TROMSØ, N.NORWAY (69*50'N), IN WINTER, AN INTRODUCTION
After more than five years of sending out short reports to e-friends all
over the world on the seasons and birdlife in Tromsø, the town where I have
lived since 1973, I sincerely thought it was more than time to stop, as all
had been said and heard many times by now. But after having received
several mails these last months asking: "Are you ill? Why don't we hear any
more about Tromsø?", some with the argument: 'There always is a large
turnover on these lists', I have decided to write at least once more and
try to give an impression of the place where I live, and which for many
people sounds so exotic. (You may have heard that Tromsø has made a bid for
the winter Olympic games 2014? So maybe the towm will get better known
eventually)
The town of Tromsø itself is, to be honest, nothing special. Most of the
downtown area burned down some 35 years ago (wooden houses still
predominate here), and things were built up quickly afterwards with more
eye for function than for form, and only now the town planners are slowly
trying to mould the town into a prettier shape. We have the preconditions
for being a beautiful town, though. Tromsø is situated on an island
(teardrop shaped, ca 10 km long, not very high) in the more than 100 km
long Balsfjord, that cuts from N to S into the landscape, and is surrounded
by not all that high (maybe 1000-1200m), but very scenic hills. (For a
picture, and a map of our place in the world, see
http://www.imv.uit.no/ommuseet/enheter/zoo/wim/map.html ). The town has
grown very quickly, from ca 40 000 people when I arrived in 1973, to more
than 60 000 nowadays, and Tromsø is the largest town in N.
Scandinavia---although we of course can not compete with Murmansk on the
Kola peninsula, which is nearly ten times as big. We also have the
northernmost university in the world (most everything here is the
northernmost in the world, all the way down to our flock of feral pigeons),
and that is the reason I have been here since thirty years, as curator of
zoology at Tromsø Museum (founded in 1872, so 100 years older than the
university of which is now is a part), and professor at the university. My
scientific specialty are the amphipods (A group of crustaceans with about
as many described species world-wide as there are birds, but lots and lots
of still undescribed ones), and they have enabled me to see quite a bit of
the world. Birds are mostly a hobby nowadays, but I have done some research
on seabirds here in N.Norway for c 15 years until 1990.
Tromsø is situated far north in the world, at 69*50'N, and that together
with the ameliorating influence on the climate of the 'warm' North Atlantic
current flowing north along our coasts are the two most important factors
shaping our climate and thus our flora and fauna. If you follow 70*N
latitude around the world on a globus, you'll meet practically nothing else
than icy wastes and bleak tundra, except here in NW Europe, where the
climate is boreal rather than Arctic, and where a well-developed, though
not all that tall, birch forest dominates the vegetation in coastal areas,
with pine forest in the inland. On the other hand, the 'light climate' of
course is entirely decided by the latitude, and we have therefore here in
Tromsø two months of midnight sun in summer, and two months with no sun
above the horizon at all in winter. The sun returned to us 21 january, and
by now we have already daylight for 6-7 hours a day, with every day ten
minutes longer than the day before.
There is another factor that has been of great influence for the vegetation
and much of the fauna up here, and that is the relatively short time after
the last Ice Age, and the fact that many of our mountain ranges act as
barriers for the dispersal of plants and animals rather than , as e.g. the
north south mountain ranges in the Americas, as a guiding line. One of the
effects is that e.g. spruce never made it back to northernmost Norway as
yet after the ice age, although the trees grow very well here, and in fact
are now planted many places: they never succeeded in making it across
Saltfjellet at ca 67*N. Similarly, our freshwater fauna of e.g. fishes and
molluscs is much less diverse than in the eastern part of Finnmark, close
to the Russian border (ca 1000 km, as the pigeon flies, i.e.. along the
roads), again, the reasons for that are historical rather than biological.
For birds, a group that in general disperses much more easily (they can
fly!) the differences are much less spectacular, but even so, species as
the Greenfinch and the Goldcrest first have spread all over N.Norway after
spruce plantations became widespread, and created better nesting opportunities.
Geologically the are is quite diverse, and although large areas consist of
hard and somewhat acid rock, which supports a not all that diverse
vegetation, we also have quite large tracts with chalk-rich mountain, with
a very rich and varied flora. Fløya, the hill opposite downtown on the
mainland, for example , is a botanically famous mountain and looks almost
like a botanic garden in summer. Additionally, many elements of the
mountain flora, such as f.ex. Dryas and Silene acaulis, here grow down to
sea-level, as long as the ground is chalk-rich
Winters in Tromsø are long, but not severe. Most winters there is also a
lot of snow; the record is 2.43m on the ground on 29 April 1997. But these
last two winters we have had less snow, and just now there is no more than
maybe 2 ft, 'just right'. Also, we luckily have had few of the periods of
mild weather, thaw and rain this winter, that make the roads and paths
extremely slippery and icy and steeply increase the number of broken wrists
and legs admitted to the local hospital
So what birds do we have here in winter? Not many, especially on land! I
walk every morning and afternoon through Folkeparken, a remnant birch
forest , with some extensive fir-plantations and some pines and Siberian
larch, and most mornings I do not hear much more than Hooded Crows and
Black-billed Magpies, definitely the most conspicuous birds in winter
Tromsø. There are other birds in the forest, though. Now and then I come
across a small flock of tits, mostly Great Tits (a comparative newcomer
here that has profited mightily from winter-feeding), but also the dapper
and stark black and white Willow Tits, while the other day I even surprised
a single fluffy Siberian Tit, otherwise a bird of the coniferous inland
forest. Also the tentative interrogative whistles of Bullfinches can be
heard now and then (it is only the last weeks that there is daylight while
I walk to and from work), while the otherwise so conspicuous Greenfinches
have been almost entirely absent this winter, and I have not seen a single
Redpoll as yet. This almost completes the list of land birds (not counting
the House Sparrows and feral pigeons in town), apart from a single Sparrow
Hawk and a dashing Goshawk, both seen from the museum cafeteria, and the
mournful croaking of Ravens overhead now and then.
There are more birds on the sounds around the island of Tromsøya. Not so
many on the shores, where Hooded Crows dominate the winter scene; there are
no doubt Purple Sandpipers around too, but I have not yet seen any. Common
Eiders are the most common birds just now, and the splendidly attired males
are already in full swing with courting. Other seaducks are the beautiful
long-tailed ducks and the tight flocks of dumpy Black Scoters; while
Red-breasted Mergansers hunt alone. A few wracks in the harbour are
festooned with Great Cormorants, and large gulls are everywhere: mostly
Herring Gulls and Great Black-backs, but here and there also a all-white
Glaucous Gull. Apart from a single diminutive Little Auk (Dovekie) this in
fact already concludes my year list. Here in Tromsø January and February
usually do not yield more than 20-25 birds, and this year I missed the
Mallards (The sewage has been cleaned up, and there are fewer wintering
ducks around), and the White-tailed Sea Eagle, that used to frequent our
part of the island all winter. And there are hardly any rowanberries left,
hence no Fieldfares, Waxwings or Pine Grosbeaks.
So the situation here in Tromsø now is really 'the same as every year' and
I am still very unsure whether it still will be of any interest to
subscribers to continue reporting on seasons and birds at 70*N.
Wim Vader,
Tromsø Museum
9037 Tromsø,
Norway
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