MORE AND MORE DAYLIGHT, BUT STILL FULL WINTER
Every day we have 10 minutes longer daylight here in Tromsø , at 70* N in northern Norway. This last week we have had beautiful winter weather, with the sun now also reaching my house, and northern lights at night. There is around one meter of snow on the ground, and the temperatures have varied from ÷7 to ÷15*C. The paths are easy to walk with ‘brodder’ under my shoes; take care not to deviate from the
narrow path, as you can get stuck in deep snow. I made this mistake once and it is no fun for an octogenarian!
The gulls are back, most of them downtown, and one increasingly often hears the jubilant Long Calls of the Herring Gulls and the somewhat gruffer voices of the Great Black- backed Gulls. Both species are here year round, but our breeding birds fly south in winter to the North Sea countries, and they are replaced here by birds from the Russian Arctic in winter. This time a year there is also the odd Glaucous Gull in the area, a true denizen of the Arctic, and I saw one of these large white gulls from my window, far below over the sound.
In the garden there is little activity, but all 3 species of tits visit occasionally, and the Great Tits now and then break out in song (‘sawing’ , we called that). Also the Greenfinches I have heard in their rasping song (to our ears much less pleasant than their various contact calls) a few times, and twice more I have seen a Blackbird (Black Thrush in Norwegian), probably the same one every time. The small colony of House Sparrows a few houses down the road (and here it is really DOWN the road) manages a real tchilping morning chorus.
And today there suddenly was an outburst of bird activity in the birch in the garden across the road, and this little flock not only contained the usual tits and a few lingering Fieldfares, but also at least three Redwings, our other common thrush in summer, but less winter hardy than the Fieldfares. Still, here they were, year bird nr 16.
In a week I hope finally to be able to fly to Amsterdam and visit my partner in Odijk for a few weeks; then the year list will grow fast!
Wim Vader, Tromsø, Norway
