Subject: Iceland Birding 2000, Part II
Date: Jul 7 09:04:13 2000
From: W. William Woods - wwwbike at halcyon.com


ICELAND BIRDING 2000, PART II

Iceland, with 39,750 square miles, is somewhat more than half
the size of Washington State (68,192 square miles), but as an
island with deeply indented fjords, it has many, many more miles
of coastline. Much of this coastline is comprised of rugged
cliffs and offshore islands that line the many fjords; perfect
nesting sites for seabirds. We visited several of these islands
by ferry, catamaran, and by a "haywagon" (without hay) pulled
through marsh and across miles of black volcanic sand by a farm
tractor. We managed to see every bird that nests on the sea
cliffs and islands except two, many of them close-up. The two
exceptions were the Dovekie, of which there are only four nesting
pairs in Iceland, and require a special permit even to approach,
and the other was the Storm Petrel, which had not arrived before
we left Iceland. Bill got some stunning photographs of several of
the birds.

Our first stop was a Farm Holidays B&B named Garthar (printed
Gardar, where the "d" is curved with a slash through it, pronounced
as a "th"), that was on the agenda of the Elderhostel tour we had
originally attempted to participate in. We saw why this lodging
was chosen, as it was swarming with birds. Redshank, Whimbrel,
Tufted Duck, Mallards, Whooper Swans, Red-throated Loon, Arctic
Tern, Ringed Plover, Redwing, White Wagtail, Common Eider,
Red-necked Phalarope and Parasitic Jaeger. Several nests were in
the grass right alongside the road. We were lucky to see both the
light and dark phases of the Jaeger in Iceland.

Our first boat trip was on a catamaran that makes twice daily
tours out of Stykkisholmur in northwestern Iceland. It was a
beautiful, clear sunny day with calm waters. Numerous small
islands dotted the fjord, and the captain pulled very close to
the cliffs on several, where Northern Fulmars, Black-legged
Kittiwakes, Atlantic Puffins and Shags (Phalacrocorax
aristotelis) were crowded together, nesting on the cliffs. The
birds did not seem to mind that we were almost close enough to
touch them, for the excursion catamaran goes out twice a day,
weather permitting. A narrator explained all about the birds, the
tides, and of course the Icelandic history and sagas involving
many of the different islands we passed. He did this in at least
three languages on our trip--Icelandic, English and one of the
other Scandinavian languages. The few French-speaking passengers
probably felt a bit left-out. It appeared that with few
exceptions, almost all the people we came in contact with spoke
English, including all the lodging hosts and food services, as
well as Swedish and German tourists. Other than their native
Icelandic language, the most common language in Iceland is
English, so foreign visitors communicate in English. We managed
to learn a few of the bird names in Icelandic, such as Lundi
(Puffin) and Sulla (Gannet). Getting back to our excursion, Black
Guillemots flew across the bow of the catamaran many times, but
we did not see where they were nesting. In the harbor at
Stykkisholmur we observed Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Common Eider
and Black-legged Kittiwakes, whereas the Redwing, a thrush very
like our American Robin and just as ubiquitous, sang around the
urban yards.

The only Cormorants (phalacorax carbo) we saw on the whole
Iceland trip were in the harbor of Flatey Island in the middle of
Breithafjorthur. The ferry across the fjord stops here, but there
is no offramp for cars, so we did not stop over on Flatey. Many
people got off there to camp and visit, looking at excellent
examples of old Icelandic homes and artifacts. Glaucous Gulls
also flew around the harbor.

Following unbelievably steep, rough, narrow gravel roads up and down
the mountainsides with NO guardrails, several under reconstruction with
gravel trucks and graders, we finally arrived at the Breithavik Hotel with
plans to hike the cliffs of Latrabjarg. It was mid-afternoon, but there
were still many miles of primitive road from Breithavik to the trailhead
by the lighthouse, so we birded around the hotel instead. Whooper Swans
claimed one pond, while Red-throated Loons with two babies occupied
another. Arctic Terns and Black-headed Gulls flew around us, loudly
announcing their dislike of our presence. Redwing, Snipe, Meadow Pipit and
Pied Wagtail were singing, winnowing and flying around the hotel. The
Common Eider nest area was marked off with red flags and a scarecrow, to
keep the Black-backed Gulls from preying on the Eider ducklings. The lady
hotel keeper takes any Eider eggs in excess of four from the nests and
incubates them. She showed us several of the ducklings that had already
imprinted on her.

