This question is often asked on our summer tours and now you’ve the chance to find out for yourself.



Iceland's wildlife has to struggle to survive the harsh winter conditions and often congregates around the coast or other sheltered areas. We expect to see several different species of wildfowl including harlequin ducks, perhaps surfing in the sea, and Barrow's goldeneye. There are lots of gulls including glaucous gull and the eponymous Iceland gull on the coasts and in harbours. Further inland we should encounter large flocks of snow buntings, ptarmigans in their white winter plumage, there's always the chance of a gyr falcon or even white-tailed eagle and, if we’re lucky, an arctic fox. Of course, all this is complemented by the dramatic landscapes and geology of Iceland and, if the skies are clear, displays of the aurora borealis.

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It's been a grand autumn for fungi and on our various forays we've discovered a fair few gems. Sifting through some photographs the other day we uncovered this one of fly agaric; a mushroom long held to have potent hallucinogenic properties. The fungus is just starting to unfold and in a little while will form a toadstool much loved by fairy tale authors. Further research led to the way the fungus was used by Sami people in northern Scandinavia — they fed it to reindeer and collected the urine to drink. Under its effects the reindeer appeared to 'fly' and this may be an explanation of Santa's method of transport at Christmas time.

And the link with Iceland? Well, the folklore is tenuous because Santa doesn't visit here instead the tradition is for children to be visited on the days leading up to Christmas by the Yule Lads. However, there's mention in many of the old tales of ‘berserkur', prized warriors of great strength who had a penchant for doing crazy things fuelled, perhaps, by fly agaric.

Ah, the things you learn on an autumn ramble in Iceland!

Iceland's economic woes have been, with varying degrees of accuracy, widely reported during these past weeks. The upside for visitors is that our weak currency makes things much more affordable. There's never been a better time to visit.

We are well placed to ride out the turmoil and we're sure that our naturalist clients will continue to arrive. After all, our wildlife knows nothing of banking, monetary policy or the strength of the Euro!

Our 2009 programme is nearly complete. Please get in touch for more information.

It’s been an excellent autumn for berries. We’ve three main species, bilberry Vaccinium myrtillus, bog bilberry Vaccinium uliginosum (usually these two are called blueberries) and crowberry, Empetrum nigrum.




Birds, especially redwings, are feasting at the moment and if the number of people we’ve seen picking berries in the Icelandic countryside is any indication then it’s going to be a great year for blueberry jam in many Icelandic homes!

... to all those of you who have taken the trouble to write to us and tell us how much you enjoyed yourselves on our trips this summer. It really is gratifying to learn we are doing things to your satisfaction and that you are getting so much from your trip. This excerpt is typical:

“Just a short note to thank you for everything you did to make my visit to Iceland so memorable for all the right reasons. Like the rest of the group I saw most of the birds and mammals on my ‘hit list’ plus a lot more. The transport, accommodation and food throughout was very good and your knowledge and enthusiasm was infectious, even I started to find geology interesting. I’m not sure that you can take the credit for the weather but even that was excellent.”

We do our very best to make sure that our trips run smoothly and that our clients get as much as possible from their trips to Iceland. We’re pleased you agree.

One of the delights of summertime Iceland is the lovely long days we enjoy — twenty four hours of daylight from the end of May to the end of July. Now darkness is beginning to return and there's a feeling of autumn in the air. The upside is, of course, that we again see some splendid sunsets. This was photographed from our base in Hveragerði the other day.

It's been a great year for gyrfalcon sightings. Always a favourite with our birdwatching groups this species seems to epitomise wild and rugged Iceland.

This year we've seen them regularly on our trips, sometimes at very close range and in great viewing conditions. The image here was taken in northern Iceland last month with a point and shoot camera — if only we'd had a decent telephoto!

Is the title of a recently published book by Sigrún Helgadóttir. It’s an excellent guide to the geology, natural history and human history of this national park which has some of the most spectacular scenery in the country. Currently only in Icelandic but we have hopes for an English translation in the future. Highly recommended.

Here’s a link to the national park leaflet in English (downloadable PDF).

The earhquake we experienced at the end of May and its many hundreds of aftershocks resulted in new geothermal activity in Hveragerði. Several hot springs appeared and some are very active, spouting water and mud around themselves and forming small craters. They’ve become something of a tourist attraction and the local authority here has roped them off for safety’s sake.


That hasn’t prevented some foolish tourists from trying to get ‘just a little bit closer’ and there was an accident, fortunately with just minor injuries, the other day. We’ve said it before but we’ll say it again: ‘There’s boiling water on the surface of our planet here. You must be very careful when you approach these hot springs. A close-up photo is just not worth a scalded foot, or worse.’


The mountains around the town bear the scars of many rockfalls caused by the shaking and in several places we can see where large boulders have rolled down the slopes — in some cases coming to rest on footpaths. It’s the rock cycle in action.



The Icelandic Met Office has summarised information from the quakes on their splendid website.

