15
JANUARY 2010---YEARBIRD NR 5 IN TROMSØ, N. NORWAY
I have lived in Tromsø, at almost 70*N in N.Norway, for 36 years now, but
never have I seen so few birds there than this winter. Until this morning
my year list stopped at four species: Hooded Crow (lots of those),
European Magpie (also common), Herring Gull and Northern Eider. There are
many possible reasons for this, the main one of course being the dearth of
daylight: in january we still have no sun above the horizon, and just a
few hours of twilighty daylight in the middle of the day. Another reason
is no doubt, that I have not been very actively searching for birds, this
is because our streets have been dangerously icy and slippery for most of
the time this year. After weeks of quite cold and dry weather in November
and December, we have got an incursion of Atlantic lows, and they have
brought milder weather (+2-4*C) and rain, and this has brought about this
ice cover on all the minor roads and paths; and at 72 and somewhat
overweight I have become much less nimble on ice, in spite of my
'brodder', spiked soles one binds under the shoes and which almost
everybody uses under these circumstances. Nevertheless I walk to and from
work and shop every day, and also have feeders in the garden, which in the
autumn were very popular among the smaller birds; but I have not yet seen
a single bird on these feeders this year, except the magpies.
A further ground for the absence of certain birds this year is the fact
that our numerous Rowans Sorbus aucuparia had a very bad crop in 2009, so
that our thrushes left us already in October, and I have not seen any
Waxwings or Pine Grosbeaks this winter, birds that otherwise often come to
feast on the abundant rowanberries. And of course, as always, chance plays
a role: I saw a Blackbird (an uncommon bird here) on 30 December, and a
majestic White-tailed Sea Eagle over the house on New Year's Eve (and my
daughter and son-in-law saw two eagles day before yesterday), and Riet who
was here at Christmas, saw a tit in the garden one of the first days of
January, which I missed out on. Still, it is very strange that I still
have to see my first eagles, Ravens, Great Black-backed Gulls,
Cormorants, Willow Tits, Greenfinches, and even Feral Pigeons and House
Sparrows midways through January
This morning, when I walked to work---via a largish detour, to avoid the
worst ice-pitfalls-- the weather had turned once more to light frost, and
the entire southern skies were dark red--- it is only one week til
Soldagen (= Sun Day), the day we can again see part of the sun above the
horizon, if the weather cooperates. And in a garden along the road a
solitary Great Tit Parus major was singing! The song is not much: tee tu
tee tu tee tu, and we often somewhat denigratingly call it 'sawing', but
oh how welcome it was. And yearbird nr 5!!
Wim Vader, Tromsø Museum
9037 Tromsø, Norway
==============================www.birding-aus.org
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