It’s 13 days to Christmas and this Common Crossbill in its yellow colours is so beautiful in the snow. The Common Crossbill is well adapted to the cold winter and you can almost say that it is nesting time all year round for them. This is probably a female bird rather than a yellow male. Males are more often in orange-red colours.
It’s 14 days to Christmas and here we have three Bohemian Waxwings in the winter snow. They like apples and fight to get to them if neccessary. We wouldn’t say no to have these beautiful vagrants here at Christmas time this year. They are so decorative and would go well with the Christmas lights.
It’s fifteen days to Christmas and we bring you a photo of this beautiful Icelandic Ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus). The Ptarmigan used to be the classical Icelandic Christmas dinner but lately there are not as many of them as there used to be. So hunters often come home with no prey at all. This does not make us sad because we are happy for each and every bird that survives the hunting season.
It’s fifteen days because Icelanders celebrate Christmas Eve, the evening before Christmas Day. That is when we have our Christmas dinner and open the presents.
Outside it’s snowing and the wind is blowing. A blizzard has started and a warning has been issued. Roads are expected to close and everyone should just stay inside.
So this is the perfect time to sit down with a warm cup of tea and a drawing pad. Here is an example from my drawing pad 😉
The Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea) is mainly a seabird, they say. These pictures are taken in Veiðivötn in the Interior of Iceland, far from the sea, in July this year. Here you can see how aggressive it is during the breeding season, –very protective of its young ones.
The Arctic Tern flies South for the wintertime. It is a long lived bird, reaching the age of 30 even.
Black-Tailed Godwit (Limosa limosa) is a common breeding bird in the low lands around most of Iceland. It lays its eggs in grown wetlands. In winter it is mostly in Ireland or by the coasts of West Europe all the way south to Portugal.
The population is around 10.000 pairs in Iceland. A lot of Black-Tailed Godwits have been marked in the last few years. Many in the Nature Reserve in Flói, not far from Selfoss. These marked birds have been around. Below are pictures of two marked ones and their recovery stories.
YN-YLflag07.07.06Friðland, Flói, Árnessýsla, S Iceland
There were twenty Redwings in the garden today. It seems that more of them choose to overwinter in Iceland than in former times.
The Goosander is a winter guest on River Ölfusá, in South Iceland. Sometimes there are up to 50 Goosanders on the river where it flows through Selfoss. This is in fact a considerable part of the Icelandic breeding population which counts only around 300 pairs.
The Goosander is a breeeding bird by rivers and lakes throughout the country.
The Snow Buntings arrived in town today. They prefer the open fields in the highlands but when it gets colder and the snow covers everything, they come in huge flocks.
They change colours with the seasons. In the summer the males are white and black but in winter they are browner and darker. Beautiful birds but because there are so many of them people tend to take little notice of them.
In Iceland the Snow Bunting is called Snjótittlingur similar in meaning to Snow Bunting but in the summer it is called Sólskríkja which means the bird that sqeaks in the sun, Sun Bunting. The song of the male is very vocal and high and the Sun Bunting is the symbol of the highlands.
The Harlequin Duck (Histrionicus histrionicus) is a common bird on the River Ölfusá near Selfoss in March and April. In the wintertime the Harlequin duck stays in the ocean around Iceland but in early spring it goes up the rivers (March-April) and lays eggs near spring rivers and streams. Sometimes they can be seen on the River Ölfusá in winter.
The Harlequin duck is one of the most beautiful ducks. It is often tame and easy to approach and observe at short distance.
Iceland is the only nesting place for Harlequin ducks in Europe. It is, however, a nesting bird in Greenland, North America and the eastern regions of Siberia. The breeding population in Iceland is around 2000 to 3000 pairs.
In the darkest time of the year, which we have now, it is nice to know that these beautiful birds are waiting for spring off the coast all around the country.
