Iceland 2

As promised, a few more photos from my Iceland trip a few years ago.

 This is the geyser called Strokkur at Geysir. Obviously the word "geyser" derives from the Icelandic word "geysir" meaning gusher. The geyser Geysir itself is not as reliable as Strokkur which spouts 30 meters into the air every few minutes.

This Greylag Goose was on a lake in the centre of Reykjavik.

 It's a common feral breeder in the UK, the Icelandic
 population being migratory has better provenance.

These Northern Fulmars were seen from a whale-watching

boat out of Olafsvik in the west of Iceland.

The fishing port of Olafsvik was a great place to observe

Glaucous Gulls.

This beautiful European Golden Plover was photographed on

moorland near Snaefellsjokull, the active volcano made famous

in Jules Vernes' Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

 This female Goldeneye was on Lake Myvatn

in the north. This lake holds both Common and

Barrow's Goldeneye. The dark bill colour leads me

to believe that this is a Common. Beautiful, nevertheless.

I found this grey-phase Gyr Falcon perched by a road near Lake

Myvatn. It stayed put while I took some shots from my car, only

to be scared off by some guy with a video who jumped out of his

car.

My visit to Iceland was timed to coincide with the best time

for cetacean watching, i.e, the summer. Consequently, birds

such as this Harlequin Duck were already moulting, but that

at least provides me with an excuse to return to this fantastic

country to see birds such as this in their stunning breeding

plumage.

Iceland - Whales

A few years ago I was lucky enough to visit the amazing island of Iceland, mainly to try and see cetaceans, but the birds and geology were truly stunning as well. This post contains a few pics of some of the whales, I'll try and do another soon on the geology and birds.
I stayed near Lake Myvatn for part of the trip which was not far from Husavik, one of the best places in Iceland, if not the world, from which to watch whales and dolphins. I went on two trips with the company North Sailing. The first trip produced sightings of Minke Whales and Northern Bottlenosed Whales, but the second surpassed expectations with not one, but three fabulous Humpback Whales.
The first six photos are all Humpback Whales, note the white flippers visible in some of the photos.The pattern of the tail flukes (fifth Humpback photo) are unique and are used by researchers in photo identification of individual animals.
The last two photos are of Minke Whales, note the falcate dorsal fin of this, the smallest of the rorqual whales.