The last two weeks have had very changing weather and the first frost nights have arrived. Last part of the period however, has been dominated with East/North-East and temperatures up to 10 degrees C. (warm for this place this time of year). The island has been slowly emptied out of birds, and today only 2 Chiffchaffs (gransanger) and one Blackcap (munk) have been seen. It is an excercise in motivation to be a birder on Røst late October when birds are far between and days are short….However Røst is Røst and we know anything can happen for those who are patient - Rewards will come!
Today a new, but long overdue species for Røst was found as a Hume’s Warbler (blekbrynsanger) showed up in one of the gardens in Stamnes. First detected by call, then a Chiffchaff jumped out, and th…
The last two weeks have had very changing weather and the first frost nights have arrived. Last part of the period however, has been dominated with East/North-East and temperatures up to 10 degrees C. (warm for this place this time of year). The island has been slowly emptied out of birds, and today only 2 Chiffchaffs (gransanger) and one Blackcap (munk) have been seen. It is an excercise in motivation to be a birder on Røst late October when birds are far between and days are short….However Røst is Røst and we know anything can happen for those who are patient - Rewards will come!
Today a new, but long overdue species for Røst was found as a Hume’s Warbler (blekbrynsanger) showed up in one of the gardens in Stamnes. First detected by call, then a Chiffchaff jumped out, and the two finders were just looking at each other and both agreed that this has to be a case of the “two bird theory”. This theory is when you think you saw or heard something rare, but then a similar, but common bird jumps out and you dismiss the rarity as something common - unless you are stubborn and really think there has to be another bird in there somewhere…..Hume’s Warbler is an Eastern species that is found three previous times in Nordland county and this is only the 2nd for Norway this year (total approx 66 records in Norway). This is the 4th new species for Røst in 2025 and total is now an impressive 321 bird species found on this tiny spot in the ocean.
Other birds worth mentioning during the period is the arrival of several tristis type Chiffchaffs (sibirgransanger), Waxwings (sidensvans) have arrived the last couple of days, a Woodcock (rugde) and at least two Jack Snipes (kvarbekkasin). The latter found with thermal binos. An unusual late Manx Shearwater (havlire) passed close by on the 16th October. Yesterday, two Waterrails (vannrikse) were found feeding together. One of these has been suspected to be present for the last ten days. The species is unusually rare on the island and far from annual.
Neither Swainson’s Thrush (brunkinnskogtrost) nor the Pacific Golden Plover (sibirlo) have been seen since day of discovery.
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