RECONQUERING THE HOME TERRITORY
Since my return from Ireland, I have been busy catching up in many ways.
One of the things that turn out to take much more time than I had expected,
is the reacquaintance with my home territory, in particular the short walk
through Folkeparken, the remnant birch forest between my home and Tromsø
Museum, my place of work since 1973, in the N.Norwegian coastal town of
Tromsø, at 69*50*N .When I left in March, this whole area was covered with
6 ft of snow, but on my return around 1 July all snow was gone (There were
some small remnants elsewhere on the island, and a lot in the hills around
the town), and the forest floor was covered with a dense cover of green and
speckled with flowers: this southern end of our island boasts chalk-rich
earth, and this, combined with 24 hours sunlight a day, makes for a very
luxuriant vegetation, very different from what people expect so far north.
These days we are in early summer mode, with the entire forest floor
covered by a pink sea of stork-bills Geranium speckled with yellow
Buttercups Ranunculus, with many 'islands' of majestic large ferns. The
yellow violets of spring have now disappeared here---they still are to be
admired higher up in the hills, and the same is the case with the
Ball-flowers Trollius.
Even here I have to 'reconquer' my territory. A quite common plant in the
forest is for example what the Norwegians call ' four-leaf' and the Dutch '
one-berry', the small lily Paris quadrifolia. They come early, and so I
memorize in spring where they grow and still know their place in summer,
when other taller plants largely overgrow them---but this year I was not
here in spring, and try as I may, I can not find the Paris at all, while no
doubt they are here also this year. the search had one positive result, as
I found another cryptic inhabitant of Folkeparken, Polygonatum
verticillatum, that looks uncannily like the too common young plants of
Firewood Epilobium; if you don't notice the small lily-flowers, scattered
around the stalk.
With the birds the problems are similar. There is now very little bird song
in Folkeparken, and the only songster that is at all regular is the Willow
Warbler ---fortunately that is at the same time one of the most attractive
bird songs in the area. In the early mornings or late evenings one hears
the ascending 'Gwirri gwirri wirri' of the redwing, but they have already
fledged young, while the young of the ubiquitous Fieldfare are already so
big that the fierce defense by the parents is slowly abating. Also the
Common Gulls have mostly led their fled young to the intertidal by now, so
the tourists can breathe easier.
Some other birds I hear only when they scold the Magpies, of which two
families roam the Folkeparken: the Willow Tits, the Great Tits, and the
Pied Flycatchers, while the Greenfinches and Redpolls, who mostly live in
flocks, always need to communicate with each other, so are more easily
found. But has the Woodcock nested once more in Folkeparken? How many
Bullfinches are there? Did we have garden Warblers or European Robins? And
where did the Sparrowhawk nest this year? All these questions, that are
usually solved in spring already, now still stand open; there is a lot of
catching up to do, even close to home.
We have been quite lucky with the weather these last two weeks, even though
we have avoided the heat wave (by our standards, that is: 32*C), that hit
the inner parts of Finnmark north of us last week. The day before yesterday
Riet (once more on a visit) and I went to Rakkfjord, an area of bogs,
shallow tarns and high snowy hills some 30 km NW of Tromsø, and one of our
popular walks. It was a beautiful sunny, balmy and still evening (full of
insects; there is no free lunch!), with wonderful serene light, and the
still air full of bird sounds: the miaowing of the local Arctic Skuas
(Parasitic Jaegers), the bronze stutter of the Whimbrels, the super-nervous
warnings of the Redshanks, and the deeply melancholy cries of the Golden
Plovers, all common nesters in the area. The Red-throated Loons had got two
already half-grown young, and we also found larger or smaller clutches of
Mallards, Tufted Ducks, Greater Scaup, and especially Red-breasted
Mergansers (with the most beautiful pulli of all), while along the shores
of the sound many families of eiders rounded off the picture.
But the local pair of Whooper Swans, that fledged 5 cygnets last year,
apparently had taken a sabbatical this summer: I saw no signs of young at all.
In the stony meadows Wheatears and Meadow Pipits dominated, and small
flocks of Redpolls, restless as ever, flew overhead. I am glad we went
there, although I still itch two days later: it was a wonderfully
appropriate area to reacquaint yourself with the home grounds again.
Wim Vader, Tromsø Museum
9037 Tromsø, Norway
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