Seals

7-22-10    It is raining a soft mist today, which is not negative at all. We went out to the end of the Hvammstangi peninsula to look at a seal colony. The seals are laying on the wet rocks just off the shore from us. They roll around on the rocks, sunning themselves. We saw 17 Harlequin Ducks (Histrionicus histrionicus) and many Eiders in the sea next to the seals. We also ran into busloads of tourists right near the seals. Berry and I prefer solitude with nature, so we went off to ourselves, next to a farmer's fence and scoped some nesting Redshanks.

  I accidentally have left the digital camera's memory card in a little seaside hotel in Grundarfjörður, before we took the ferry. So now, instead of y'all looking at a blurry photo of me staring emptily at the camera lens, some funloving Icelandic housekeeper has the memory card and is photoshopping my handsome face onto the body of a donkey... hee, haw. I will replace the little black card for $14 when we get to Akureyri, where there are three computer stores, we are told.

  After our great seal adventure, we got in out of the rain. We plopped down in a nice little roadside diner for the locals. To warm up, I had hot tea with milk and savory onion + corn soup with buttered bread. Berry had a cup of coffee and yummy lamb stew. We are on vacation, indeed.

  We visited an old Icelandic Church from the 800s. It was constructed of brown stone (rebuilt several times) and we spied about 500 Whooper Swans in the tidal pool behind it. Near there is where we spotted a female Barrow's Goldeneye (Bucephala islandica), a red letter bird for our list. Now we need her cousin, the Common Goldeneye, to be differentiated by the shape of its head.

female Barrow's Goldeneye

  In the town of Blönduos, we put two Red Throated Loons (Gavia stellata) on our list. After dinner we walked out onto a little island in the river, and swatted at midges. Those are gnat like insects, not harmful like mosquitos, just ceaselessly annoying. We drove to a store, but this little town closes up after dinner.

  I am laying on a comforter and pillows on the floor right next to the bottom of the door of our room in this hotel. The receptionist said there was free internet access in this hotel. She gave me the code, but later said you cannot get internet in your room. You must be in the hall to get it. I put the laptop near the crack under the door and it worked. So, I am using the internet, laying on my stomach, next to the door.

  Berry just "e-mailed" Cosmo. That means she e-mailed the kennel to ask how he was... She said she was having Blackberry© withdrawal. Hers does not work here. The people at the kennel sent back that he was doing fine.

Cosmo the Dog

-Robert

(photos by ddewhurst, rfowler)

Travel Day

7-22-10    How often in life does this happen ? We were driving past two huge nesting Whooper Swans on a mountain lake in the West Fjords part of Iceland. We were driving on a gravel and stone road. There was a beautiful splashy waterfall, and the little stream entered the Atlantic just 500 feet ahead. Amazing vistas of natural beauty on a fantastic birding vacation. Then we had two flat tires.

  No one was hurt, but not one but two tires. At the same time. The hotel at the end of the road helped us call the rental company. They sent two guys to fix the tires. All in all, we were quite lucky. This was a travel day for us anyway.

  On our way again, we saw a Eurasian Curlew (Numenius arquata) with its enormous beak standing on a fence post.

  The area south of Reykjavik was volcanic, the area north of Borgarnes was grassland and tidal pools, the West Fjords was like the Norse fjords. And east of there like the Scottish highlands. We have driven to the small town of Hvammstangi on the Midfjordur Bay on the north side of the island. They were having a festival. Red paper streamers, yellow balloons, a blue cowboy, and smiling wooden seals dressed up like grandparents. Berry asked the hotel manager what was the festival for, and he said "no reason". No reason and they put red sock puppets and a stuffed pink panther teddy bear on their lawn. "They are just festive people", Berry thought.

  Its a small world. I viewed the film, Bjarnfreðarson, on DVD when I first got here. I have since asked five people about the film. All had enjoyed it. The fifth person I'd talked to, a lady in Patreksfjörður, had actually worked on the film, knew the comedian, and was amazed that we foreigners had watched the film. It is a funny film, sarcastic all the way. The main character tries to kill himself by solemnly disrobing and walking naked into the Arctic Ocean, but when he gets waist deep in the freezing cold water, he trots back onto shore shivering. I'm sure all the Icelanders were rolling with laughter at this in the theaters.

Bjarnfreðarson, the film

  If anyone has any questions, place them in the comment box. We'll answer them the next time we stop to use the internet.

-Robert

Latrabjarg

7-20-10    Funny story. Berry and I went to dinner. We decided on a pizza, so I went to the counter and began to order. Understand that the Icelandic girl behind the counter spoke English, but was translating what I said into her language. I asked if we could possibly have a "pizza with everything". I could not read the Icelandic on the menu, so I tried to make it easy. A "pizza with everything", I said. Her eyes got big. She asked carefully, "Everything?" I suddenly realized that she took what I said literally and was truly shocked that I seemed to want "everything" on a pizza. Everything on a pizza... did that mean the pickled herring too, the cloth napkins on a pizza ?... a rusty tire tool ?... Did I mean Everything??? It was very funny. I pointed to the second pizza on her list and we ate.

