HILLESØY ONCE MORE; WHAT A DIFFERENCE THREE DAYS MAKE!!
Earlier this week (Tuesday) I wrote about a trip to the outer islands,
Sommarøy and Hillesøy, and noted that there were as yet almost no signs of
spring in the air there. Since then we have had milder weather, with
southerly winds and grey skies, although little precipitation, and
yesterday another birder reported 6-800 Snow Buntings from Sommarøy, just
the birds I had sought in vain there on Tuesday.
So today, with skies that threatened, but did not give, rain all day and a
temperature of +4-5*C, I made the same trip once more, albeit in the
oppsite direction. And what a change!! I started out at the airport here,
and noticed at once that the snow now was rotten and much harder to walk
in , but also that now there were Starlings in the intertidal and more
Common Gulls around, while a Northern Lapwing flew over, and I heard the
wonderful bronze fluting of a displaying Curlew. On the skerry that in
winter always holds a couple of Cormorants, there were now 4 Grey Herons,
the Oystercatchers now and then broke out in their weird and wonderful
piping ceremony, and where long yellow grass peeped out of the snow, some
25 Snow Buntings foraged, as usual not much afraid of people. Under the
large bridge to Kvaløya a young Sea Eagle loafed on a skerry, and the
whole area looked, or rather felt, quite different from three days ago.
The same difference and early spring feelings were repeated on the Tisnes
wetlands, where I this time also met several other birders. Here, where
the gull colony on Tuesday was an empty white 'sheet' with a few Hooded
Crows, now the Common Gulls were back, not in full numbers as yet, but at
least ten pairs sat out on the snow and hoped it would melt soon, so that
they could start nesting. And also here I heard a Curlew and saw a Lapwing
(I would see lapwings, not all that common nesting birds so far north, on
two more localities this day!). In the intertidal there were two pairs of
Greylag Goose, also probably just arrived, while the two Yellow-billed
Loons offshore (White-billed Divers for some) are wintering birds here. A
smaller loon was too far away to identify, but it must be one of the two
species that winter further south, I suspect a Black-throated.
Driving out to the coastal islands, Common Gulls now had taken over many
of the street lanterns from the crows, and European Starlings sat on the
telephone wires, both well-known harbingers of spring here. On Hillesøy
and Sommarøy I saw no Snow Buntings at all---the hundreds of yesterday
clearly had moved on---, but here Willow Grouse had started their droll
display calls, and also Black Guillemots and Red-breasted Mergansers were
clearly in a spring mood. A lone male King Eider flew past and so
insinuated itself on my yearlist; these are really spectacular-looking
birds. On Hillesøya a lot of snow had melted, and also the roads are by
now easier to drive most places, although winter and frost always create
'telehiv' on our roads, another Norwegian word where I don't know the
corresponding English term, (frost-buckles??); driving over them almost
gives the impression of being at sea.
Also in my garden there was a spring harbinger yesterday. The last week I
have had small flocks of Redpolls together with the always dominating (and
dominant) Greenfinches. And yesterday there was not only a female House
Sparrow, but also two Twites, a species that I see once or twice in spring
here in the garden almost every year, before they move on to the hillsides
to nest.
'Seventy-two little hours', but the area felt completely different this
time!! And besides the cars parked in the hills, with skitracks radiating
out from them, there were now also cars near the shore and families
picnicking there (well clad!). Another sign of spring on the way!!
Wim Vader,
Tromsø Museum
9037 Tromsø,
Norway
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