First Ever Record from the Faeroe Islands...

In the same year that we received our first ever record from Spain, now comes news that H6WR  has been recorded from the Faeroe Islands.

The following comments by observer Svein-Ole Mikalsen on the status of brent geese on the Faeroes are of interest:

"During my 8 years in the Faroe Islands, I have seen brent 4 times (well, the first time, in April 2010, I observed (probably) the same 3 brents a couple a days apart). The last time was in fact today, a single bird seen around 23 km (air) NW of from the observation of the ringed one. All my observed brents have been light bellied. Three of the observations are in April, one in September. All my observations of brents are registered in eBird, which you may know (ebird.org > explore data > explore a region > write Faroe Islands > go to bar chart > click on map for brent > click on observation points), but if you check it within the next 24 h, today's observation may not yet be seen (no photo added).

Dark-bellied have also been seen, but more rarely (and never by me).

Brents are migratory guests. Probably there are visits (nearly?) every year, but it seems like they are fewer in number than for example migrating greylag or pink-footed. It seems like no nesting has been found here. More Faroese photos of brents can be found at http://www.faroenature.net/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=203
indicating that it is not extremely rare."

Here in Ireland, there are indications that migration is being delayed by the period of northerly winds last week. An estimated 2,000 birds were still located in Dundalk Bay, mainly way out on the large salt marsh there, last Friday, observed by Patricia Watson and myself, and I also had reasonable numbers at Outer Ards the day before. In both cases, many of the rings read were birds which had moved up from Dublin.