ACID ROCKS GIVE A QUITE DIFFERENT VEGETATION IN TROMSØ (70*N)
The other day I have bragged of the luxuriant undergrowth in Folkeparken
here in Tromsø, where the forbs grow to easily 1-2 m high i midsummer. It
is not that way everywhere around here, as many places the rocks are hard
and acid , and the vegetation therefore much more sparse.
Rakfjord, the wetlands along the Kvalsund on the northern shores of
Kvaløya, is a good example of that. I have told about this area several
times before; it is about 35 km by road from Tromsø, where the secondary
road along the Kvalsund, leading to the fishing village of Kvaløyvågen,
crosses a number of nice wetlands (in part now protected, so that one has
to view them from the road), with several smaller or larger lakes.
Yesterday was a warm sunny day (Maybe 20*C, but feeling like 30*) and I
felt so languid and tired that only the abundant horseflies, that love a
stationary target, kept me going along the road. But I am glad i did persevere.
It is high summer now, and bird song has virtually ceased, as I mentioned
before. Today the only regular caller was the Cuckoo, and even this
indefatigable bird had not read the bird books properly; he ought to be
largely silent after 1 July. (Once or twice I also heard the far-away
whinnying of a Snipe) The other calls were mostly protests, while I walked
along the edge of the wetlands: the tinkling protests of the ubiquitous
Meadow Pipits, the ever nervous sounds of the always highly strung
Redshanks, and the melodious protest calls of the resident pair of
Parasitic Jaegers, that also treated me to a nice example of 'playing ill',
but otherwise were not as yet very aggressive---clearly the young are not
yet out. The scattered pairs of Common Gulls on the wetlands kept
themselves to themselves, and probably had figured out that traffic along
the road did not really concern them, and the few pairs of Arctic Terns
were luckily far enough away from the road to be content with shrieking and
half-hearted faints; I feel the terns to be the most formidable adversary
of all these birds. The Lapwings that are so conspicuous earlier in the
season, have disappeared altogether, the ducks hide themselves and their
young in the Equisetum and Bogbean Menyanthes surroundings their nesting
lakes, while the two young loons again floated in the middle of their lake,
and the resident Whooper Swans had taken their three half-grown cygnets
ashore, where they apparently were fast asleep. These wetlands are not
colourful at all, as there are very few flowers out; for some reason even
the Bogbeans here do not sport their beautiful flowers, and there also is
little Cotton grass Eriophorum, which adorns so many other wetlands and
ditches around here.
Nor is the other side of the road more spectacular plant-wise. here, on the
drier hillsides, heather makes out the main vegetation. Crowberries
Empetrum, Bog Wortleberry Vaccinium uliginosum, Black bearberry
Arctostaphylos alpina, and heather Calluna dominate, toegther with grasse,
sedges, and the famous cloudberries Rubus chamaemorus. I also found Sundew
along some small ponds, this time the roundleaved Drosera rotundifolia, and
here and there there are groups of colourful orchids, Dactylorchis, locally
called Adam and Eve. There are in fact lilies too, but the small greenish
Scottish Asphodel Tofeildia pusilla is generally overlooked. These
hillsides are the domain of two other shorebirds, that co-dominate the
acoustic impressions of a walk such as yesterday's: the sore melancholic
long drawn-out calls of the Golden Plovers, and the stuttering, but very
melodious protests of the Whimbrels. Especially these last are extremely
common here, and one walks from one territory into the next one all the
time; and these birds definitely have NOT yet learned that people on the
road do not constitute a danger and often work themselves up in a melodious
frenzy of indignancy.
The road through these wetlands must have been a job to build, and a lot of
sand has been brought in for the purpose. Therefore the road verges
constitute a quite different habitat than the rest of the area here, and
are also much more colourful. The Dandelions have mostly gone, and the
Caraway is also on its last umbels. Also here White Clovers (but not Red
ones) are very common, and attract large numbers of bumblebees, so one
would almost be able to map the clover patches acoustically ,with eyes
closed. Buttercups and Bacon and eggs Lotus , together with the
half-parasites Yellow-Rattle Rhinanthus (that we call Pengegress=
moneygrass, because the inflated calyx with the loose seeds look likeso
many purses to us) maintain the roadside dominance of yellow flowers. But
now there is a lot more white here too: the Viviparous Knotweed Polygonum
viviparum, and extensive low carpets of another half-parasite , Eyebright
Euphrasia. In addition here the dirches and any humid place is full of the
stately white flowers of Parnassia. Other colours are added by Vetch Vivia
cracca (purplish blue), Harebells Campanula rotundifolia( mid blue), and
Water Avens Geum rivale (reddish), and all in all the road side flowers,
even though not by far as luxuriant as the ones here on Tromsøya, still
make up for the relative dullness of both the surrounding wetlands and the
heather-covered hillsides.
This is one of my favourite areas, and there is usually a surprise or two
also. But not always and not this time, unless it was an unrecognized one
among the many small summer-butterflies, an animal group, which I greatly
admire but know little about (Where are you, Iman?); they come in many
colours, from almost white via the bluest blue to 'off-black', and most of
them clearly belong to different species than the ones I see in spring.
Similarly, the often beautifully formed rushes Juncus and sedges Carex
absolutely surpass my botanic knowledge; I knew sedges and grasses
moderately well back in Holland 40 years ago, but never learned to manage
the larger diversity in Norway. But fortunately it is very well possible to
notice and admire them anyway. (I am often surprised at how narrow many
birders are; for them the vegetation seems to be nothing more than
'branches that impede the view of the birds'. How much they are missing!!!)
Wim Vader, Tromsø Museum
9037 Tromsø, Norway
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