When thick layers of snow cover everything the Snow Buntings flock into gardens for food. Under these circumstances they are very tame and no need for long telephoto lenses to photograph them. This photo is taken with a 50mm lens about two meters from them.
The male Harlequin Duck here is trying to get the female’s attention.
The Harlequin Duck’s habitat is rapid spring water rivers with benthic in abundance. The larva of the the Blackfly is its main food source. The breeding population in Iceland is around 2000 to 3000 pairs.
The Brunnichs Guillemot (Uria lomvia) is similar to the Common Guillemot. The main difference is a shorter beak with a white beak line and the sides that are whiter. It breeds in big bird colonies in ocean cliffs. No care is taken in the nest making and they lay their eggs on bare rock ledges.
Látrabjarg and other ocean cliffs in the Westfjords are the main nesting places for the Brunnichs Guillemot. There are around 300,000 breeding pairs in Iceland. The Brunnichs Guillemot is one of the species whose numbers have been decreasing in the last decades.
The Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) is Iceland’s most common Gull and the most dominant bird in cliff colonies and the ocean around the island. The Kittiwake is a loud bird and mostly responsible for the loud buzz in bird colonies. The breeding population is around 530,000 pairs but their numbers are decreasing due to a decline in krill, its main food source, in the ocean.
This photo of a Kittiwake pair is taken in Látrabjarg, Westfjords, Iceland.
Kittiwakes gathering nesting material in the moorland above the cliff.
Látrabjarg is one of the biggest Kittiwake habitats in Iceland. Kittiwakes breed there in dense settlements along with Razorbills, Guillemots, Brunnichs Guillemots, Fulmars and Puffins.
The Water Rail (Rallus aquaticus) was an uncommon breeding bird in Iceland until the middle of the last century. The last known breeding was in 1963. Its extinction as a breeding bird is most likely due to drainage of marshlands and the arrival of the mink in Icelandic nature. A few birds are seen here in the winter time.
This bird was seen near Hveragerði in South Iceland in January 2011. There are ditches there with warm water that the bird was attracted to.
Here Kristin is taking a photo of a pair of Razorbills. You have to lie on your stomach to protect yourself from falling.
The cliff below is probably around 400 metres high and actually the biggest bird colony in Iceland and the biggest Razorbill colony in the world.
These photoes are from a birding trip we took in 2011 to the Westfjords, more precisely from Látrabjarg, which is the Western most point of Iceland. It is also the Western most point of Europe if you don’t take the Azore Islands into count.
On New Year’s Eve the fireworks, which have become louder and more powerful, often chase the birds away but today on January 2 there are five Chaffinches here in the garden. One male has joined the group of four that were here before the New Year. Here in the Selfoss area there have not been as many Chaffinches since 1980.
This picture was taken on New Year’s Day.
We also have about 100 Redpolls, 100 Snow Buntings, 15 Starlings, six Blackbirds, four Redwings and two Common Crossbills. – And it continues to snow…
The Puffin is the bird species that counts most birds in Iceland. The twelfth year in a row now their numbers are decreasing, especially in South Iceland and the Westman Islands. There has also been a noticeable decrease in Látrabjarg, Westfjords, where these photos are taken.
Some ten years ago the estimated Puffin population in Iceland was around eight million but has now dropped to around five million. Warmer weather has led to a collapse in Baitfish stock but they are the Puffin’s main food source. The situation of the Baitfish stock is better around the north coast of Iceland and there the Puffin population is not decreasing.
The Eider King is a high Arctic bird that lives near the Arctic Ocean. It is an annual visitor in Iceland over the wintertime.
Once in a while the Eider King mates with the Common Eider and that is what this King Eider has done thus staying in Iceland during the summer time. This bird was in a group of Eiders in their nesting area in the Icelandic Westfjords, summer 2011.
On Christmas Day this Swan visited a house by the River Öflusá. When the family looked out their living-room window there it was in the snow and stayed there for four days. Temperatures were down to minus 12° C and blizzards most of the days. The Swan wouldn’t eat anything and was obviously not feeling well. Birders thought that it had come there to die.
At noon on the fourth day, however, it stood up and walked to the river. It had some water to drink and was obviously very thirsty. The Swan was last seen on its way down the river that same day.
On the River Ölfusá in the Selfoss area there are now 48 Swans overwintering. That is a bit more than in recent years.
