Birds in the Breidafjordur (West Iceland)

The boat cruise in the Breidafjordur was one of the high points of my trip to Iceland. I had waited 10 years to see the puffin, having missed it when I was in Newfoundland in 2008. I considered myself very lucky to be able to see it and captured it in action.

On the bird rock, there were nesting black-legged kittiwakes, fulmars and shags. On the water, we saw the guillemots and the eiders which were all over Iceland. There was also a seal tossed in to the mix. The kittiwakes were very noisy; it seems that they squawk every time they flew back to the nest and there were often corresponding sounds from the mate. 

The Puffin - can it get any cuter!

Having fun in the water!

Getting ready to fly

Black-legged kittiwakes flying back to the nest

Kittiwakes talking to each other

 

The tube-nosed fullmar looked like a kittiwake from afar. It is interesting that the tube-nose actually helped the fullmar remove salt from their system since as a seabird, it imbibes a lot of salt water.

Fullmar lounging in a nice garden

This one is trying to wake up the lady

Fullmars flew very close to the water

The shags look very similar to cormorants only smaller. Its feathers have a green tinge and it is sometimes called the green cormorant.

Shag nesting on the bird cliff

Street scene - shags and eider watching the puffin

Pair of eiders - the female and male looked completely different

Eider male in flight

Black-backed gull - I saw this guy high up on a cliff and thought it was a puffin. Good thing it didn't take long for the real puffin to show up.

 

A Black guillemot walking on water (getting ready to take off)

The one seal we saw

Bird condo