Latrabjarg is one of three gigantic rookeries in western Iceland. On the map, it is the westernmost point of the largest peninsula in northwest Iceland. The road to it is sometimes a gravel cart path between a mountain and a sheer cliff. It was terrifying. It reminded me of some Bolivian vacation tales I'd heard of where a bus full of campesinos goes off the edge into the stony abyss. The numerous black Ravens (Corvus corax) along the way were ominous. We finally made it to one of the finest birding spots on the planet. A 50 meter tall, 14 kilometer long curtain of closely packed puffins, guillemots and gulls with their young.

There were Atlantic Puffins (Fratercula arctica) just standing there, looking up at the gawking human faces going by. We scoped the cliff face to catch the Bruennich's Guillemot (Uria lomvia) which does not breed much in other places, the Common Guillemot (Uria aalge) and even a "bridled variety" of Common Guillemot ( it has a thin white eyering with an added line, which resembles a bridle ).

Bridled Guillimot

We had seen the Black Guillemot on Flatey Island but none were here at Latrabjarg. The Razorbill (Alca torda) though was present and easily identifiable with his oddly shaped and distinctly marked bill.

Razorbill

Gulls included the Glaucous Gull, Kittiwake and the Common Gull, all breeding with young, their nests in crags in the cliff face. The trip in from the little town of Patreksfjordur takes one hour 15 minutes, so we packed a picnic lunch.

Flora we saw and identified just today were :

1. Wild Angelica (Angelica archangelica)
2. Moss Campion (Silene acaulis )
3. Sea Campion (Silene uniflora)
4. Nutka Lupine (Lupinus nootkatensis)
5. Sea Mayweed (Matricaria maritima)

They get golden pears here from South Africa and they are juicier and sweeter than our Anjou pears. Goods are generally more expensive here, because they have to import everything. Remember, the sun does not shine in December. And it is quite cold right now in July. They have to greenhouse anything they want to eat, or else import it.

We're having lamb for dinner. Coffee is free with any entree. They have soup a lot and drink coffee here, to warm up, I think.

-Robert

(photo by andyg)

Flatey

7-19-10    This was a great day. We got up at 4am and scoped the tidal flats near our hotel. I cooked a waffle for Berry, at one of those breakfast bars where you serve yourself. Then we got on the "Ferry to Flatey".

Flatey is an island next to the west coast of Iceland, on which breed Red Phalaropes (Phalaropus fulicarius ). This bird is white and gray most of the year, which is why the British call it the Grey Phalarope. But in Iceland, and recurrently on the island of Flatey, it changes into bright orange-red breeding colors. We had to get on the ferry to Brjansfjordur, get off the ferry at the Flatey Island stop-over, letting our car go on to the destination, then catch the second ferry of the day to go to where the car was. During this interval, our task was to search the entire island of Flatey and the sea around it for this specific bird in distinct plumage at a single time of year. Not usually a good idea, to bird with such specific restrictions.

The statistics were against us. What if the phalaropes had migrated early ? What if we missed them ? What if they had already molted... ? Breeding pelagic birds hide while on the nest or else fly out to the sea to feed, so where are the Red Phalaropes ? How can we find them ?

Bingo ! Berry spotted a female in breeding plumage dabbling in a bed of seaweed about fifty feet off shore. Touchdown ! We were excited. We also saw several Snow Buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis), umpteen Red Necked Phalaropes (Phalaropus lobatus) in winter plumage. And one tiny baby Red-Necked Phalarope blocked our path as we were walking thru the church yard. This began a series of divebombing attacks by a parentally protective Arctic Tern. We actually had been warned of this in our literature, but it still was unnerving. They really do attack !

We got back on the ferry and were exhausted. We landed and drove thru the mountains. Need to eat, so bye...

-Robert

Berry saw a Puffin

7-18-10    We left the capital finally to make our way north. Lunch in Borgarnes was interesting. There was a stuffed Arctic Fox on the wall and "steak of horse" on the menu. Berry was sad for the poor horses. I was sad about the Arctic Fox (Vulpes lagopus).

   We got away from the main road and at once the birding opportunities multiplied. We spent a long time just trying to identify a juvenile Parasitic Skua (Stercorarius parasiticus). There was a white bellied cormorant, called a Shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis)", sitting on its nest in the muddy tidal flats. But most interesting to me, the Black-Tailed Godwit (Limosa limosa islandica) which is really "Iceland's bird", despite what all the Puffin-people say. It's long bill is ½ yellow and ½ black. So cool.

Black-Tailed Godwit

   It is important to mention also the Dwarf Birch tree (Betula nana) which we studied. This tiny tree is a surviver of the Ice Age here in Iceland and it grows only to about three feet tall.

   All the birds here are beginning to "molt", which is the dropping of the breeding plumage and preparing to migrate. This makes identification troublesome. And stir that in with the idea that some birds wear a whole different wardrobe as juveniles, at one year, and at two years. And then there are sometimes gender differences. And also the special feather patterns of time-worn-ness and weathering. Birding gets complicated fast.

   We drove to the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, which is the first big peninsula north of the capital on the map above. Right before dinner in the little town of Stykkisholmur, Berry saw her first Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica). Hurray for her !

   The terrain is still wildly volcanic up here. Huge red-brown pyramids of lava and fields of craggy singed ash and rock. The Icelanders have gotten used to it, but it is like living on the moon. This place is a geologist's dream.

Lava Field

Dormant Volcano

   Note from the road: the Icelandic farmers shrink wrap their bales of hay. There are huge white plastic bags on the bales of hay as we drive by.

