Date: Sat, 24 May 2003 18:16:08 +0200
To: birdchat
From: Wim Vader <>
Subject: Half round the Balsfjord, at 70*N
DO TWO SWALLOWS MAKE SUMMER??
While most of western Europe, including S. Norway, almost drowns in
continuous chilly rain, we up north are much more lucky. (We are also
easier pleased, I think; a day like today, sunny, but with a max.
temperature of ca 10*C in late may, is heartily welcomed in Tromsø, but
scoffed at in Oslo as : 'Do you call that summer?' Anyway, I planned to
repeat my Balsfjord round trip in late May (Knot time), as I try to do
every year. As it happened, my 23 years old Saab suddenly began to make
the most unpleasant extra sound effects just when I was at the furthest
point south; as I severely challenged technologically, I do not really
know what is wrong (maybe some stone or something insinuated itself in the
brake lining?), so I sneaked (well, somewhat loud sneaking) home the
shortest way, and will ask my garage to solve the problem on Monday. I had
planned to give you the birdlist of today, and shall now 'fill out' the
list with what I saw last Monday at Rakfjord, not too unlike what I could
have expected on Tisnes.
Really sunny today, and especially from inside the car it felt like
summer. Also, I had at last changed to summer wheels, the snow sticks have
been removed from the road sides (No snow ploughs more this summer), and
in a lot of the cabins along the route there were people cleaning out for
summer occupation. (There are a lot of these cabins along the roads, and
as virurally everybody puts up at least one nest box, there are also very
very many Pied Flycatchers around, and they are all singing---hitherto i
have only seen males, they come some 10 days earlier).
In the lowlands there is now very little snow left, just some drifts in
shady ditches, while the hills now appear piebald, with
the 'rock ribs sticking out' from the large snow fields. The ground is now
almost everywhere covered with fresh green, and we have got new yellow
flowers (Why should it be better for spring flowers on open ground to be
coloured yellow?): The Coltsfeet Tussilago have partly changed into white
fluffballs. In the fields they are being replaced by the first Dandelions,
or if they are marshy, by the same Marsh Marigolds that now fill all
ditches and rivulets with pure gold. on grassy road verges the wonderful
and every year again heart-lifting Yellow Wood Violets Viola biflora
twinkle, and in a day of two Trollius, the Globe Flower, also will be out
with its garden-plant looking yellow balls (Ball-blom , it is called here,
although many people also say eggeplomme= egg-yolk). in the forest there
are white flowers, white anemone and the dainty Wood-sorrel Oxalis.
I started out by checking Prestvannet, the tarn on top of our island.
There all the ice has now gone, the Common Gull colony is in business, and
the Arctic terns have just arrived anbd display mostly high in the air
above the tarn. The mallards probably already sit on eggs, as there are
mostly males on the water, but the Tufted Ducks still swim around in
pairs, and this year we have three pais of Red-throated Loons, amazing for
such a small tarn , that is sio popular for walkers and joggers, and has a
path all around. Another big surprise for me was the singing Collared
Dove, the first one I ever found on a regular trip; these birds came to
Tromsø as early as 1969, are of course, as so much else here, the
northernmost of the world, and 2 or 3 pairs have hung on 'by the skin of
their teeth' (and the teeth of doves are not all that impressive) now
during more than thirty years already, mostly thanks to an old lady who
feeds them and protects them in winter (they are residents!); she phoned
me once saying there was a Goshawk eating a feral pigeon in the tree in
her garden where these doves often stay in winter. But they are still
here, clearly!
Ramfjord was also completely ice-free, which is early, but that fjord is
never very bird-rich: Eiders, Common Gulls, Oystercatchers are the birds
that are everywhere here, but little else. At Andersdalen there was also
little, and I missed i.a. the lapwings that i always see here, and the
first forest walk, although now in a forest where the Rowans were 3/4 out,
the alders half and the birches 1/4, again yielded surprisingly little.
Funny here, and at the next walks are the serried ranks of the strangely
named Ostrich ferns Struthiopteris, that here cover large areas of
underground; they all stand bold upright, all at a certain distance from
each other, as if on parade! And they have a very special green colour, as
most plants so early in spring, before everything melts togehter, has its
very own and very particular colour green---the wild raspberries for
example that are also common along the roads here, sprout in a colour so
dull, as if it has been out all winter. As I said, the bird chorus here
was spotty, and dominated by the quite soporific rasps of the Bramblings
and the cheery jingles of the Pied Flycatchers; there are also quite a
number of Chaffinches here, and also Redwings but they sing not so much in
the morning. Otherwise Fieldfares, Willow Warblers, a few Redpolls and the
odd Chiffchaff and Great Tit.
The next walk is through the more open areas of Storneset, where I was
surprised not to find any Golden Plovers anymore (nor Lapwings), but it
was here one farm had a single pair of Barn Swallows, that foraged low
over the grassy meadow. (Will they bring summer? Not immediately, as from
Monday we get cooler weather and rain here too). In the intertidal there
were Redshanks, two pairs of Shelduck, a Grey Heron, and a flock of
scoters on the water. (There are generally much fewer ducks on the fjord,
as they gradually move inland). Later I also found a late flock of Velvet
Scoters.
The I drove up to Heia, the point of return, ca 175 m a.s.l. and with most
of the lakes still frozen over, and the local Yellow wagtail not yet
arrived either, not the Bluethroat that often sings here. From there I
limped back, but I did limp via Sagelvvatnet, as this constituted only a
small detour, and I had driven 125 km to get there. This rather shallow
and by our standards eutrophic lake was still mostly frozen ovbver, but
the ice was very very ritten and won't last much longer, and there were
sevarl places of open water, where the water birds had congregated, making
this a wonderful place to bird this time a year. Most of the birds are
Tufted Ducks and Red-breasted Mergansers, but there were also Goldeneyes,
several pairs of Horned (Slavonian) Grebes in their finest finery (which
is very fine indeed), a pair of Wigeons, a splendid pair of Common Scoters
and a single male Goosander (Common Merganser), while Common Sandpipers
chased and displayed along the shore. It almost made me forget the problem
of how to get home in one piece (which I also managed!).
the bird list will be sent separately.
Wim
Vader, Tromsø Museum
9037
Tromsø, Norway
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