The Birds of Iceland

Whew! I can't believe I'm still posting about Iceland... but I couldn't finish our Iceland blog series without having a post about the birds. As you can see from our much expanded 2007 life-bird lists to the side, we had some great birding in Iceland. Basically we saw 100% of the species that exist there commonly in the summer. Well, not quite 100%...I think we were about 3 birds short of that mark, but I was still very impressed that we were able to find most of them. Also, many birds that we had seen in the past but never got great views of were very accessible in Iceland. Below are a few pictures, mostly from Andy's film camera, of some of the common birds we saw:

Arctic terns were everywhere, literally. Even in the center of Reykjavik they were squawking away.

Iceland has very few passerines (songbirds)- I think there are only 4 or so that breed in the country (as opposed to the hundreds we have in North America). This is a Redwing (relative of the Robin) carrying some food back to the nest.

Northern Fulmars were also everywhere, which was great because I only had one pretty lame look at one in Newfoundland before. This one was begging for food in Husavik harbor!



Common Eiders also are as common as mallards at home. Here is a female Eider with ducklings in Husavik Harbor.

European Golden Plovers were our sentinels whenever we went hiking through the tundra. They popped up and peeped incessently.


Another Golden Plover

Greylag geese were common in Reykjavik, especially in the Tjorn.

This Dunlin was very concerned for its two fluffball chicks nearby in the scrub. It was cool to see so many birds in breeding plumage and with young that we never get to see at home.

Here is a juvenile White Wagtail (my favorite species that we saw) on the porch in Snorrastadir. These guys are so animated- they act like they are on speed, hopping around after bugs and wagging their tails at the same time.

Red Knots at Snorrastadir. Another bird that I had only seen once before, and got spectacular looks at in Iceland.

I can't mention birding in Iceland without bringing up our fateful excursion on the Saerun, a nature-watching cruise out of Stykklisholmur (near Snorrastadir). It was a stormy day but it didn't seem too choppy or wet when we got to the ferry docks so we decided to take Aiden on the 2 hour cruise around Breidafjordur Bay. The absolute highlight of the cruise is a visit to a breeding site for the rare White-Tailed Eagle. The Eagles were on the brink of extinction in Iceland but have made a comeback and now their nest sites are highly regulated and kept secret for the most part. This one tour company has offical government-sanctioned clearance to visit a known nest site though, so we were very excited for that.

About 10 minutes after the ship pushed out of the harbor, Aiden started BAWLING! And he bawled and bawled and bawled and bawled. We still don't know if he was cold, or seasick, or didn't like the wind, or the engine noise, or what. We took turns carrying him around and trying to placate him for an hour and a half before he finally fell asleep exhausted below deck on Andy's chest. Of course, that meant we got to do very little birding on the tour. Luckily, the guides were calling out what they saw in English over the loudspeaker, so by taking turns and looking out the window below we were actually able to get decent looks at the White Tailed Eagles and the Shag (a type of cormorant), the two species we really wanted to see most. No pictures though, as we were otherwise occupied.

After crying for over an hour straight, Aiden finally zonked.

And woke up happy!! Just as we were docking!

When Andy was pinned to his seat down below with Aiden, the crew of the Saerun sent a trawl line out to bring up some Icelandic seafloor delicacies. The dumped a huge trawlnet of crabs, clams, urchins, scallops, sea stars, and seaweed onto the decks and proceeeded to hand out samples of fresh raw scallops and sea urchin roe. The roe was quite sweet tasting, which surprised me. Andy missed it but said he thought I'd enjoy it more anyway. Probably true. Hope you enjoyed our Iceland blogs! Now back to reality...

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Icelandic Seafloor Delicacies, being prepared...

Southwest Iceland

We traveled from the Husavik area back to Snorrastadir, and then on to the southwest part of iceland. We stayed for two nights at the Hotel Ork in Hverdagerdi (no we did not meet with any Orks, Dwarves, or Elvish folk) and Andy and Aiden and I visited the Floi Nature Reserve in Eyerbakki. It was hard to stick to the trails in the Floi as they were basically through marsh grasses. The park seemed newly created as they were still building blinds and interpretive signs.