-Robert

(photo credits: sskulason, rfowler, rfowler)

Goodbye to Reykjavik

7-17-10   Reykjavík is the capital and largest city of Iceland. The name means "an inlet with smoke" or "Smoky Bay", although it was not smoke the original settlers saw. It was steam.

  Turning on the shower in the hotel room gives us piping hot water instantly. However, to brush our teeth, we have to wait a minute for the cold water to filter through and mix with the hot to make it tolerable. All of this and there are no hot water heaters anywhere in the city.

  Hot water from geothermal vents is piped to heat the entire city during winter, including the streets and pavement downtown in the winter. To claims that hot water is wasted in Iceland, they say that the water gotten from the molten core of the earth does not have to be returned because "the Devil does not want it back".

  Today we went to the lighthouse. Robert saw Puffins flying south, but I did not see them. There were huge mats of seaweed on the beach. And there were lots of Arctic Terns nesting in the grass. This is a picture that Robert took at 11:15pm from our hotel balcony. It is still light.



  We have had fun here in Reykjavik, but we are moving on to the west side of the island searching for even more birds and beautiful scenery.

-Berry

Where is the moon ?

7-17-10    The Icelanders say that in summer the sun just bounces off the sea and rises again in the sky.

  We drove back out to the airport to get our clothes and equipment. Along that stretch of road, we clocked a sea gull flying at 60 km per hour. Iceland, between Reykjavik and Keflavik contains large fields of hardened lava interspersed with volcanic cones 30m tall, but no trees to speak of. The landscape is dark brown tinged with sprigs of green grass and the blue-tipped wildflower, Nootka Lupine.

  One note about yellow lights in Reykjavik, the warning light between the red and green traffic signals. In the US the yellow light warns drivers not to enter an intersection, because the red light is coming, danger, danger. In Iceland the yellow light comes on after the red and before the green light. Thus, it "warns" you, if that's what it means, that in a fraction of a second, the traffic light will turn green and you should go. It seems backward. A yellow light, then you're off. The Icelanders themselves all seem to anticipate any light by screaching off before it's time.

  Last night we bought a DVD of the Icelandic film, "Mister Bjarnfredarson", about a murderer released early from prison who did not want to leave prison. Then, his mother ostrasized him for his having murdered a woman. This film won a zillion awards in Iceland. Its themes were supposed to represent something deep in the Icelandic soul. I need to watch it again cause I fell asleep.

  We visited a cool ocean inlet south of Reykjavik, where we saw Eider ducks (Somateria mollissima) and a Whooper Swan (Cygnus cygnus). We drove down a little country road and saw some Icelandic horses. There were also two Redpolls (Carduelis flammea) on a wire and several Dunlins (Calidris alpina) in a ditch.

Dunlin

  Note the black patch under the belly of the Dunlin. The Dunlin is the only shorebird to have this diagnostic marking.

  Great day birding. We stood out beside the ocean so much today, that our cheeks were wind blown. I want to wear long johns next time. It is chilly at 4am in the morning close to the Arctic Circle.

-Robert

(photo by wikipedia)

Tjörnin Lake

7-16-10   We went to the Tjörnin Lake in downtown Reykjavik with one pair of binoculars. The wind in Iceland reminds me of the irritatingly constant wind in Chicago. The temp was 8 °C which is about 47 °F.

The Arctic Tern is the coolest bird we've seen so far. It flies 25 feet off the water, looking down into the water. Its tail is very thin and exorbitantly long. When it fans its tail to turn, the thin needle of a tail becomes an enormously large forked tailed, like that of the Scissor-Tailed and Fork-Tailed Flycatchers in Texas.

A Blue-Winged Teal duck was shielding her brood from the North Atlantic wind by hiding behind the Radhus next to the lake, protecting her ducklings by sitting on them.

Greylag Geese and Pink-Footed Geese are differentiated by their feet. The Pink-Footed breed more in the mountain glaciers. Lesser and Greater Black-Backed Gulls too are differentiated by their feet. And the Black-Headed Gull actually has a chocolate brown head.

Berry and I went to a local seaside dive for dinner and it was filled with local women chirping quietly in Icelandic. You select your meal from a glass display case and sit on long wooden benches. We had the lobster soup and grilled skewers of Halibut and Salmon. Berry was taken aback by the down-home local flare of the place, including a seal impaled high on the wall.

We walked slowly around the lake. Berry noticed the pretty blue-purple wild flower, Nutka Lupine (Lupinus nootkatensis). This species was introduced from the American northwest by the Icelanders, to fix nitrogen in its root system to ultimately enrich the nutrient poor Icelandic soil. Clover is planted by farmers in the US to do the same thing.

There is a chill in the air. It is sweater weather in Reykjavik, but there are no mosquitoes in Iceland. The sea here in Reykjavik is deep blue. We saw sailboats cutting through the whitecaps on the water, just outside the breakwater.

-Robert

We are in Reykjavik

7-16-10   We made it to the airport. No problems getting past security. US Air kept us on the ground 20 minutes, due to some "delay program" to aid the flow of traffic through Charlotte. Twenty minutes on the tarmac without air conditioning. Then there was the testy stewardess.

  One man went to the bathroom without permission. Another man used an electronic device before it was time. The stewardess threatened to remove them from the plane. Some lady threw up in her seat, due to the heat.

