The birds do not go without at Christmas. Delicious red apples are on the menu on a cold and windy Christmas day, with temperatures around – 9° C.
Christmas Apple
All posts by Örn Óskarsson
Christmas Greetings
Jól is the Icelandic term for Christmas. The word stems from the Nordic word Yule which refers to the old solstice celebrations when the Vikings celebrated longer days and coming of the new year. Season’s Greetings to all of you. “Peace on earth and goodwill to all men”
Day before Christmas
One of the busiest days of the year, Saint Thorlakur’s Day, and the Christmas preparations are almost finished. It is beautiful outside, temperatures around zero, it is calm and snow is falling lightly. Tomorrow the children and their other halves, grown up people now, will come and spend Christmas Eve with us. Merry Christmas 🙂
Tonight is winter solstice
We call the shortest day and the longest night of the year winter solstice. It is when the sun’s elevation in the sky is at its lowest which will be tonight at 4:49. So December 22 is the shortest day of the year.
In Reykjavík the sun crawls over the horizon at 11:23, it is at its highest at 13:26 and sets again at 15:30. After tomorrow the days will start to get longer, something almost everyone looks forward to. Happy Solstice 🙂
Berries and birds
There are still some berries left on the Rowan. Some of the birds prefer these frozen berries over the feed we put out, like this female Blackbird who so graciously allowed photographing.
Third winter for the Hooded Merganser
The Hooded Merganser is a breeding bird in North America but is considered rather rare. This Hooded Merganser was on Lake Helluvatn just outside Reyjavík this week. It was first spotted there in the middle of November after having been seen in Álftanes, south of Reykjavík, several times. This is the third winter that this bird is seen on Lake Helluvatn and on nearby lakes.
Ten days to the Winter solstice
The smallest immigrant
The smallest bird in Europe is an immigrant in Iceland and now part of the Icelandic birdlife. Since the first breeding was confirmed in 1996 it has spread over the country and breeds in spruce trees.
Annual Fieldfare
After yesterday’s snowstorm three Fieldfares turned up in the garden. They were obviously hungry and tired and enjoyed frozen apples on feeding trays and branches. They are annual visitors in Iceland and visit our garden from autumn to spring. Then they leave for their breeding grounds in Scandinavia.
Pursuing a Mallard
I caught sight of this Gyrfalcon over the river yesterday. It is a young bird, probably a male. It is always exciting to see a Gyrfalcon and I was ready with my lens when it passed by at great speed. It was pursuing a Mallard on Ölfusá River, South Iceland. The chase was without the desired result.
Photo taken on Nikon D90, Nikkor 200-500mm, f 5.6, 500mm, 1/1250, ISO 800.