Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2004, Side 243

EIN SØGULIG LÝSING AV BÚSETINGINI HJÁ GRÁSPURVANUM í FØROYUM
OG STØÐU HANSARA í DAG
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when 4 birds arrived at Vágur (Williamson,
1945). This small propagule, the success of
which is unknown, may have founded the
first house sparrow colony on the Faroes,
though one source states that the species
did not colonize Vágur until 1940-41, atthe
same time or a year or two before it reached
Tvøroyri some 10 km further north (Wil-
liamson, 1945; Herluf Thomsen according
to Ferdinand, 1947). Anyhow, in 1944 and
1946, the house sparrow was reported to
be common in both these settlements (in
1944 ”hundreds” in Vágur and up to 25
pairs in Tvøroyri) and it continued to in-
crease in numbers and was very abundant
in 1960 (Williamson, 1945; Ferdinand,
1947; Thomsen, 1951; Potts 1961). In the
meantime (c. 1952) it had colonized Sum-
ba, about 10 km SE of Vágur (Jensen and
Kampp, 1997) but it was not until some-
times between 1968 and 1974 that house
sparrows settled in Lopra, halfway between
Vágur and Sumba (Trygvi Vestergaard,
pers.comm.). According to one statement,
the house sparrow first appeared at Sand-
vfk at the northern end of the island already
during the war (Jacob Olsen, pers.comm.).
For the other settlements, no detailed in-
formation on first appearance is available,
though today (and presumably since long)
the house sparrow breeds in all of them,
except in the small, now not permanently
inhabited, Víkarbyrgi where it is an occa-
sional visitor (Aksal Poulsen, pers.comm.)
and Nes just east of Vágur.
On Stóra Dímun (2.6 km2) the house
sparrow first bred in 1987 (one pair) at the
only farm on the island and the number
subsequently increased to 7-8 pairs a few
years later but the colony is now extermi-
nated (Jensen, 1991; 1992, pers.comm.).
Skúvoy (9.9 km2) was colonized in
the late 1950s with 10-15 pairs in 1961
(Joensen, 1963) and has been present in
moderate numbers ever since.
For Sandoy (111.4 km2) the data on first
arrival is mostly vague and insufficient. In
1965, the house sparrow was established at
Sandur and Skálavík (Dare, 1966) and in
1978 it occurred at Húsavík, where it, how-
ever, is not a regular breeder. In 1981 it was
recorded at Skopun and Dalur, though in
the latter place it was not established until
c. 1987 (John Edwin Berg, pers.comm.). At
Skarvanes (facing Skúvoy) the house spar-
row is an irregular visitor but no breeding
has been confirmed.
Vágar and Mykines
On Vágar (176.3 km2) all three major set-
tlements were colonized in the 1950s:
Sørvágur before 1955 and in 1960 it was
numerous there (Petersson and Askaner,
1956; Potts, 1961), Miðvágur where it
was common in 1960 (Potts, 1961) and
Sandavágur ca 1957 (Jensen and Kampp,
1997). As to the smaller settlements, the
house sparrow now breeds at Vatnsoyrar,
Bøur (first in 1981; every year since 1995
according to Elinborg Joensen, pers.comm.)
and at Gásadalur (since before 1981 but not
every year).
On Mykines (10.0 km2), the isolated
westernmost island, the house sparrow was
first recorded c. 1954 (Jensen and Kampp,
1997) and has since then bred there from
time to time in small numbers (e.g. Potts,