MID APRIL IS STILL A BIT EARLY FOR SPRING AT TROMSØ, N. NORWAY
Today we finally have nice sunny calm weather here in Tromsø, at 69*50'in N. Norway; +1*C in the morning +4* in the middle of the day. We have had a week of drizzly weather, after heavy snowfalls, that brought the snow-depth
up to 1.58m a week ago. Now that has decreased to maybe 1 m around my house at 45m a.s.l., while the fields close to the sounds already show large open patches. On my daily walk to the museum through Folkeparken, a woodland of birches and many not quite native
spruce, I still need my 'brodder' under my shoe soles, but today I decided to walk to the airport, some 6 km away along the sound, and for the first time this winter I could walk without my brodder. (And my car, which I no longer use in winter, peeped out
from below its snow cover just a little bit, also for the first time in weeks)
in Folkeparken I listen in vain as yet for returned song birds: the irrepressible Greenfinches are rumouring everywhere and there are also many Great Tits 'sawing', but that is all as yet. And during my walk today along
the sound there weren't all too many signs of spring either; I looked in vain for the first twinkling yellow star of the Coltsfoot Tussilago, soon flowering in their hundreds along the road verges. But there are Common Gulls everywhere now, and also here and
there pairs of Oystercatchers in the stony tidal area. Many of the gulls are still in a flock; they will in the coming weeks spread all over the island and nest in gardens and on roofs etc. There are also large gulls: Herring Gulls and Great Blacked Gulls,
that have been here all winter, and also they are not averse from nesting on flat roofs in the town center--- even a few Oystercatchers have taken up this habit.
There are also regularly pairs of Mallards on the shore; too much snow as yet to find a nest spot for the females in thew woodland. The Common Eiders swim in large flocks, hundreds, on the sound, but I see no other sea
ducks at all; there used to be mergansers, scoters and Long-tailed Ducks around, but their numbers have definitely decreased a lot here. Nor are there Cormorants on the little skerry near the airport, but that is in fact a 'sign of spring': in summer they
go elsewhere to nest, but in winter there are always many around here in the sounds. A single Curlew might be interpreted as a sign of spring maybe, but small numbers have lately started to winter locally. The fat Greylag Geese here and there are definitely
signs of spring, however; they winter south of here and nest locally.
And the magpies fly with sticks, definitely also a sign of spring; by the way, how come that I see so often Magpies fly with sticks, but so rarely crows? They also have stick nests, although not quite as elaborate as
those of the magpies.
A colleague had told me that she had seen flocks of Snow Buntings at the airport, bit I did not see any. These 'snøtitinger' winter somewhere in Russia, stay in our area for a few weeks to fatten, and then venture out
on the perilous and long overseas travel to Greenland and east Canada. We have nesting snow buntings in our own hills also, but they winter in western Europe, and sneak in more or less secretly.
As you can notice, I still live in Tromsø, N. Norway, and look at the local birds and seasons. But I have written about all this almost too many times before, I deem.
Wim Vader, Tromsø, Norway