  The flight to Boston was not much more pleasant. Still intolerably hot. The problem with connections is that it is a sprint to get to the next plane. On Iceland Air, we ate sandwiches, which came with Skyr. This is a whipped Icelandic yogurt, slightly sweet for dessert. We both enjoyed it.

  It was a long flight into Iceland. The light changed. The "midnight sun" which never sets never did. We landed and found out that the quick sprint we had made making the connection in Boston meant that the bags stayed in Boston. Our sweatshirts and clean clothes. Berry's bins. The tripod for my spotting scope. They will arrive tomorrow.

We rented a car and came into Reykjavik. We rented a room at the Fosshotel Baron downtown. We have already seen our first Icelandic bird, the Arctic Tern (Sterna Paradisaea), coursing over the water of the bay. It has the most amazing tail.

Arctic Tern

  The money used here is the krona. About 125 to the dollar. But credit cards are used everywhere. Very convenient. "Talar thu ensku ?" I say and everyone speaks English. Very nice. We are resting up before we head back out.

-Robert

(photo by adespets )

Parts of a Bird

  When we identify birds and discuss them, we sometimes use specialized language. What I need to do before we go is define these terms and explain how they are used. Let's start by describing a bird's head. On this Great Curassow (Crax rubra) in Mexico, the feathers on top of its head form a "crest".

Great Curassow

  A bird with a "crest" can raise and lower those feathers when excited. A "crest" is different from a "crown". The "crown" of the Great Kiskadee (Pitangus sulphuratus) in Texas covers the top of its head.

Great Kiskadee

  A dark stripe which passes through or across the eye is called an "eye-stripe". The Great Kiskadee has both a black "crown" and a black "eye-stripe".

  If the stripe is light colored and is situated above the eye, we call that the bird's "supercilium". In some birds this is "diagnostic", that is, it completely identifies a bird, without the need for any further investigation. The Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) in Memphis has a bright "supercilium".

Carolina Wren

  On this Cape White-Eye (Zosterops pallidus) in South Africa, the white circle drawn closely around its eye is called an "eye-ring".

Cape White-Eye

  The "bill" or "beak" helps to identify the bird. Seed-eaters have short, thick bills to crack open seeds. Shore birds usually have long, thin bills to stab into the surf or pick food out of the mud. Raptors like Hawks and Falcons have hooked beaks like can-openers, to cadaverize and open up their prey. Hummingbirds have thin needles for bills, to suck nectar out of flowers. This Eurasian Curlew (Numenius arquata) has an enormously long bill curved downward.

Eurasian Curlew

  This Avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta) has an upturned or "recurved" beak.

Avocet

  The wings of birds are complicated. There are "primary", "secondary" and "tertial" feathers, starting at the wing tip and coming in toward the body. "Scapulars" are the feathers where the wing attaches to the body. "Coverts" cover the leading edge of the wing as it flies into the wind. "Coverts" come in three sizes, but this is not important to know at first.

Red-Winged Blackbird

  "Wing-bars" are lines of contrasting color across the wing. A "wing patch" is not a line, but a patch of contrasting color on the wing. The Red-Winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) has "wing-bars", more accurately called "epaulettes" of red and/or yellow.

  The Snowy Egret (Egretta thula) has black legs and yellow feet. On some birds, a distinct pattern of color like this is "diagnostic". The golden shoes of the Snowy Egret distinguish it from all other egrets in North America. In Europe the Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) is quite similar but does not have the yellow "lores", the yellow patch just in front of the eyes of the Snowy Egret.

Snowy Egret

-Robert

(photos by sdrenth, lzieger, jbarrett, rlord, gallus, alsirhan, jbailey and tsohl)

7-13-10   Two days to go...

  Wild flowers are a charming addition to all the walking through fields and peering into bogs that birding entails. One wild flower that we will look for in Iceland is the Upright Lousewort (Pedicularis flammea).

photo by jc schou

  Berry came home from work and said someone at work had suggested that we do a blog of our birding trip to Iceland. That was a clever idea. Thanks to that idea-haver, whose name escapes me. Thanks too to my sister Nancy for picking up our mail and Fed Ex packages while we're gone. Thanks to two of my lovely nieces who will water my cucumbers and tomatoes during our vacation. And thanks to Meg who'll drive us to the airport...

photo by msgbirds

  And thanks to the good people at the doggie spa where Cosmo will go to get groomed while we're gone.
-Robert

Birds and Photography

We are going to post photographs of our vacation on this blog, of landmarks and such. But pictures of birds are difficult. We have a Fuji Finepix S1500 digital camera. We have tried to take pictures of birds, but it only works some of the time. And with dubious results.

Bald Eagles

This is the best photo I've ever taken of birds. These are two Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) in Vancouver, very close to the road, on a cloudy day. If all my photos of birds turned out like this, there would be no problem. Eagles are huge birds. But most birds we observe are tiny compared to Eagles.

one blurry eagle

Most of the time, birds in personal photographs turn into a blurry mess, if you can see them at all. Here is one eagle from Vancouver.

Pileated Woodpecker

There is a Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) in this tree. He was not hiding. It is just that taking pictures of birds requires a huge camera. I stuck our little camera out of the car window and snapped this before he flew away. We do not claim to be photographers.

Deer

Deer are pretty big animals. We see them often while birding. This one in Washington state photographed well on a foggy day.

Where's Waldo ?