The whale watching season is underway and we've just had an enjoyable trip with one of our wildlife groups. We sailed from Ólafsvík on the Snæfellsnes peninsula and had a wonderful encounter with a pod of killer whales and the glacier in the background.

Last week a full grown male polar bear was seen walking across farmland in northern Iceland. The bear was shot on the orders of the police as there was concern for the safety of people living nearby. Polar bears are occasional visitors to Iceland — the last one was seen in 1993 — when they drift across on pack ice. Here’s a summary of the story and you can see a film clip here.

Update 26 June 2008
Another bear, this time a female, was also discovered a little further north some days later. A rescue operation started but when the bear began to move away a decision was taken to shoot her. A subsequent examination showed that she was diseased. Since then there have been several reported sightings of more bears or their footprints all of which were disproved.

It's not often sleepy Hveragerði gets a mention in the world's media but last Thursday was an exception. The quake was widely, and it has to be said rather exaggeratedly, reported and was the largest to occur in Iceland for eight years.

Thankfully there were no serious injuries or major damage though many householders, including ourselves, have spent the past few days sweeping up broken glass and damaged furniture.

The 'quake measured 6.3 local magnitude and we've more detailed information about the event here.

Thanks to all of you who contacted us enquiring if we were OK, we very much appreciated your good wishes.

This northern bottlenose whale, Hyperoodon ampullatus, washed up on the south Iceland coastline at a favourite bird watching spot of ours near Stokkseyri the other day. Bottlenose whale sightings are fairly infrequent here and it was interesting to get a good view of this specimen. The whale was more than 8 metres in length and probably weighed in excess of 7 tons. Bottlenose whales (so called because when you see them from above the head and neck resemble a bottle, hence the ampullatus in the scientific name; incidentally, Hyperoodon means 'above tooth') belong to the rather mysterious family of beaked whales, Ziphiidae.

The lava rocks on which the carcass rests are of great interest as they comprise part of the enormous lava flow called Þjórsárhraun. This is thought to be the largest post glacial lava flow on the planet and is of great interest to geologists.

Travellers in Iceland are faced with hazards quite different from many other countries. Most visitors know that Iceland is a volcanic country with its associated phenomena of earthquakes and eruptions. Severe weather conditions can also be extremely serious. However, few travellers are aware of the potential problems caused by jökulhlaups.

A jökulhlaup, or glacial burst, often results from the quick melting of glacial ice by a volcano erupting under the ice cap itself. The resulting floods can be devastating. Centuries of experience mean that very few areas of habitation are likely to be affected by these floods, but other areas, including popular tourist destinations, are a different matter. A case in point concerns Þórsmörk in southern Iceland. It’s a valley surrounded by glaciers and has a good chance of being affected by the next eruption of a volcano called Katla. Icelandic geologists don’t preface future Katla eruptions with an ‘if’, but instead say ‘when’, and believe that the next Katla eruption will happen sometime soon. Covering the volcano is the great icecap of Mýrdalsjökull and the floodwater will flow from one of it’s outlet glaciers, quite possibly into þórsmörk.



The potential for calamity is real. Getting a warning to travellers is not a trivial task and sadly visitor knowledge of the risk is rather low. A recent study found on Vegagerðin’s (the national road authority) website (PDF) highlights Þórsmörk’s particular concerns and an internet search for ‘Icelandic natural hazards’ will result in a wealth of further information.

Our guides are all aware of issues such as these and their first responsibility is to make sure that our visitors enjoy Iceland’s incredible scenery and natural history safely. We also ensure that independent travellers using our services are briefed about the potential hazards of an Icelandic journey.

The Dutch National Museum of Natural History has an informative page on great auks accompanied by a 3D view of the specimen in its collection.
The provenance of the bird isn't known for certain but it is likely to have come from Eldey, a small island of the south west tip of Iceland, where the last two known great auks were killed in June 1844.

We've written before about the Icelandic Meteorological Service's website. It's been updated again, this time with a revised and extended section in English. Additionally the seismological section is also available in English – visitors can check on the weather and recent earthquakes before they arrive! It's a very good site and well worth a visit.

An article in National Geographic magazine’s March edition covers the debate raging in Iceland about the environmental impacts of hydro and geothermal energy production, particularly for new aluminium smelters.

This is a topic of enormous interest to our clients. You can read an online version here.

We do a lot of work with educational groups, usually involving Iceland's rather spectacular geology and geography. It's especially rewarding to see students become enthused by topics that they have hitherto considered rather boring during classroom studies.

For example, just last week the topic of freeze-thaw weathering arose in a rather interesting way. We were with a group of British students when one of them noticed a distinctively split pebble on the ground. Picking it up the student commented that it was rather like a jigsaw and began replacing the split pieces one-by-one. Others joined in, more split pebbles were discovered and it wasn't long before the discussion turned to why these stones looked the way they did. The penny soon dropped; 'freeze-thaw' dimly remembered from a lecture was the explanation and tedious classroom theory was transformed into interesting field knowledge.

Overheard when walking back to our transport: 'You know, even though it's cold, geography's not so boring after all!'