Dear all
The last years I have told a little about the first birds of the new year in Tromsø, N. Norway. This year that will be very quickly done, for even though Riet and I went on a walk, in part along the sound, the only bird we saw there—remember there is very little daylight here in midwinter–was a single Great Cormorant battling the quite strong northerly winds. And otherwise all we saw today were Hooded Crows!! usually they share the honour of being the first birds of the year with the European Magpies, but for some reason the magpies around our house seem to be absent this winter; usually there are always some around and most year they also nest on the garden here. Else where in town there are still magpies galore, it is one of our commonest birds in the area; I don’t know what may have happened locally.
I have a feeder out , but I have not seen a single song bird on them. Nor did I hear any tits or greenfinches in Folkeparken. We have got a lot of snow this last week, but there have been very few birds. So my year list stands at 2 bird species and there is a lot of scope for growth.
I wish you all a happy, health and harmonious 2019, with lots of birds (And please don’t forget the rest of nature!)
Wim Vader, Tromsø, Norway
