We've recently returned from a trip to the north of Norway where we've been looking for the killer whales which come very close to shore at this time of year. They feed on the herring which shelter in the fjords and provide naturalists with a real wildlife treat. Additionally, white-tailed eagles occur in the area and feed on the fish left behind by the whales — spectacular. The trip was organised by The Travelling Naturalist and will be repeated in 2007. Woolly hats and warm clothes are necessary!

We've had a busy time these last few weeks and have had some great fun looking after our student visitors. Iceland's volcanic landscapes are highly regarded by geographers and geologists and no visit is complete without the chance to examine a crater or two. These students learned a lot when they visited Eldborg, a small crater on the Reykjanes peninsula in SW Iceland.

Their trip was arranged by UK based Discover the World and there's lots more information on their website.

After an interval of 17 years Iceland’s Government gave the go ahead for commercial whaling to resume yesterday. This follows its 2003 decision to allow limited numbers of minke whales to be killed for ‘scientific’ research. In addition to allowing a further ‘harvest’ of minke whales the new policy also allows the hunting of fin whales — a species considered endangered by the international community. It appears the new regulations allow hunting to start right away.

We are saddened by this announcement and will write to the Icelandic Government expressing our displeasure and asking them to think again about this regrettable decision.

As you can imagine this topic is frequently raised by participants in our tours and we have compiled a short FAQ sheet to provide some background information for inquirers. A BBC report is here.

Update on 2 November 2006
There has been an amazing amount of global publicity concerning this issue and Iceland has been roundly criticised by many nations. Yesterday 24 countries formally protested to the Icelandic Government and requested that the decision be reversed. The BBC carried this report and you can read the text of the joint document here.

We have sent a letter to the Icelandic Government recording our concerns. You can read it here.

A glorious day; bright, clear with just a touch of frost. Iceland's landscapes are at their best at this time of year. The photograph is of Þingvallavatn in southern Iceland.

We’ve recently returned from the Azores where we’ve been running some natural history trips. Geologically, these mid-Atlantic islands are very much like Iceland but, of course, the climate is much milder and the vegetation is very different. The Azores is a splendid choice for an early autumn holiday.

Update on 3 October
Birdwatchers can get up-to-date information on recent sightings in the Azores here

This account on our website answers the question from a naturalist's perspective.

Whale watching has been spectacular this summer. We reported in July about the sperm whales that were visible from the coast of Snæfellsnes in west Iceland. Now comes news from the Husavík based company North Sailing of some recent, amazing sightings of humpback whales, including the individual in the photograph that reportedly breached 300 times in two hours of observations. You can see more of North Sailing's photographs here.

Arctic terns are a familiar sight over much of Iceland in the summertime. They are graceful fliers but surprisingly difficult to photograph well. This splendid shot was captured on one of our recent tours in west Iceland by Houston Chandler from Georgia, USA. We’re very grateful to him for his permission to allow us to reproduce it here.

You'll recall the oystercatcher nesting in the busy car park at a waterfall in southern Iceland ...

Well, sad to say but the nest was unsuccessful. Better luck next year and we hope they choose a better site.

We have had some wonderful sightings of sperm whales off the west coast of Iceland these past few weeks. Our groups have reported seeing them from land as well as on regular whale-watching boat trips. Last week's group also saw humpback whales, minke whales, orcas, white-beaked dolphins and harbour porpoises. Still no signs of any blue whales though but we're off to sea again in a couple of days and hopes are high. The picture is of sperm whale photographed last week.

We've recently returned from a trip to the Westman Islands, a group of volcanically active islands off the south coast of Iceland, and learned a lot about the eruption that took place there in 1973.

The US Geological Survey has a thorough account of the event which is available for download here. It's interesting reading, particularly if you have visited the island and are able to visualise the geography more clearly.

For those of you who asked for Guðrún's fish recipe (you know who you are!) ...

GUÐRÚN'S OVEN-BAKED FISH PIE WITH CHEESE AND LEEK (serves four)

Ingredients
800 g cod (or other white fish)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
salt
pepper
250 g cheese
2 tablespoons parsley
1/2 leek
100g breadcrumbs
60 g butter

Method
Cut fish and place in ovenproof pan. Season with lemon juice, salt and pepper. Grate cheese, cut leek and parsley. Mix breadcrumbs, cheese, parsley, leek and melted butter in a bowl. Spread mix over fish. Bake in 175° C oven for about 20 minutes.
Serve with potatoes or rice and salad.

Enjoy!

Reminder
If you plan to visit Iceland this summer then you may find our visitor information sheet helpful. You can download it from here

Our last post about warm weather in Iceland clearly tempted fate and winter returned with a vengeance last week. Strong, cold northerly winds left us, and the wildlife, rather shocked. We escaped the worst of the snow here in the south of Iceland but in the north part of the country more than half a metre of snow fell and this is likely to have an affect on the breeding success of many birds. Several species have delayed nesting and many seabirds are waiting to return to their cliff ledges. However, one bird that is feeling human, rather than weather, pressure is this oystercatcher nesting just a few metres from a busy car park at a well-known waterfall in south Iceland. We'll let you know if they manage to breed successfully.

