Orcas in Iceland

Thursday 8th November and it was off to Ipswich on the train for a few days away visiting family before heading off to Iceland. The train journey up to Ipswich went smoothly with the highlight being at least 15 red kites seen between Westbury and Paddington but the only sighting of note while in Suffolk was a red legged partridge flying across the road as we drove  home from a visit to Lavenham.

Our trip to Iceland was arranged back in March this year, our friend Julie's niece Kizzy wanted to visit Iceland for her 30th birthday and we were asked if we would like to come along too. However after arranging the trip the Icelandic government decided to allow whaling again this summer but we had already agreed that we would not patronize a restaurant that served whale meat and had booked up a whale watching trip on Kizzy's birthday although I expected the trip to probably be cancelled due to bad weather and if it went ahead I wasn't expecting to see anything - how wrong I was!

Whaling is a very controversial issue and the resumption of whaling in Iceland has caused quite a furore but vetoing visiting Iceland is not the answer, naturalists need to visit Iceland and go whale watching and avoid whale meat selling restaurants to show the Icelandic government that more money can be raised by watching whales rather than killing them.

While the issue is not that simple it would appear that the majority of whale meat consumed in Iceland is minke whale meat and is eaten by tourists (up to 98%!) while fin whale meat is exported to Japan - so if tourists visiting Iceland stopped eating whale meat it would be a big step towards whaling in Iceland coming to an end.

Tourists - Look for this sign in Icelandic Restaurants!

We flew to Iceland on Monday 12th November and I was suffering with a cold which had started the night before but it didn't stop me enjoying my time away. Iceland is a beautiful country and having enjoyed my previous visit back in 2015 I was really looking forward to my visit this time and I wasn't to be disappointed. The weather was much better this time, it was mild and calm and dry with only a little snow on the mountain tops which made for a very pleasant trip but it was much more expensive this time too, I guess the Icelandic economy has bucked up again after the crash (and dare I mention it but Brexit has probably had an effect too).

We were based in Reykjavik and hired a van for the length of our stay which gave us a bit of flexibility and saved some money too. We did the Golden Circle Drive (Pingvellir, Geysir and Gulfoss) but spent the rest of the time in Reykjavik and while the others visited the Blue Lagoon one morning for a staggering £88 each we stayed behind and visited the Vesturbaejarlaug thermal pool in Reykjavik for the more reasonable sum of £6.50 each.

I was hoping to see a few birds during my stay and managed to see a total of 30 species which I was quite pleased about and the first birds I saw were ravens, starlings and a few distant gulls on the drive from the airport to our hotel before it got dark at around 5pm. The next morning with first light being around 9.45am we drove off on the Golden Circle Drive where I saw more ravens, mallards, a grey goose flying over and a single whopper swan.

Iceland

Pingvellir

Raven at Geysir

Stroker at Geysir

Gulfoss Waterfall

Gulfoss Waterfall

Wednesday 14th November was Kizzy's birthday and before our whale watching trip at 1pm we had a wander around Reykjavik and visited Lake Tjornin in the city centre where there was a good selection of wildfowl including the very lovely Crinkly, a whopper swan with a deformed neck that we first saw here in 2015.

Crinkly at Lake Tjornin

Crinkly

Crinkly with Whopper Swans

Crinkly and Whopper Swans with Greylag Geese

Other birds seen here at the Lake were a lone pink footed goose (the same one we saw here in 2015?), greylag geese, wigeon, mallard, tufted duck, red breasted merganser, black headed gull, common gull and a single adult glaucous gull.

A nearby square with areas of grass and a few trees held a few starlings, feral pigeons, blackbirds and redwing (Icelandic race corburni) which were all quite tame along with 3 redpoll species which were much more skittish and quickly flew off (presumably the islandica race or possibly the rostrata race from Greenland).

Redwing

Redwing

We then boarded our whale watching boat Andrea operated by Special Tours and headed out to sea as the skies darkened with clouds. It did stay dry apart from a brief spell of drizzle and the sun did reappear a few times but it was cold in the gentle wind with a bit of swell on the sea. I wasn't expecting to see any whales or dolphins but the scenery was stunning and there were plenty of birds around to keep me occupied - Iceland, glaucous, common, great black backed and black headed gulls, kittiwake, a single gannet, razorbills, guillemots, eiders, a great northern diver and surprisingly a few sooty shearwaters (I had seen on the Special Tours sightings pages that sooty shearwaters were being seen but it was very strange to actually see them in November in Iceland).

