G'day Wim, Thanks for another postcard from Tromsø.
The weather and the plants are key environmental factors affecting the
local birdlife, so your descriptions of them are fine.
Regards, Laurie.
On 17/07/2013, at 10:33 PM, Vader Willem Jan Marinus wrote:
Northern Norway has had a somewhat uncommon summer: May and June
were warm (by our standards) and dry here, while the rest of the
country complained about rain and low temperatures. But around the
end of June the situation changed completely: on 1 July we had 50mm
of rain, and since then we have had only a single day without rain,
while te maximum temperatures fell from the low twenties to 10-12*C.
But of course we still have summer (In fact, this weather is more
common up here in summer than the warm spells of May-June). Now our
two months of midnight sun are almost over (21 July the sun will go
down again before midnight) and the roadside vegetation here on the
island is dominated by the 'Tromsø palms', giant Heracleum forbs,
that may grow to 3-4m tall, with very large white flower stands
(often full of flies). They were imported from Russia well over a
century ago, and do almost too well here in town.
Otherwise the carpets of violet Cranebills Geranium in the woodlands
and white Cow Parsley Anthriscus in the meadows are rapidly fading
now, the Dwarf Cornel Cornus suecica has exchanged its white flowers
for red (insipid) berries, and in the ditches the violet Butterwort
Pinguicula has made place for the beautiful 'innocent' flowers of
the Grass of Parnassus Parnassia. Dominent now in the meadows and
also in many woodlands are the tall creamy white flowers of the
Meadowsweet Filipendula ulmaria (very popular with the bumblebees),
while here and there there are dense and often extensive patches of
the very conspicuous Rosebay (Fireweed) Chamerion angustifolium.
Most patches, so conspicuous that they can easily be seen from a
landing plane, are a vivid red violet, but a few are pink instead
(the entire patch, makes one wonder how they reproduce and spread)
For birds this is not a very ideal season. There is no bird song
anymore, most ducks are in eclipse and hide, and the migration of
shorebirds has not yet started.(On two excursions, last Friday (the
one day without rain) and this morning (in the rain) I failed to see
a single Greylag Goose, a common nesting bird in the area, and today
I did not even get a Mallard on the day list!) I drove to the often
described wetlands of Tisnes, an agricultural low-lying peninsula
some 30 km from Tromsø on the outlying large island of Kvaløya. The
area consists of very wet meadows adjacent to the shore, with a few
ponds that are often productive. The 'horse ponds', close to the
road and used by the many horses of one of the local farms, have a
very broad fringe of Marestail Hippuris vulgaris, with also stands
of a species of Willow-herb Epilobium and Marsh Cinquefoil
Potentilla palustris, with in spring lots of golden Marsh Marigold
Caltha. Here there were young Lapwings Vanellus, still a single
Golden Plover (there were many more earlier), a couple of Ruffs and
Reeves , and a few Redshank. Around the pond frolicked lots of
mostly young White Wagtails, and above hunted Sand Martins (Bank
Swallows). In the other. larger pool, further from the road, swam
the great surprise of the day, a Ruddy Shelduck Tadorna ferruginea,
a bird that does not belong in N. Norway at all and which I have
never seen here before; I suppose we will never know whetherthis is
a genuine vagrant or an escapee. A Wigeon walked past with 8 young
and as everywhere here now, there are also here young Eiderducks.
The chalk rich meadow here used to have a very diverse vegetation,
but the horses have damaged the area quite a bit. Still, there are
lots of flowers still, and I was much surprised to find some very
late flowers of Purple Saxifrage, my harbinger of spring in N.
Norway, as well as the very first flowers of Felwort Gentianella,
usually one of the last flowers to come here. ('Bien étonnés de se
trouver ensemble'!). Aftre a long search I found a single plant of
my favourite tiny fern Moonwort Bostrychium, for which I searched in
vain last summer. Redshanks and Oystercatchers alarmed all the time
I was there, and i also found a Curlew with large young. A young
Garden Warbler was a .
The day list counted only 26 birds (just as last Friday on the other
side of Kvaløya, although there with 9 different birds), but it is
always good to get out in the field. Tell me, if there are too many
plants in this stiry for a birding list!
Wim Vader,
Tromsø Museum
9037
Tromsø, Norway
wim
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