Five hours of sunlight and plenty a wind

 The days are indeed getting shorter and shorter now. The wind is rarely less than 8 m/s and rain showers the islands periodically, yet there are birds to find, if one looks hard enough. The passerines is not a priority, but five Siberian Chiffchaffs at once in my garden, with a Blackcaps on 26/11 is quite the record! We very rarely get any warblers this late in the year, 28/11 yielded another Eurasian Coot in the local harbour, while I was getting the boat storm-ready, sadly not an American Coot, but any time now, we should get another record. Otherwise, highlights have been a Rook over Tórshavn 5/12, Common Pochard in Gróthúsvatn, along with a male Goosander, Common Shelduck in Sandsvatn, Little Grebe at Heimara Hálsavatn 17th record for Faroe Islands and one of my personal highlights: A nice adult male King Eider in Sørvágsfjørður on 7/12.

Barely annual on the Faroe Islands

Common Pochard and Common Merganser together

Little Grebe - Found it while driving 80 km/h past a lake, made a U-turn and boom, there it was

In the cover of my car, I scanned 600+ eiders, there it was!

So there is no lack of niceties on the Faroe Islands. But winter is for the gulls, and I have had two gull-highlights: A 1cy Great Black-backed Gull X Glaucous Gull at Vestmanna 29/11-2025 and a 2cy mystery gull at Skansin in Tórshavn 12/12 - 2025

Large GBBG-like gull with bicoloured bill with a shape inbetween GBBG and Glaucous Gull

Pale underparts and non-black primaries.

Like an opaque GBBG

But the real nutcracker of a gull was a this one. I can not share any informed opinion of my own, as I am in the deep end with this bird. 

It is slowly slowing down

 With only 5:30 hours of daylight nowadays birding is somewhat limited, but it is still possible to find some fun stuff. The gulls haven't really arrived in any substantial numbers yet, though 2 Iceland Gulls at Toftavatn was a nice reminder that winter is indeed coming. Duck-wise, nothing crazy has happened, except Goldeneyes have arrived in numbers now, with 1 at Vatn í Eiði and 4 at Sandsvatn and numbers of wigeons has also increased with minim. 125 at Sandsvatn, along with a day total of 7 Grey Herons and arrivals of Greater Scaups. 

But! There are still some fun birds around. 10/11, a visit at Viðareiði yielded 3 Siberian Chiffchaffs, 1 Fieldfare, 1 Woodcock, 1 European Goldfinch, 1 Barn Swallow and 1 Lesser Whitethroat. 

Still some of these pallid delights hanging around, I will eat my new adidas gazelle shoes if these aren't archetypical ssp. tristis

European Goldfinch, a rare bird on the Faroe Islands, but annual

13/11 yielded a Grey Wagtail, Velvet Scoter and a Common Scoter, which I think is one of very few occasions in Faroe Islands that more than one melanitta-species has been seen at one spot.

Double melanitta, Velvet Scoter top, Common Scoter bottom

14/11 yielded yet another Glossy Ibis flying over Sandsvátn, along with 125 Eurasian Wigeons and a long-staying Common Shelduck and Black Redstart at Skálavík, which is the 17th record for Faroe Islands, while the long-staying Little Egret is enjoying the sandy beaches of Tórshavn.

"Don't take too kindly to your kind around here"

Glossy Ibis - approx. 7th record this autumn for Faroe Islands

Black Redstart, it was exciting to that red tail flash across the beached kelp, surprising this is actually my second self-found record

Otherwise we are seeing Snow Buntings popping up, numbers of ducks are on the rise and now the it should be time for an arctic winter wonder in the shape of an Ivory Gull, Ross's Gull or something else.

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...