A FEW HOURS ESCAPE TO A WONDERFUL WETLAND
Yesterday, 19 May 2003, North Norway was blessed with miraculous summery
weather, with blue skies, 23 1/2 hours of sunlight, and temperatures that
several places exceeded 20*C, all very uncommon for a May-day at 70*N. So
at the end of another busy day sweating over applications to our research
council (One has to throw out a lot of bait in this game to have the chance
of a nice catch now and then), I escaped for a few hours to Rakfjord, a
wonderful series of marshes, tundra-like low hills with heather--mostly
Empetrum--, and small lakes and tarns, situated along the Kvalsund, the
sound separating the two large outlying islands of Kvaløya and Ringvassøya,
between us and the sea. The area is about 30 km from Tromsø by road (there
is a tunnel under Kvalsund to get to Ringvassøy, but we keep on the Kvaløy
side of the sound, and take a secondary road near the tunnel opening.)
The rock here is acid and very hard, so the vegetaion much less luxuriant
than on the island of Tromsøya or e.g. at Tisnes or Sommarøy, and spring
has come a bit shorter her, it looks like, although the Marsh Marigolds
were out in force in one of the small rivulets, and the road verges were
full of the miniature minarets (or rockets, if you are of a more western
mood) of the common Horsetail Equisetum.
But this is primarily a bird paradise (It is now fortunately also protected
by law, so I can only walk along the road). I put my car on a parking place
where the road crosses a tidal lagoon near some farms---there are a lot of
small farms here, and the young lambs are another wonderful sign of spring.
On the fields around the farms there are Golden Plovers everywhere; they
will later move into the heathery hills and nest there, as yet they seem
mostly busy feeding , but every now and then one tunes up with its
wonderful display song (snatches only mostly as yet), 'the voice of the
hills' here in the north. A few pairs of Greylag Geese seem to be already
more or less on territory here, and are quite loud; the two pairs of
Pinkfeet that I see later on are much less conspicuous , and they will soon
fly north to the Arctic to nest there.
Starlings are present on all the farms, mostly thanks to a project of
nest-boxes, carried out everywhere around Tromsø by the local birdclub.
This may sound like the height of folly for all you starling-haters abroad,
but here this is a most welcome guest, which had decreased alarmingly in
recent years, and where one of the causes may well have been the
unsuitability of modern housing as a nesting locality for starlings (and
sparrows); the nest box programme has visibly helped! Also pairs of White
Wagtails are present on most farms, another always welcome harbinger of
spring, but arriving a few weeks after the starlings.
The low hills surroundings the wetlands here are the province of the
Whimbrels. They too are just starting their display flights, again a
wonderful sound, although the low trills of the Whimbrel are maybe less
impressive after all compared to the bronze fluting of the Curlews. Here
the Curlews keep to the sound-sides, while the Whimbrels are amazingly
common on the low hills, much more than one would think at first sight. But
only wait until one of the many Carrion Crows quarters the area; then all
the Whimbrels take to the air and viciously attack the marauder, even
making physical contact with their curved bills. To my great amazement and
amusement, I found that the Whimbrels which had their territories close to
the wetlands where the Lapwings ceaselessly display their 'rock and roll'
flights, leave the defense to the ever vigilant Lapwings, and do not bother
to 'fly up for every crow', as their conspecifics in the hills do every
time. How quickly they learn!!
There are far more Whimbrels than you would think, but maybe the opposite
is the case for the Redshanks; they sound like hundreds when in reality
there are only tens. But these are always up and about, and if they do not
indulge in their loud song flight, they have always something to be nervous
about, and when a Redshank is nervous (i.e. most of the time) all the
surroundings know about it! There are also quite many Snipe here (and
usually Ruffs, but I did not see any this time), but again I only heard the
'sky-whinny' a few times; most of the time they betrayed themselves by
their metronomic ticka ticka ticka sounds, usually given from the ground.
It is early days yet.
There are spread-out pairs of Common Gulls (and one threesome, with
constant bickering) on these wetlands (and Herring and Great Black-backed
Gulls along the sound), but I saw as yet no terns. But soon after my
arrival a well-known miaowing sound announced that another larid, the
Arctic Skua (or Parasitic Jaeger, if you prefer that name) was back on one
of its nesting areas. At least two pairs had returned and could be watched
excellently from the road. This was a first for 2003, just as I today heard
the first stuttering song of the Common Wheatear (and the second and third,
in fact), while two seriously quarreling small brown birds turned out the
third new year bird, the Meadow Pipit. These two species are to become the
dominant passerines of this area in summer.
Finally, there are of course also waterbirds here, even though I still have
not refound the pair of Whooper Swans that has nested in this general area
for years already. But the Black-throated Divers (Arctic Loons) are back,
and nest at exactly the same place as last year. There are Mallards, of
course, I heard Wigeons and as always the dominant duck here is the dapper
Red-throated Merganser. A pair of Pintails was a nice surprise (there is
another pair at Tisnes this spring), and although I did not see any today,
no doubt there will be Teal too.
I was in Rakfjord-Risvika for maybe two hours, and as always it was a
wonderful experience. What makes Rakfjord extra special in a way, is the
sounds, the Golden Plovers, Whimbrels, Snipe, Redshanks, together with the
wild cries of the Arctic Skuas. There is a lot of good health in that!!
Wim Vader, Tromsø Museum
9037 Tromsø, Norway
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