A long awaited journey

The weather has been beyond awful in the last two weeks, I have only managed to take a boat trip twice in that time. Both provided many dolphins for us to feast our eyes on but only the most recent provided anything worth seeing/mentioning.

The first of these two trips gave us a very large pod of dolphins that were content to be near our boat for a long time but rarely came very close. The birthing season for white-beaked dolphins (Lagenorhynchus albirostris) is from June to September and so we saw a few gorgeous calves! I really wish I had a picture but as they are so small the surfacing part of their body is almost invisible in the waves.

The second trip heralded more dolphins for us, this pod again carried calves and juveniles but the highlight was a number of adults vertically breaching over and over again. As I have previously mentioned, this is a feeding technique which is meant to stun and drive any fish under the surface into a tight ball. And it never fails to delight!

We are currently experiencing a long storm in Iceland at the minute, and for the next few days I don't think a break will occur. Though next week I plan on voyaging with some friends along the Snæfellsnes peninsula, in the winter there is a population of resident killer whales that has been noted in that area. And we hope to catch a glimpse of them! And if I do, I will take hundreds of pictures to show off!

Thanks for reading!

Airwaves and Auroras

So this weekend my parents came to visit! And by coincidence they arrived during the Iceland Airwaves festival, the largest music festival in Iceland. I had thought that all but a few of the events were just for festival wristband owners but it turns out I was incredibly wrong! Over the course of 5 days there were over 400 events across the city, of course these were all on over the same few hours each day. So it would only be physically possible to see maybe 50 of these events, I saw 6. Though that was because we had not planned on this festival even happening so we had plans to see the Golden Circle again (but in Winter!) and eat at restaurants every night.

Out of the 6 acts I saw there were 3 that were totally stand-out performers: Vigri, The Anatomy of Frank and John Grant. With John Grant being the major highlight, I would recommend everyone looks him and the other bands up. They're all worth a listen.

The Golden Circle proved as magnificent as last time, my love of things icy made everything look even more magical to me! Pictures will explain it all better:

This time of the year is when the brown trout make their migration to their spawning grounds so we got a great sight of the trout (very slowly) moving up river.

Ice!

Lots more ice!

Ice plus waterfall!

Ice + more ice + huge waterfall. Wow.

And on the last night of this mini-holiday the weather forecast had told us that the sky would be completely clear and that there was a chance of auroral activity. So we headed out to the lighthouse at the end of the Reykjanes peninsular (where quite a few aurora enthusiasts were also hanging out) and lo and behold! The aurora presented itself!

When you've got the stars and the city lights AND the aurora, you get something magnificent.

You can even see the lateral movement from the aurora here

Look at that! The lighthouse with a gorgeous swirl above! Plus other camera lights but we'll just ignore those.

As you may have seen my aurora pictures keep (in my opinion) improving, I really hope to convey what I actually see but this kind of photography is difficult and I hope to keep getting better. But no picture can ever really translate the emotion that this spectacle delivers, I've seen a lot of people reduced to tears watching them and you really cannot blame them. I don't know if there is anything as humbling and inspiring as the aurora, especially when it is in full colour wheel mode!

Thanks for reading!

Dolphins are the friendliest of animals!

Over the last week we've had some awful, awful weather! So boat opportunities have been limited somewhat lately. But the last two days have heralded a lot of dolphins, and they have been perfect. Maybe the rough seas give them the natural energy that prompted them to breach and leap out of the water and bow ride with the boat. It was beautiful stuff! And I got some absolutely cracking pictures!

What a beauty! This is a near perfect shot! Boo-yah!

I'll never tire of these emergence pictures, they always look fantastic!

This highlights just how close the dolphins were and when the sun is shining you can see right into the water.

Unfortunately the weather looks like it won't be improving over the next few days, who knows when I'll be back on the boat!

Thanks for reading!

Minke in the city!

The title may be a little misleading, there was no minke whale spotted in the city. I'm pretty certain the land invasion won't happen for at least another 6 months. No, this whale was rather right outside of the harbour and behaving in a special fashion.

