In Tromsoe, N.Norway (70*N), where I live, it now is definitely autumn:
the hills around are powdered with fresh snow above 400m or so,and on the
island precipitation falls as a chilly rain, with temp. of 4-8*C. Large
flocks of thrushes--fieldfares Turdus pilaris and Redwings T.iliacus--are
flying around searching for rowanberries, in order to fatten up before
migration. The rowan crop is poor also this year, though, so the thrushes
won`t linger long.
Many insect-eating passerines, such as flycatchers and most warblers,
are
already gone, but wagtails Motacilla alba and Meadow pipits Anthus
pratensis still hang around. Shorebird migration is still in full swing,
but also there numbers are declining.
This time I want, however, to try to give you some impressions from much
farther north. From 3-15 September I had the chance to participate in a
cruise with our research vessel "Jan Mayen", a large trawler, in the waters
around Svalbard (Spitsbergen).The cruise was a combined teaching and
collecting trip, so I divided my time between teaching and guiding the 11
Nordic students, and sorting, colour-describing and identifying amphipods
from the sledge samples collected. A cruise like this is definitely NOT a
pelagic trip; in fact several days I was so busy that I never even made it
as far as the bridge! (And the lab has no windows at all.) My impressions
are therefore mostly short snapshots during a longer tour.
LATE SUMMER AT 80*N
I flew to and back from Longyearbyen, the capital of Svalbard and a
coal-mining town (There was a terrible mining accident, with 23 people
killed, in the nearby Russian mining town of Barentsburg yesterday). Our
route went from there along the NW coast of Spitsbergen (the largest island
in the Svalbard archipelago), with visits to the Kongsfjord, Magdalenafjord
and the Smeerenburg area--I was ashore in Ny Aalesund in Kongsfjord, the
centre of polar research on Spitsbergen(and nowhere else).
After rounding the NW corner of Spitsbergen, we worked for a few days on
the banks around Moffen Island and Parryflaket, and afterwards penetrated
north to about 81*20`N; the edge of the pack-ice was at ca 81*N , but we
were mostly in year-ice,with a lot of leads in between.
After this venture north we moved through Hinloopen Sound, the sound
between Spitsbergen and Nordaustlandet, and worked a few days in this
coldwater area, and in the Erik Eriksen Straits between Nordaustlandet and
Kong Karls Land, the easternmost island group and a strict polar bear
reserve (We saw no Polar Bears on this trip; 2 years ago, on a similar
cruise, we had much better luck, and saw 4). The SE coast of Nordaustlandet
is covered by the largest gletscher in Europe, with a gletscher front
(looking like a mini-Antarctic ice barrier) of more than 200km long! We
returned to Longyearbyen by completing the circle around Spitsbergen via
Freeman sound, Storfjord and South Cape, altogether a trip of 12 days.
The weather was variable, but usually good enough to work in.
Temperatures
varied from +5 to -5*C, we had sunny and gray days, and winds varied from
calm (and then often foggy) to force 9. Ice conditions were very
favourable, and we encountered ice fields only far north and in the
southern half of Hinloopen straits.
The general impression this time a year is of few birds. That is not
litterally true, for there are always tens of Fulmars Fulmarus glacialis
hanging around the ship, with numbers usually quickly increasing as soon as
we start working at a station. These fulmars are very variable in colour,
but most are quite dark grey, and only a few have the "gull colours" of the
North Sea fulmars. The fulmars effortlessly keep pace with the ship, and
look more and more elegant and competent as the winds increase. When the
ship is stopped, they loaf around on the water, where they keep a largish
individual distance, but still prefer to land close to other Fulmars.
In addition to the Fulmars, there are usually Kittiwakes Rissa
tridactyla
around, many of the young in their spectacular juvenile dress. The
Kittiwakes follow the ship to a degree, but many seem to be "on their way
elsewhere", and cross the ship`s course. When the ship stops, numbers again
increase, and when we go through the ice, many kittiwakes prowl around near
the bow wave, and profit of the animals becomoing visible when the ice
floes break or overturn (The Fulmars never seemed to do this).
Usually, and in larger numbers in the fjords,Glaucous gulls also follow
the ship. These large, all-white gulls were very often followed by one or
two cinnamon-coloured fledged young, begging with wheezy voices and somehow
looking still bigger than the parents. One Glaucous Gull followed the ship
all the way to our northernmost station. On the West coast and in
Kongsfjord there were also a few Great Black-backed Gulls Larus marinus.
Arctic Terns Sterna paradisaea were most common in the inshore waters,
and
at Ny Aalesund (where there are multilingual signs warning tourists against
these aggressive terns) some still half-heartedly stooped at me while I
walked through the tundra. Ny Aalesund also had several families of Arctic
Skuas (Parasitic Jaegers Stercorarius parasiticus), and one pair of Great
Skuas Cataracta skua, and en route we often (but much less often than two
years ago) we came across jaegers (S.parasiticus and fewer S.pomarinus)
harrassing the terns and kittiwakes.
As soon as we came into pack-ice or floating larger ice-fields Ivory
Gulls
Pagophila eburnea were much in evidence, with the stylish all-white adults
predominating, but also some speckled immatures. We saw them commonly both
in the far north and in the Hinloopen area. Near the large glacier on
Nordaustlandet (=NEland) I watched one immature Sabine`s Gull, but these
birds clearly were mostly already on migration: there were many
observations in W and S Norway and W Sweden this week.
Auks were rare and far between, especially in view of the enormous
numbers
of Little Auks Alle alle and Thick-billed Murres (Brunnich`s Guillemots
Uria lomvia) nesting in the area, and this created the impression of
scarcity I mentioned initially. Little Auks (Dovekies) we noted only a few
times, while the only area with lines of murres flying by was the southern
part of Storfjord. On the "shallow"(ca 100m) bank of Parryflaket in the
north we regularly came across murres on the water, usually a parent and a
still considerably smaller young. In the ice there were few; here Black
Guillemots Cepphus grylle dominated, with only a few dovekies and murres.
Puffins Fratercula arctica were quite regular in the fjords, less so (but
present) in the far north.
This already almost completes the entire bird list of the trip. The
other
birds seen were Common Eiders Somateria mollissima several places (often
family groups), a King Eider S.spectabilis with one half-grown young on
Magdalenafjorden, Common Scoters Melanitta nigra in the NW, unexpectedly
loqacious Red-throated Loons Gavia stellata especially in Kongsfjorden, and
a smattering of Purple Sandpipers Calidris maritima in the intertidal here
and there.
This , I see, has become a dry listing, and does in no way convey the
wonder and greatness of the Arctic landscapes, with the steep peaks (Spits
bergen) of the western fjords, and the more rounded, already snow-covered
mountains of the eastern areas,with the ever-present glaciers everywhere,
with the constantly changing colours of the ice-covered sea, and e.g.the
impressive view of a group of walrus on the shore-ice near Von Otter island
in Hinloopen. Nor even the daily thrills of the Fulmars , gliding
constantly and effortlessly by level with the bridge, or the acrobatics of
the jaegers harassing the kittiwakes. These kittiwakes seem to be the
whitest you can ever expect to see,- and then the Ivory Gulls appear!
I finally want to thank the Directorate of Nature Management in
Trondheim
and UNIS in Longyearbyen, as well as cruise leader prof. Bjoern Gulliksen
(Tromsoe), who made it possible for me once more to participate in these
spectacular cruises. And we got wonderful amphipods!!
Tromsoe, 20 September 1997
Wim Vader, Tromsoe Museum
9037 Tromsoe, Norway
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