The arctic sends its regards once again

March is regarded as a quiet month, but it has proved to be eventful this year, though I suspect it can be ascribed to the fact that the amount of birdwatchers since beginning of 2025 has increased with 200%. #th March I finally struck gold at my local patch. From my apartment I have the view over the entirety of the sound between Nólsoy and Streymoy, the harbour of Tórshavn and some large salmon rings, which means that scoping from the apartment can yield some quite nice birds (and animals), with highlights being: Sandwich Tern (7th record for Faroe Islands), Common Pochard, Sooty Shearwaters, Iceland Gull, Glaucous Gull, Leach's Storm Petrel and a pod of 50-70 Risso's Dolphins, largest pod ever recorded as far as I know. But one species that I have always hoped to find was King Eider male, a very scarce species on the Faroe Islands, that I have seen four times up here. One was many years ago, a male, on Suðuroy, a female at Kirkjubø 5 years ago, a female in october 2025 at Nólsoy and an adult male at Sørvágar, december 2025. So when I for the umpteent time scanned the large flocks of eiders that frequent the salmon rings and was greeted with views of a smaller dark eider with pale blue head and bright bill, I was quite excited! I immediately called all the birdwatchers on Faroe Islands and told'em. In the dusk it was still quite the view and it ended up being around for three days, though it is probably still around, as the eiders move around a lot, following the currents and wind. Now the next bird must be an exciting Melanitta sp. or an Harlequin Duck!

First day photos

Now 500 meters closer

7th March I went to Eysturoy to check for gulls and ducks as the wind from SW meant that the eastern and northern parts of the islands would be in cover from the wind. Though all the good spots were checked, it didn't yield anything new, outside of 4 Fieldfares at Viðareiði and more arrivals of Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Though nothing new, doesn't mean nothing exciting, as I refound the Bonaparte's Gull at Syðragøtu and Lesser Scaup at Toftavatn. But the most exciting and bitter news arrived late sunday evening, when I received the news of a Beluga Whale sighting at Leynarsand! Holy shit, an absolutely insane animal and almost completes the run of arctic birds and animals that Faroe Islands have been on since november 2025, with Ivory Gull, Ross's Gull, King Eider(s), Walrus and now Beluga Whale, next must be Polar Bear? Or Narwhale??? I tried on monday after work to go look for it, but no dice and there has been no news of it since and with the wind picking up to a lovely 20 m/s, it's probably gonna be quite hard to refind it again, though it would be very nice if it were to happen, as this is the 4th record for Faroe Islands and first since 1996. Otherwise I had the fortune of spotting a pod of five Killer Whales outside my workplace while doing the dishes and eating a quesadilla.

Again with the strong westerlies hitting Faroe Islands, straight from Greenland, maybe there will indeed be more polar species landing on our shores.

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. 

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.