Our first mid winter trip to Tromsø has been a resounding success. We arrived at the end of Sami Week, an annual celebration of all things Sami, and got to see the Norwegian Championships in both lasso throwing and Reindeer racing. The reindeer racing happened on a snow lined downtown street on a 201m course. It was explained that 201m is the internationally defined distance for the sport but no explanation was given for why. A skier holds on to the reins whilst the animal runs and covers the distance in around 17 seconds. It all looked great fun although the animals didn’t exactly look thrilled whilst being harnessed up. Animal welfare was not mentioned once..
The Northern Lights also put on a show and this is one of the main reasons the City has become such a popular winter tourist destination and the streets were heaving with winter clothed tourists from ever corner of the globe. This tourism results in hotel prices going through the roof and rented accommodation being used for Air BnB rather than for locals or students who need it and is causing quite a lot of resentment among many natives.
I put on a «show» for the 100 or so students in Junior’s 8 storey high student block when whilst making food I slightly burnt some mince causing the smoke alarm to go off and the whole building to be evacuated. The fire brigade arrived within 10 minutes and were very good about it - I even think they were grateful to me for being given something to do on an otherwise boring Sunday evening ☺️
But what about the birds I hear you say. Well, they were tip top super. King Eiders and an adult Iceland Gull topped the bill and all seen whilst walking from Junior’s into town. Passerines are of course going to be in short supply in winter this far north but an abundance of rowan berries resulted in small flocks of Waxwing and and most surprisingly a Redwing which would be an exceptional mid winter sight even in Oslo.
The trusted superzoom and mobile phone resulted in the following documentation of the delights of Tromsø (this is done at the airport and I may come with some better edited photos later):
King Eider (praktærfugl) pair
Adult Iceland Gull (grønnlandsmåke)
Fieldfare (gråtrost)
Redwing (rødvingetrost)
I saw no divers in the field but this Yellow-billed was in Tromsø Museum
Where I also had my best ever «views» of a Gyr Falcon (Jaktfalk)
According to accepted Norwegian birding wisdom Shags (toppskarv) never perch like this…
Purple Sandpiper (fjæreplytt)
Herons have been roosting in the heronry trees by Junior’s flat all winter and they were present and noisy when we were there
It has been commented that I moan about the weather nearly
as much as I write about birds and that is no doubt correct and to prove it –
the weather is just wrong at the moment! +12C night and day, southerly winds,
overcast and drizzle and not a good, out of season bird to show for it…I’m
hoping for Pallid Swift, Hoopoe, Desert Wheatear or at the absolute minimum a Firecrest…
I’m not sure if out of desperation or a real expectation
that there would be something good but I found myself sea gazing at Krokstrand
yesterday. The site of many a good seawatch a decade or more ago it now serves as
a reminder of how autumn weather patterns and arrivals of seabirds have
changed. For the nostalgia value it was good to be there and remember previous visits
with skuas of all 4 species, Brunnich’s Guillemot, Sabines Gull, Grey Phalarope
and all the more expected but still for these parts unusual stuff. Yesterday
wasn’t a disaster and there were birds and not just sea to gaze at but it was
not a day that will be remembered in a week’s time let alone a decade’s time.
Three Kittiwakes were the best of the bunch and there were double digit numbers
of Guillemots along with three each of Razorbill and Little Auk but I could
just as easily have seen the auks in Oslo.
A nocturnal visit into Maridalen with the thermal imager
revealed unsurprisingly that Woodcock are still around with 4 seen along a short
stretch. Slightly more unusual was a single Common Snipe and two Fieldfares that
were seemingly roosting on the ground in a stubble field. Nearby at least 20
Magpies were roosting together in some isolated bushes. A Tawny Owl called but
I picked up no other owls hunting over the stubble fields despite there seeming
to be increasing numbers of mice.
Krokstrand looking south towards more open sea
and looking north towards Oslo and the end of the fjord
Woodcock (rugde) taken just with the aid of my head torch
and here using the camera's inbuilt flash. Note how far up the mud goes on the birds long beak showing quite how deep it has been probing for worms
a Fieldfare (gråtrost) one of two which I believe were roosting on the ground rather than nocturnal feeding
and a Common Snipe (enkeltbekkasin)
an unusually easy to observe Little Grebe (dvergdykker) on the park lake at Valle Hovin. In Norway it is unusual to see one so well
Our summer holidays have moved on to Beitostølen and the mountains of Valdres. I have not birded that much with butterflies getting slightly more of my attention. Despite some periods with hot, sunny weather and an abundance of flowers there has not been an abundance of butterflies although there is the usual nice selection of species.
I made a second trip to Vågåmo to look for Large Grizzled Skipper (alvesmyger) after drawing a blank on 7 June probably because they were not yet on the wing then. When I arrived it was windy and cloudy but the weather forecast promised me that the sun would shine and sure enough it eventually did and I found my target relatively easily in exactly the same area where I had seen normal Grizzled Skippers on 7 June. The Larger cousins were noticeably larger and one individual that I spent most time watching was the same size as Mazarine Blues (engblåvinge) and also flew in a manner more reminiscent of a Blue than a Skipper.
I had 4 individuals a couple of which were laying eggs in a small roadside area which doesn’t look that remarkable and hopefully the species is more numerous and widespread than the only handfull of records every year suggest.
Large Grizzled Skipper (alvesmyger)
The view looking south whilst waiting for the clouds to move and reveal the sun
The sun about to break through
A Mountain Burnet (fjellbloddråpesvermer) on an Alpine Catchfly (fjelltjæreblom)
Mountain Fritillary (fjellperlemorvinge)
Silver-spotted Skipper (kommasmyger)
Alpine Blue (fjellblåvinge)
Mountain Ringlet (fjellringvinge)
Spot the Fieldfare (gråtrost) nest? At 1389moh this must be one of the highest ever found
Snow Buntings (snøspurv) seem to becoming commoner on Valdresflye
We had a nice dump of snow on Friday night which has left
Maridalen and the forests nice and white although in the city it has since
melted so everything is grey, wet and frankly, not nice!
Even though the surroundings now look different the birds
are pretty much the same and the exodus of thrushes is now more or less
complete with the birds I see being, I believe, ones that will try to spend the
winter and with there still being lots of berries in the urban areas then this
may be possible for many of them. The Mistle Thrush remains but has stopped
trying to defend his rowan trees and was today sharing them with Bullfinches,
Blackbirds and Fieldfares in seeming harmony. It saves a lot of energy having
to chase off all comers but means the berries will disappear much sooner so I
doubt he will remain until January now.
Fieldfare (gråtrost)
the Mistle Thrush (duetrost)
a Blackbird (svarttrost)
and a late Redwing (rødvingetrost)
the Mistle again
a familiar silhouette
it is always a joy seeing Grozzas eating berries in the snow
