AUTUMN SNIPPETS FROM 70*N
Today, late october, we have a brisk southwesterly wind here in Tromsø,
N.Norway, severe rain showers and a temperature of 12*C, in short typical
autumn weather. But only two days ago everything looked completely dofferent,
for a week we had beautifil winter weather, a few degrees frost, 5-6 inches of
snow, all postcard pretty. In the course of the last two days the temperature
has risen 20*C, and all the fresh snow has disappeared even from the
surrounding hillsides. So we are back to where we started from; this entire
autumn has basically been wet, wild and mild here, with more than double the
average precipitation in September, and 55 days of consecutive rain (Not all
the time of course, but such that there was some rain on every day. meanwhile
each day has inexorably ten minutes less daylight than the day before; just now
the sun is already pretty low in the southern skies at noon, and disappears
below the horizon at c 3 30 pm.
There are not all that many landbirds to report on in late autumn in Tromsø; in
my garden Hooded Crows and Black-billed Magpies absolutely dominate, together
with gangs of largely greyish young Greenfinches, that are attracted to my
hanging feeder with mainly sunflower seeds. One of the family of magpies that
nested in a garden across the street last summer, and that still seems to keep
together, has amazingly learned to feed from the hanging tube-feeder, although
not for long leriods at a time. It clings acrobatically to the tube, and
extracts the seeds one by one, like a grossly overgrown chickadee. There are
real chickadees also in the garden, the large and showy yellowish Parus major
(the Kjøttmeis)and the neat black-and-white P. montanus(the Granmeis). You will
all need to learn the Norwegian names of these nice tame feisty birds, because
if I use the english names, my mails get refused 'because it contains
obscenity' or even 'blasphemy', or when I am very lucky, they get sent out with
two or three red peppers. I have been severely bowled out by somebody at a
Welsh boys school for 'corrupting the minds of innocent young boys', and that
all because the members of the Paridae in Europe have the English name t*i*t,
and many filters clearly automatically and unintelligently react to this word
in whatever meaning it may appear
OK, Kjøttmeis and Granmeis are also common in my garden and feed from my
feeder, and now and then I have one or two House Sparrows as well, also a new
development. Earlier this autumn, as every year, large flocks of thrushes,
Fieldfares and Redwings came to raid the Sorbus (Mountain Ash or Rowan)
berries; this year there were also quite a number of Starlings among
them---maybe our campaign (I know, hard to understand to overseas people) to
put out nestboxes for starlings, in order to try to stem their serious decrease
in our region, has born some fruit. Day before yesterday I walked to the shop,
down the hill from our house (which lies at c 45m a.s.l.), and was very much
surprised to find a few trees chockfull of Bohemian Waxwings, there must have
been at least 200. We have these tame, beautiful fruiteaters almost every
autumn here in Tromsø, but this time there must have been a very large influx,
as I have seen several large flocks fly over my house the last few days.
Usually one finds these birds by their cheery trilling calls, but this flock
was absolutely silent; I watched them quite some time, from very close, as they
were as tame as they always are, but I didn't hear any sound at all!
My walk through the Folkeparken, a very muddy affair these days, goes now
through a silent and bare forest. I haven't even heard any Bullfinches for
weeks. The only sounds one hears are the chattering of the magpies, and the
calls of some Great Black-backed Gull flying over. Oddly enough I have not yet
heard any Ravens here either. So this time a year is a good time to bring ones
record up to date, and to follow the birding exploits of others. Most years my
year list comes to a full stop somewhere in October, unless we'll have a late
influx of Pine Grosbeaks, as happens some years.
Wim
Vader, Tromsø Museum
9037 Tromsø, Norway
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