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
This autumn has seen a very significant irruption of various tits into Norway. The timing and size of the irruptions is easiest to see by looking at numbers at coastal areas with good coverage with Lista Bird Observatory being a perfect place. Coal Tits were the first obvious arrival already at the end of August and peaking in the first week of September and which I witnessed when I was there. Blue and Willow Tits followed with a peak at the end of September and even Great Tits were clearly on the move. Long-tailed Tits came later with a peak in the middle of October.
Even around Oslo it has been easy to detect the irrupting birds with Coal, Blue and Long-tailed Tits especially obvious. I also reckon that the Marsh Tits that have turned up in Maridalen may well be associated with the irruption of the other species even if none have been registered at Lista.
It is easy to assume that all these birds have come from the north east but records of Long-tailed Tits with stripy heads of the continental race europaeus show that birds have also come from the south or south east. The white-headed race caudatus that we get in Norway is also the race that occurs east and then south east into Russia with the two races meeting and intergrading, in Poland.
Prior to 2025 there are only two accepted records of the race europaeus in Norway although there have been birds showing some characters of this race (the head stripe is not well marked enough especially around the eye) including this bird I had in Maridalen in 2016 (and which probably bred) but which are perhaps best to treat as intergrades between the two races. So far in 2025 there have been another 6-7 records with the first two on 12th October. There is some debate as to whether these birds have dark and wide enough head stripes (as well as other plumage features) to be classified as "pure" europaeus or whether they are best considered as intergrades. I do not feel qualified to pronounce on this and it is no easy decision to make but that is something that NSKF, the rarities committee will have to pronounce on. Pure or intergrades though they do show that these birds originate on the other side of the Baltic. I have checked Swedish records this autumn and rather surprisingly there have been few records in Sweden of pure birds however there have been a record number of birds reported as intergraes (an option not available in Norway).
Ever since I saw the first records on 12 October I have been trying to check every flock of LtTs I come across for birds with stripy heads. It is not an easy task as there have been lots of LtTs this autumn and also they are so quick moving that it is difficult to grill every bird. I have not seen a hint of a stripe until yesterday when amongst a flock of about 8 birds in Maridalen I saw one with stripes. Getting photos of it was more challenging and I actually think there may have been more than one bird but I did get a couple of photos of one bird which has well marked head stripes although I am sure I saw an even better marked bird. I hoped to find the flock again today but had no joy and believe these immigrant flocks are still moving around.
A Long-tailed Tit (stjertmeis) that has come from a long way to the east or south east
I am not sure if this out of focus shot is of the same bird or perhaps of another in the same flock
a Redwing (rødvingetrost) was a surprise at the end of November in a year with no berries. The white marks on the tips of the tertials show it to be a 1cy bird (born this year)
it did find a (frozen) worm but will not survive long unless it heads south
We have now had two nights without frost and along with
southerly winds I have been expecting a flood of migrants. Of course, that has
not been the case and viz mig has been a particular disappointment with just a
few flocks of Pink-footed Geese, 2 Cranes and a Kestrel. I had a real hope for
a few raptors but it is clearly still too early still (and I have this “surprise”
every year at this time….).
Despite the lack of viz mig there has been an arrival of new
birds. Dunnocks and Redwings are suddenly back and singing from woodland, White
and Grey Wagtail are suddenly wagging away and there are considerably more Lapwing, Mistle
Thrushes, Chaffinches, Bramblings and a large Twite flock in Maridalen.
Surprisingly though there are no Robins back yet but that must happen soon.
The Hawk Owl has been showing very well as it exploits a
rich source of Bank Voles (klatremus) and I was very happy to be able to film
it dismembering and then eating one.
A trip to Østensjøvannet was very birdy with lots of noisy
gulls and various wildfowl with a pair of Smew being the absolute highlight.
The video I have long wanted to capture showing the beheading, entrails removing and swallowing of a vole
Hawkie on a wire
and on its way down for what ended up being an unsuccessful vole hunt
this video has a few sequences with it giving its call that I also heard frequently when it first turned up in November
male Smew (lappfiskand)
pair
and with a Grey Heron (gråhegre)
3 male Teal (krikkand)
and a close of up another bird
the Heron was not at all popular with the Black-headed Gulls (hettemåke)
Goosander (laksand) are also back
3 species of returning gulls on the ice and 2 male Goosander
Grey Wagtail (vintererle) is back in the Dale
as is Dunnock (jernspurv)
and Redwing (rødvingetrost)
and a large flock of Twite (bergirisk) is having a stop off on its migration
and the first White Wagtail (linerle) of the year
not in Maridalen and not a good picture but I cannot remember capturing Parrot (furukorsnebb) and Common Crossbill (grankorsnebb) together before
Canada and Greylag Geese in Maridalen suddenly became very alert when this fox appeared
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
