Saturday, 17 May 2014

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: It was beautiful this evening with dark ominous clouds and scattered showers, the sun breaking through the clouds at various points of the tour also. We once again sailed far offshore, a little further than the previous tours. We past a flock of arctic terns and puffins close to the city and scattered resting gannets further offshore. Our first cetaceans of the tour was a small pod of Harbour Porpoises, 2-3 individuals surfacing slowly and one was bold enough to come and interact with the boat, rolling just beneath the surface so you could see the whitish belly. Then suddenly a Minke Whale surfaced, milling around and surfacing slowly with reletively long dives in between. Suddenly the gannets started to become active and the minke changed direction to head towards them, hoping to feed on the same food they were, small schooling fish. Then for the next 30 minutes it was crazy, at least 50 gannets plunging into the sea meters from the boats, 2 minkes surfacing frequently and close and another 2 pods of 2-3 porpoises each started to join in too. Mother nature is incredible, to see how fast everything came together. A wonderful afternoon.

-Megan

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: The ocean was very calm as we headed out in the afternoon. 1-2 Harbour porpoises showed up in the beginning of the tour but disappeared very quickly. We had to sail quite far out until we spotted dispersed flocks of feeding birds. When we sailed slowly around the area we could watch 4-6 Minke whales surface around us, some far away and some very close. There was a lot of life in the area but the minke whales surfaced very slowly inbetween the deeper dives. We got a beautiful look at the minke whales, one even surfaced right next to the boat! The sun came out when we were heading back to the harbour and gave the tour a perfect ending. 

- Freydís ÓskTour at 9:00

Report from Hafsúlan: it was raining as we headed but the weather was relatively calm and soon it stopped raining. After a few minutes we spotted 1-2 Harbour porpoises but unfortunately they were very elusive and quickly disappeared. After some sailing a blow was spotted. It was a Minke whale. The animal moved fast and constantly changed directions, but as it started surfacing close to the boat we noticed that there were two animals traveling together ! After we spent a good time watching the minke's we decided to head further out and search for something else. We spotted a big flock of feeding birds in the distance and as we headed towards it we could see blows from 3 different minke whales. As we watched the minke whales surface quickly around us we could enjoy the sightings of Northern Gannets diving into the ocean. As we headed back to the harbour we spotted a few harbour porpoises that surfaced maybe once or twice. It was a good tour with several minke whales and some shy porpoises.

- Freydís ÓskBirds seen on todays tours include: Northern Gannet, Common Guillemot, Kittiwake, Northerm Fulmar, Arctic Skua, Arctic Tern, Black-Backed Gull, Manx Shearwater, Eider Ducks, Atlantic Puffin & Razorbillz