2006 Tour Narrative
For those who think that Iceland has too few birds to be of interest for a tour, think again! Our ten-day trip was quite simply stunning from start to finish, and with Yann as our local guide we treated to day-after-day of brilliant birding and amazing scenery. We not only connected with all the local specialities, but also enjoyed them in such dramatic surroundings. During our first few days we enjoyed a couple of White-tailed Eagles, herds of Whooper Swans, Red-necked Phalaropes and Red-throated Divers on small roadside pools, the former almost walking over our feet, while flocks of Arctic Terns dashed around our heads, and confiding waders that lined the roadside ranged from Golden Plovers and Whimbrel to the islandica race of Black-tailed Godwit and drumming Common Snipe.
Our first whale-watching trip was great fun, with glassy seas, White-beaked Dolphins alongside the boat, as well as a Minke Whale, Harbour Porpoises and a large whale which contrary to the “whale expert’ on the boat was not a Sperm but actually a Fin Whale. Birds were plentiful, rafts of Puffins lifted off the water as we followed an underwater canyon, while Arctic and Great Skuas occasionally dashed past, as did dapper little Black Guillemots and large feeding gull flocks with good numbers of powerful Glaucous Gulls fighting over scraps. Some of our other real highlights occurred in this area with a drake King Eider, a couple of Iceland Gulls and best of all a Snowy Owl. Seeing this beautiful male in some wild scenery was one of those never-to-be-forgotten moments!
The northwest coast was even more dramatic, and the seabird cliff at Latrabjarg is one of the greatest avian spectacles in the Western Palearctic. Here we sat on the cliff tops, hundreds of metres above the sea, with Puffins so close that optics were pointless, and just stared in awe at the scene in front of us. This area supports arguably the largest seabird colony in the world, and is absolutely incredible. Counting numbers of specific auks was impossible and our checklist count of 50,000 was so conservative - in reality there were probably ten times that number. Out to sea were clouds and clouds of alcids, feeding fulmars, Arctic Terns (with attendant skuas), smaller numbers of gannet and yet more Harlequin Ducks. All five species of breeding European auks occur here, and it was possible to closely study the differences between Common and Brunnich’s Guillemot at close range, or in flight, or maybe to notice the subtle colour differences between the chocolate Guillemots and darker Razorbills.
On the sea below Black Guillemots and the Puffins were present in their hundreds. It was a real treat to witness this spectacle, and of course the photos just don’t do justice to the other senses we “enjoyed”, appreciating how clean the kittiwakes are compared to the auks, and the various growling noises emitted from the latter while kittiwakes called their own names - pure birding heaven! As if that wasn’t enough the following day we took the ferry to Flatey and we decided to stay there until the next ferry came in the evening. This was a great move and we spent an atmospheric afternoon and evening enjoying more seabirds, stacks of breeding waders and confiding Snow Buntings. However best of all were both male and female Grey (Red) Phalaropes, it was a real privilege to see these delightful birds in breeding plumage at one of their few known breeding sites, and sharing their island with just a few local people in the evening light was just magical. The ferry back to the mainland was equally special with picture postcard scenery, another flat calm sea and a large glacier in the distance.
Next on the agenda was Myvatn; not before we had admired breeding plumage Great Northern Divers and Pink-footed Geese as well as some Mealy Redpolls and it was a pleasure to find that the ducks on the lake vastly outnumbered the midges (a great reason to sandwich this tour between the two main hatch periods!), and from our hotel windows it was possible to see our first Barrow’s Goldeneyes, Slavonian Grebes, scores of duck families with Tufted Duck, Greater Scaup and Eurasian Wigeon predominating. A full day in this area gave us great views of all the expected duck species as well as two vagrant Ring-necked Ducks. Nearby we visited waterfalls, sulphur pools and lava fields, at which point one of the “Gyrs of the trip’ flew past us, with an angry Merlin in hot pursuit, a real David and Goliath battle.
As Yann was checking the local bird news information, word that a female Steller’s Eider was residing in the extreme north came through so we decided to give it a try and we weren’t disappointed. Not only did we see the Steller’s, we saw another “Gyr of the trip’ as a large female flew past us three times, causing huge consternation among the Arctic Terns and Purple Sandpipers. This area was equally special for the habitat and scenery, with the Arctic vegetation reminding us we were only about 5 kilometres from the Arctic Circle. Yet again another magical moment, which followed a visit to Dettifoss, the most powerful waterfall in Europe. This would have been a great day if it had ended there, but it continued as we made our way to Husavik for an early evening whale watching trip. Soon after leaving port we had our first encounter with a Humpback Whale, a small animal which was then followed by sightings of two others, including one right next to the boat which did the classic “fluke showing’ before starting a deep dive.
A brief glimpse of a Harbour Porpoise kept the excitement levels going and as we were waiting for the Humpback to resurface, there was a huge “blow’ in the distance (armed with the knowledge that Blue Whale had been seen for several days in a row there was only one species this was going to be). Personally my hair was stood on end at this moment, just from the sheer anticipation that we were about to see the largest animal on the planet.
Initially it was difficult as the sun came out and the whale was in the glare but eventually it appeared, blew a couple of times and then dived, it did this on a couple of occasions giving everyone chance to appreciate the size of the blow, and the animal, the small dorsal fin and the blue colour. With snow-capped mountains as the backdrop to this spectacle I’m afraid there aren’t words to describe moments like that!
Our last full day was a non-birding day, which was probably a good thing as I’m not sure I could have handled any more excitement! What we did see that day was nonetheless very impressive as we drove the highland road from north to south, stopping to admire huge glaciers either side of the road, more hot springs, Geysirs at Geysir (where the word derives from) where we learnt the art of “a watched pot never boils’ with cameras poised as Yann instructed us on when it would blow! The final leg of our journey took us through the “Rift Valley’ where the Eurasian and American tectonic plates pull apart from each other - we could see the cracks and fissures either side of us and technically we must have been on some of the youngest earth in the world.
After a night in the beautifully clean capital we had a few hours before catching the plane home, in which time we managed to see a second-summer Ring-billed Gull, twitched a Blackbird in the local cemetery and visited Gardur. At Gardur the sea was again glassy calm (I assume it must get rough at times!) and immediately we saw the fins of White-beaked Dolphins and a distant Minke Whale. Seabirds were much in evidence here as well, with hundreds of gulls and fulmars attracting double figures of Arctic Skua with smaller numbers of Great Skuas. Nearby some small flocks of Manx Shearwaters flapped past, before a group of 500 got up off the sea and gave a great fly past, with a distant European Storm Petrel for good measure.
Add to all of the above we ate some terrific food, especially seafood, and enjoyed some of the best birding and scenery that Europe has to offer, all at a leisurely pace - with 24 hours of daylight there was never any need to rush!
James Lidster