I came across another vagrant today, a Red-eyed Vireo. In Icelandic we call this bird Græningi, which translates to the Green Bird. That is a bit more descriptive than its English name.
Two weeks ago I saw a Red-eyed Vireo in Stokkseyri but this one was in in Hellisskógur by Selfoss, South Iceland.
The Common Chiffchaff is the second most common warbler seen in Iceland. They are vagrants here and most of them are seen in the autumn. Sometimes they manage to survive the winter and they are known to have bred here a few times. The Chiffchaff is a chubby little bird, a little bigger than the Wren.
Last weekend we saw six of them in several places along the Eyjafjöll Mountains, or under Eyjafjöll, as it is called in Iceland. In the last few weeks they have been seen in quite some numbers in Southeast and South Iceland. Now we just have to pray for a mild winter so our foreign guests will survive their visit up here.
Holtsós is a tidal lagoon separated from the ocean with only a thin strip of sand. In the calm weather at dusk on Saturday, it was lit up by the setting sun as we were driving home from our day’s outing under Eyjafjöll, South Iceland.