I took this picture of a large Bald Eagle. The bird is somewhere in the center of this photograph. But honestly, I cannot find him. I forgot exactly where he is in the photo. If you see him, please tell me...

Thru the Scope

If you're thinking we just need magnification, so did we. Here is a photo of a Great Blue Heron (Phalacrocorax auritus) taken through my spotting-scope. It's a blurry shadowed mess.

Again I state, for the record, we are not professionally trained photographers.

-Robert

Three days to go...

7-12-10   Three days to go and we are in a frenzy.

This is the first time we will go on a birding vacation during the worst of the tourist season. We went to Texas in September. We went to Mexico in October. Vancouver in September. Florida in October. The point was to avoid large groups of summer vacationers, families with school aged kids who disturb the birds. In 3 days we are heading to Iceland in the middle of July. We are scared of noisy crowds of boisterous holiday-makers and those huge shiny tourist buses. So we'll head into the sticks...

The back country of Iceland is sparsely populated, so nice places to stop may be few. What we do in situations like this is fill our cooler with drinks, buy some bread or crackers, put fruit in a tupperware container in the cooler, and get some ham or peanut butter to make sandwiches. This way we can stay out at the cliffs, or stay at an isolated lake, without being forced to come back in, just to eat.

One of the disagreeable aspects of observing thousands of birds where they roost is the horrible smell. Bird poo drooling down the side of the nesting spot. We carry a small jar of Vick's Vapo-rub which has a kind of medicinal odor. We place a small dab under each nostril. That way we can visit places we normally wouldn't and still be comfortable.

I read some lady's blog. She is in Iceland and mentioned ash clouds. Ash clouds. I purchased a box of those paper medical protective masks. I have enormous sinus problems anyway.

We went thru security at Boston Logan one time before. We were birding in New England. One of the Homeland Security brainiacs who let the islamic terrorists on the planes in Boston did not know what my spotting-scope was. True story. He peered into the end of it and asked me to open it up. I can't. "What is it," he asked. A spotting-scope. And then, "What do you "spot" with it?". "Birds..." I said. We get to do that again.

Travelling with a computer. The electrical system in Europe is different from the American. Instead of frying my laptop, I bought a Euro-US electrical adapter fitted with two large round prongs. Going through security, I will carry my spotting-scope "bazooka" and Berry will tote this laptop past the Homeland Security folks.

-Robert

Puffin

7-11-10   Four days till our trip.

Cute, clumsy and comic, the Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica) or "lundi" as they are called in Iceland, is one of Iceland's best-loved birds. Although known for its goofy antics, crash landings and frantic fluttering, the puffin is actually quite graceful underwater and was once mistakenly thought to be a kind of bird-fish hybrid.

Though it may look like a Penguin, the Puffin is a member of the Auk family. It is a seabird, spending most of the year at sea. It nests in complex burrows, multi-room apartments carved in the cliff or land near the ocean. For four to five months, it moves on land to breed. Monogamous, it generally keeps the same mate and burrow from year to year.

photo by miguel lasa

Sixty percent of the world's population of Puffins breed in Iceland. In July they show up in huge numbers, up to 10 million breeding pairs, around the island. In late August, they suddenly flock to the sea. They will return again in late April or early May of next year.

  FUN FACTS
1. Puffins fly underwater with their wings, using their feet as a rudders.
2. Puffins dive deeper than 25 m (80 ft) to catch fish.
3. When two Puffins kiss, they rub their colorful beaks together.
4. There are a series of backward-pointing spines in its mouth, which allow them to hold food in place while more is being caught. A puffin was once seen with more than 60 little fish in its bill at one time.
5. In the air, puffins are powerful flyers, beating their wings 300-400 times a minute to achieve speeds up to 65 kph (40 mph).

We are looking forward to seeing lots of these fascinating little birds with their colorful beaks, complex burrows and endearing mating rituals.

-Berry

Land of Fire and Ice

Contrasting forces of ice and fire exist side by side in Iceland. 11% of the country’s surface is covered with glaciers and 30% is lava fields. On average, an icelandic volcano erupts every five years, but rarely where anyone lives.

Vatnajökull Glacier in Iceland is the largest ice cap in Europe. In fact, it is larger than all the other glaciers in Europe combined. In 1996 and 1998, volcanoes erupted under the ice of Vatnajökull, pushing up new mountains and causing huge floods due to melting ice along the uninhabited south coast.

The island has about 130 volcanic mountains, of which 18 have erupted since the settlement of Iceland in 874 AD. Over the past 500 years, Iceland's volcanoes have spewed forth one third of the total global lava output.

Iceland has a high concentration of active volcanoes due to its unique geography. Seismologists say this high concentration of volcanic activity is due to the island's position on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the geothermal activity underneath the island. The island sits astride the boundary between the Eurasian and North American Tectonic Plates. Most of the volcanic activity is concentrated along the plate boundary.

The most recent volcanic eruption in Iceland was that of Eyjafjallajökull, which erupted on April 14, 2010. The Eyjafjallajökull eruption closely followed an eruption in March at Fimmvorouhals. The ash cloud was large enough to shut down airports across more than 20 European countries for some 8 days.

The volcano has been great for bird watchers. The lull in airplane traffic made Iceland quieter. There is a known link between birdsong and ambient noise. Birds living near motorways have a louder pitch to their song than their counterparts in quieter parts of the country.

Finally, Iceland's most active volcano is called Hekla. Hekla is a common female name in Iceland. "You go, girl!"

