, we had geese to count. When we arrived at Hvalvík, we found a flock of geese and while counting a Common Moorhen jumped out from a bush and standing feeding with the geese! A nice bird up here far north and very unexpected. We then drove towards Tjørnuvík, which is as far north as you can go on Streymoy by car, seeing no geese along the way, and stopped for 10 minutes at the village. While checking the cliffs for geese, Bartal called and said he had found a Bullfinch! a nice female, showing extremely well and offering some nice photo opportunities. It flew off and we went on our merry way, what a crazy day!

Last time I saw it was in 2010 at 300 meters distance, this was an amazing redemption

Spot on, though the white edge at the back of the speculum looks a bit strong...

Non-breeding adult, a nice addition to the Faroe Islands List

As per usual on Faroe Islands, the birds offer amazing views!

The next day we went almost straight to Klaksvík after we dropped off a good friend of mine at the airport, though we checked the harbours along the way, with Silas offering reassurance that the Ivory Gull was still there by sending photos and video along the way. When we arrived we couldn't find it immediately at the harbour, but we found it on the opposite side of the coast and we hurried towards it, and there we could see it at close range and with an amazing backdrop! Wow, amazing, insane and many other superlatives could describe this bird, probably top 3 birds I have seen, I hope it stays for a long time, I am definitely going to visit it again, spend some hours with it - a dream come true. After the gull we went to Viðareiði to see if we can find another rarity, but no dice and drove home while eating some well-deserved hotdogs. 

What a three day streak of star birds, I hope the rest of winter will be like this, Ross's Gull next?

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.