SUMMER IN TROMSØ; TO THE COAST
As you probably know, my town Tromsø lies on an island, Tromsøya (øy is the
Norwegian word for island). This island, or rather the sounds on each side,
form the sill of the Balsfjord, one of the many long and deep fjords in Norway.
The Balsfjord is deep and salty, and never freezes over in winter. It is still
quite some distance from the open sea, though, and between Tromsø and the open
sea lies the large and mountainous island of Kvaløya (the whale island), it is
about 50km by road from Tromsø to the coast. Also Kvaløya has its own small
fjords, that almost dissect the island; for example. the distance from
Eidkjosen on the inside to the Kaldfjord coming from the oiutside is less than
2 km!
Today was nice and sunny, with temperatures up to 17-18*C in Tromsø, and I
decided to use the opportunity to drive to the coast. I started out in town,
though-- I had to fetch my hearing aid from repair,and then stopped at
Prestvannet, the small lake on top of Tromsøya, which is famous for its
Red-throated Loons. This year this smallish and shallow lake (the path around
is exactly one English mile) housed no less than 10 nesting pairs of
Red-throated Loons, many of them quite accustomed to people by now. Many of
them had young on the water now, but there still were a lot of altercations,
much wailing and what almost looked like display. There are not so many bird
species on Prestvannet, but there are lots of birds! Besides the loons that
mostly nest on small unstable mud islands, we have largish colonies of Common
Gulls and Arctic Terns, now also all with young, and many pairs of Mallards and
Tufted Ducks, their young are already almost full size, and the parents are in
eclipse plumage. I walked around the lake, but there was not much else to see,
even the usual Bank swallows (Sand Martins) were absent today.
Next stop was at the airport, which I have written about recently. This time it
was low water. The vegetation was of course the same, although Goldenrods
Solidago virgaurea and Hedge Bedstraw Galium mollugo now were more conspicuous,
and the Meadowsweet already has seen its best days. MPipits---many fledged
young--- everywhere, and when I went to the willow tree of the Sedge Warbler,
the bird burst out in full song. Still alarming Rredshanks, Oystercatchers ,
gulls and terns, but less frenetic already, the young can mostly fly by now. A
pair of Ringed Plovers warned ( very genteelly) on the pebble shore, and for
the first time this summer i heard the Tju-WEET of the Spotted Redshank, a bird
that nests further north and east, but is common on migration. Several Grey
Herons, and now three Cormorants on the skerry.
Close to the airport is the impressive bridge to Kvaløya, where all the cruise
ships have to pass under. I look at the little bight, where there now and then
are shorebirds, but there is nothing now, so I continue to the coast. From
Eidkjosen the little jump to the Kaldfjord, and where this turns north, I turn
west, over the long pass (c 200m a s.l.) to Kattfjorden. This pass, flanked by
steep mountains, looks much more 'alpine' than one would think, as the tree
line here north is only a bit above 200m. So here are low birches, and
otherwise a lot of heath with dwarf birch Betula nana and marshy areas full of
the white flags of cotton grass Eriophorum spp. Over a considerable distance
most of the birch trees are broken and almost splintered; last winter there was
an enormous avalanche here, more than 100m broad and burying a parked car 5m
deep. The Kattfjord has a side-fjord, which we have to drive all the way
around. Here there is a fishing village of typical fjord fishing boats, Sjøtun.
A few km after this side fjord one drives through a few dangerous curves, and
suddenly the landscape changes almost completely, from fjord to coast. At the
next fishing village the road used to end, but a new tunnel now makes it
possible to continue to Brensholmen and from there through a typical coast
landscape of bare rocks to the long and narrow bridge to the thriving sea
fishing village of Sommarøy. There are a lot of sandy beaches here and also
many campervans, but of course the water never gets warmer than 14*C, so a swim
here is really refreshing.
A smaller bridge leads from Sommarøy to the outher island Hillesøy, and it is
here that I planned to walk, on a quite level area of heath and marsh. The
weather here is today sadly rather different, as so often before. Warm air over
a cold sea leads to sea fog, which the wind then may blow inland (I lived a
year in Bodega Bay, California, where this phenomenon also was very
conspicuous). The vegetation here is heath, with crowberries Empetrum, heather
Calluna (just starting to flower now), low Juniperus, and various other
Ericaceae. Also here lots of Goldenrods Solidago, Yarrow and Harebells
Campanula rotundifolia. And lots of juicy and ripe orange -yellow Cloudberries
Rubus chamaemorus; they are delicious. Birds are hard to see in the fog, and I
add only a few Curlews and at long last a Rock Pipit to my day list; in the
village itself there were a few Twites, acting almost like sparrows. The first
mushrooms are out, but the only ones I can identify (As they are good to eat)
are the large Leccinum species, a bolete of which I do not know the English
name. The Leucorchis orchids that I find every year here are already in fruit,
but the autumnal 'soft thistle' Saussurea is in full flower now. The fog
prevents me from seeing the usual Black Guillemots and Shags of the outer coast.
On the way back, along the old 60 km long road along the fjord, I stop as usual
at the Tisnes wetlands. 'The usual suspects'are there: Ruffs, Golden Plovers,
Wigeons, Redshanks, but nothing special today, and especially no Ruddy Shelduck
anymore.
The whole trip is about 120km, I should think. Distances are quite large here.
Wim Vader, Tromsø Museum
9037
Tromsø, Norway
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