Another day, another whale

The sun made another brave venture into the Icelandic sky, and after the horrific weather yesterday it certainly wasn't expected. So I took the time to go for a short walk about, I ended up following a path that would lead to the lake behind the mountain that I climbed a few weeks ago. I didn't finish the walk as I had some work to do but safe to say I will be finishing it at some point and taking my camera this time! Watch this space.

Anyhoo, here's some highlights from today's boat trip:

Those pesky terns are always so quick, but here's a decent shot of one flying overhead.

There were two humpback whales sighted today, and both were very calm around the boats. Until the usual suspects came charging in and scared them off. To say that they are despised is a major understatement.

I love how the clouds form over the mountains to make such cool landscapes

Pictures on the horizon!

Over the last few days there has been a combination of poor weather and full boats, and we have managed to take trips out but my whale pictures have been a bit sub-par.

But there's always something to gaze at, so have a gander at these:

It's safe to say I'm a lucky man who gets to live in such a beautiful town, it deserves a mention!

Kittiwakes are so very curious birds

The weather is so very unpredictable, the juxtaposition of nice and horrid in this picture I rather like.

I haven't acknowledged the beautifully talented other researchers that I'm proud to work with, and that is a crime! All the best ladies!

Thanks for reading!

A near perfect day

Well. The weather today was just perfect.

Blue skies and mirror water.

I could talk more but I will let the (more interesting) pictures do that for me.

I swear some of these dolphins are either crazy or have an excellent sense of fun.

Love this! Just popping up to say hello!

They dolphins were both very close and very clear in the brilliant water.

This Kittiwake clearly thought it was our captain.

The bay looked incredible all day

And the standard humpback shots round off a fantastic day of boating!

Thanks for reading!

A lesson in cetacea

Unfortunately the past two days have heralded poor weather so I haven't gone out on any boat trips, today the weather has been perfect! The consequence of nice weather is that the tourists come out to play and so all the boats until this evening are fully booked, we will try in the evening but taking pictures and data in the evening is very difficult.

So in the absence of any aquatic adventures I will take the opportunity for a bit of educating, I've mentioned and shown you many pictures of the humpback whales that wander around the bay but not told you all that much about them. It is time for that to change.

The humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) belongs to a group of whales known as rorquals, other well known cetaceans in this group are the blue whale, fin whale and minke whale. The humpback is unique in being assigned its own genus, Megaptera. It can grow to around 17m long and can live up to 50 years. Their population is estimated to be around 35,000 worldwide, the populations are slowly recovering after mass landings occurred during the early 20th century. (There has been discussion in Iceland lately about resuming hunting humpbacks)
They tend to produce some remarkable surface displays, they will perform all manner of stunts. I hope to not miss any more of these stunts as I rue missing a full body breach last week!
Humpback whales can be individually identified by the patterns of white on the underside of their fluke, their dorsal fin and any body scarring can also help identify specific whales.

That is as much as I can tell you without doing some serious research, I hope it was informative and not too dull!

Thanks for reading! As thanks, here is a cute whale!

Pictures of the day

Here's my favourite pictures I took on today's morning voyage.

Thanks for reading!

The nice pictures cometh!

 The dolphins were going genuinely crazy, throwing themselves around non-stop!

Though the trip out was incredible I will remember it for missing the sight of a humpback whale doing a full body breach (jump) out of the water. I was looking the other way. It is my mission to see this event! Soon perhaps...

Thanks for reading!

The nice weather cometh!

Yesterday the weather took a turn for the excellent, I wore both t-shirt and shorts and ended up soaked in sweat. Only afterwards I checked the weather forecast and saw that it hit a high of 15 degrees, I believe I have acclimatised!
In the morning we took a hike up the mountain behind Husavik, the weather and views were all perfect!
Then in the evening we took 2 tours out, we saw EVERYTHING. I'm talking the usual humpbacks, white-beaked dolphins and minke whales plus a large pod of harbour porpoises.

Pictures to follow, thanks for reading!