Farewell Tromsø

My final two days in Tromsø saw a continued reduction in the number and variety of waders at Langnes which I have now visited three mornings on the trot when Jr had lectures/meetings. It was already starting to feel like a local patch away from home and I will be following sightings in Tromsø more closely from now on and am already looking forward to my next visit.

It was surprising the number of species that still had unfledged young which may be a result of a very late spring here. Redshank, Arctic Tern, Common Gull, Eider, Meadow Pipit and Reed Bunting all still had young either in the nest or not fully grown.

Adult Arctic Tern (rødnebbterne). It had a couple times dive bombed me pulling up only centimetres from my head but I failed to film this

The reason the adult was angry was the presence of this juvenile that could barely fly

Meadow Pipit (heipiplerke) which had young nearby and a juv Willow Warbler (løvsanger) which seemed attracted by its alarm calls

This young Common Gull (fiskemåke) may not make it

Bluethroat (blåstrupe)

A young Ringed Plover (sandlo)

Small Eider (ærfugl) young with mum

Tromsø

I am currently in Tromsø where I am helping Jr settle into her new life as a student at the university here. Tromsø is a great town (to call it a city is rather overdoing it though and who ever came up with the description «Paris of the north» should take some time out from describing things) and we are currently enjoying very warm temperatures although in just a few months it will be all snow, darkness, hopefully northern lights and unavoidably thousands of foreign, mostly asian, tourists seeking these «exotic» delights.

Now though this town which boasts the most northern football team, and now also McDonalds, in the whole, wide, world is full of nervous students about to start a new life, apprehensive parents, and yesterday the whole circus that accompanies professional cycling when the last stage of the Arctic Race of Norway was held here and myself and Jr managed to photobomb the winner interview, it was my birthday afterall🥳

I have only allowed myself a little birding and am only using the bus to get around but there is a lot of potential up here. Prestvannet, a small lake 10 minutes bus journey from downtown is a fantastic place with many breeding, and noisy, Red-throated Divers, a good variety of ducks, a few waders including Spot Red when I was there (and apparently lekking Ruff in May) and both Common and Arctic Terns. Tromsø is on an island and the surrounding fjord obviously has potential. By the airport there are some mudflats and here I had a good collection of waders including (distant) Red-necked Phalarope, Little Stint and Ruff. Turnstone also breed in the area and I look forward to seeing them next spring. There were hundreds of seaducks too far out for my bins to ID so I may have to bring my scope on future visits as there must be the chance for some interesting species.

Downtown is full of breeding gulls with Kittiwakes nesting on window ledges, signs and more recently especially built «hotels» which allows incredibly close contact with these birds and their nests. Common and Herring Gulls are also common urban breeders and I have never seen such a concentration and variety of urban breeding gulls before.

Prestvannet

A Spotted Redshank (sotsnipe)

Red-throated Diver (smålom) with a surprisingly small young. Others were nearly fully grown

This Common Gull (fiskemåke) was ringed here as an adult in August 2018. In Feb 2022 it was in Hull, UK

This bird was ringed here as an adult in August 2010 and has been seen regularly but only in Tromsø

Langnes near the airport where I searched for waders

A young Ruff (brushane)

An Arctic Tern (rødnebbterne) that clearly had young nearby as it was very unhappy with my presence

A Sedge Warbler (sivsanger)

My first Little Stints (dvergsnipe) of the year

Adult and juvenile Redshank (rødstilk)

Oystercatchers (tjeld)

Whilst many young Common Gulls were already fledged this youngster still has a number of weeks before independence

This Meadow Pipit (heipiplerke) was still feeding young

The Kittiwake (krykkje) hotel

I haven’t yet managed to find out any information about this ringing scheme. It doesn’t cease to amaze me that colour ringing schemes can be so hard to work out - surely you only colour ringing schemes can because you want to get reports of observations

