Tromsø, N.Norway is, as so often the last years, once more in the grip
of
Atlantic depressions, that give us wind, chilly rains, and temperatures
which are a few degrees above freezing, but which feel much colder. Much of
our beautiful pristine winter snow has melted , and the rest lies in untidy
heaps here and there. While the main roads are free of snow and instead
sport large puddles of water, the secondary roads are still dangerously
icy, and my driveway has changed into an ice chute, so that taking my car
out in the morning (reversing down the icy slope unto a sharp bend in the
road) every morning is a bit of an adventure.
Just now somebody phoned and told that they have a Hoopoe Upupa epops in
the garden. This is one of our more regular rarities and almost every late
autumn one or two lose their bearings on the autumn migration from eastern
Europe or Siberia and turn up here in the high north, where they soon
perish, when frost prevents them from drilling after food. It is one of the
more unmistakable birds in our area, and among the few one can always
identify by phone. In most European languages it is named after its
characteristic repeated call: hop in Dutch, hoopoe in English, even hud hud
in Arab; but in Norwegian---a language somehow strangely poor in
onomatopeic bird names, where even the Chiffchaff and the Cuckoo have
failed to get named after their call--- it is the Hærfugl, the army bird,
a bird of bad omen, with its presence earlier prophecying wars and invading
armies.
Interestingly, another of the nomadic species common in and around
Tromsø
just now---- I saw a flock of > 150 the other day here around the
museum---, the Bohemian Waxwing Bombycilla garrulus, had traditionally a
similar reputation in Holland. Waxwings nest in the taiga and erupt into
Europe irregularly where their tameness and their habits of flocking into
garden trees to pick the berries make them quite conspicuous. The name
Bohemian Waxwing is an indication of their nomadic lifestyle; for some
reasons the inhabitants of Bohemia, a region in Czechia, got their names
for ever connected with a vagabond lifestyle (La Bohème), and the bird name
alludes to this and not to Bohemia itself. In Norway, where the bird nests
in the northernmost areas (north and east of here still) it is called the
Sidensvans, the Silktail. But in Holland, where the bird is a typical
invasion bird, this poor bird got saddled with the name Pestvogel, the
Plague Bird, and their eruptions were clearly seen as a very bad omen.
This is weather to keep indoors, read books, and reflect on names, hence
this somewhat unconventional contribution.
Wim Vader, Tromsø Museum
9037 Tromsø, Norway
(NB.
soon to be changed to
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
