Showing posts with label shags. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shags. Show all posts

Thursday, 28 June 2018

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