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late summer at 70*N

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Subject: late summer at 70*N
From: "Wim Vader" <>
Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2000 09:46:52 +0200


                LATE SUMMER IN TROMSØ, N.NORWAY (69*50'N)

Today the weather is gray and drizzly, the clouds hang low and I can not
see the other side of the fjord from my home. This enhances the idea of
late summer, already strong because my various summer-guests have left and
Riet has returned to Holland. Also, nights are getting dark again: the last
midnight sun was on 21 July, and since then the process seems to go very
quickly, especially with this dark weather.

 But what a beautiful July we have had!  Not specially warm, mind you: the
average temperature of 11.7*C  is quite close to the 30 years normal, and
in some parts of Finnmark some of the cloudberry-harvest has been lost to
night-frost, not a very normal thing in July even here! But in Tromsø the
month has been calm, sunny and dry, with 263 sun hours (quite a lot even in
the land of the midnight sun) and only 11 mm of rain.
In fact, much of the peat coverage on the local mountain Fløya showed
ominous cracks because of the droughts, and Sunday we came across an area
of thin soil at Tisnes where all the gentians Gentianella campestris had
died, dried out.

Large areas of Fireweed (which I persist in calling Firewood in my mails;
sorry!) now dominate the roadside vegetation and in the forest the creamy
yellow  Filipendula ulmaria is everywhere. Along marshy ditches Parnassia
twinkles its beautiful 'innocent' white flowers, and also this year I found
some monkey-flowers Mimulus, an American import, that has maintained itself
on our island now for more than a hundred years in very low numbers.

Bird-life in the forests is 'chaotic' and not all that diverse, with mainly
young Willow Warblers and family flocks of  Great and Willow Tits, as well
as the Redpolls that always seem to become more common this time of year.
Most of the thrushes (Fieldfares and Redwings, the Ring Ouzels are
virtually invisible by now) concentrate elsewhere,  on the many areas with
a profusion of berries. These are easy to find, because wild berries are
one of the great resources of N.Norway: Vaccinium in several species,
Oxycoccus, Empetrum, and various Rubus, of which the yellow Cloudberries R.
chamaemorus are the most popular target of human pickers.

Most of these berries, apart from Empetrum and Vaccinium vitis-idaea, grow
in boggy areas, where Meadow Pipits and, on rocky outcrops, Northern
Wheatears, are the most conspicuous birds this time a year. Especially on
the outer islands, where the Red Fox does not occur, also families of
Willow Grouse are regularly disturbed and fly up with a lot of noise---even
surprisingly small chickens already manage to fly for some distance. On the
same island, Ringvassøy, we also came across a family with recently fledged
and still loudly begging Merlins.

Several times we visited the marshy areas around Rakfjord, where especially
the sounds of late summer were a main attraction. As soon as one gets out
of the car, the Golden Plovers start their melancholy cries, soon aided by
the stuttering alarm of the Whimbrel, and the impressive miaowing of the
local Arctic Skuas (Parasitic Jaegers), that are quite aggressive this time
a year, now that they have large young. They still varied this, however,
with their comical-looking, but probably quite effective distraction '
broken-wing' display, complete with realistic low moans.

At every new visit more migrating shorebirds were added to the local
Redshanks: small silent groups of different sized Ruffs and Reeves in the
marshes, the clear three-note whistle of the Greenshank, and the perky
tu-ITT of the Spotted Redshanks, already in their light-coloured winter
plumage. Some of these even scolded, probably just an old, hard-dying habit
from the nesting areas further east; we have not yet found them nesting in
coastal Troms . The Common Sandpipers on the lake shores may or may not be
local ones, while the Snipe probably still are ' our own'.

Also along the coast migration is starting up, with formation-flying flocks
of mostly Dunlins getting more and more common, and the Arctic terns here
and there already gathering in larger flocks. At one place I also found a
large wheeling flock of Sand Martins (Bank Swallows) at a spot where there
is no colony nearby----summers are intense, but short up here!

It is relatively easy to list flowers and birds seen during such a lazy and
not very bird-intensive summer (None of the guests were active birders and
some active non-birders), but that would only give part of the picture, and
probably the least impressive part. What makes this country unique, and
what is so hard to convey in words, is the light and the scenery: the
varied cloud-scape mirrored in fjords and lakes, the ever-changing light
effects over the mountain view from my windows,  cotton-grass meadows
against the light, patches of fiery Fireweed, sky-blue gentians (Gentiana
nivea) and unexpected small 'moon-ferns' Bostrychium (seemingly everywhere
this summer), the flower-meadows and vistas of our chalk-hill Fløya (even
without the nesting Dotterels, that we somehow missed this time). Together
with sunny skies and calm weather day after day, pleasant company, and the
long long summer days of 70*N, this made for a great summer once more,
although less birdy than most.

                                                Wim Vader, Tromsø Museum
                                                9037 Tromsø, Norway
                                                


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