Immersed in Iceland: Day 8 - Blast Frozen

It was a relatively leisurely start on our eighth day in Iceland and after breakfast had a quick nose around the birch scrub surrounding the hotel. A few photographs of an unusually inquisitive and well coloured Redpoll resulted, a pleasant way to start the day.

It was time to get the 'campervan' back on the road and today the plan was to head slightly north from Borgarnes and west along the Snæfellsnes peninsula. We had no particular destination in mind and just thought we would drive around and see what we would encounter. The forecast looked reasonable and proved correct with some sun and occasional light shower of rain. Unfortunately the forecast was also correct in terms of the wind which particularly strong in the morning and whipped in off the sea in punishingly relentless and icy gusts.  One of those days when getting out the 'campervan'  was a bit like steeping out of a warm bed and straight into a ice cold shower.

Our first stop off was on the south side of the peninsula at a place called Ytri Tunga as there was a sign post that indicated it was a place to see some seals. Of course we were mainly on the look out for birds and we passed a couple of Whimbrel going up to car park by the farm at the end of the track next to the beach. When we picked up the 'campervan' we were warned to be careful with the doors and the strong winds as apparently it is common for the hinges to be damaged by an open door being caught in a gust. As we were parked at the crest of the beach the actual problem was proving to be getting the doors open against the fierce onshore wind.

We were met with a rocky beach interspersed with areas of sand and quickly spotted a few waders dotted about and headed off in our separate directions, enveloped in the arctic blast of wind coming in off the sea. The waders were proving typically evasive as they had the whole trip and after getting a few photographs of a Purple Sandpiper and a Knot, I spotted half dozen summer coloured Sanderling scurrying around a small patch of sand.

I decided the best approach was to work my way round to the sea side of this patch of sand and onto a rock outcrop next to a narrow channel filled with bladderwrack. Here I would tuck myself into the rocks and wait for the Sanderling to appear along the edge of the sand, giving the unusal perspective of looking back towards shore. This also had a slight advantage in that it would offer a small amount of shelter from the wind. The Sanderling plan never really worked out but as I sat there a small flotilla of Eider worked its way inshore up the channel. These generally nervous ducks were unaware of my presence in among the rocks. At this point I actually became grateful for the strong wind and the rough water it was creating. When photographing birds on water my preferred conditions are flat reflective calm or the dynamic atmosphere created by rough water and spray. The Eider worked their way all the way up the channel, right past where I was crouched, and then all the way back again allowing plenty of time to get some photographs.

With the Eider encounter over I thought I should go an try and find some Grey Seals. A short walk along the beach and scramble over some rocks found me face to face with four inquisitive seals bobbing in the water in front of me. However, A grey seal on grey water under grey skies is never going to make a particularly attractive image.

With the tide advancing quickly and the risk of getting cut off at my position, I decided to beat a hasty retreat. Meeting up again with Steve we decided that being blast frozen was not much fun and we would carry on continue exploring the peninsula. On the track from the farm out to the main road we stopped briefly to photograph another Black-tailed Godwit.

We decided to take a road that cut across the mountainous spine of the peninsula as the north coast would likely be more sheltered from the wind and work our way slowly towards the tip.  As we approached a small town, on the outskirts was a tiny pool with a small island. Driving past a elongated shape caught my eye sticking out of one end of the island.

Given the tiny size of the pond this looked like a good photo opportunity. However, before trying and to give time for the light to improve,  we decided to head to the other side of the road where there were some low cliffs above the sea with good numbers of white winged gulls and Fulmars. Importantly our move to get out of the worst of the wind by heading north seemed to have worked. As we walked to the cliff edge the gulls typically moved off a small distance. It was an attractive place with a river tumbling down through the cliff and onto the black sand and pebble beach.

We started off photographing Fulmars which were incredibly close at times landing on the cliff and scything their way through the updrafts. It seemed we spent quite a while their and I think it was nice just to be out of the blasting wind and enjoying a bit of 'warmth' as the sun started breaking through. One Fulmar even landed on the cliff right in front of allowing opportunity for some full frame head photos. I love the structure and colour of the beaks in these tube nose petrels.

 As we stood there on the cliff edge there was a steady trickle of passing gulls. Tending to ignoring the Herring Gulls (which I can photograph any day at the bottom of my street), we concentrated on the adult Glaucous Gulls, mottled juvenile Iceland Gulls and occasional menacing Greater Black Backed Gull.

