GULLS IN TROMSØ, N.NORWAY
Peter Meyer has these days in EBN reported on a recent visit to Tromsø,
and he there also wrote a little on the gulls in town. It may be of some
interest to give a more general picture of which species of gulls we have
here at 70*N in N.Norway, and when we can see them.
In summer the 'house gull' in most of the town is the Common Gull (Mew
Gull, Larus canus), a really common bird everywhere in town, especially
in the outer parts, nesting on roofs, balconies, in gardens etc, and
making an unholy racket day and night (Summer nights here are, as you may
realize, almost as light as day, because of our two months of midnight
sun---never mind that summer 2010 has done its best to damage this
picture: it has been our wettest and greyest summer ever). These gulls
also concentrate at places where people eat, and have become adept at
stealing sausages etc from unwary tourists, thataway creating the
so-called 'gull problem' that the local newspapers and radio every summer
want me to comment on. Signs some places warning people not to leave
edibles around, and not to feed the gulls have helped quite a bit, by the
way.
Some Common Gulls nest also in loose colonies and a famous one, mixed
with Arctic terns, is situated around Prestvannet, the little lake on top
of our island, surrounded by marshy areas, where the town people go for
Sunday walks and to feed the many ducks (Mallards and Tufted Ducks), often
fighting a losing fights against the gulls who rob most of the bread
scattered out---there are also several pairs of Red-throated Loons on this
small lake, but they of course stay aloof from these activities, although
they clearly have become much less shy this last decade.
A few gulls nest in trees, and one pair has both this and last summer
nested on top of a large (and occupied!) magpie nest five meters up in a
spruceclose to my home. Last year the young jumped out too early; this
year I have not seen young at all (the bad weather?). Around this time,
early August, the Common Gulls leave most of suburbia, and concentrate on
the shores and the places where much food is to be had in town; and a few
months hence, they disappear altogether and stay the winter in the
countries around the North Sea.
In the town centre, where there are lots of large buildings with flat
roofs, also Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls nest commonly, and these
last few years the Herring Gulls seem to increase their areas, at least in
our neighbourhood. Last year I could hear for the first time the melodious
long calls of Herring Gulls from our house, and a pair held territory, but
did not nest, on a house some ten houses away. And this 'summer' there are
least three pairs, they have ousted the Common Gulls from the neighbour's
roof, and these days I see large already flying young all over the
neighbourhood. These large gulls stay in Tromsø all winter too----although
the individuals concerned are probably not the same ones: ours fly south,
and others from the Kola Peninsula take their place in winter---, but by
then they behave more like 'sea gulls', and stay mostly in the intertidal,
and on the sounds, where they kleptoparasitize the large flocks of sea
ducks, mostly Common Eiders, but also scoters, Long-tailed ducks and King
Eiders. In winter we also have 'white gulls' here and there, mostly
Glaucous Gulls, with a few Iceland Gulls , but there are never many---they
are much more common further north, on the Finnmark coast. (The Ivory Gull
is a real rarity also here, and Sabine Gulls one can see only out at sea,
during migration.)
Black-headed Gulls are uncommon in Tromsø town, although a few may turn up
now and then, most commonl\y in winter. There are no nesting colonies
close to town, and the nearest larger one, on a lake some 100km inland,
was for some reason totally deserted when I was there in June. Two years
ago pair of Little Gulls kept a territory for some weeks at Prestvannet,
and we hoped for a new nesting bird for the town--- Little Gulls are
inland breeders; they are regular in N. Finland, and also nest several
places in inland Finnmark and Troms---, but the birds disappeared again
after two weeks.
Finally we have two species of real 'sea gulls', the Lesser Black-backed
Gull and the Kittiwake. The former, in N-Norway represented by the nominal
subspecies fuscus---in an earlier paper characterized by me as 'a gull
with tern-like feeding behaviour'---, has steadily decreased as a nesting
bird in our area, and I rarely see them close to town nowadays---they are
not interested in the scavenging activities of the other large gulls.
These last years representatives of the southern Norwegian subspecies
intermedius---much less black on the mantle--- seem to penetrate also
N.Norway to a certain degree---these intermedius gulls, just like the
graelssii gulls of Britain and Iceland, are much less averse to scavenging
in its different forms, and their populations are doing well; I have not
seen any of them inside Tromsø toiwn as yet, though..
The Kittiwake, finally, is a real seabird, and I still have never seen a
single one here in town, although they are quite regular on the outer
coast and the fishing villages there
As you can see, we have a rich and varied avifauna of gulls around here,
which may come as a surprise for e.g. Australians, who have to do with
only Silver Gulls for most of the continent.
Wim Vader,
Tromsø Museum
N-9037
Tromsø, Norway
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