Iceland: Land of Ice and Fire - Part 1

...... and a lot of water too.

In June I went on a nine day visit to Iceland to see it's stunning birds and other wildlife. This is my belated trip report.

For those that don't know Iceland it must be pretty unique in Europe being almost entirely volcanic. This is reflected in the scenery which in places is stark but also beautiful. Iceland is bigger than you think with its land area being about 80% that of England but with a population of only about 330 000 with a third of those living in the capital Reykjavik. The island straddles the Mid-Atlantic ridge where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet hence all the volcanic activity. These plates are slowly pulling apart and at Thingvellir there is a mini rift valley and large lake formed by this geological activity and many fissures in the earth's surface can be seen..

With such a sparse population and very little agriculture other than grazing, birds have plenty of habitat in which to breed relatively undisturbed. Although the range of bird species is not large what they have is rather special and often much more approachable than elsewhere in Europe.

Enough waffle, let's get on with the trip. I'll do this in three parts reflecting the three locations where we were based.

The South

For the first three nights were were based at Skálholt inland from the south coast. Here's the very pleasant hotel where we stayed.

And the view of .Skálholt Cathedral from the hotel.

Now for the culture. It so happened that a choir from the USA were visiting and I captured a little bit of video while they were rehearsing in the Cathedral..

The first morning was lovely and sunny although quite cold. On a 7am walk just local to the hotel I found all sorts of goodies.

Meadow Pipit collecting food.

A Golden Plover looking over its shoulder and trying to lure me away from its nest

Redshank buzzing me

Black-tailed Godwit standing guard.

and expressing displeasure at my presence.

There was a Redwing collecting food in the Hotel grounds......

..... and eventually I found its young chick hiding in the bushes. Very unlikely you'll ever see one of these in the UK

We then headed for the coast. As you can see from the previous photos the morning started fine with blue skies. However, it didn't last and the weather rapidly went downhill. It turned cold with a very strong wind, so much so that it was blowing volcanic ash dust making visibility quite poor. The only photos I got were of Great Skuas (aka Bonxies)  zooming past on the tail wind. They looked as though they were enjoying it. We certainly weren't.

After lunch we headed inland to get out of the wind and dust. First stop was the waterfall at Seljalandsfoss. En route we spotted this large number of Whooper Swans. The feeling was that these were probably non-breeding birds that couldn't find a territory.

At this waterfall we were looking for the Icelandic sub-species of Wren. This is supposed to be larger and darker than our Wren. You can walk behind this waterfall. I didn't.

We caught a glimpse of the Wren but too elusive to photograph. Lots of Fulmars nesting on the cliffs. Just one rather poor shot.

Another waterfall whose name I'm not too sure of. Icelandic names are tricky to remember let alone spell or pronounce

Lots of these blue Lupins around. Apparently, they were imported from Alaska as they are very hardy. The idea was to stabilise the soil but they have become a bit of a nuisance.

The following day was wet cold and windy but being brave little soldiers and with about six layers on we headed for Geysir. The Great Geysir is no longer reliably active but the geyser Strokkur which is close by gushes every few minutes. Here she blows.

I did a little video of it.

Next stop was Gulfoss probably the best know waterfall in Iceland.

Here we were searching for Merlin which is known to nest in the gorge downstream of the fall. No luck with that but we found this Whimbrel which was nesting on the cliff top.

She was trying to lure us away from her nest but wasn't too freaked out.

Nest with four eggs. We soon left her alone.

A composite video of three of the waterfalls we visited. A lot of wind noise I'm afraid. but it gives you an idea why I said earlier there's lots of water in Iceland.

Last stop of the day was the area around the mini "rift" valley at Thingvellir. A couple of scenic shots

And one of the fissures. The water filling it is so clear and of such depth it is popular with divers.Rather them than me.

We found our first Harlequin Ducks on a fast flowing river. We were to see many more.

And with female

Nesting Red-throated Divers

King of the castle Ptarmigan looking for a female.

And the first of many very confiding  Red-necked Phalaropes. You're going to be sick to death of these by the end of my report.

The male who is less colourful because he's the one that brings up the chicks.

And the very colourful female without a care in the world.

That's the end of Part 1. Next will be up north if you're still with me.

Part 2 is HERE