As if to welcome us to Iceland, a lovely bird song wafted from the
large lava boulders outlining the rental car parking lot at Keflavik
Airport. Immediately I snatched my binoculars from the backpack and zeroed
in on the black-and-white form of a Snow Bunting, singing his heart out; a
perfect indication of the wonderful birding we would enjoy during our
15-day stay in Iceland. It had been raining before we arrived, but as we
left Keflavik International Airport and headed north past Reykjavik the
rain stopped. We spotted Atlantic Oystercatchers, Arctic Terns, a Raven
and gulls, starting on our clockwise tour of Iceland and scanning each
fjord for all the birds we could find. We were not disappointed!

On the first day we saw many Common Eiders--they were everywhere around
Iceland, seeming to prefer to be close to human habitation at every farm
along the coastline. There is good reason for this, as many farmers will
take a few eggs every year from the Eider nests, incubate them and release
them when grown. After the "wild" nests are empty, the eider down is
stripped from the nests, washed, dried and sold.
Redshanks were numerous, easily identified by the white area on the
trailing edges of their wings as they flew away, crying "teacher, teacher,
teacher". Mallards were the principal dabble duck, seen in almost every
pond. Black-headed Gulls were numerous.
We were thrilled when we saw our first flock of 60 Whooper Swans on a
distant green field. We of course stopped and looked at them with our 30X
spotting scope, not realizing that we would see the swans everywhere in
Iceland; pairs or small flocks by ponds, large flocks in fields, in
association with sheep and Greylag Geese. We finally saw a pair with four
cygnets in a small pond, and surprisingly, they were the only cygnets we
saw. Six Whoopers were the only swans we saw in the downtown park lake in
Reykjavik at the end of our journey; no Mute Swans anywhere.
Other shorebirds included Snipe, making their overhead winnowing sound
just about everywhere we stopped. Whimbrels and Golden Plovers appeared to
enjoy the same habitat, as we usually saw them together in pastures or on
tundra hummocks of heather and other arctic plants. The Common Ringed
Plover showed up in areas a bit more rocky or gravelly. The field guide
pictures do not do the Black-tailed Godwit justice, a stunning bird in his
breeding plumage with his long, red bill tipped with black, and chestnut
on his neck extending down to a white belly with black bars. We saw
several pairs of these handsome birds. Dunlin were in breeding plumage,
but we observed them still in large flocks.
The Redwing (Turdus iliacus) was certainly the most numerous
songbird, dubbed by us as the "Iceland Robin" from his ubiquity and
similarity to the American Robin (Turdus migratorius) in his appearance
and actions. Their song, however, is quite different, but still
thrush-like. Pied (White) Wagtails seemed to prefer to live near people,
and most nest in open buildings. One bird lover showed us a nest with
several hatchlings. The Wagtail appears to occupy the ecological
niche taken by House Sparrows elsewhere--we did not see a single
House Sparrow. Meadow Pipits were always found in open grassland,
even in the parks in Reykjavik, where they did their "parachute" descent
into the tall grass and possible nesting areas.
We never had a thorough look at the Northern Wheatear, but
his white tail with black inverted T was a giveaway as he flew up from the
roads in front of us. One advantage to bicycle-birding is that with the
reduced speed, there is more time to observe the birds; although we found
ourselves extremely glad that we had not attempted to do Iceland by
bicyle. The only road shoulders are on the "freeways" near Reykjavik,
Icelanders drive like madmen, about 40% of the roads are unpaved or under
construction with loose, coarse gravel, and 12% to 14% grades are to be
expected frequently, almost invariably unpaved. At one point, we had
to wait while a D7 bulldozer smoothed out a couple of loads of
shotrock on the roadway before we could proceed. Even Highway 1, the Ring
Road, had lengthy sections that were unpaved. Add to that the frequent
strong winds and occasional horizontal snow or rain showers, and you have
a perfect recipe for masochistic bicycling. We saw a few touring
bicyclists near entry points to Iceland, but not many, and all in their
twenties.

We managed single sightings for several of our target birds--not very
satisfying, but at least we saw them well enough to identify them. The
Common Redpoll was seen in the forest park south of Akureyri, munchimg on
dandelion seeds along the park road. (Note: Iceland was stripped bare of
trees centuries ago. Experimental tree plantation began about 20 to 30
years ago, and just now the Icelandic government is subsidizing farmers
for extensive afforestation of portions of their land. The ubiquitous
sheep have to be excluded from the plantations, or they would strip them
bare. The most common trees being planted are spruce and larch. Achievable
rotation period appears to be about 100 years.) We expected to see more of
the Redpolls, from the large numbers of dandelions encountered, some up to
two feet tall, but this was the only Redpoll we saw. A single Ruddy
Turnstone, almost in breeding plumage, was seen near Isafjorthur. We were
very, very lucky to get great views of the White-tailed Eagle when we took
a birding trip on a catamaran out of Stykkisholmur. More about that trip
later. The eagle was as big as our Bald Eagle, but the head was a tawny,
almost golden color in the sun (yes, it really was sunny!). We saw him
perched, and when he flew as we approched, we just barely got a glimpse of
the short, wedge-shaped white tail. These eagles are not very numerous,
perhaps declining, so we were glad to have been at the right place and
time to see the pair. We had looked for this bird on the coasts of the
Netherlands a couple of years ago without success.

Strangely enough, we saw only one pair of Common Loons, on the bay near
Olafsvik, while the Red-throated Loon (Gavia stellata) was much more in
evidence. We even got to see several pairs with young (loonlets? what do
you call baby loons?) A single Swallow (lumped with the American Barn
Swallow, but with slightly different markings) flew across the road near a
village in North Iceland; strange that we did not see more of them, as the
whole island is covered with sheep, even up into the tundra and lava
fields, and midges and manure flies were plentiful. One barren "moonscape"
of lava rock and sand north of Lake Myvatn is reputed to have been a
training ground for Apollo astronauts.
Certainly a must-see for ducks in Iceland is Lake Myvatn
(MEEvatn). Barrows Goldeneye nest here, and are all along the lake
shore. Eurasian Wigeon were there, as were Green-winged Teal (just
"Teal" to the Europeans) with ducklings. Tufted Ducks, Greater Scaup,
Gadwall, Red-breasted Merganser and the very handsome Oldsquaw
(Long-tailed Duck) were easily identified. Harlequin Ducks were really in
their element as they dove in the swift rapids at the outflow at the
southwest corner of Lake Myvatn. We saw Harlequins in several other
rushing rivers and at Seythisfjorthur where the river meets tidewater in
northeast Iceland. Our North American Harlequins and Barrows Goldeneye
have made themselves quite at home in Iceland.

This epistle is long enough for now; more exciting birding report later!

Erin

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