Iceland, Part 2 : Birds of Iceland

When we moved to Alberta in 1976, we bought two books right away: Wildflowers of Alberta, and Birds of Alberta. Both books were our companions on hiking and camping trips, and many an hour has been spent leafing through them and others that were added to the collection over the years to find that flower or that bird.

We knew the bird life in Iceland was very different from that of landlocked Alberta, but we were utterly surprised at how many birds we encountered. We have never been to a place where so many birds occupied such a small area. Some birds we recognized from home, such as the Harlequin duck, 

the green-winged teal,

and the horned grebe,

but most were new to us, or we recognized them from other coastal areas we have visited. Because of the time of year we were in Iceland we witnessed birds pairing up and building nests. The first was fun, and the latter was utterly fascinating.

Jan took some amazing close-up pictures with his new camera—as a matter of fact I didn’t even bring my zoom lens to Iceland—and most of the pictures in this blog are his. It would be a shame not to share them.

The Arctic tern was everywhere, and I mean everywhere! Thousands and thousands of them nested on the ground in huge colonies. We avoided the dive-bombing they will do once the chicks hatch.

The redwing is Iceland’s answer to our robin. It sings just as prettily and as often, even at 4 in the morning!

We were pretty impressed when we saw greylag geese on our first day, but we soon realized they are as numerous as Canada geese are here. This one seems determined to get somewhere fast!

The common snipe can be found all over Alberta, too, but I just love this picture.

Icelanders know spring has arrived when they see the first golden plover, much like us waiting for the robin to return.

Tufted ducks are a Eurasian relative of our scaups.

Black-legged kittiwakes nest on the tiniest ledge of a sheer cliff. Can you feel the love between these two?

Northern fulmars were plentiful and almost as agile as kittiwakes when it came to nest building. I doubt these two are together from the stern look on mama and the mischievous look on the one hiding behind!

The white wagtail was one of the few songbirds we saw and heard.

Redshanks constantly picked through seaweed along the shoreline for insects to eat.

We encountered eider ducks almost everywhere, and most often they were in flocks. They have the cutest throaty call which made me smile every time I heard it. Eider down collection has long been a source of income for Icelanders, and because eider down is regarded as an economic asset, the species has been totally protected from hunting by law since 1847.

Watching a flock of whooper swans take off from a field was hilarious, but on the nest you won’t find a more graceful bird.

We found this black-tailed godwit at the side of the road one morning as we set out for the day.

The whimbrel is very well camouflaged.

At Latrabjarg, a bird cliff which is also the western-most point of Iceland, we couldn’t believe the amount of common guillemots and Brunnich’s guillemots clinging to the vertical cliff.

If you look closely you can see the egg this Brunnich’s guillemot is trying to position itself onto.

My greatest wish was to see puffins and towards the end of our vacation it came true at Latrabjarg.

I feel especially blessed to have had a puffin fly directly towards me and at the very last moment veer off and enter its burrow under the cliff top where I stood. That picture is in my mind only but will stay with me forever. But you may be able to see the grin on my face in this picture Jan took right after it happened!