Sooty Shearwater

Sooty Shearwater

I was enjoying the birds when a shout went up that a minke whale had been spotted and I managed to get a few good but brief views as it passed by the boat before disappearing and I was pleased that the others also managed to see it too. A short time later another shout went out but this time it was for orca which had been spotted ahead of us and we managed to get some wonderful views of 3 orcas (a male, a female and a calf) as they swam around the boat.

Killer Whales

Killer Whale

Killer Whales

Killer Whales 

Killer Whale

Killer Whale

Killer Whale 

It was soon time to leave them be and head back to the harbour and on the cruise back we were joined by a pod of white beaked dolphins, around 10 of them, which came in to bow ride and play in the boats wake before moving away and which were being trailed by at least 3 sooty shearwaters. They were surprisingly large and chunky looking and a new species for me and again the others all managed to see them too - a fantastic end to a very exciting and productive trip and not what I was expecting at all.

White Beaked Dolphin

White Beaked Dolphin with Guillemots

Thursday 15th November and we had the day to ourselves while the others went to the Blue Lagoon so we spent it around Reykjavik and on a walk around the harbour and waterfront I added purple sandpiper, black guillemot, a single adult herring gull and shag to the trip list.

Eiders

Eiders

Purple Sandpipers

Black Guillemot - juvenile

Black Guillemot - adult

Unfortunately the large upwellings of water that I had observed along the waterfront back in 2015 were no longer present and so there were no congregations of feeding gulls to scan through but I did get a few decent views of Iceland and glaucous gulls fairly close to shore.

Iceland Gull

Glaucous Gull with Iceland Gull

Glaucous Gull with crab pinched from a Eider

We revisited Tjornin Lake on our walk to the Vesturbaejarlaug thermal pool where Crinkly was still present along with his/her mate in tow and giving grief to any other whopper swans that came to close.

Crinkly with Mate

Crinkly

Crinkly

Juvenile Whopper Swan

Pink Footed Goose with Mallard

Pink Footed Goose 

Friday 16th November and it was time to fly back to the UK and a last look along the waterfront before our drive to the airport added a cormorant to the trip list while on the drive to the airport I managed to see a few whopper swans on small lakes by the roadside and looking a little more naturalistic than they did on Lake Tjornin.

And so the trip was a great success. No Northern Lights this time but a fantastic whale watching trip more than made up for it (for me anyway) and we were very lucky with the weather too. The light was pretty poor though for photography and my little automatic camera struggled in the low light levels resulting in some grainy looking snaps.

And go to Iceland - go whale watching and support the local people running the trips, don't eat in any restaurants with whale meat on the menus and show the Icelandic government that there is a viable economic alternative to whaling - tourists are sustaining the minke whale hunt and it needs to stop.

Raven, Reykjavik

Bee Eater Mural, Reykjavik

Sun Voyager, Reykjavik

Reykjavik Waterfront

Tourists - Don't Eat Whales!!!!

Iceland Gulls Galore in Iceland - 12th - 16th March 2015

March 12th and we headed off to Terminal 1 at Heathrow for our flight to Reykjavik in Iceland. Terminal 1 is closing in June and it was very quiet and quite empty but it is still linked to the new Terminal 2 so we wandered over there to have a look around as our flight was delayed due to bad weather in Iceland.

I have always wanted to visit Iceland and had originally planned to visit a few years ago in the summertime but the Icelanders had recommenced whaling and so I decided to go elsewhere. I did e-mail the Icelandic Minister for the Enviroment to voice my objections and reasons why I would not visit Iceland but received a standardised response.

I had the same reservations last year before visiting Malta due to their continued spring hunting of birds against EU law. However the TV presenter Chris Packham headed an excellent campaign last year to raise awareness of this issue resulting in a referendum being held in Malta this year. He had advised against boycotting Malta, arguing that birders should visit to promote birding tourism to help convince the Maltese that not shooting birds would be more lucrative. And so it is with whaling in Iceland - if tourists go to see whales it provides alternative income to hunting whales. And so I decided I would go and see things for myself.

Hallgrimskirkja - the view from one of our hotel room skylights



Reykjavik - the view from the other hotel room skylight and where we saw the Northern Lights



Unfortunately the weather in Iceland was Shite and it was Shite with a capital S. I wasn't expecting it to be great but it was bad, even the locals were saying it was bad, and as a result all whale watching excursions were cancelled each day we were there which was a big shame.It was also very sad to see so many restaurants in Reykjavik quite openly advertising whale meat on their menus, all of which we avoided like the plague.

