The Pintail (Anas acuta) is a common duck and has a wide distribution all over the Northern hemisphere. In Iceland there are only around 500 breeding pairs, scattered all over the country including the interior.
The Pintail is a dabbling duck like the Mallard, only dipping its head in the water to find food, not the whole body.
The Knot (Calidris canutus) is a visitor here on the way to its breeding grounds in Greenland and Northeast Canada. In the spring around 270,000 birds stop here and in the autumn their numbers are much higher. For them Iceland is the place to relax and feed on the long flight from their winter grounds in Western Europe. The photos are taken near Eyrarbakki, South Iceland.
The Sanderling (Calidris alba) is a small wader, quick in movements, and only a guest in Iceland in the spring. It has a stopover here in May on its way to Northeast Greenland where it breeds. Its winter grounds are in West Europe all the way south to Namibia in West Africa.
It is estimated that around 25,000 birds stopover here, mainly on the Southwest coast. The photos are taken near Eyrarbakki, South Iceland.
Today I saw a Ring-necked Duck on a pond by Þingvallavatn Lake. This was an adult male in a group of Tufted Ducks. Ring-necked Ducks are annual vagrants in Iceland and usually the visitors are males. Sometimes they mate with Tufted Duck females and once in a while you see hybrids of these species.
Ring-necked Ducks are North American and there they are common on woodland ponds.
The White Wagtail pair is building a nest in a big spruce tree in the garden, the same tree as in recent years. This is the female collecting horse hair that will in all probability serve as a lining inside the nest.
The first chicks this spring have hatched and jumped out of the nest. This morning we saw a Blackbird chick with a very short tail, it was hopping around and trying its wings. We hope that it will not fall prey for the cats that regularly visit the garden.
This is one of the male Blackbirds that was here this winter and perhaps the father of the chick we saw this morning.
In the last few days the wind has been blowing from the Southeast and flocks of Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) have been seen around the Southwest part of the country. Today there were 12 Barn Swallows soaring over River Ölfusá by Selfoss and there were around 23 on the beach by Stokkseyri, South Iceland. Flocks have been seen in several places. These are the biggest groups of Barn Swallows to be seen in many years. They are annual vagrants in Iceland and have bred here a few times. If numbers are anything to go by it is very likely that they will breed here this summer.
This photo is taken today by Ölfusá River.
This swallow was at the beach in Stokkseyri, South Iceland.
Courtship is in full swing with the Red-throated Diver in the nature reserve in Flói (Fuglafriðland í Flóa) and soon they will start breeding. This place probably offers the best circumstances to observe the Red-throated Diver while courting, breeding and caring for their offspring. The area is popular among birders and photographers because here you can come quite close to them. The Divers are especially tame and probably more used to people than in many other places.
It is very important during the nesting time to respect the birds privacy by not coming too close. If the Divers get tired of trespassing people they might abandon the nests.
A female Siskin (Carduelis spinus) appeared in the garden today. Siskins have bred in Iceland on and off in the last 15 years. The population is small and fragile.
Siskins are migrants in Iceland and there are probably great losses on their long journey over rough oceans to and from their winter grounds.
The first Red-Necked Phalaropes (Phalaropus lobatus) have been arriving in Iceland in the last few days. They are the last of the migrants to arrive along with their cousins the Grey Phalarope/Red Phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius) of which there are only a few in Iceland. The Icelandic Red-Necked Phalarope probably overwinters with the North American population on the Pacific coast of Ecuador and Peru. They are seabirds that only come inland to breed but they breed both in lowlands and highlands.
The Icelandic population is estimated around 50,000 pairs.
More on the Red-necked Phalarope
