While our focus in returning to Iceland was puffins, that doesn’t mean we didn’t find our wildlife to photograph.
On Grimsey Island were we spent most of our trip (see report here), the Arctic Tern is present in large numbers as it makes its summer home on the island. It spends our winter in the Southern Hemisphere’s higher latitudes (think Antarctica) as it migrates between the Arctic and Antarctica each year, a 19,000 mile round trip, in an attempt to achieve ‘endless summer”. Quite a feat for any bird, especial one as small as the tern at 4 ounces. While small, they are ferocious defenders of their nests and young. Pity you if wander into their nesting area, (and it hard not to as they act as if they own the island).
as they will attack both man and beast, earning them the name the “Icelandic Air Force”
Of course, I think if was advising Iceland on their marketing campaign that I would have chosen a more friendly bird to welcome folks to Iceland
Arctic terns also like to take fresh water baths, and after taking one, they fly away and after about 4 wing beats, they shake themselves, turning their heads 180 degrees while they keep their wings level.
Like the puffin , Razorbills are highly concentrated in Iceland with over 50% of the breeding pairs residing in Iceland. As members of the Auk family, they are cousins of the puffins.
Another favorite bird of ours is the loon, or diver as they are called in Europe (because they dive for their food) . We went to a nature reserve with several ponds populated by the Red-throated divers. There was a lot of activity but it was overcast with a slight drizzle and very low light, a common theme of our trip.
Iceland is a land of volcanos, with about 103 active and inactive volcanos, of which 30 are active. One just 20 miles from their capital of Reykjavik starting erupting in March and was still going strong when we arrived. So we decided to take a helicopter to see it. Our first attempt got rained out (clouds and rains were a common occurrence on the trip) but on our departure day our helicopter flight was a go.
The bad new was that there was not a lot of activity when we went
The good news was that this meant we could flow directly over it and look straight down into he crater.
In addition to birds, Iceland had one mammal that we ordinarily don’t see – the Arctic fox. See what we found here.
And here is a summary of the Grimsey portion of our trip.