Jack's first aurora

So last night I got my first ever sighting of the infamous northern lights! There was a lot of cloud cover so my sighting consisted of seeing some clouds get lit up slightly, but even so I was incredibly excited! It was around 11:00ish so the sun had set a few hours ago and we heard the news that it was about, so I and the other researchers gathered our things and walked to the lighthouse (in seriously cold, dark and windy weather). Unfortunately when we got there it had become impossible to see anything due to the clouds so we ended up playing with the torches on our phones mixed with long-exposure photographs, such fun we had!

I did get a few low-quality shots of the aurora though, I had to throw my camera's ISO up and the shutter speed way down so it's as grainy as corn flakes. But you still get some pretty colours!

Better than nothing! And hell, I've seen the northern lights! BAM!

And we had so much fun using the lights and camera in such funky ways!

Thanks for reading!!

Time for your close up!

Though today's morning trip had no exciting sightings or new experiences it was still highly entertaining, we encountered a small pod of white-beaked dolphins and two different humpback whales. All of the cetaceans we saw were very calm and curious about the boats, especially one dolphin which decided to throw itself into the air alongside the boat just a few metres away, it did this continuously around 5 times. It was a bit of show off.

Annnddd jump!

Annnndd splaasshhh! 

I love the bumpy heads of humpbacks, and their two blowholes almost look alien.

Snow white's back! The most beautiful of all the flukes belongs to snow white

Thanks for reading!

FIN. WHALES.

That's right, fin whales. The second largest animal to have ever lived on planet Earth. We saw them, and even better they were just a few short metres from the boat. And it was a mother and calf!

But to start the story I will tell you about the morning trip which was very cool too, we spotted a humpback whale feeding in shallow waters. It was so shallow that the whale was actually leading with an open mouth when it left the water, this is something very rarely seen. I even got a good picture of the baleen plates in the whale's mouth.

See the white plates in the mouth of the whale, this is what a humpback uses to eat!

But the highlight of everything was the trip this evening, the greatest trip I have ever been on and possibly ever go on.

Another researcher had reported seeing fin whales a little earlier so we jumped at the chance to possibly see them (they are very rare in this area). It didn't take long for us to see a huge blow in the distance, this was clearly not a humpback whale.

We had seen them in the distance and whenever we approached they appeared far away somewhere else, then we sailed to where we thought they would surface next. Then Naomi uttered the magic words "It'd be good if they surfaced next to the boat". Instantly there was a huge blow either side of the boat as both mother and calf surfaced simultaneously.

After quite a while following them we left in search of other (more common) species, we found two humpbacks and right at the end of the trip a small pod of white-beaked dolphins. The dolphins were clearly in a good mood as they were bow riding with us for quite a distance, as I was stood at the very front of the boat the dolphins were within touching distance as they were emerging. EPIC. Is the only way to describe today.

And here's my proof of today:

WHAT. A. DAY.

Thanks for reading!

The route less travelled

There was talk yesterday of bottlenose whales in the bay, they had been seen breaching close to the eastern shore. On a normal trip the boats head in a north-western direction to known hot-spots, but on this particular trip we headed east and followed the coast. We didn't see any bottlenose whales unfortunately but the trip afforded us a new perspective on the bay which was rather nice.
Cetacean wise there were some oddities, we spotted two humpback whales which were incredibly close to shore. One of these has been spotted this morning in the same area, this is worrying news as it seems the whale is disorientated and there is a possibility that it will strand itself. We can only hope that it finds its bearings and manages to migrate south when it needs to.
Also on today's trip there was a minke whale that was very calm around the boat and came much closer than I had previously experienced with minke whales.

And here's your pictures too!

I imagine living there is both haunting and beautiful.

We see glacial streams emptying into the bay

Black-backed gull!

We came across a small pod of dolphins

The discharge from the glacial areas creates fantastic divides between fresh and sea water

Here's the calm minke whale! It puts my previous comment to shame when I said you could never really hope to see one very close.

The changing of the tide

So today's trip was all about the weather (though we did see two humpbacks and a minke whale, haven't seen a minke in quite a while). The weather was initially very good, the water was glassy and the sky became quite clear.

They stayed that way for around 2 hours, then there was a change that was unbelievably fast. Suddenly the sea transformed from a sea state of 0 to 5, in other words one minute it was perfect then there were waves and white-caps as far as the eye could see. Well that's the great thing about this country and this job, everything is so unpredictable and no two days are ever the same.

Snow white is still here! And a tern wandered into the shot too

Minke whale! This is the best shot you can ever really hope to get when seeing a minke, they're shy and never raise their fluke.

Snow white taking a dive here

I don't believe I've posted a picture of a black-backed gull yet, here you are gentle viewer!

Thanks for reading!

Last night... what a night.

This country never stops amazing me, never stops taking my breath away.

Last night there was a sunset that lit up the whole sky in a fiery red, and each different cloud was a different shade. And the best thing was that as the clouds shifted and the sun set the view altered constantly. It was utterly incredible. And we didn't need a spectacular place to see the sunset, we walked out of our door and across the street.

Here's what I could take with just my phone (I didn't have my camera unfortunately):

Ain't it pretty! Thanks for reading!

B-b-b-b-b-breach!

So today for the first time I finally saw a humpback whale fully breach out of the water! I didn't catch a picture as my body was frozen in excitement, but I did scream something that was described as non-human and high-pitched.
I do have bragging rights though as the entire boat was looking one way and I happened to be looking the other when around 200m away a humpback whale did it's Billy Elliot impression for me. It was a moment of ecstasy.

And on that note, thanks for reading!

40 knots and counting

There's two stories to tell! One is from yesterday and is short, so that will be my starting point: We went on a morning boat trip and for the first two hours of the trip there was no sea life to be seen, then a porpoise was seen! Anticlimactic right? Well not long after that we got a call saying there were two humpbacks seen so we rushed over there and lo and behold, two humpback whales that were in such a friendly mood! They swam right up to another boat and checked them out, then came over to us and swam within metres of the boat and even rolled over to get a look at us!

Unfortunately I was zoomed a little too far in and the best shot I got was it's cheek.

But I also got a nice video of the encounter:

Today's story: So with the wind at 40 knots and the swell at 4.5m the boats decided going out would not be a clever idea.

I and Ailie took the morning to go for a walk up the lighthouse and along the cliffs to get some great views of the huge waves.
Peculiarly the fulmars and black-backed gulls were absolutely loving the wave action, they were both surfing along the crests and purposefully getting splashed by the waves. Any birders that know why these sea birds wish they were fish?

Anyway here's some visual stimulation:

As you can see, I finally got a good chance to get good photos of the famous Icelandic horses!

This is my favourite shot of the horses!

Thanks for reading my elongated post!