The Floi Nature Reserve

Looking out on the Olfusa River at the Floi Nature Reserve

The next day we headed out to the Reykjanes peninsula, which the one that sticks out south of Reykjavik. At Krysuvikuberg there is one of the largest bird cliffs in the world, with breeding puffins, fulmar, kittiwake, murres and razorbills. It was about 5K down one of the worst roads in Iceland to get there, but well worth it for us.

Krysuvikurberg Bird Cliffs

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Aiden at Krysuvikurberg Cliffs- he likes to hang out the side of the carrier so he can see better, but it doesn't make for a comfortable hiking experience for Mom.

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Further out on the Reykjanes peninsula is Rejkjanes lighthouse, so we stopped there for a bit enjoy the sunshine and let Aiden eat some lavarocks.

At the end of the Reykjanes peninsula

Reykjanes Light

Tasty lavarock

One of Aiden's favorite spots in Iceland: the long hallway of the Hotel Ork.

Finally we spent our last day in Reykjavik. Reykjavik is well known for it's alternative music scene and wild weekend nightlife. We go there on a Sunday morning and it was a ghost town, except for a few remaining inebriated people still making their way home from the bars. The street sweeping crews were out in full force, and where they had not yet reached you could see evidence of the previous night's insanity. There were broken bottles, cups, and vomit all over the streets, and even some broken shop windows. Must be an exciting place on a saturday night. Where they had cleaned up the streets, Rekjavik was a pretty nice little city!

Reykjavik

Micah & Becky standing in an area that still hadn't been "swept"

The main shopping district in Reykjavik (mostly closed on Sunday)

The Tjorn, a lake in the center of Reykjavik

Greylag Goose at the Tjorn

Lake Myvatn & Jokulsargljufur National Park

My parents and Dora offered to watch Aiden for a whole day while they chilled out at the cabins in Husavik, so Andy and I took off with Micah and Becky to explore nearby Lake Myvatn and Jokulsargljufur National Park. Lake Myvatn translates to "Lake of the Midges," midges being small biting flies of some sort that can apparently make a visit to the area uncomfortable at best. We did see some very small flies at Lake Myvatn, but they seemed to be localized and weren't much interested in us, so I guess we lucked out.

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Lake Myvatn

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Lake Myvatn is (according to at least one guidebook we had- others had contradictory statistics) the largest lake in Iceland. It doesn't get much more than about 3 feet deep though, and it's surrounded by marsh in most areas so it's not that great for recreation or beach access. But the ducks LOVE it and this is one of the best spots in the world in terms of breeding duck diversity. And we did see LOTS of ducks. Funny thing about ducks though... the males have basically nothing to do with raising the family after baby ducks are hatched, so we saw 99.9% female ducks. And female ducks are all drab and brown, no matter what the species. So the duck watching was pretty tedious and basically consisted of looking at a whole lot of brown ducks with little brown ducklings and trying to tease out what species we might be looking at.

Lake Myvatn

Near our lunch spot on the lake

The Laxa River, outlet of Lake Myvatn

We had a nice lunch on the shores of Lake Myvatn and drove onward to some active geothermal areas in Jokulsarglijufur National Park. We had fun walking around the bubbling pools with all the other tourists, holding our noses. The air was so stinky and gaseous at certain points that we came close to passing out, or vomiting, or doing something else drastic. It was also really noisy, which you can't tell from these pictures, but it sounded like a thousand giant pressure cookers all steaming artichokes at the same time.

Sulfurous geothermal pits

Micah and Becky enjoying the noise and stink

This was the most tourists we saw in any one place in Iceland!

And then onward to Dettifoss, the most powerful waterfall in Europe! If this natural attraction was in the US, there would be wrought iron fences all around it and signs warning of imminent danger in 40 languages. Here there was nothing. Just a truly massive waterfall that you could walk right up to the edge of.

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Micah approaching the Dettifoss canyon

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Dettifoss. That's a person on the top of the cliff on the left side of the pic.

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Here we are, one step away from ending it all.

Another view.

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Becky read in her guidebook to Iceland that Dettifoss has inspired poems for centuries, so we tried to make some up as we drove on to our next destination. Unfortunately, none of us are poets so the best we could do were morbid haikus something like:

Dettifoss.

