AUTUMN SPLENDOUR IN TROMSØ,
N.NORWAY
I got it right in my last mail: summer 2008 in Tromsø DID fall on a
Sunday! This last month we have had changeable, wet and cool weather most
of the time, and the maximum temperatures never even came close to 20*C.
But this last week we have wonderful cool sunny autumn weather, with
maximum temperatures of 12-14*C, and the risk of night frost. There is
hardly a cloud on the skies all day, but many days start with dense fog,
before the sun breaks through after a few hours. The sheep have been taken
in from the hills, and now graze in the fields around the farms; in one
field there was today also a flock of c 30 Greylag Geese, no doubt the
local breeders and their young.
It is now full autumn here, and the landscape looks absolutely fantastic!
In spring we have all these different shades of green, which then in
summer more or less melt together to an 'average summer green', often
almost somewhat monotonous. But now, in the sharp clear air of autumn,
there are even more colours and nuances than in spring, with all shades of
yellow, brown and red in addition to the different greens. The birches
yellow very individually, so that some are still almost totally green,
some go through a rusty brownish-yellow fase, and some are gloriously
golden yellow and sparkle in the sun. The other common tree here, the
Rowan (Mountain Ash, Sorbus aucuparia) is now laden with red berries---we
have a bumper crop this year!--; again, some are still mainly green, while
others have coloured deep red already. So on a wooded hillside (i.e. most
hillsides here) every individual tree is different from the ones around
and the total picture is one of great beauty. Because of the nice weather
and the little wind of the last weeks, the autumn colours are especially
vivid this year.
There are few flowers left these days. On the road verges Yarrow Achillea
millefolium now dominates, but there are still some Harebells Campanula
rotundifolium, Eyebright Euphrasia, buttercups, hawksweed and clovers. On
the heath Heather Calluna is still in almost full flower, but it is less
dominant here than elsewhere in Europe, and from a distance the fresh
green of Crowberries Empetrum, and the vivid autumn red of the Dwarf
Cornel Cornus suecica (with its enticing looking, but insipid red berries,
which the kids here call grisebær, swine berries) and of the Arctic
Bearberry Arctostaphylos alpina are much more to the fore that the pink
heather flowers. Even though the crowberries at the Kvalsund, where I
walked to day, have not had a specially fruitful year, there are
nevertheless lots of berries in the fields here: 3 Vaccinium species and
the Cloudberries Rubus chamaemorus. Very few birds; only lots of Meadow
Pipits in the fields, and practically nothing at all on the wetlands and
marshes (One pair of Wigeon, a single Raven). On the sounds the terns have
all disappeared , and today I did not see any shorebirds at all, not even
oystercatchers! Just gulls, cormorants, eiders---back in full breeding
plumage---and a few Red-breasted Mergansers.
Last Wednesday we had our yearly personnel-excursion of Tromsø museum, and
this time we visited the outlying island of Hekkingen, in the mouth of the
Malangen fjord. Here there were still Oystercatchers and Kittiwakes in
addition to Common, Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls, and an immature
Gyrfalcon was even a yearbird for me. There were also twittering flocks of
Twites, probably mostly young of the year. And of course Cormorants at
sea.
In my garden large flocks of thrushes, with some Starlings mixed in, visit
the Rowan trees to feast on the berries; I estimate them to be c 80%
Fieldfares and 20% Redwings. Other birds in my not very bird-rich garden
these days are Great Tits, Bramblings, White Wagtails and young Willow
Warblers, in addition to the always present magpies and hooded crows; but
my 'house' Common Gulls are gone for the year; they now are in largish
flocks at certain favourable points in the intertidal.
Next week I'm off to Namibia with Rockjumpers Tours, and can feast on all
kind of new and wonderful birds. back in Tromsø in mid October!
Wim Vader,
Tromsø Museum
9037 Tromsø,
Norway
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