As promised, I give here the results of my 1 May excursions of
2001,
2002, and 2003, all 'around the Balsfjord' alongexactly the same 250 km
route(marked 1,2 and 3). 2001 was a snoiw winter, while 2002 and especially
2003 were early springs, at least as concerns the snow melt. I added a few
observations in parentheses for 2003, i.e. the Sparrow hawk that flew over
my garden 30 April, the Black-headed Gulls and the single Kittiwake of
Kvalsund the same day, and the Redwing that sang in Fiolkeparken this
morning. The order is that of the british list.
Yellow-billed Loon Gavia adamsii 3
Horned (Slavonian) Grebe Podiceps auritus 1,2
Cormorant Phalacrocoorax c. carbo 1,2,3
Grey Heron Ardea cinerea 3
Greylag Goose Anser anser 1,2,3
Pink-footed Goose A. brachyrhynchos 2,3
Shelduck Tadorna tadorna 1,2,3
Wigeon Anas penelope 2
Teal A. crecca 3
Mallard A. brachyrhynchus 1,2,3
Tufted Duck Aythya fuligula 2
Common Eider Somateria mollissima 1,2,3
King Eider S. spectabilis 3
Long-tailed Duck Clangula hyemalis 1,2,3
Common Scoter Melanitta nigra 1,2
Velvet Scoter M. fusca 1,2,3
Goldeneye Bucephala clangula 3
Red-throated Merganser Mergus serrator 1,2,3
White-tailed Sea-Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla 2
Sparrow Hawk Accipiter nisus (3)
Merlin Falco columbarius 1
Willow Grouse Lagopus lagopus 1
Oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus 1,2,3
Lapwing Vanellus vanellus 1,2,3
Golden Plover Pluvialis apricaria 2
Snipe Gallinago gallinago 3
Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus 3
Curlew N. arquata 1,2,3
Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa 2
Ruff Philomachus pugnax 2
Black-headed Gull Larus ridibundus (3)
Common Gull L. canus 1,2,3
Baltic Gull L. fuscus 1,3
Herring Gull L. argentatus 1,2,3
Great Black-backed Gull L. marinus 1,2,3
Glaucous Gull L. hyperboreus 3
Iceland Gull L. glaucoides 1
Kittiwake Rissa tridactyla (3)
Rock Dove Columba livia 1,2,3
Wood Pigeon C. palumbus 1,3
White Wagtail Motacilla alba 1,2,3
European Robin Erithacus rubecula 1,2
Fieldfare Turdus pilaris 1,2
Redwing T. iliacus 1,2,(3)
Song Thrush T. philomelos 2
Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita 1
Great Tit Parus major 1,2,3
Williw Tit P. montanus 1,3
Blue Tit P. caeruleus 1
Eur. Magpie Pica pica 1,2,3
Hooded Crow Corvus corone cornix 1,2,3
Northern Raven C. corax 1,2
Starling Sturnus vulgaris 1,2,3
House Sparrow Passer domesticus 2,3
Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs 1,2,3
Greenfinch Chloris chloris 1,2,3
Bullfinch Pyrrhula pyrrhula 1,2,3
Snow Bunting Plectrophenax nivalis 1
Comments: Many of the birds here are our normal stock in trade which are
hard to miss on any day of the year; if you go birding here and do not see
a Mapgie or Eider Duck, you should find another hobby! Others are a bit
thin on the ground , so you can easily miss them on any given day, e.g. sea
eagles are always absent on the days when i want to show them to visitors.
A few of these birds are lingering winter guests, and they may or may not
still be present in spring; this goes for the Yellow-billed Loon, the King
Eiders and also the white gulls. Snow Buntings usually move through in
their thousands here in April, but some years, like this, they have all
already left the lowlands by 1 May, while other springs, the ones with much
snow, they linger longer here.
The list also shows that 2002 clearly was a very early year for
shorebirds, many of which migrate north along the coast, while there was no
such tendency for the songbirds, most of which arrive from the Baltic sea
and through the large valleys of N.Sweden. Finally, a few newcomers have
made it onto the list: Grey herons steadily become more common in our
region (where they are largely resident), and both the Wood Pigeon and the
Blue Tit are slowly , but inexorably, extending their nesting areas further
and further north, the same process that has brought us the Robin, the
Chiffchaff, and the Greenfinch in earlier decades here in coastal Troms,
since I moved here in 1973. Global warming? Or other man-made processes,
such as landscaping, fir plantations and the like?
Wim Vader,
Tromsø Museum
9037 Tromsø,
Norway,
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