One step away from

Instant Death.

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This is as close as Micah wanted to go towards the edge. He is no dummy.

Our next destination was the visitor center at Jokulsargljufur National Park (which Detifoss is in) to ask the park guides where we could go for a nice afternoon hike. After browsing around in the visitor center, which had it's own unique charms (see photo below), the park rangers suggested hiking Eyjan (Island), which is basically a cliff-top island in the middle of two very steep canyons. It was a great view from the top of Eyjan, and we wished we had another whole day in the area to explore the rest of the National Park.

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We weren't sure if this interpretive display was a joke, or just really poor English translation...

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View from the top of Eyjan to the adjacent canyon wall.

Hiking on the top of Eyjan. You can't tell from this picture but we're actually on a giant cliff-sided plateau. Small green orchids were everywhere in this tundra area we're walking through.

Husavik

After a stay at Snorrastadir Farm, we piled in the cars for a long drive out to Husavik, in the north of Iceland. It was truly a long drive, over 9 hours, but mostly because we stopped along the way to see sights and eat local gas station delicacies like smoked lamb and bean sandwiches and butterfat ice cream. One place we stopped was the Glabrokargigar volcano - a quick hike to the top of the blown out mountain and we could see for miles (and also into the big crater left by the volcano).

Glabrokargigar (micah & becky at the top)

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View from the top of Glabrokargigar

Us at the top (Aiden is in the car with grandpa)

Aiden was still adjusting to the time change by this time, so he was not having the best car-ride out to Husavik. We had to let him out for some wiggle time on the side of the road a few times.

Our destination in Husavik was the Kaldbaks-Kots Cottages (see above) - there are about 15 cottages here that sleep 2-4 people each, very small but they have all the amenities you could need and the setting could not be more beautiful. I think this spot was my favorite in all the places we visitied in Iceland. The cottages are overlooking a large lake area which again overlooks the ocean, and as the light gets yellow to orange in the evening it was just spectacular. (Plus there were lots of breeding birds with adorable chicks!)

Andy and Aiden out for a stroll after dinner one night

Late night glow from Kaldbaks-Kots cottages...the steam you see is from geothermal pools

We went to the Bonus (supermarket) in Husavik and got some things to grill for dinner at the cottages- we're having marinated lamb, pork chops, and salmon in these pictures...

You can rent fishing poles for a nominal fee at Kaldbaks-Kots to try your luck at fishing from the lake, which was supposedly stocked with Arctic Char. Micah rented two rods for himself and Andy, and guess what? One was a 3 foot kiddie rod built for someone not much larger than Aiden...guess who he gave that rod to? Andy thinks Micah is just still bitter because Andy caught the biggest salmon when we went fishing in Alaska. Neither of them caught anything this time :)

The end of the lake near Kaldbaks-Kots is "hot"

Hiking before dinner

Aiden enjoying an icelandic tea cookie, like a huge vanilla wafer

Micah, Becky and Andy out on the strip between the lake and ocean, fishing...

Clockwise from top left: Andy and Aiden by the lake; dinner at one of the cottages; Aiden on Micah & Becky's porch; the harbor in Husavik

The town of Husavik itself was also very nice, and Andy, Aiden and I spent most of a day in town lounging about. We got coffee by the waterfront, Aiden crawled around for a long time on the ball fields in town, and we had a great lunch with Micah and Becky at Salka Restaurant by the harbor. (where i had the poor little smoked puff-puff).


Becky and Aiden at Salka

The harbor at Husavik, a big fishing village

Husavik is also home to the "Icelandic Phallalogical Museum" which has pickled and dried penises of thousands of animals on display. We hear it's quite a collection- Andy and I didn't go, but my parents took our little impressionable 10-month old in our stead! There are no human "members" yet but at least one Icelander has agreed to donate his to the collection when he passes away. Icelanders are a strange bunch.

Outside the Icelandic Phallalogical Museum

A fishing boat leaves Husavik harbor




There is a small mountain right in the town of Husavik that is absolutely covered in lupine. Micah and Becky climbed it one morning and took this picture.