May-June Update

This will be another long post, finding the time to do this so often is very difficult so this kind of bumper update is much easier. An awful lot to post here!

So lets begin!

28/05/2014

A unique moment with a Minke Whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata). This particular tour wasn't anything special for a long time, it was very nice but nothing I would rave about. We were seeing probably around 4-5 Minke Whales across the tour, but one did something utterly unique. The majority of our sightings of these whales are very similar, they travel slowly and predictably. It gets better when they start to feed and may roll or lunge. They could even breach! But this was better. We found a juvenile Minke that was fascinated with our boat, it may have just began to travel without a parent and was on a journey of discovery. Well it approached our boat and at first was swimming around us constantly, on its own this would be special but then it appeared beside us and began opening and closing its mouth out of the water. Now this would normally be a feeding strategy but there was no fish around, so why? Now this is a theory that myself and others have come up with, sometimes whales have been known to try to impress and show off to humans. This young whale was essentially showing off its beautiful baleen plates and bringing its head out of the water so it can see us. And guiding on something like this is such an honour, though I finally took a bit of selfish pleasure. Instead of spending the entire time screaming I actually got some pictures!! Though I missed the best showing... still awesome though!

You can even see the white-striped pectoral fins under the surface!

This fantastic picture was taken by ©Letizia Zezza. 

30/05/2014

My fourth trip to The Golden Circle! As May is still considered Spring in many places I can say I've visited the Golden Circle in every season now! And this was a perfect chance to get the pictures I'd missed the other times, here's the gap fillers:

I now have pics of Gullfoss in every season, yay!

The Raven, a beautiful and majestic bird. At the time this was being attacked by a Gyr Falcon, this is the national symbol of Iceland so finally seeing one was definitely something off my checklist.

Great shot of Strokkur erupting over the landscape.

And the one I've been wanting for a while, as Strokkur erupts this bubble appears for half a second. Gotcha! 

03/06/2014

This is just one picture but it's a good one! A very nice picture of a Minke Whale rolling, its not very often you can see their fluke (tail) and in this shot you can see both the tail and dorsal fin.

04/06/2014

I went on a cracking trip to the Glacial Lagoon at Jökulsárlón, this is an area on the south coast which attaches onto the largest glacier in Europe. Icebergs break off the glacier and float into the sea, at the lagoon you can take a boat trip through all the icebergs. Along with the incredible icebergs you can go through an Arctic Tern nesting colony and we even got to see 4 Harbour Seals! 

There was this little Snow Bunting that was gathering food to feed its chicks, such a pretty bird!

Those Arctic Terns? They attack people. A few of them got me in the head, but I also got some nice pictures of them diving at my head!

One of those Harbour Seals, I really miss seals. 

More Arctic Terns, nice to actually get some pictures while they aren't in flight.

And here's the incredible icebergs that filled the lagoon, such a memorable day. 

16/06/2014

More birds!

These Northern Fulmar are always easy to get pictures of, but they're always nice to look at anyway!

Over the summer I'll make sure to get as many Atlantic Puffin pictures as I can. We'll miss them so much when they go...

The puffin islands are full of life now!

Even in the harbour we have life, there are two families of Eider Ducks that have their ducklings with them now!

The mother watches over the kids, these birds are so cute! Every day at work I look for these guys and watch them for a while. Watching them grow will be a joy this summer!

Wow what a month, we have ourselves the midnight sun now too. Many times I will stay up and watch the sunrise/set within a few hours of each other. Sleeping may be very difficult but its so worth it for the sheer beauty that comes with it.

I would promise to update more often but who knows! See you when I see you!

Thanks for reading!