The sun was now out and it was time to head across the road to try the Red Throated Divers. Lying in the sun by the edge of this still pond, with half dozen Red-necked Phalarope paddling around in front of us, it felt like we were on a different planet from the conditions we faced on the beach in the morning.

The pair of divers slowly drifted up and down the small pond which provided a great location for photographing the birds. The tranquility of the scene was slightly interrupted by occasional passing cars on the main road and the clattering and banging of a car repair garage behind us.

We left the pond and headed a couple of hundred metres down the road and in to the town to grab some food. Heading out of town there was a high waterfall tumbling off the hill side and we stopped briefly to take a couple of photographs. Obviously I was trying to photograph more fulmars here ;)

With no real destination in mind we naturally followed the north coast along to the tip of the peninsula and where a quick internet search suggested there was a small sea bird colony. Small would be a good description with a few Kittiwake and Fulmar having taken up residence on the low volcanic cliffs.

These ended up being the last bird photographs we took that day. Time was pushing on and we had quite a long drive now to get back to Borgarnes. Also as soon as we rounded the end of the peninsula we were back in the full force of the blast freezer wind which created some reluctance to leave the warm comfort of the 'campervan'. On our journey back to Borganes we occasionally stopped to take a few landscape photos as our respective other halves always like to have a few photos to gain an impression of the places we have visited.

One of the many lava fields

Arriving back in Borgarnes it was quite late and we stopped for a bite to eat before heading back to the hotel. It had been an interesting day exploring the peninsula and it had produced quite a good variety of birds even though our route was made up on the move. The next day it would be time to move on again as we would head back down into the south-west corner of Iceland. Going to bed I set my alarm clock to 'your going to feel like a zombie in the early afternoon setting' as I thought I would go out for a very early morning wander round the birch scrub surrounding around the hotel again before we headed south.....

Immersed in Iceland: Day 6 - Northward to 'Whale Town'

We had a slower start on Day 6 to recharge our batteries a little after two long days at Myvatn. The forecast was correct and a thick layer of lead coloured skies stretched out across the area.  It looked like it would be clearer to the north and it certainly looked clearer in that direction as we sat eating breakfast from our elevated location overlooking the lake. Steve was disappointed by the lack of cod liver oil put out for breakfast. We decided to head northwards with Husavik as our destination. Husavik is probably one of the best places in the world for watching whales but our minds where firmly fixed on the bird life.

Having checked out of our hotel on the shore of Myvatn, we headed northwards. Our first stop was back at Lake Masvatn, just to the north of Myvatn as one of the Great Northern Divers was still in the unfrozen strip of lake at the southern end. We stopped as a temporary thinning in the clouds let some decent light through which was definitely lacking on our first attempt. We went through the same procedure of creeping down and laying down behind the low embankment and ended up with some photographs that were much better looking than those taken in the previous gloom. The 'Great Northern Loonacy' withdraw symptoms temporarily fed we hit the road once more.

Before our visit to Iceland we both did quite a lot of internet research. One useful information source was the North East Birding Trail which gave maps and descriptions about all the areas in the north east of Iceland. This guide is mainly aimed at bird watching but does make mention of a couple of sites which can be good for photography. Photographers always need to be much closer to the birds than bird watchers. So we decided we would check out a couple of these on our travels up to Husavik. The first of these sites were some farm ponds at Hraun. As we followed the loop off the main road out to the ponds, Steve who was driving at the time brought the 'campervan' to stop. There by the side of the road, at close range, was a Gyr Falcon feeding on the very last remnants of a goose carcass. An impressively large and powerful looking bird. I was in the front passenger seat so could not photograph the bird which was on driver's side. So Steve said he would take a couple of photos and then we would quietly back up (well at least as quietly as we could on our noisy tyres), rearrange ourselves in the 'camper', and then have another go. When we returned a couple of minutes later the bird had unfortunately departed and we spotted it way off in the distance perched on a post. There was virtually nothing left on the carcass so there did not seem much point hanging around to see if it would return, and with our target ponds relatively lifeless, we continued onward and northwards to 'Whale Town'.

The other birding trail site we decided to try were a couple of 'small' lakes to the south of Husavik where there was reported to usually be a pair of 'friendly' Great Northern Diver. On arrival the lakes were not particularly small at around 4 and 8 hectares each. We spotted a solitary bird splashing around in the middle of the larger southern lake and followed our way around to the south side, stopping briefly to photograph a Golden Plover in some by now fairly harsh sunlight accompanied by a strong but icy wind.