-Berry

Red Phalarope

Red Phalarope

The Red Phalarope ( Phalaropus fulicarius ) is an Icelandic wading bird which spends most of its life at sea. It heads south from Iceland on a migration route down the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, migrating to feeding sites in the middle of the ocean, off the coast of Southwest Africa. There they float in pods on the water.

The breast of the Red Phalarope is rufous-colored while breeding in Iceland, but gray and white during its long migration south. This bird is called the "Grey Phalarope" in Britain where they see its drab winter plumage.

winter plumage

The traditional family roles in phalaropes are reversed. Usually a male bird is more brightly colored to attract a mate and is boisterous in defense. And usually a female bird is more camouflaged and sits on the eggs and cares for the hatchlings. But, the female Red Phalarope is more deeply orange than her mate. It is she who fights the turf battles. The male is worn-looking with white flecks in the orange. The female leaves early on migration and it is the male who stays and hatches the eggs, feeds the chicks, and shows them the water.

To feed in shallow water, the Red Phalarope swims quickly in a circle. This causes food below to rise to the surface. This circular feeding behavior is why a group of Red Phalaropes is called a "whirl" of Red Phalaropes.

-Robert (photos by yann kolbeinsson)

Fun Facts

7-8-10   Fun Facts about Iceland

There are only 290 000 people in Iceland.

Iceland has twice as many sheep as people.

60 percent of the population lives in Reykjavik, the capital.

There are almost 24 hours of sunlight in summer.

There is almost no sunlight in Iceland in December.

Icelanders consume more Coca-cola per capita than anyone.

Icelanders do not have last names. One's full name is a personal name and then the father's first name plus "son" or "dottir". Hence, Leifr Eiríksson was "Leifr" the son of his father named "Eirík". His son in turn was named Thorkell Leifsson.

The prime minister of Iceland is a lesbian.

There are no water heaters in Iceland. They pump hot water from geothermal springs in the ground.

Iceland won its independence from Denmark after World War 2.

The dwarf birch ( Betula nana ) is a conifer tree about two meters tall and has survived in Iceland since the Pleistocene era.

There are seven more days till our birding trip to Iceland.

-Robert

Migration Routes

7-7-10 Eight days till our birding trip to Iceland.

Not all bird species migrate, but those that do follow instincts whose sources reach back before the existence of man. Birds follow migration routes heading south then heading north in a process that never stops.

When birds in North America head south, some yankee birds are satisfied just reaching Dixie, which is understandable. Other species are looking for a vacation in Central America. And still others, like the Eastern Kingbird ( Tyrannus tyrannus ), migrate all the way to Peru, where they form huge flocks of thousands of birds.

When we talk of migration routes, we are talking about the flight paths a bird takes migrating from the north to the south, and back again. There are four main migration routes in North America. Birds generally stay in their chosen migration route for the entire migration, only correcting for navigational errors the following year.

The migration routes in the United States are :
1. up and down along the Pacific coast
2. east of the Rocky Mountains, thru the plains states
3. up and down the Mississippi River system
4. up and down the Atlantic coast

Birds seeking to migrate to South America either have to squeeze past the hawks in Texas ( hawks hunt smaller birds during migration ) or else fly to Florida and island-hop through the Gulf of Mexico heading for South America, where they will feel instinctively compelled to turn around and migrate back the way they came.

Birds generally stay in the migration route they chose. They follow the flock. And so, with a great number of delightful exceptions, you can predict, with a dose of healthy scepticism, which bird species you might see by selecting a particular route of migration.

Inside the Pacific coast migration route, we saw the Winter Wren ( Troglodytes troglodytes ) and the Common Loon ( Gavia immer ).

Along the eastern side of the Rockies we saw the Mountain Bluebird ( Sialia currucoides ) and the Yellow-billed Magpie ( Pica nuttalli ).

In the Mississippi flight path we have seen the White-Faced Ibis ( Plegadis chihi ) and the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher ( Tyrannus forficatus ).

Along the east coast of North America, we have seen the American Bittern ( Botaurus lentiginosus ) and the Golden Eagle ( Aquila chrysaetos ).

And here is the point of this post... the island of Iceland is part of a completely different migration route.

A few species actually stay in Iceland during the winter, staying warm in geothermal hot springs in Iceland. Other birds migrate from Iceland through the United Kingdom and on to the mountains in Morocco. A few species go all the way...

The Arctic Tern ( Sterna Paradisaea ) is champion of them all, flying from Iceland down past England, then jumping to France and Spain, then flying to Northwest Africa and following the West African coast all the way down to the Republic of South Africa and the continent of Antarctica at the bottom of the world. That is the longest known migration of any bird on Earth.

Hence, if everything goes according to plan, Berry and I ought to see, along with the exceptions we talked about, a whole new set of species in a completely different migration route. This will be delightful, as previously mentioned.

-Robert

Habitats

7-6-10 Nine days till our birding trip to Iceland.

When we visit an unfamiliar country, we don't usually go looking for a specific bird. We did go one time to pine forests in Western and Southern Arkansas searching for one specific bird, the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker ( Picoides borealis ), and were successful with the help of Jeff Wilson, but that is not how we usually bird. I'd like to see the Black-Tailed Godwit ( Limosa limosa islandica ) when we're in Iceland. It's endemic there. But again, that is not how we bird.

