GLIMPSES OF SPRING AT 70°N
This is the time of year that the differences between us in the far north
and most other list subscribers is at its greatest. While everybody else is
enthusing about all the singing and nesting birds ("Hearing the first
Cuckoo of spring"), Tromsø still has almost full winter, and in fact the
greatest snow depth this winter, although that still is only 3 ft and thus
nicely moderate by our standards.
During my daily walk to work nothing at all has changed from when I last
reported from the Winter Wonderland; Greenfinches and Great Tits are still
alone in the morning bird chorus, and Hooded Crows and Magpies make up the
rest of the short daily list. I expect the Snow buntings every day, but
have not yet seen any here on the island. A week ago I drove with my
daughter along the Lyngen fjord, a large fjord north of Tromsø, which
penetrates far inland, and there there were small flocks of Snow Buntings
everywhere, a cheerful presence in a very wintery landscape. That one sees
them there before here makes excellent sense: these particular birds winter
somewhere on the Russian steppes, and arrive in N.Norway via the Baltic and
Bothnian and the large open valleys of N.Sweden and Finland. They will
fatten themselves for some weeks in the coastal areas of northern Norway,
and then fly on on the arduous trek across the Norwegian Sea to East
Greenland.
By the way, we drove through Lyngen on Easter Monday in order
to go and
see the mysterious Sperm whale, that has kept himself (This is an old male,
as are most sperm whales in this area) in the same small bight (Curiously
called the Whale bight, Kvalvika) already in almost 2 months. It is an
impressive sight, but also quite sad: this enormous animal 818-20m) in this
small bight gives a bit the impression of an eagle in a canary cage! Nobody
understands what is the matter with the whale, but I fear he will not leave
the area alive; there must be very little food in this bight.
On Saturday I visited the wetland area of Tisnes, some 35km SW
of the
town.It still is completely snow-covered, and the many Common Gulls that
are nesting there later this spring, have arrived, but keep to the
intertidal and are not yet defending any territories. But it is
nevertheless here that the optimist can get glimpses of spring to come: a
Curlew flies across the area, a Northern Lapwing sits crouched in the
intertidal, dreaming of warmer days, and a pair of Shelducks clearly alreay
feels the hormones of spring quite strongly. The Willow Grouse are still in
immaculate white, but are their eyebrows larger and redder than earlier?
I use this opportunity to tell that the address of my website,
where one
can find information on Tromsø Museum, and read some earlier "bird
snapshots" in this series, now has been changed to its permanent address:
http://www.imv.uit.no/ommuseet/enheter/zoo/wim/index.html.
Wim Vader, Tromsø Museum
9037 Tromsø, Tromsø
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