We pulled in to a small parking area and had a sandwich, washed down with a cup of Yorkshire's finest brew. By the time we had finished this there was no sign of the diver. I decided I was going to make my way out to the end of a peninsula off the southern bank of the lake to try as it seemed to offer the best chance of close encounter. Steve took the 'campervan' and headed back around the lake. He had just reached the north side when the bird appeared from the left and in front of me. It must have been tucked out of sight down in the bay to the west of the peninsula.

It was very active and diving constantly looking for fish, each time it dived it would cover a large distance underwater and it was difficult to know where it would appear next. Its general direction seemed to be towards the bay to the east of the peninsula and so on its next dive I quickly ran over and got down on the ground in a place where I thought it might appear. It seems my guess was too good and it surfaced at point blank range right in front of me. Lovely to see the bird so close but all I could fit in frame was its head before it dived down once more and reappeared back in the middle of the lake and out of camera range.

On our drive away from the lakes, we stopped briefly for a Snipe which we did not managed to photograph and found ourselves both distracted by a low grunting call from a copse of trees  that for a few moments had us both perplexed. It then dawned on us that what we had heard was a Woodcock but we were unable to see this bird with its excellent cryptic camouflage.

After a very short drive we finally reached Husavik and headed straight to its small harbour which was quiet in terms of birds. A whale watching boat pulled in with a deck full of people who had been out looking for the ocean's leviathans. They all looked half-frozen which was hardly surprising given the raw wind that was blowing in off the sea.

There was a small beach to the the south of the harbour and at its northern end the black sands gave way to a narrow channel of flowing water. Packed into the channel were large numbers of Fulmars and white-winged gulls together with the occasional Kittiwake. The source of the water was a discharge pipe from a fish processing factory and every remnant of appearing fish waste would send the birds into a frenzy.  Typically as we walked over all the gulls scattered long before we were anywhere near them. They are such nervous birds in Iceland compared to the UK.  We stayed by the channel for a while with Steve mainly opting for taking some water level photographs of the Fulmars at close range while I tried to capture the birds taking off and in flight.

Fulmars need quite a lot of effort to get airborne with a long run across the surface but once in the air their flight is effortless and graceful on their long stiffly held wings. The occasional Kittiwake also found its way on to the camera memory card, together with a passing adult Iceland Gull.

We left the fish waste channel and took a coffee break in the small town and checked out some maps on where to head next. We opted for a likely looking beach in a bay about 6 kms further north to see if we could find some waders to photograph. On the gravel track down to beach our journey was interrupted  by a male Ptarmigan, Golden Plover and a well camouflaged Snipe

The beach looked promising, a gently arcing, steeply shelving bay of black sand being pounded by a turmoil of blue-green waves been whipped up by the biting wind.  At the south end of the beach a tumbling stream flowed down into the sea which Arctic Terns and a variety of waders were bathing in. Just back from the wash of the waves a line of Eider. Well all I can say is we tried but generally failed on that beach. The stream was to deep to cross and the birds incredibly twitchy. In the end we decided the best plan would be to lie by the stream and hope the birds would come back to use it. A few did and even though we were lying down the very slightest movement saw them walking away. However, the main problem was the heat haze. I stuck my hand into the black sand next to me and it felt strangely very warm which seemed at odds with the very cold air blowing in off the sea. The meeting of warm and cold is the perfect recipe for heat haze and it was really bad. You could see it shimmering around the birds in the viewfinder and there was just no chance of getting a sharp image. We were just wasting our time there. The few photos we did get of Knot, Ringed Plover and Oystercatcher all went straight in the desktop trash. The only photo I kept was of a male Eider taking off into the strong onshore breeze and some Greylag geese flying overhead.

We worked our way back up the gravel track, and picked up a Whimbrel, a preening Snipe and found two Ptarmigan including the one we had seen previously but this time accompanied by the female in her summer colours. The camouflage of these birds is superb and we were there for a while before we spotted the female bird sitting close by.

On arrival back in Husavik we found a room in the FossHotel for the night. Our room was slightly odd in that the carpet was a photo-reproduction of grey pebbles which gave a very odd look to room and matched nothing else in it. By the time we left the hotel to find something to eat it was too late. Generally the restaurant kitchens seem to close at 9pm and so that is last orders for food. After enquiring at a couple without success, the only remaining option was a fast food cafe in the petrol station and what was served would definitely be classed more as fuel than food.

An interesting day but fairly tough in that icy wind. For me the highlight was the time spent with the two Great Northern Diver which are such superb looking birds. We checked the forecast and the plan for the next day was to hit the road again and head back towards the south-east as that is where the weather forecast looked most promising for the next few days.