What we usually do is go to a particular habitat where we think there might be birds. And observe what birds are there. The process can be hit-or-miss. Or, it can be very surprising what you find. We went to Nebraska to view the Sandhill Cranes ( Grus canadensis ). We stopped by the side of a road to look at a map. I heard something out the window. We looked in the agricultural field next to us and there were about 50 Sandhill Cranes, eating grain where the farmer had spilled it in the field. But you can't always be lucky.

First, we look for water, open water or a bog, because all natural life needs water. We try to get away from people, crowded places and noisy bunches of boaters or picnickers. I would advise a birder to avoid cities and manicured lawns, just on principle, yet we saw a small flock of Whooping Cranes ( Grus americana ) standing in someone's front yard in central Florida. And Berry and I just yesterday saw a male and female American Goldfinch ( Carduelis triste ) feeding on Zinnia seeds on the blossoms in our front yard.

Water, any water. We have seen Black Skimmers ( Rynchops niger ) on the ocean shore in Texas, the Snail Kite ( Rostrhamus sociabilis ) in the flooded swamps of southern Florida, the Forster's Tern ( Sterna forsteri ) nesting on sandbars in the Mississippi River, puddle ducks in puddles.

Grassland is sometimes difficult to bird, because the birds that live there are hidden by the tall grass. Scanning the tops of trees for flycatchers and warblers is called "tree-topping". Berry and I cannot drive by a radio tower with looking up.

In southern Texas we saw more than 50 Black Vultures ( Coragyps atratus ) at a vulture-convention on a radio tower. Throughout southeastern Texas we saw the Crested Caracara ( Caracara cheriway ) perched on fence posts along the country roads. In Kansas during migration we saw an amazing number of Bald Eagles ( Haliaeetus leucocephalus ) perched on electrical poles along the highway, each one with its own pole.

In Iceland we will go to many different habitats, and even peek in a few front yards, but two famous places we have heard about are the seaside cliffs of Látrabjarg in western Iceland and Mývatn Lake in the eastern part of Iceland. These two habitats are world class birding spots. The cliffs have 14 km of nesting area for a lot of pelagic birds we have never seen. And Mývatn Lake is shallow, very eutrophic, full of nutrients for a great diversity of ducks which we have never seen. It should be fun.

Nine days to go.

-Robert

Why Iceland ?

7-5-10 I have had several people ask me, "Why Iceland ? Isn't it too cold for birds ?"

Considering the northerly location of Iceland, its climate is much milder than you might think. Summers are usually cool and cloudy with periods of sunny weather ( July average 10.6°C /51°F, maximum 24.3°C /76°F ). Given the temperatures in Memphis in mid-July where would you rather be ?

Icelandic weather is unpredictable at the best of times, with bright sunny days reverting to cold, wet conditions in a matter of hours. We will be prepared for the unexpected. We will be packing everything from bathing suits and shorts to sweatshirts and long johns.

Birdwatching in Iceland is best from May to August, as most roads are clear of snow and bird life is prolific. During this time, breeding birds have reached the island and are very obvious as they are defending territories. On coastal cliffs and islands around the country we hope to see a mind-boggling array of sea birds, often in massive colonies. Furthermore, most ducks will still be in breeding plumage and easy to see. On a good day of birding, we could see up to 65-70 species in one day ( the record is 71 ).

Finally, as there is day-light all night long in July in Iceland, we can really bird for 24 hours ! Yippee...

-Berry

Birdcalls

7-4-10 When you start watching birds as a hobby, when you just pick up the sport, it is very necessary to actually see the bird to identify it. To have good binoculars and a large bird who will sit still long enough to focus the binoculars. And then match what you see to the bird in the book. And you're birding...

A lot of my enjoyment of birding has to do slowing down and appreciating a bird's feeding behavior, observing its mating ritual or noting its child rearing techniques. I admire a bird's struggle to survive in a cruel world, and I like seeing existence from the bird's point of view.

When you get to what might be called intermediate birding, you get used to seeing and identifying birds and begin to recognize some of them by their song, their alarm call, how they say "Here I am !" to other birds.

The Eastern Wood Pewee (Contopus virens) says "pee-ah-wee" to identify itself. The Carolina Wren (Thryomanes ludovicianus) says "teacher, teacher, teacher". Not all ducks quack. Life is more complicated than that.

Here is the website of the Borror Laboratory of Bioacoustics at Ohio State University in the US. This is a great resource of animal sounds on the internet.

To listen to a birdcall, go to the page, select a species, then choose "search". It will land on a page of recordings. You must then choose one, and click on it. The next page contains a playable or saveable mp3 file of the bird sound.

Try the recording of the King Eider ( Somateria spectabilis ). It breeds only in the Arctic, including Iceland, and lives in the ocean along the coast. The good people at Borror have recorded a King Eider hatchling squeaking and squawking in the nest. The hatchling is the second of the two King Eider recordings.

-Robert

Icelandic food

7-4-10 Eleven days till we leave and we are stoked.

One problem most people never think of is the difficulty of travelling with diabetes. I put that in a search engine and found something called "Travelling with Diabetes - Iceland." The author of that article had been to Iceland and had trouble transporting her diabetic equipment. She never reassured herself with the simple thought that there are diabetics in Iceland.

