Home»Iceland - May 2013 & February 2014
Two trips in quick succession, the first in the last week of May 2013, followed by a winter visit in February 2014. Both involved challenging weather, even at the end of May whiteout blizzard conditions were experienced crossing the mountains on the Snæfellsnes Peninsular.
All very scenic with mountains, fjords, glaciers, lava fields, waterfalls, volcanoes and glacial river valleys. In such a sparsely populated country, away from the south-west the roads were quiet.
Highlight on the first visit were the trips from Húsavik, in the north-east of the country, out into Skjálfandi Bay on the traditional Icelandic oak fishing boats. Coincided with great weather and it was superb watching Blue Whale and three Humpback Whales on a flat blue sea, with sunny skies and snow capped mountains as a backdrop. Based in a hotel next to Lake Mývatn the wildlife on offer here and on the adjacent River Laxa included plenty of breeding wildfowl and waders. Harlequin Duck, Barrow's Goldeneye, Long-tailed Duck, Great Northern Diver, Slavonian Grebe, Gyrfalcon, Red-necked Phalarope, Whimbrel, Black-tailed Godwit plus further afield Steller's Eider, Ptarmigan, Whooper Swan and breeding Pink-footed Geese was some cast. Birding it the west was tough in gale force winds and heavy rain - highlight here was good numbers of Glaucous and Iceland Gull, plus Brünnich's Guillemot at Önðverðarnes.
In contrast to May with its 22 hours of daylight, in February the sun didn't rise until 9.30am and had set by 5.30pm. Based around the west coast at Kolgrafafjörður on the Snæfellsnes Peninsular, bulk of the time was spent searching for Orca, ending with superb close range views from land. At the same location regular White-beaked Dolphin and an assortment of plumages amongst the flocks of white-winged gulls. Dull all week, but a break in the cloud on the last afternoon, which continued into the evening, resulted in a reasonable display of the Northern Lights.