We had only been sailing for 10 minutes before the first sight of the minke whale happened, I was sat down not even looking for anything yet. When someone shouted they saw something at 12 o'clock I was prepared for another 60 second long sighting of a harbour porpoise that would have been more irritating than useful (they're just and extra piece of data that you can't really use). But when we stopped for a look, I certainly wasn't expecting the signature long, sharp dorsal fin of a minke whale!
This one single sighting lasted over an hour, we wouldn't normally have stayed for that long with just one whale but the behaviour was just too interesting! It was feeding just below the surface of the water, unfortunately we couldn't see the actual feeding but we knew it was feeding because it was rolling around at the surface. A roll is performed by a whale when it needs to position its mouth at just the right angle to engulf it's prey before it scatters. This was the first time I had seen this from a minke, when it rolled it even showed it's fluke for us!
Minke whales never show their fluke during any typical behaviours and I have missed seeing the flukes of the humpback whales I was so familiar with in the north. Honestly I have been getting a little bored of minke whales, they are so predictable and consistent unlike humpbacks and dolphins. So this special sight was something I will definitely cherish, especially because by next week there is a good chance all of the minkes will have migrated away!

We also saw dolphins. Go dolphins!

With the magnificent Hallgrímskirkja in the background this minke sure knew how to frame a picture!

Fluketastic. Finally!

Thanks for reading!

Man oh man, it's been busy!

Well quite a bit has happened over the last few days, I haven't had the time to provide a big update so this'll be a post covering a number of topics.

So over the weekend I was attending the Arctic Circle Conference in Reykjavik at the Harpa conference centre (a big glass building which is very nice). And it's safe to say that it was excellent and I learned more than I was expecting to, I had thought prior to the conference that it would have been very scientific based, while there was a number of scientific studies shown (the Arctic Biodiversity Assessment was very interesting) the conference actually boasted a very high number of oil/gas/mining/investment companies and a bunch of political figures.
The Hero of The Russian Federation gave a speech which the head of Greenpeace decided to burst in and demand the release of the 30 protesters in Russia, the Russian guy gave a very long winded no.
But the real lesson that was learnt was that before this weekend as a biologist I had only ever seen the Arctic as a biologist and a romantic. Whereas now I have a more wide view, I have seen how so many different companies and countries want to use and exploit the Arctic without shame and they will not be running opposed. I have seen the future of the Arctic, and the news could be a lot better.

But enough with the doomsday talk!

Two nights ago I had the best aurora experience I have had in my time here, and I was in the city surrounded by lights. But it was still the brightest and most vibrant I have seen it. I was genuinely running around screaming (though people who know me will not be surprised). And last night there was supposed to be a special event where the city lights in Reykjavik were to be turned off in order for the whole city to see the lights, but sudden cloud cover cancelled that event. Also England won their football match that night, so it was a good night overall!

Yeah I love this. Posy but frankly sums up my feelings for the lights. God I love them so much.

Thanks for reading!

P.S. A few thanks, I've been doing a lot more independent activities and with that I've come across quite a few excellent people. To the Latvian woman who I spent the conference with when I couldn't find my colleagues thank for giving me someone to talk to!

To the couple in the pub who forgave me for blocking their view during the football match and bought me a drink, thank you!

To the couple of the evening boat trip where we saw nothing, thank you for giving me insight and tips into life after an environmental degree!

A video tribute to Skjálfandi Bay

I realise it's a little late to be posting about Húsavík again but I finally uploaded a video I made a while ago to YouTube! It is my tribute to the fabulous bay and the even more amazing whales!

Thanks for watching!

(The last few days I have been attending the Arctic Circle conference in Reykjavik thus no boat activity, tomorrow it finishes and I shall provide a summary for you!)

Imagine Peace!

We spent an evening watching the lighting of the 'Imagine Peace' tower by Yoko Ono, a piece of art dedicated to John Lennon.

We took a boat over to Viðey, an island about 1km off the coast of Reykjavik, we arrived then queued for around 30 mins for food. I was 50kr short for the food but the lovely staff were understanding!

Then Yoko came and read us a poem then lit the lights on the tower, it looked awful pretty! Though the ceremony was so short there was no real message that got through. But hey! It was an aesthetic event.

Thanks for reading!

Imagine Peace folks!