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silent spring? 2 (lists)

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Subject: silent spring? 2 (lists)
From: "Wim Vader" <>
Date: Fri, 02 May 2003 13:21:36 +0200


        
                As promised, I give here the results of my 1 May excursions of 
2001,
2002, and 2003, all 'around the Balsfjord' alongexactly the same 250 km
route(marked 1,2 and 3). 2001 was a snoiw winter, while 2002 and especially
2003 were early springs, at least as concerns the snow melt. I added a few
observations in parentheses for 2003, i.e. the Sparrow hawk that flew over
my garden 30 April, the Black-headed Gulls and the single Kittiwake of
Kvalsund the same day, and the Redwing that sang in Fiolkeparken this
morning. The order is that of the british list.

Yellow-billed Loon              Gavia adamsii           3
Horned (Slavonian) Grebe        Podiceps auritus        1,2
Cormorant                       Phalacrocoorax c. carbo 1,2,3
Grey Heron                      Ardea cinerea           3
Greylag Goose           Anser anser             1,2,3
Pink-footed Goose               A. brachyrhynchos       2,3
Shelduck                        Tadorna tadorna         1,2,3
Wigeon                  Anas penelope           2
Teal                            A. crecca               3
Mallard                 A. brachyrhynchus       1,2,3
Tufted Duck                     Aythya fuligula         2
Common Eider            Somateria mollissima    1,2,3
King Eider                      S. spectabilis          3
Long-tailed Duck                Clangula hyemalis       1,2,3
Common Scoter           Melanitta nigra         1,2
Velvet Scoter                   M. fusca                1,2,3
Goldeneye                       Bucephala clangula      3
Red-throated Merganser  Mergus serrator         1,2,3
White-tailed Sea-Eagle  Haliaeetus albicilla    2
Sparrow Hawk                    Accipiter nisus                 (3)
Merlin                          Falco columbarius       1
Willow Grouse                   Lagopus lagopus 1
Oystercatcher                   Haematopus ostralegus   1,2,3
Lapwing                 Vanellus vanellus       1,2,3
Golden Plover                   Pluvialis apricaria     2
Snipe                           Gallinago gallinago     3
Whimbrel                        Numenius phaeopus       3
Curlew                  N. arquata              1,2,3
Black-tailed Godwit             Limosa limosa           2
Ruff                            Philomachus pugnax      2

Black-headed Gull               Larus ridibundus        (3)
Common Gull                     L. canus                1,2,3
Baltic Gull                     L. fuscus               1,3
Herring Gull                    L. argentatus           1,2,3
Great Black-backed Gull L. marinus              1,2,3
Glaucous Gull                   L. hyperboreus          3
Iceland Gull                    L. glaucoides           1
Kittiwake                       Rissa tridactyla                (3)

Rock Dove                       Columba livia           1,2,3
Wood Pigeon                     C. palumbus             1,3
White Wagtail                   Motacilla alba          1,2,3
European Robin          Erithacus rubecula      1,2
Fieldfare                       Turdus pilaris          1,2
Redwing                 T. iliacus              1,2,(3)
Song Thrush                     T. philomelos           2
Chiffchaff                      Phylloscopus collybita  1
Great Tit                       Parus major             1,2,3
Williw Tit                      P. montanus             1,3
Blue Tit                        P. caeruleus            1
Eur. Magpie                     Pica pica               1,2,3
Hooded Crow                     Corvus corone cornix    1,2,3
Northern Raven          C. corax                1,2
Starling                        Sturnus vulgaris                1,2,3
House Sparrow           Passer domesticus       2,3
Chaffinch                       Fringilla coelebs               1,2,3
Greenfinch                      Chloris chloris         1,2,3
Bullfinch                       Pyrrhula pyrrhula       1,2,3
Snow Bunting                    Plectrophenax nivalis   1

Comments: Many of the birds here are our normal stock in trade which are
hard to miss on any day of the year; if you go birding here and do not see
a Mapgie or Eider Duck, you should find another hobby!  Others are a bit
thin on the ground , so you can easily miss them on any given day, e.g. sea
eagles are always absent on the days when i want to show them to visitors.
A few of these birds are lingering winter guests, and they may or may not
still be present in spring; this goes for the Yellow-billed Loon, the King
Eiders and also the white gulls. Snow Buntings usually move through in
their thousands here in April, but some years, like this, they have all
already left the lowlands by 1 May, while other springs, the ones with much
snow, they linger longer here.
                The list also shows that 2002 clearly was a very early year for
shorebirds, many of which migrate north along the coast, while there was no
such tendency for the songbirds, most of which arrive from the Baltic sea
and through the large valleys of N.Sweden. Finally, a few newcomers have
made it onto the list: Grey herons steadily become more common in our
region (where they are largely resident), and both the Wood Pigeon and the
Blue Tit are slowly , but inexorably, extending their nesting areas further
and further north, the same process that has brought us the Robin, the
Chiffchaff, and the Greenfinch in earlier decades here in coastal Troms,
since I moved here in 1973. Global warming? Or other man-made processes,
such as landscaping, fir plantations and the like?

                                                                Wim Vader, 
Tromsø Museum
                                                                9037 Tromsø, 
Norway,
                                                                



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