WET WINTER AT 70'N
Also here in Tromsø, at 70*N in N. Norway, we notice warmer, wetter and wilder
weather, even though it is hard to prove, since the variations from year to
year always have been considerable. At the end of February there was almost a
meter of snow on the ground, quite normal for that time of the year. Usually
(I.e. in 13 of 14 winters this Century), there is more snow on the ground at
the end of March than at its start, but this year may well become an exception.
We have had a succession of winter storms; first most snow disappeared, then we
got fresh snow, so that a few days ago we once more had more than one meter on
the ground, but the last days have been mild, with wind and rain, and today is
a mild, dripping day, at a temperature of +4*C, and streams of meltwater come
down our road (Tromsø is quite three-dimenional), and the road itself is at
least 3/4 icefree. That does not go for our driveway, and for the smaller roads
and paths; those still feel like skate rinks and I walk with 'brodder', iron
studs, under my shoes. My car is still mostly hidden under the snow, so my
range of activity is not all that large now in winter, and in my garden there
are few birds: the unavoidable Magpies (lots of those) , Hooded Crows, and now
and then a flock of Great Tits, that come to my one remaining feeder-tube (The
other has been blown down in an storm and still lies under the snow somewhere).
Now and then a single Biue Tit comes with them, and somewhat more regularly a
pair of Willow Tits. I have only seen one single House Sparrow here as yet,
although an entire flock of them winters within 100m from here; they are
extremely Residential. But Greenfinches do visit now and then, then usually in
a small Flock.
I still am at Tromsø Museum for a few hours every day, working on my beloved
amphipods. This is only ten minutes walk away, along a path through
'Folkeparken', a remnant birch forest with a lot of planted conifers. Also here
all winter magpies and crows have dominated, while also a pair of Raven
regularly can be seen and heard, circling overhead, 'talking together'. But
these last weeks the scene is changing a bit: there are large flocks of tits,
the Greenfinches have started to rasp their spring song, and I also now hear
the somewhat tentative clear whistles of the Bullfinches. This morning, while
walking to the shop, I suddenly heard 'a voice from the past', the excited
scolding of a male European Blackbird; this is a species that reaches its
northern boundary around here, but here it is still mostly the shy forest bird
that it probably was everywhere in Europe, before it got accustomed to people
and became the quintessential garden bird over most of Europe. This is only the
third time in 40 years that I have had one around the house here in winter.
There are more water birds than land birds here in winter, and i have told
about them before, the Eider ducks, Long-tailed ducks, Scoters and Red-breasted
Mergansers, the cormorants, gulls, and now and then also alcids. The only
regular shorebird in winter is the Purple Sandpiper, but earlier this week the
first Oyestercatchers arrived, and soon Starlings, Snow Buntings , Curlews and
Chaffinches will follow. And one now again regularly hears the glorious
jubilant Long Calls of the Herring Gulls, that seem to become more common on
the roofs also in our area; earlier they concentrated on the larger and flatter
roofs in town.
Wim Vader,
Tromsø Museum, 9037 Tromsø, Norway
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