A female Golden Oriole flew into a house in the village of Reyðarfjörður in eastern Iceland yesterday. It flew into a window, was stunned, photographed and released unharmed. There are nine previous records of Golden Oriole in Iceland.
It's one of my most wanted birds in Europe (didn't see any in Spain in mid-April) and if it's still there at the weekend I'll just have to go for it - even though it's a 600 km drive - ONE WAY. Scenery on route is fantastic though and there's always a good chance of finding something else. We'll see.
Photo of the critter here:
http://www.galdur.is/fuglar/tmp1.php?pid=67
E
Hi Edward,
Hope you get it!
Do you know the webmaster of the galdur.is site? - if you do, can you let them know that it doesn't load properly in Netscape, please?
Thanks,
Michael
Hi Edward,
Best of luck with the oriole:they don't tend to stay that long here,but the combination of the greater distance travelled from the breeding range and(I imagine)less dense cover should help keep it in the area.As with the one that I found on 4th May,birds all too readily disappear into the foliage here,never to be seen again;they can probably reorientate quite readily as well,given the relative proximity of the breeding areas on the Continent and the UK(though I doubt that UK breeders account for many of the Irish records).
Re the 600km drive:I though we had it bad here when a bird turns up in Donegal!;-)
All the best,Harry