A week with very little birding ended with an experience of a lifetime!

Early in the week an Upland Sandpiper (præriesnipe) was found by a local birder in Sørvågen in Western Lofoten. Unfortunately search the following days was unsuccessful, and we assumed the bird was just in for a short stop. But at the end of the week the bird reappeared, and I decided to go looking for it on Sunday.

The sandpiper had been seen feeding along a trail encircling a small lake but seemed to be hiding in the surrounding grass most of the time. Due to the birds cryptical behaviour, I was prepared to spend time patiently searching the area. I started to walk up the trail and was totally taken by surprise when the bird suddenly ran in front of me after just a few hundred meters. I managed to approach it in shelter of a small rock and sat down quietly as the bird continued feeding calmly on close distance.

It ended up in a twenty-minute close encounter and photo shoot – what a spectacular, funny and charming bird this is!

Not much more to report from Lofoten. An adult Golden Eagle (kongeørn) with an extremely messy plumage flew over …

… and a young male Sparrow Hawk (spurvehauk) waited patiently near a bird feeder at Å.

A few Barnacle Geese (hvitkinngås) were feeding…

…and a couple of adult Black-headed Gulls (hettemåke) were still around at Gimsøy.