Iceland

 After Lesvos we had a couple of weeks before flying out to Iceland where we doing a two week road trip all the way around the island. So this wasn't a wildlife/birding holiday, but of course we did come across some birds along the way and had what turned out to be a good half days birding around Lake Myvan.

For this post I will concentrate on the birds... as it is a birding blog!

So here we go..........

Golden Plover and Arctic Terns at

Standarkkirkja,

Eiders everywhere 😂

Great Skua at Ingólfshöfði (that's easy for you to say!)

as well as Fulmar

and two Puffins.

Kittiwake,

Guillemots,

more Great Skua,

a Whooper Swan on the cliff top!!

A Red-throated Diver (with a youngster tucked under it's wing) still at Ingólfshöfði

Oystercatchers outside our hotel room at Höfn

along with a Redwing. Redwings were probably the most common bird that we saw all over Iceland.

And as for Red-necked Phalaropes, they need culling! 🤣 We came across them everywhere. I can't believe when we went to Shetland last year, how thrilled we were to find one! These are in the harbour at Höfn

Now for a first for us.... we wanted to see Harlequin Ducks and we weren't disappointed, our first sighting was from a cliff side looking down at the sea, where we could jusr make out with our binoculars that there was a little flotilla of Harlequins, but as time went on arouns Iceland we managed better and better sightings, this is one of the earlier ones:

We also saw lots of Black-tailed Godwit in full summer plumage, lovely!

The cliffs were also full of Kittiwakes, wherever we went. These were at Borgarfjörður,

along with loads of Puffins, a shame it wasn't sunny, it would have made for much better photos.

A Redwing getting in on the act.

I can never resist taking photos of Fulmars, they are one of my favourite seabirds,

and who can't resist more Puffin shots.

Arctic Terns were abundant. As we drove around Iceland we came across a lot of nesting sites, every bit of open water had hunting terns.

More Eider!

We did come across a few Barnacle Geese, surprisingly when we were driving to the Ice Lagoon on the east coast, there were loads with goslings. Barnacle goslings was a first for us, you don't see them in the UK.

More Harlequins....

Mealy Redpoll was a welcome sighting, we came across them a few times, this was taken from our hotel room at Egilsstaðir.

Golden Plover were abundant, so another photo..

as I have said, so were the Phalaropes, so here's a couple more..

Whoppers were everywhere too!

A Phalarope close up.

We really enjoyed these Great Northern Divers, there was a group of seven just meandering slowly along the lake, not bothered by us at all.

A Common Scoter put in appearance too, but was a bit distant.

Then we had a Harlequin close up..

Followed by a White-tailed Eagle encounter.

A shy Slavonian Grebe sailed away across the lake.

Finally we found a Barrow's Goldeneye another new species for us... spot the difference between that and a UK Goldeneye.

A bonus was a female Long-tailed Duck but again not close enough for a good photo.

On our travels we stopped to look at the waterfall at Godafoss, when as we walked back I spotted a bird in the shrubbery next to to the river....only a female Ptarmigan!

then her partner showed up. A male now in summer plumage rather than the brilliant white of their winter colours, but a brilliant find none the less.

Another Arctic Tern nest site...

Nice views of a Redwing outside our hotel room,

She wasn't happy as she had a nest on our room veranda!

Kittiwakes on Dragon Rock,

does it look like a dragon to you?

Next hotel room birding, overlooking the sea from our hotel in Borgarnes.

Glaucous Gull

Iceland Gull

Whimbrel,

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Cormorants,

Two headed Cormorant 😂

Eider

More Kittiwakes,

Fulmar,

Gull through a hole!

Lesser Black Back Gull and offspring.

Cormorant,

Kittiwakes

Fulmar on the cliff face.

Guillemots.

Red-throated Diver,

Golden Plover,

Arctic Tern, sorry another one :)

Oystercatchers,

In Rejkjavik we visited the central lake and came across Scaup,

Whoopers Swans,

Female Scaup,

Mallard,

More Whooper Swans,

and that my dears is that....I might do some waterfalls and geyser stuff in another (short!) post.