We will probably have to wait a while longer for the summer although the first official day of summer was last week. In the South it is more or less snowless now but the temperature went down to minus 7°C tonight and everything is still barren. In the North everything is still snow covered and the same goes for the interior.
Last weekend we went bird watching down to the shore, a 15 minute drive from Selfoss down to Eyrarbakki. Lots of birds caught our eye on the way but here are a few of them.
This Dunlin (Calidris alpina) was on the beach with Ringed Plovers and Sanderlings, the only one of his kind. Most of them do not arrive in Iceland until May.
Lots of Ringed Plovers (Charadrius hiaticula) were on the beach, chasing the tide as it rolled in, probing the sand for small animals. They have started to arrive in Iceland but most of them come in May.
There were also a lot of Purple Sandpipers (Calidris maritima) but they stay in Iceland the whole year, near the shore in winter and in the interior in the summer time.
Golden Plovers (Pluvialis apricaria) are common sight in gardens in Selfoss now. Usually they prefer the heath but when there is little to be had there they come into gardens. After the frost and wind in the last few days food is obviously scarce. Today there were some in our garden.
The photos of these tame Golden Plovers were taken in Selfoss today. A few other bird species that also prefer heathlands were in gardens in Selfoss today, for example Oystercatchers, Redshanks and Meadow Pipits.
In the last few days a few White Wagtails have been in the garden seeking shelter and food. Crushed wholemeal biscuits have turned out to be their favorite food in the frost and wind. They also look for spiders on the sides of the house and in trees.
Purple mountain saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia) is a common plant in mountains and highlands. It has the northernmost plant habitat in the world. In Iceland is rather common throughout the country, from lowlands up to an altitude of about 1500 m. It can be found in rocks, cliffs, crevices, gravel and mountainsides.
It is among the first plants to bloom. In lowlands it blooms in April but in highlands as late as June. Today the Purple mountain saxifrage was just starting to bloom in the slopes of Mount Ingólfsfjall, just outside Selfoss.
We were looking for a Gyrfalcon, which we did not find, when we came across our first Wheatears (Oenanthe oenanthe) this spring. There were a few at the roots of Mount Ingólfsfjall, most of them males. Their winter grounds are in West Africa. They make their nests in rocks, lava and heathland, mostly in lowlands but also in highlands. Greenlandic Wheatears stopover in Iceland in spring and autumn on their way to their breeding grounds in Greenland. The breeding population here counts around 50,000 pairs.
The photos were taken today.
Today Icelanders celebrate the coming of summer – it is the First Day of Summer. Can you believe it? Here in the North where the weather forecast predicts frost, and snow in the north of the country, we are all hyper optimistic and wishing each other a good summer. The folk lore says that if there is frost the night before the First Day of Summer, winter and summer freeze together, and the summer will be a good one. This happened tonight. Statistics, on the other hand, tell us that this is not correct. But this we close our ears to.
The photo was taken this morning of Brent Geese and Eiders by Ölfusá River- mouth. Brent Geese are now arriving in huge flocks, having flown over the Atlantic from their winter grounds in the British Isles. Here they have a stopover on their way to their summer grounds in North Canada.
You always see tagged birds once in a while. The bigger ones sometimes have tags around the neck but it is more usual to see ringing on the feet, at least on smaller birds. Tagging gives information about the migration of birds between countries. It can also give indictions of how old wild birds can get .
This Greylag Goose was tagged in Dell of Killyhuntly, near Kinguusie, Highland Region, Scotland on May 22, 2012. Here it is in a meadow just south of Selfoss, South Iceland on April 20, 2015. This is a female Greylag and it was two years old when it was tagged.
It most likely goes to Scotland every year but its breeding place in Iceland is not known.
The Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) is the biggest of the dabbling ducks. It is the most common and widely spread duck in lowlands in Iceland but it is scarce in the interior. Most of them overwinter in Iceland, staying by the seaside or in the sea. Some probably go to the British Isles for winter. The breeding population in Iceland is estimated around 15,000 pairs.
The first White Wagtail this spring arrived in the garden today. She went straight to the spruce tree where Wagtails have made their nest in recent years. It seemed to know its way around the place.
The White Wagtail goes all the way to West Africa for winter and most arrive back in Iceland in May. This one is unusually early. The Icelandic breeding population counts around 50,000 pairs.