Pallas´s Grasshopper Warbler // Starrsanger

Hello! See more pictures of me below // Hallo! Se flere bilder av meg lengre ned.

Røst is the western island of the Lofoten islands. It is most famous for its mountains of birds with hundreds of thousands of Puffins and seabirds. But now, it also has become famous for something entirely different. Rare birds from the west - and from the east. The last days has produced some really nice birds, lets have a look at them:

On Sunday there was a storm from the west, which produced a Buff-bellied Sandpiper. Buff-bellied Sandpiper breeds in North-America. A Olive-backed Pipit was also seen by several birdwatchers. 

Buff-bellied Sandpiper // Rustsnipe

Yesterday there was calm winds again, but there was pretty much only local birds to see. The most exciting bird was a Lesser Whitethroat. Probably an eastern one, as it is very brown on the head.

Eastern Lesser Whitethroat // Østlig møller

As I went outside the door today I could instantly feel that there were new arrivals of birds. Mostly trushes though. The gardens seemed to have the same warblers as we had seen for the last couple of days.

But what´s this? I saw a dark, quite big warbler in one of the bushes in front of me. Instantly as i got my binoculars on it i knew that it was a Locustella and a Pallas´s Grasshopper Warbler. The white, quite significant eyebrow and the powerfullnes of the bird was not to be mistaken. Both Common Grasshopper Warbler and Lanceloated warbler have a completely different look. I took up my camera and bended down as it just sat there watching me! 

The size of the bird, eyebrow, strong beak screams Pallas´s Grasshopper Warbler. You could also see some of the white tips on the tailfeathers in contrast to the black tail. // Størrelsen på fuglen, overøyestripen og kraftig nebb skriker Starrsanger. Man kan også se hvite kanter på stjertfjærene i kontrast til svart stjert. 

The bird was very cooperative // Fuglen var veldig samarbeidsvillig

It got a little bit bored of watching me taking pictures, so it just jumped down in the tall grass below. Afraid of it "vanishing" in the grass, I walked slowly towards the bush. It jumped up in the bush, before it hopped back on the grass. I got some new pictures of the whole bird. Just magnificent. In the end it flew over to a the garden just 15 meters from where I was. Now the rust brown rump showed well. 

Twenty records in Norway, five records on Røst. It breeds in Central-Asia // Tyve funn i Norge, fem funn på Røst. Hekker i sentrale deler av Asia

"What do you want?!" // "Hva vil du?!"

I never found it again. But I was satisfied.


- Håvard