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.
The Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea) is a vagrant in Iceland. Every year several of them come from Scandinavia and stay for the winter. A few are also seen here in the summer time. They stay near lakes, rivers and ponds where they catch fish which is their favourite food.
The Grey Heron is a big bird and on flight sometimes mistaken for a bird of prey.
This Grey Heron was in the Eyjafjöll area in South Iceland. We saw it around mid day resting on one leg and also later near the close of day where it was fishing.
We spotted this season’s first Blackcap, a male, in the garden today. Blackcaps are annual vagrants and the first ones are usually seen in the end of October but most of them come in the first week of November. Blackcaps have sometimes stayed in the garden the whole winter. How well they cope depends on how mild the winter is. They mostly eat berries from shrubs and the apples that we put out. They also like fat and compete with the other birds for food.
This Blackcap was in our garden in Selfoss today.
Yesterday was the First Day of Winter. According to Icelandic tradition First Day of Winter is on the Saturday in the period 21st to 27th October. This day is not celebrated in Iceland, although in the olden days there was a tradition of feasts at this time of year when the meat supply was at its greatest. The winter weather was e.g. predicted by the behaviour of mice, birds and other animals.
Some Redwings are still around but their numbers are decreasing. They are eating berries like there is no tomorrow. It is no telling whether they are preparing for their long journey over the Atlantic to winter grounds in Europe or if they are just trying to put on weight for the winter ahead.
The Ptarmigan has almost shed its summer plumage, getting whiter every day. While the ground is snowless it is easy to spot this tame bird. Tomorrow is the start of the hunting season, which lasts 12 days or four long weekends. Estimated breeding population has dropped from last year. Despite this the number of hunting days has not been changed. Hopefully it will snow so the Ptarmigan will not be as easy to spot. According to the weather forecast this might come true tomorrow.
Bird watching is an interesting pass time. There are not as many species to observe on an isolated island like Iceland, out in the North Atlantic Ocean, as there are on the mainland. But there are days when exotic birds are seen,some of which have come from afar. Today was such a day.
On my bird watching trip down to the shore I saw three vagrant bird species; Red-eyed Vireo from America, and Chiffchaff and Redstart from Europe. The Red-eyed Vireo and the Redstart were seen in a garden in the village Stokkseyri on the exact same spot that I saw a Red-eyed Vireo on September 30, last year. Strange coincidence that. The Red-eyed Vireo is one of the most common American vagrants in Iceland and I have seen five in the last few years.
These are all taken today.
Quite a few Wrens have been seen recently in gardens and woodlands in the South. The summer seems to have been a good one for the species. They are now coming down from their breeding grounds in the highlands to spend the summer in the lowlands. The Wren spends the whole year in Iceland. Most spend the winter by the seaside, or by rivers and creeks that do not freeze, and eat insects, spiders and crabs.
Icelandic Wrens are bigger and darker than European ones.
This Wren was photographed in Grímsnes, South Iceland,
