Date: Sat, 26 Oct 2002 14:29:47 +0200
To:
From: Wim Vader <>
Subject: early winter at 70*N
EARLY WINTER AT 70*N (TROMSØ, NORTHERN NORWAY)
Since a week my hometown of Tromsø has returned to winter mode; in the
course of a few days we got ca a foot of fresh snow, and the first days
afterwards everything looked wonderful, with fluffy snow-pillows on all
the large branches of the trees, and all the troubles of lazy gardening
covered by immaculate snow. Everybody had changed to winter tires in time,
and on the streets the kids found their sledges and the elderly ladies
their 'sparks', the traditional and most practical Scandinavian push
sledge. In the Folkeparken the tracks of the off-road bicycles made room
for ski tracks, and the last home match of our soccer team ended not only
in the hoped for promotion, but also in an all-white battle, where towards
the end even the white ball had to be replaced by a red one in order to
remain visible to players and spectators!! The days are shortening
rapidly, with sunset now at ca 4 pm and every day ca 10 minutes shorter
than the day before.
My own range has , I hope temporarily , become restricted by some health
complications, so I have not been away from Tromsø at all these last
weeks. In town the snow has not changed birdlife all that much, as most
ground-loving birds already had left anyway. There are still here and
there small flocks of thrushes (predominantly Fieldfares) in the
Rowanberries (Mountain Ash) Sorbus aucuparia, and the number of Bohemian
Waxwings even seems to have increased somewhat. Otherwise the forest is
mostly silent, apart from a roving flock of tits (Great and Willow Tits,
and the occasional Coal Tit and Tree Creeper), while the ubiquitous
Greenfinches stay mostly in the gardens where they are fed. Few
Bullfinches this autumn hitherto. Along the shore I have noticed with
pleasure that the White-tailed Sea Eagle is back in our part of the
island, while Ravens patrol now almost daily, but Hooded Crows and Magpies
still remain the dominant larger birds on the shore. Amazingly, there are
a small number of Black Grouse in Folkeparken, a species I haven't seen
there before, but which is common enough on the hillsides around. Perhaps
they are 'hunting refugees'; hunting is not permitted on the island of
Tromsøya itself, while grouse hunting is very popular on the islands around.
In the sounds around the island the wintering Common Eiders, Long-tailed
Ducks, scoters and Cormorants are flocking, and there are virtually only
large gulls here now, the Common Gulls having departed for their
winterinmg areas around the North Sea. The Mallards have moved from the
freshwater lake on top of the island to the shores of the sound, one of
the shortest migration routes I know of, maybe 1 mile!
Wim
Vader, Tromsø Museum
9037
Tromsø, Norway
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