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

Summer holidays 2025 - the start of the end

The final part of the summer holiday is beginning and for the first time since 2022 I will be back spending time at the cabin outside of Bodø, north of the Arctic Circle. Jr and I drove up starting from Oslo at 08:55 yesterday and we covered 1281km in 23 hours and 50 minutes with less than an hour of that used for sleep but including 5 stops for birding/butterflying and dog airing. When you drive north through the night in the middle of the summer it never gets dark and that helps keep tiredness as bay although once we got to the cabin we felt it.

Apart from the stops the drive up was extremely bird and animal free with the total of big/interesting species observed (excluding Cranes which are getting almost too common) being 2 Common Buzzard, 3 Kestrel, 1 Marsh Harrier, 1 Raven, 1 Fox, 1 Hare and 4 Moose. This is an appalling total!!

The stops were for Apollo butterfly which was a quick success, Pallid Harrier which was a dip although a male Hen Harrier did show, Ørin in Trøndelag for waders which was also a dip, Saltfjellet on the Arctic Circle where Red-necked Phalaropes and Ruff were good but no raptors or Long-tailed Skuas and finally 35 minutes from the cabin Klungsettvika where they were alarmingly few sea ducks but hopefully my stop was too fleeting and further visits will deliver more.

At the cabin a pair of Common Gulls has nested on the roof and two large young are still there with the parents guarding them - it will be a noisy stay!

Apollo butterfly - a beautiful beast of an insect

A bit more distant

There were also a couple of Hummingbird Hawk Moths (dvergsvermer)

Saltfjellet looking south

My first ever Lesser Teatblade orchid (småtveblad) which were tiny

Red-necked Phalaropes (svømmesnipe)

The view from the cabin and I have already seen Common Porpoise (nise) and Arctic Skua (tyvjo)

I heard the Porpoises (nise) before I saw them

Slavonian Grebe and Ospreys

It takes a bit to match a Maridalen tick but birding since last Wednesday has been pretty good (as you would expect in the second half of April).

My weekly trip to Nordre Øyeren on Thursday was not as productive as I had hoped for. With the very dry weather we are having on top of little snow this winter there is extremely little water in the delta and the mud flats are enormous and dry. There are probably good birds out there but they are just too far away to see! I did find a Garganey pair at Merkja and saw quite a few Ospreys but you do expect more at this time of the year. The water level will rise during May though so the good birding experiences will come.

Maridalen produced a Slavonian Grebe which was of course found by Halvard. After not seeing the species at all in 2021 it was nice to see one in the Dale and the end of April is the classic time for one to turn up. Red-throated Divers are back on their breeding pond and Goshawks are also on the nest but not in all the territories I follow.

Østensjøvannet has had up to 3 Shoveler I have visited these twice as it is a favourite duck and one for which I always hope to get better pictures of the male.

Osprey (fiskeørn) getting grief from Common Gulls (fiskemåke)

and another Osprey with a fish being chased bu a Hooded Crow (kråke)

and an immature White-tailed Eagle (havørn) also being chased by a Crow

Pair of Teal (krikkand) and pair of Garganey (knekkand). The females are not easy to tell apart. The Garganey female is to the left

Black-throated Divers (storlom)

Black-headed Gulls (hettemåke)

Coot (sothøne)

The young Goshawk (hønsehauk) in Maridalen

Great rested Grebe (toppdykker) at Østensjøvannet stuggling to swallow a perch

newly emerged Toad crossing snow

and another one on a sandy path

a couple of late Pink-footed Geese (kortnebbgås) in Maridalen

Red-throated Diver (smålom)

male Shoveler (skjeand) with Great Crested Grebe

the Slavonian Grebe (horndykker) on Maridalsvannet