We did visit a new exhibition on the whales of Iceland in a warehouse on the quay in Reykjavik which had life sized models of whales and dolphins found in Icelandic waters and which was quite interesting if a little expensive.

 Blue Whale with Bowhead Whale and Sperm Whale in the background

 Sei Whale

Blue Whale



Despite all this Iceland was great - stunningly beautiful and eerie with a slight feeling of dangerousness and lots of snow and ice. The weather changed hourly and for 2 nights we had hurricane/gale force winds which were not condusive to sleep when your hotel room is in the eaves of the roof - very noisey, rattley and a little disconcerting with images of the roof blowing off in the back of my sleep deprived mind. Flights were cancelled, tours were cancelled and our 2 day car hire was changed to just 1 because of the wind. But it was still great!

 Icelandic Wilderness

Gullfoss Waterfall



Bird wise I saw 24 species, not bad considering the weather and the time of year. Whooper swans on the lake in the centre of Reykjavik were very tame like mute swans are in the UK and with a lone pink footed goose, greylag geese, wigeon, mallard, tufted duck and red breasted merganser on show too I returned on a number of occasions to have a look at them. Just outside the harbour in Reykjavik a large congregation of birds would hang around close to shore where an upwelling of water appeared at regular intervals instigating a feeding frenzy and allowing great views of Iceland gulls along with glaucous gulls, common gulls, herring gulls, kittiwake, lesser- and greater black backed gulls, black headed gulls, fulmars, eiders, black guillemots, shag and cormorant. I'm not sure what the upwelling was, maybe natural thermal upwellings or probably sewage!

 Tjornin Lake, Reykjavik

Whooper swans (one with a crinkly neck)



Whooper Swans

 Whooper Swans

Whooper Swan

Pink Footed Goose , Tjornin Lake, Reykjavik

Iceland Gull



 Male Eider

 Black Guillemot

 Juvenile Glaucous Gull with Iceland Gulls

Glaucous and Iceland Gulls

 Iceland Gull

Congregation of birds along Reykjavik Waterfront

 Gulls and Fulmars

Juvenile Iceland Gull





Ravens were seen everywhere, even in the icy wilderness far from human habitations, and I saw 2 small flocks of snow buntings flying overhead as we drove around the snowy wilderness. In Reykjavik I saw a few starlings and a male blackbird, the starlings had unusual sounding calls and song, presumably an Icelandic accent and not a Janner one!

Colourful graffiti, Reykjavik



And so to the Northern Lights - we saw them! Pretty jammy considering the weather but see them we did. Our booked night time boat trips out of Reykjavik to look for the Lights were cancelled every night due to the bad weather and it was pretty cloudy most of the time but our hotel reception guy (nicknamed Mr Chuckles due his slightly offish and grumpy demeanour) told us that the sky would be clear at 2am on the 15th and we should look out of our North facing window to see the Northern Lights. I set my alarm for 3am but was awake at 2:30 and on looking out of the window it was mostly clear and we saw what we assumed were the Lights, a thin and wavery line across the sky like a band of green tinged fog that we could see the stars through. We got dressed and walked down to the waterfront where a couple of guys were taking photos, we had a look at what they had taken and it was quite clearly the Northern Lights, the photos being much better than what our eyes could discern in the huge amount of light pollution being made by the city lights. The lights came and went as did the clouds and on heading back to the hotel due to coldness and tiredness we saw the Lights right over the hotel, again a thin, green tinged, wavery line difficult to see due to the light pollution. However on getting back in our room the Lights really kicked off and gave a great display, twisting and turning and merging across the sky before the cloud rolled in again - amazing to see despite the light pollution, if we had been out of the city it would have been a fantastic sight. We had been very lucky but it has just made me want to see them properly even more!

 Northern Lights from our hotel room  - the smudgey, greenish streak in the middle (crap photo)

Northern Lights - more smudgey green streaks - another crap photo



And so Iceland was amazing - cold, wet, windy, icy, snowy and tiring but with some great views of some birdlife and the Northern Lights - feeling totally flat now I am back in the UK and back to work but I have had a wonderful experience. Hopefully whaling will come to an end soon in Iceland too.