Ross's Gull!

Ross's Gull is a bird that invokes awe and longing for every serious birder. This mythical rarity from the far north is annual in WP, and every single one is a crowdpuller. Ever since I started birdwatching I have wanted to see one, but rare birds are rare. When one was found in 2008 at Esbjerg Harbour, it stayed at the harbour for six months, and when I finally went with some other birders, I could finally see one! But that ONE day we were there, it was gone. It was there the day before and the day after, but such is life. Now 18 years later,  Bartal found one while I was at work on 21st January and I looked for it the two days later for 5 hours, with no luck and spent the entire weekend looking for it, again with no luck. 5th february it was found by Silas at Syðragøtu/Norðragøtu, I once again went the next day and spent six hours looking for it, where I found a large flock of Black-headed Gulls roosting 1,5km away, I stared at it for 1 hour, saw it for 1 second and further 45 minutes, I saw it fly out to the salmon farms for ten seconds! Ten seconds of Ross's Gull after 6 hours looking, what a bird! Though I was happy to see it, I really wanted to see it much better and almost get some photos. Now 32 days later it finally happened! Drove to Syðragøtu/Norðragøtu after work to do some light birding, where I put up the scope and started scanning the waves and whatever might fly around, when I saw a small group of Black-headed Gulls fly towards the harbour at Norðragøtu and behind them I saw a smaller(!) gull. Tiny, long-tailed, ternlike with very pale upperparts, conspiciously dark underwings and large "eyes" BOOM Ross's Gull! But sadly I had left my phone in the car, so I couldn't start videoing and I didn't want to go for the phone in fear of losing the bird. I followed the bird as it fought against the wind and then I realised that it would be heading straight for the harbour! I threw the scope into the car and drove the car towards the harbour, while calling Silas up to tell him, that the Ross's Gull was back. While on the phone I suddenly saw it fly around and Silas heard me shout out a long string of expletives! Before the car was even parked, I started taking photos and OMG OMG OMG, finally I got photos and awesome views of it. I spent further an hour looking for it over the dark, brooding waves while the wind was blowing and it was raining, but Silas refound it later after I left.

Finally. I have now seen and documented 16 different laridae species on Faroe Islands, with one being a new for the country, I only need to see Franklin's Gull and Ring-billed Gull, then I am all set.

Short-billed Gull!!! A very delayed update

 I have sadly lost almost all of my photos due to my SSD deciding that it should work anymore. Thankfully due to my somewhat lazy disposition, I hadn't deleted all my photos from my SD-card, so I managed to keep a hold on my photos of the Short-billed Gull. I sadly lost my photos of the Lesser Scaup and plenty of other birds, such Bonaparte's Gull, Little Grebe etc. 

4/1-2026 I found what must the be the rarest bird I will ever find - Short-billed Gull (Larus brachyrhynchus), a species that fall under the canus-complex, that encompasses a total of four taxas: Larus canus/Common Gull, Larus canus heinei/Russian Common gull, Larus (canus) kamtchatkensis/Kamtchatka Gull and Larus brachyrhynchus/Short-billed Gull. A complex that has been somewhat a blackhole and not easy to work out until Peter Adrians and Chris Gibbins wrote a thorough and detailed dissemination of the field identification of the aforementioned taxas and the subject of identification of the canus-complex was made more accessible.

The Short-billed Gull record is the culmination of many hours spent studying, documenting and checking the Common Gulls of Faroe Islands. So imagine my excitement, when I found a dark, small-headed common gull standing on the beach at Miðvági and the flight photos I managed to get every spot on for Short-billed Gull. The bird was twitched by Silas Olofson, Bartal G. Simonsen and Barbara Leone and later on (25/1) seen by Pierre-Andre Crochett, the first, and hopefully not last, international twitch of a bird on the Faroe Islands!

One thing that is surprising is that of the three taxas recorded on the Eastern Seaboard of North America, canus and kamtchatkensis are by far the most common ones, while brachyrhynchus is very, very rare. Newfoundland has annually several records of ssp. canus and 1-2 records of ssp. kamtchatkensis, but no records of brachyrhynchus.

Left: Common Gull (Larus canus), right: Short-billed Gull (Larus brachyrhynchus)

And as if that wasn't enough, Bartal also found a Ross's Gull at Skálabotn 21/1-2026, a DREAM bird of mine, but I sadly wasn't able to leave from work and my attempts at refinding it later on hasn't succeeded (yet). That is a species that hurt a lot to miss, is probably the bird I have spent the most hours looking for ever in my life. Hopefully it is still flying around somewhere. As of now, since september, we have had a total of 16 gull-species have been seen, now we just need Franklin's Gull and Ring-billed Gull, then we have recorded every single gull-species that has already been recorded on the Faroe Islands in less than a year. Myself I need to see three more species, then I have seen all gull-species recorded on the Faroe Islands, as I still need to see the Ross's Gull... But after adding an additional species, what else is next? Vega Gull? Slaty-backed Gull? Or do I need to be more humble and hope for a Laughing Gull? It is the Faroe Islands, so you never know!

Common Gull ssp. canus, with characteristics like heinei

Common Gull ssp. canus, with characteristics like heinei - but note the black is reaching PC on the outermost primaries, mirrors on P10 and P9 too big for a typical heinei and large tongue-tip on P7 along with relatively short black wedge on P7 and P6.

White head with streaking limited to neck, yellow-green bill with demarked black band and on other photos, the darker grey upperparts also fitting with heinei.