Didn't take any pictures this time, so this was taken last year. 19 September 2009.
Drove up there early in the morning and got there around 6pm, and waited for everyone else to appear. After a while the entire group was gathered, and the fisherman who ferries people out to the island took us in his little boat and we were off. About fifteen minutes later we were on the island and took off to the lighthouse to start the birding there. Not that much around yet, but it was still a bit dark so we couldn't see very well. The weather was promising though, a bit overcast and it had rained a little in the early morning.
A Snow Bunting on a cliff was the best we found, until someone cried out Otter, and indeed, a really nice Otter could be seen swimming around amongst the stones. Very cool, only my second ever, and apparently a real rarity out on Björn.
After watching the Otter for a while we walked over to the other side of the island. Goldcrests, Chiffchaffs and Redpolls were everywhere, and we could also hear Robins and Dunnocks. Over at the other side of the island we spotted a large flock of Snow Buntings, at least 70 of them, as well as Dunlins, Grey Plovers and a Purple Sandpiper. Also met some other birders who had come with their own private boat, so in total we must have been almost 20 people on the island! Not often the island is that well covered, so we decided that we just HAD to find something a bit extra.
Raptors were rather scarce, only one White-tailed Eagle could be seen as well as one Common Buzzard. Not that we minded, it was more fun trawling through the bushes in search of warblers or watching the sea for divers and auks. Nothing really rare turned up, no matter how much we tried to turn Black-throated Divers into something rarer.
The harbour and the boat coming to get us. 19 September 2009.
It wasn't until we were almost about to go home that something happened. I was back at the harbour when we got the call that they had found a Little Bunting on the other side of the island. Good thing the island is small, so we got there fairly quickly. The bunting was very skulking and not everyone got to see it on the ground, but we waited patiently and was finally rewarded with great views, albeit for a short while. Then it was time to run back across the island to get back in time for the boat to pick us up and get us back to the mainland, after a very nice day on Björn, crowned with the Little Bunting, a new Uppland tick for me.