Summer is icumen in. How do we know? Well, there have been lots of unusual migrant birds sighted these past few days and warm, easterly airflows seem to be the cause. Large numbers (perhaps 400 or so) of barn swallows have been recorded, chiffchaffs and willow warblers have popped up in quite a few places, and, wonder of wonders, a common crane has been sighted near Eyrabakki in the south of Iceland, whilst a black-crowned night heron delighted observers at Neskaupstaðir in eastern Iceland.

The regular migrants have just about all arrived, whimbrels, black-tailed godwits and redshanks are all rather noisy at the moment, whilst the first of the red-necked phalaropes turned up a few days ago.

We'll be out and about at the weekend and are hopeful that several of these ornithological curiosities will still be present ...

Last week's post about örninn, the eagle, prompted some of our readers to mention the similarities between Ari Eggertsson's photograph and Tennyson's poem, The Eagle. To remind you:

The Eagle

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Sadly now extinct great auks were flightless seabirds related to puffins, razorbills and guillemots. The last known breeding site for the great auk was the island of Eldey off the coast of south west Iceland and perhaps the last two birds were killed there in early June 1844.

We run a splendid birdwatching tour for the Travelling Naturalist which pays homage to this magnificent bird and visits the sites inhabited by great auks and which are still home to countless numbers of seabirds. There are still some places on this year's tour which starts on the 28 May.

There's been a white-tailed eagle around us in southern Iceland these past few weeks and local teacher and wildlife enthusiast, Ari Eggertsson, managed to snap a dramatic profile of the bird perched on a lava block. Eagles are rather rare breeding birds in Iceland with perhaps just 37 breeding pairs and are usually found in the north west part of the country. You can learn more about these magnificent raptors and other threatened birds in Iceland at the Icelandic Society for the Protection of Birds' website. The title of this post by the way is simply, 'The Eagle'.

There has been a jökulhlaup (glacier burst) in Vatnajökull, the large ice-cap in south east Iceland.

An enormous volume of water has flooded out of the glacier into the river Skaftá these past few days. Volcanic activity under the ice-cap causes melt water to build up and a sudden release causes the glacier to 'burst' and the outlet rivers to flood. Additionally, strong sulphur fumes were detected and a warning was given by the authorities to avoid the area.

Jökulhlaups are fairly common here and the flat plains between the mountains and the sea in south east Iceland are formed from deposits washed down in these incredible floods. The plains are called sandur.

We haven't been able to visit the area and have no photos or first hand accounts to relay. However, the national broadcasting company has this to report on their website. Click on the link, 'HORFA' to see a short film of the event and the ice canyon that formed on the glacier itself. The link may only be active for the next two weeks and only works with Windows media player. Morgunblaðid newspaper has some photos and film of the flood itself on their website

The largest jökulhlaup in recent times was in 1996 when a volcano erupted under the ice of Vatnajökull. The resulting flood was incredible and the incident attracted global attention. You can read a summary of the eruption and resulting flood here.

It's Sumardagurinn fyrsti, the first day of summer and a public holiday in Iceland. Always falling on a Thursday between April 19 and 25 its origins can be traced back to the earliest Icelandic records.

Whilst the weather has been distinctly winterish these last few days the birds at least seem to be celebrating Sumardagurinn fyrsti. Migrant waders are arriving in good numbers -- oystercatchers have been with us for some weeks, more and more golden plovers are evident and redshanks (like the bird in the photo) are just beginning to show up.

We know that summer is just around the corner ...

Iceland is volcanically active. Groundwater is heated, often to very high temperatures, and with careful management can be used to heat houses and generate electricity. As you can imagine the use of this sustainable resource featured prominently in a lot of field work undertaken by visiting students over these last few weeks. A couple of days ago students from three schools in western England sampled at first hand this geothermal energy. On a rather cold day they were able to bathe in a hot river at a very comfortable 40 degrees Celsius. Geography had never been so interesting!

We've been very busy these last few weeks running educational visits for students from the UK. Mercifully, the weather has been kind to us -- cold but bright -- and we were able to carry out a comprehensive programme of field work.

UK schools are really fortunate as they can use Discover the World to arrange their fieldwork in Iceland for them. Have a look at their website to see just what's on offer.

A new, lavishly illustrated guide to some of southern Iceland's 'geosites' has been recently published. Good map of the sites, excellent photographs and a text summary for each location. It's a useful field guide to some of the many amazing geological sites in this part of Iceland.

The book is called: 100 Geosites in South Iceland by Eriksson, Eriksson and Vilmundardottir and is available in bookshops in Iceland or from The Students' Bookshop online.

It's a quiet time here so we're away on holiday ourselves. Email should work as usual though phone and fax contact may be a bit slow. Back on 8 March.

Large flocks of these attractive finches are around us at the moment. The weather at this time of year can be awful -- heavy snow and strong winds -- yet the birds seem undaunted and even in the worst conditions can be seen looking for food.

One of the questions that we're frequently asked is, 'What should I bring to Iceland?'
Our information sheet for vistors is available for download here

More harlequins from bird artist Mike Langman.

He's painted a wonderful picture of Iceland for the Travelling Naturalist 2006 brochure.