Iceland_Part One

Greeting woofers fans!

       Long time no write for me. I am putting together 3 slideshows from two trips to Iceland now. The first visit was in mid-April 2017 and just recently returned from a second trip from July 9, 2017-July 18, 2017. It was interesting to see the change of seasons in the landscape and wildlife-scape between these two trips. The recent trip was full of wonderful cliff walks and hikes along gorgeous coastlines full of seabirds and a neat spotting of a pod of Killer Whales by my compañera, Sara – among many highlights (like wild smoked salmon). The allure of seeing lots of Atlantic Puffins was part of the stimulus for a return voyage this July as I have enjoyed working with and seeing seabirds in their sea-based environments for a while – especially true after 3 seasons spent in Galapagos on Española Island with the boobies and albatross……The Puffins of Iceland delivered plenty of close encounters and thousands of fly-bys as they were in nesting mode wherever we found them. This set of slides covers the middle leg of travels (April being the first leg) which started at KEF airport near the capital and then took us around the Snaefellsnes Peninsula for a couple days and then on to the southern part of the Westfjords for a visit to the Latrabjarg Bird Cliffs (the western-most point of Europe). The last days were spent on Heimaey Island in and around the crater of an old volcano. Within the first 40 minutes of driving out of the airport I had to stop and start photographing the Arctic Terns that were nesting along the roadside (this ended up being a common sight in most towns we passed through – terns nesting by the hundreds in little colonies).    The first stop for day one was the area of Hellnar and Arnastapi where the 24-hour light gave nice views of a near full-moon rise over the southern mountains and fjord. The weather treated us really well I thought. We had little rain, except for one day which was a heavy enough drizzle to keep us tent-bound for an afternoon of rest….cool days were happily welcomed every day after having a 10-day heat spell of over 100F in Davis, CA before this trip. Many species of seabirds and shorebirds were a delight to see along the various cliffs and coastlines – Puffins, Guillemots, Razorbills, Kittiwakes, Fulmars, Arctic Terns, Eiders, various shorebirds, Harlequin Ducks, Oystercatchers, and more were common sightings – and almost all were nesting or post-breeding. I think the photos will suffice to describe more of what we saw and experienced….I will add some more facts and maps in the following posts in case anyone interested in Iceland travels wants to read on…..for now, enjoy the show and stay tuned for the next two episodes of Icelandia….best and love to all…