The Arctic Race of Norway

Q1

The first quarter of the year is now complete and an ice free Østensjøvannet is sure sign that spring is here as was the sound of singing Chiffchaff today. The ice has gone very quickly at Østensjøvannet – on Wednesday when I saw the Smew there was just a small ice free area where all the birds were concentrated but by Saturday all the ice was gone. The period when there is just a small ice free area is a good time to be at Østensjøvannet because it is possible to get good views of many species so it is a shame that it was so short this year. The Saturday visit was to see a Pochard that had been found and another visit today revealed both the Pochard and Smew to still be present. There must be a lot of small fish as there are good numbers of Goosander but there are few dabbling ducks and unfortunately the Black-headed Gulls look like they have already decided they are not nesting here for yet another year. The lake has previously had up to 2000 breeding pairs and lots of work has been done to ensure there are suitable nesting sites but something else, which I believe is a lack of food, has put the gulls off the lake.

In Maridalen the first Meadow Pipits have arrived and Twite remain in very good numbers but there is little else and definitely no raptor passage which I hope to see each day with sun….

female Pochard (taffeland) at Østensjøvannet

and a male Tufted Duck (toppand)

I scanned all the gulls for something rare but reading colour rings was the most exciting thing in the end. Here three different types of colour ring on Black-headed Gulls. The white and green are Norwegian and the red is from the UK (I have yet to receive details on it)

J88E was the oldest bird and was ringed as an adult female at Østensjøvannet 31st May 2015. It has been seen many time since but only in the Oslo area and it wintering grounds are unknown

J0280 is the bird that has travelled most. Ringed in Oslo 9 June 2022 it has been seen in Milton Keynes, England in January of both 2023 and 2025

Whooper Swans (sangsvane) are still moving through and this group was in Maridalen yesterday

Adders can be found sunning themselves in the same places each (sunny) day and it is still only males that are out

Black Woodpeckers (svartspett) are excavating a new hole after using the same one for the last 3 years

Goosander (laksand)

Great Crested Grebes (toppdykker)

spot the Meadow Pipit (heipiplerke)

and an easier to see Skylark (sanglerke)

Birdy

The weather is now far more autumnal than wintery with temperatures up to 8C in the day and no overnight frosts. On Sunday snow gave way to rain and it’s all quite gloomy and grey.

Fieldfares are around in enormous numbers with up to 2000 stripping rowan trees and also feeding again on the fields. Amongst them have been at least 20 Redwing, 2 Starling and an exceptionally late Mistle Thrush. The Mistle Thrush is actually the latest ever recorded in Oslo as was a Meadow Pipit today which really show how mild it is at the moment. There are also very good numbers of Goldfinch (>250), Brambling (>110) and Yellowhammer (>120) so it is all very birdy.

A trip to Huk in fresh southerly winds yesterday revealed no sea birds but three Long-tailed Ducks were without doubt in Oslo waters 😊

Pine Grosbeaks continue to entertain and I have had up to 47 in a day in. Hawkie continues to entertain the masses although in the poor weather we are having now it is in fact to possible to have him all to myself. I witnessed him fly into an overhead cable yesterday as he powered down from a tree top towards something on the ground about 30m away. He seemed unharmed but it goes to show how focused he was on a possible prey item that the unnatural obstacle that the wire is did not register with him.

Oslo's latest ever Meadow Pipit (heipiplerke)

and Oslo's latest ever Mistle Thrush (duetrost)

Goldfinches (stillits) are still around in exceptional numbers

and there are still lots of Redwing (rødvingetrost)

and Brambling (bjørkefink)

and thousands of Fieldfare (gråtrost) which strip rowan trees of their berries in just minutes

photographic evidence that I have seen Long-tailed Duck (havelle) in Oslo waters

there is very little to see on Maridalsvannet at the moment except for a handfull of Goldeneye (kvinand) and this Common Scoter (Svartand)

a shaky video of a Cormorant (storskarv) swallowing a Perch (abbor) on Maridalsvannet

filming Hawkie

here reacting to a Sparrowhawk (spurvehauk) that landed closeby

and this is how he reacts to a Goshawk (hønsehauk) flying by

on Saturday morning when it was still crisp and wintery

Magpies (skjære) giving him a hard time

a video of Pine Grosbeaks taken on my phone at a couple of metres range today

this male was a noticeably more scarlet rather than claret colour red

same bird