There was once a moderate farming and fishing settlement here,
but now the hotel is all that remains, living off sheep ranching
and the birding tourist trade. Regular B&B rooms, with or without
made-up bed (bathroom down the hall, bring your own sleeping
bag), as well as hostel-type dormitory accommodations with
kitchen privileges, were typical of accommodations all over
Iceland. Two Swedish couples (speaking English, of course) shared
the hotel and breakfast with us, but they drove out to Latrabjarg
during the evening, visiting the Puffins near the trailhead.

In the morning, we drove out to Latrabjarg, where we met a
German couple, who had parked their all-terrain RV at the
trailhead by the lighthouse. We hiked a few miles along the
cliffs, finding nonchalant Puffins all along, starting within a
few yards of the trailhead. Cliff birds included Razorbills (just
a few), Common Murre, Fulmar and Black-legged Kittiwake, nesting
very close to each other. We were later to find Fulmars the
most common cliff-nesting birds, anywhere there were steeply
sloped mountainsides near salt water. Down below the cliffs on
the rocks were Great Black-backed Gulls, Glaucous Gulls, Herring
Gulls, Common Eider and Atlantic Oystercatcher (Haematopus
ostralegus). On the grassy tops of the cliffs were Redshank,
Raven and Whimbrel, while Snow Bunting occupied the area of large
boulders near the lighthouse.

A hike on Hrisey Island in Eyjafjorthur north of Akureyri
proved disappointing, as our target bird there, the Rock
Ptarmigan, was nowhere to be seen, but we enjoyed walking the
trails through the tundra (heather and several wildflowers). We
observed nesting Whimbrel, Golden Plover, Arctic Terns, Common
Snipe and Redshank. We also managed to flush some Common Eiders
from their nests. Fulmar were on the cliffs, and Redwing sang and
nested near the houses by the ferry landing. We did finally see a
few Rock Ptarmigan at a Farm Holidays B&B just south of Dalvik,
and again on a hike through the tundra and woodlands of
Skaftafell National Park, a fantastic view of the bird above us
on a rock outcropping before it flew downhill and over the
tundra, uttering its strange, squawking call.

Our visit to Ingolfshofthi "Island" in southern Iceland was
absolutely fascinating. A farmer hitches his tractor to a rough
wagon with handrails and drags it through marshes and miles of
black volcanic sands to a steep-walled island rife with birdlife.
The wind has piled the black sands up the north side of the
island so that it is an easy scree-walk to the plateau top. The
farmer (Sigurthur Bjarnason, who speaks no English) leads the
walk around the top of the island, pointing out various species
and subspecies of seabirds on the cliffs, as well as the Great
Skuas, their nests, eggs and chicks in the grasslands on top.
There were Atlantic Puffins en masse, quite nonchalant about the
visiting people. The Skuas, however, were quite indignant,
strafing our leader incessantly and snatching a red cap off the
head of one of the women. We had views of nesting Atlantic
Puffins by the hundreds, Common Murre, Thick-billed Murre,
Bridled form of the Common Murre, Razorbills, Fulmar and Black-
legged Kittiwakes with downy chicks. Great Skuas were nesting on
the plateau by the dozen, screaming at us and attacking us as we
neared their nests, which held incubating eggs, single downy-gray
chicks, and we even observed one egg with a tiny bill chipping
away at a hole from inside the shell.

All for now. Iceland part III -- Missed Opportunities, later.

Bill and Erin Woods Woods Tree Farm Redmond, WA U.S.A.
<wwwbike at halcyon.com>