ROUND THE BALSFJORD, TWICE
I have been quite silent this spring, partly because after so many years I
fear becoming repertitive, but also because various health problems have
restricted my outdoors activity. But now the weather was so nice, that I
could not restrain myself, the trip became much longer than planned,
though.
Although the general weather situation here in N. Norway still is
dominated by Arctic air, and we have night frost every night, yesterday
and today were wonderful: little wind, lots of sun, and temperatures
'soaring' to +5-6*C. Snow depth in Tromsø is 45 cm, about average for this
time of the year, but these days small rivulets of melt water run
everywhere, and many fields close to the shore and with a southern
exposition are as good as snow-free. As the weather forecast threatens
with a change towards more sleet and snow in the weekend, I decided to do
my annual trip 'around the Balsfjord' this time on Thursday 6 May--- as
officially a pensioner I am free to take off when I want.
Tromsø, at c 70*N in N.Norway, is, as I have told many times before,
situated on an island in the Balsfjord, a c 100km long fjord, stretching
from north to south through the province of Troms. Parallel to it, a bit
further west, is another fjord, Malangen, with the Malangen peninsula in
between; north of the Malangen peninsula a broad and very swift sound,
Straumsund, separates this peninsula from Kvaløya, the large island
between Tromsø and the sea, and a ferry crosses this sound (A long tunnel
beneath this sound is being built and will make the situation much easier
in a few years time). My trip 'around the Balsfjord' in reality has to go
via Malangen, as there is no road all the way along the west shore of the
Balsfjord.
The first 40 km of the trip is mainly transport, first along the E8 along
the Balsfjord, and its side fjord, the Ramfjord. The scenery all day is
spectacular, a never ending series of panorama postcards; I wish I could
show them to you. The Ramfjord is interesting in many ways, primarily
because this fjord is much colder and has a much more Arctic fauna than
the deeper and always open Balsfjord (In fact, some 20 years ago I watched
a beluga, a white whale, there!); even now in May the innermost 15 km of
the Ramfjord are completely ice-covered, and there are always
ice-fishermen active here. The E8 continues south through a typical alpine
valley, Lavangsdalen, but I turn at the bottom of the Ramfjord, along the
north side of the Ramfjord on a narrower secondary road, clearly showing
how much damage a severe winter can do to our roads. This road used to be
ill-famous for its avalanches, but a 600 m long tunnel at the most
dangerous point has solved most of these problems by now. There is not
much to see along the Ramfjord; it is clearly not very rich in marine
intertidal and shallow water fauna, and there are far fewer Common Gulls,
Oystercatchers and Common Eiders here than along the Balsfjord, where
these species are extremely common.
At the mouth of the Ramfjord, a small river comes out at Andersdalen, but
also here spring is very early as yet; there are lots of ice still and few
birds, not even the Lapwings that I usually score here. The same situation
is evident during my first walk, along the road through the woodland near
Andersdalen. This woodland, on the steep sides of the cliffs, consists
mostly of birch Betula, willows Salix,and Grey Alder Alnus incana, with
some planted fields of spruce, and in spring there is a good size bird
chorus here. Not today, however; just as last week, the only active
singers are the Chaffinches. After a while I also hear the first two
Chiffchaffs and a far away European Robin, the latter not very common here
near the coast. Although the trees have changed colour somewhat, none of
them are in flower as yet, let alone in leaf.
The next traditional walk is at Storneset, through an area with mixed
farms and copses, with again some spruce plantings. Some of the people
here feed the birds actively all winter, and there are also many nestboxes
in the gardens. There is a lot of muddy shore here and there, but again,
few real signs of spring: of course the ubiquitous Common Gulls were not
here in winter, and also the colourful pair of Shelducks are returned
migrants, but that is all: no plovers, no Tringa waders. And the same on
land: A Woodpigeon sings incessantly (He sang already at the same site a
week ago), but no Bramblings, no Dunnocks, no thrushes even (And a week
ago there were 5 Redwings here, the first for the year). In the fjord
there are eiders and the usual small flocks of Common Scoters, but quite
few.
Having driven around this 'Andersdalen peninsula' one returns to the main
road, E8, which has been renovated a few years agi, and now runs halfway
up the hillside, making for wonderful panoramic views, but few birds along
the road itself. At the 'bottom' of the fjord, at Nordkjosbotn, I choose
the old road, as that one goes much closer to the shore and is also much
less busy. Here one has the sun at one's back around noon, so the light is
wonderful, and very often there are many waterbirds here, in part feasting
on the eggs of the local population of capelin Mallotus villosus. Scoters
are particularly fond of these demersal eggs, and here are always flocks
of Velvet Scoters, as well as Long-tailed Ducks and of course eiders.
Fewer than normal today again, though, just as it was a week ago. But this
time there are at least several of the spectacular Slavonian (Horned)
Grebes, most already in pairs; they await here the disappearance of the
ice on the nesting lakes.
As usual, I did visit the shallow and productive lake Sagvatnet, and as
almost every year, I was clearly still much too early. The whole area is
covered in snow and ice, with here and there garden chairs far on the ice
to show where the ice fishermen try their luck. Some ominous dark areas in
the ice show where the first open areas will be in a while.
Back to Storsteinnes, and the Balsfjord again, but without finding
anything new. So I crossed over the higher area to Malangen--as I said it
is impossible to drive along the entire western shore of Balsfjorden--no
road. Here a lone Lapwing, looking quite despondent, sat on a very small
snow free area along the road; 3 hours later, he was still at the same
place, now in company with two more.
Malangen, for some reason, always has a lot of nesting Greylag Geese, and
today was no exception. Otherwise there was nothing new there either, and
from Meistervik I again crossed over to the Balsfjord side, where at
Malangseidet I found maybe the most unexpected bird of the day, a Common
Loon. (In our area this is the least common loon; the normal wintering
bird is the Yellow-billed Loon, while the two smaller species breed in the
area). A bit further north, in one of the too many spruce plantations, I
had an other surprising observation: a Red Squirrel sprinted along the
roadside---like the European Robin, this is basically a species of the
inland and its pine forests here, and i personally had never seen one in
Malangen before. Reindeer here were more to be expected, they are common
all over the area, but they are not wild animals..
Distances are rather large here, and when I finally arrived at the ferry
in Vikran, I had driven c 180 km; from the other side of the sound here,
it is only some 35 km back to Tromsø. So you can imagine my frustration
when one of the sailors on my query when the ferry would leave, answered:
'I have no idea. Maybe one hour, maybe 5 hours, maybe tomorrow! We have a
very serious oil leakage, and don't know yet what is the matter' So there
was nothing to it than turn around and drive once more 'around the
Balsfjord'---good that the weather was so nice!! I chose to drive along
the slightly longer Malangen side of the peninsula this time, and was
pleasantly surprised to find a pair of Red-throated Loons, along the
shore, and a bit later the local Harbour Porpoises.
But the trip became much longer then planned, and I was certainly glad to
be home again, even just in time for the soccer match on TV. And this
morning three Fieldfares outside my house, the first of the year, added
the yearbird Ihad expected to see, but sought in vain yesterday along some
350km.
Wim Vader, Tromsø Museum
9037 Tromsø, Norway
==============================www.birding-aus.org
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