The Lomstjønna Nature Reserve () is located on

Harøya Harøya is a swampy island in Ålesund Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. At , it is the largest island in the municipality. The island is located between the islands of Finnøya (to the northeast) and Fjørtofta (to the southwest) ...

island in

Ålesund Municipality Ålesund (, sometimes spelled Aalesund in English) is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal County, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Sunnmøre and the centre of the Ålesund Region. The town of Ålesund is the administrative ce ...

Møre og Romsdal Møre og Romsdal (; ) is a Counties of Norway, county in the northernmost part of Western Norway, Western Norway. It borders the counties of Trøndelag, Innlandet, and Vestland. The county administration is located in the Molde (town), town of M ...

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The area received protection in 1988 "to preserve an important wetland area with associated plant communities, bird life and other wildlife," according to the conservation regulations. The reserve is based around a pond named Lomstjørna (a.k.a. Lomstjønna), located in a hilly and nutrient-poor bog landscape that is flat and uniform. The area encompasses the main pond, the bog, and several small ponds, and it forms a representative part of this landscape type on the island. Several bird species that prefer coastal heaths nest here: the

greylag goose The greylag goose (''Anser anser'') is a species of large goose in the waterfowl family Anatidae and the type species of the genus ''Anser (bird), Anser''. It has mottled and barred grey and white plumage and an orange beak and pink legs. A lar ...

European golden plover The European golden plover (''Pluvialis apricaria''), also known as the Eurasian golden plover, or just the golden plover within Europe, is a relatively large species of plover. This species is similar to two other golden plovers, the American ...

sandpiper Scolopacidae is a large family of shorebirds, or waders, which mainly includes many species known as sandpipers, but also others such as woodcocks, curlews and snipes. Most of these species eat small invertebrates picked out of the mud or so ...

s, and

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the subfamily Larinae. They are most closely related to terns and skimmers, distantly related to auks, and even more distantly related to waders. Until the 21st century, most gulls were placed ...

s. There are also some ducks and some special species such as the

red-necked phalarope The red-necked phalarope (''Phalaropus lobatus''), also known as the northern phalarope and hyperborean phalarope, is a small wader. This phalarope breeds in the Arctic regions of North America and Eurasia. It is migratory, and, unusually for a ...

and

Lapland longspur The Lapland longspur (''Calcarius lapponicus''), also known as the Lapland bunting, is a passerine bird in the longspur family (biology), family Calcariidae, a group separated by most modern authors from the Fringillidae (Old World finches). Tax ...

. The reserve is one of six natural areas that were included in the Harøya Wetlands System Ramsar site, which was established in 1996.

References

External links

''Mijlø-direktoratet: Lomstjønna''. Map and description of the nature reserve.

Miljøverndepartementet. 1987. ''Lomstjønna naturreservat, Sandøy kommune, Møre og Romsdal fylke''. 1:5,000 map of the nature reserve.

''Forskrift om vern av Lomstjønna naturreservat, Sandøy kommune, Møre og Romsdal''. 1988.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lomstjonna Nature Reserve Nature reserves in Norway Ramsar sites in Norway Protected areas of Møre og Romsdal Ålesund Protected areas established in 1988 1988 establishments in Norway