The colder, the better!

 Winter on the Faroe Islands is usually rainy, windy, cold and dark, with snow usually limited to the mountainstops. But the recent coldspell caused by winds from the SE had pushed plenty of continental birds towards Faroe Islands. 12/2 I was doing surveys on behalf SEV and Tjóðsavni concerning the placement of windmills on the island of Sandoy. On the mountains we found several Snow Buntings and by Sandsvátn we found 3 Northern Lapwings, 3 Skylarks, 1 Eurasian Shelduck, all scarce visitors! Saturday me, Bartal and Silas decided to go to Suðuroy to see if the cold at pushed anything of interest to the island! We hoped for White's Thrush, Great Bittern and Blue Tit. Though none of that came true, we still managed to see some interesting birds. Highlights were Mistle Thrush, 14th record, Tundra Bean Goose, 22nd record and Little Grebe, 18th record, though my personal favourite was a 1st winter Kumliens' Gull that Silas found at Lopra. Other highlights were 4 Northern Lapwings, 5 Skylarks, 26 Great Northern Divers and the sheer amount of thrushes, with a estimate of 30-40 redwings of both ssp. iliacus and coburni, 15+ Fieldfares, 2 Song Thrushes and of course the Mistle Thrush, with the bulk of the thrushes being found in a single village, Porkeri. The bean goose was found while searching for the lapwings and the little grebe was found by a local birdwatcher!

Skylarks are very scarce to scarce visitors, with almost all records from autumn. 8 individuals in february is quite the number

Song Thrush is also a quite scarce species, that is almost always found during influxes, but two in february is quite the records

The star of the show! My second Mistle Thrush on Faroe Islands, with the last being in 2016

It doesn't get more faroese than this

Officially the most boring rarity to find on the faroe islands.

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.

Sandoy, 23/9-2025

 I went to Sandoy to looks for waders and ducks, though none of those would be the one to steal the headline. I started the day by checking the waters, Sandsvatn and the beach nearby. It held a Grey Heron, Common Shelduck and a swimming Manx Shearwater. Other plenty of ducks, but a quick call with Silas, changed my mind and I went to the three smaller villages towards south to check them for passerines. Skálavík had 1 Willow Warbler, 1 Goldcrest and 1-2 Blackcaps, Húsavík had a tick-bunting sp., 1 Reed Warbler and 1 Chaffinch. A call with Bartal ended with him driving to Sandoy, so I drove to Dalur, where Bartal would be joining me. Dalur held more birds, probably due to them being new arrivals, the village held 1 Pied Flycatcher, 2 Garden Warblers, 3 Blackcaps, 3 Lesser Whitethroats and 2 Goldcrests, which Bartal also saw.

After some rechecking of the gardens, me and Bartal agreed to split up, he would check Húsavík and Skálavík, while I checked the lakes for ducks and waders. I found nothing new and drove to Skópun, where there, again, was nothing to be found. While walking back to the car, thinking about checking Skálavík and Húsavík, when Bartal called and told me he had found a Blackpoll Warbler in Skálavík! I immediately jumped into the car and broke the record for fastest island travel, and after 10 minutes of looking it was riiiiight there! Holy shit what an insane bird and insane find by Bartal!

What a stunner!

Almost every single birder on Faroe Islands is on this picture

Four people ended twitching the bird after me, which is probably the biggest same day twitch ever on the Faroe Islands. After enjoying lovely views of this insane bird, I drove to Sandur and Sandsvatn to once again the lakes. While checking the lakes, I noticed how the amount of gulls had increased and they were flying around behind the harbour, so I drove there and walked out on the fjord-side. Quick scan of the rocks revealed a lovely Mediterranean Gull 1cy, the 4th record for Faroe Islands. Silas, Barbara and Bartal managed to twitch it and all was well in the world. I drove back home, and what a day!

Another rare gull, next one is hopefully something more extravagant...