Iceland is a modern country with modern customs procedures, and I will take what medical equipment and medicines I need with me. To carry needles into Iceland, you need a doctor's letter to indicate that everything is medically necessary, which I have. If I were to need to purchase something else there though, I would need a prescription. Makes you think.

When I travel, I look for appropriate foods in the place visited to maintain my blood sugar level while travelling. In the back country of any region, I don't wonder if there will there be carbohydrates, but will there be anything else. Eating every meal in a restaurant or coffee house limits your choice of foods. Carbs on top of carbs.

Wikipedia's page about Icelandic cuisine says, "Animal products dominate Icelandic cuisine... consumption of vegetables has greatly increased in recent decades". So maybe Iceland will be different.

Iceland is an island, so go fish. And lobster. Seafoods of all kinds. Also free range lamb and sausages.

In Iceland they have "skyr" which is a milk-based yogurt. "Hangikjöt" is smoked lamb. "Kleinur" are fried pastries, that is pastries which are then fried in hot oil. I think it sounds like madness itself, but Berry thinks she'd like it. "Laufabrauð" is more fried bread. I can eat these things, but in small portions and with exercise. "Bollur" are cream puffs. "Þorramatur" is a traditional buffet served at "Þorrablót" festivals. Cured meat and fish are served with "rúgbrauð", a dense dark rye bread, all served with "brennivín", an aperatif.

The Icelanders are supposed to drink the hell out of coffee. Maybe they will offer hot tea, too.

With all the seabirds around, it was only a short time till someone ate one. I love duck and salmon and trout, if you do it well. Blueberries and rhubarb because Iceland has a coolish climate. And somehow they eat Iceland moss, I guess they eat it in a salad. And dried seaweed, I like sushi. Bon appetit.

-Robert

Birding stuff on-line

7-3-10 There are a lot of birding resources on the web. Yann Kolbeinsson has a superb site with tremendous photographs and detailed tips on where to look for birds in Iceland. This is the best webpage that I found specifically about Iceland. It is updated with fresh sightings. I spent all day studying his resourceful website, pulling myself away just to watch Holland come back to beat Brazil in the World Cup. In the second half, a Dutch corner was flicked on by a man at the near post to three teammates on the other side of the box. Holland scored a header with not one Brazilian even nearby. Well done. Very fun to watch.

Here is another Icelandic birding site, www.fuglar.is, not as good as Kolbeinsson's.

I picked up trip reports from a very useful site with birding Trip Reports about Iceland. Some are in text files but most are in downloadable .pdf files. The best Trip Reports are clearly organized and easily referenced with accurate and specific birding information. The best one here is in French, tant pis les monoglotes.

I found old articles from ornithological magazines like the Auk on this page. The search engine lets you isolate articles pertaining to Iceland and the North Atlantic. These are downloadable .pdf files with articles from ornithological magazines even from the 1800s. Very nice.

One article by Richard R, Snell stirred the pot as far as the hybridization of gulls which so frightened me in Texas. He was saying how the naturally variable plumage in one species, the Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) was being misinterpreted as hybridation. That is why gulls are so difficult.

-Robert

Preparations

7-02-10 Just doing preparations for our birding trip. We bought plane tickets and have rented a car with 4-wheel drive. In Iceland there is a "ring-road", more or less paved, around the entire island, so we plan to start at the capital, Reykjavik, in the southwest, and go slowly ( for two weeks ) clockwise around the island. In addition to birds, we look forward to seeing the ocean, volcanos and geysers, along with massive seaside cliffs and lava fields.

We will take bird guides, "Birds of Europe" by Mullarney et al. and Sibley's "Field Guide to Birds of North American" along with my personal bird database. We will take our binoculars and my Nikon spotting scope. And a spare pair of glasses. I broke my glasses in Florida one time and squinted for most of a week looking at birds after that.

I have a list of Free Wifi places in Iceland. Coffee houses and hotels all seem to have internetic connectivity. We will take this laptop and a digital camera, so I can share photos of landmarks and such, on this blog, during the trip.

Most Icelanders learn to speak English in grade school. Some Icelandic words I have learned are :

Talar thu ensku ? - Do you speak English ?
Taak fyrir - Thank you.
Hvar er snyrtingin - Where is the loo ?

And, in case you are serious, Natalia will teach you Icelandic words on Youtube. There is a whole series of videos.

I cannot form complete sentences, much less converse intelligently in Icelandic. If we meet someone who speaks no English, it will be sign language to get where we're going. At least, when I got into trouble in Mexico, a gentle fender-bender with a local mayan kid on his motorscooter ( ... he bumped into me... ), I spoke a little Spanish.

Going near the Arctic Circle, we will take sweatshirts and long-johns. I got chilled in Nebraska when we went to observe the Sandhill Cranes and I came down with an unpleasant cold during that trip. Iceland will be further north than that, so I plan to bundle up.

- Robert

No. 1

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Birding Trip to Iceland

7-1-10 Berry and I are going to bird the beautiful island country of Iceland. I can't wait to get out of the Memphis heat and wear a sweater again, in the middle of July.

Several birds which interest us in Iceland are the Red-Necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus), the Red Knot (Calidris canutus) and the Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica), although most of the birds we shall see in breeding plumage there will be new to us. Iceland is situated near the Arctic Circle, between Europe and America, so the list of birds to see there is heavy with seabirds, all rather exotic.

I shall post this now to the blog, to see if this blog-thing works.

- Robert