Saturday, 31 May 2014

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: At the beginning of the tour we were heading into calmer sea conditions compared with the morning, but the wind was picking up later on. We sailed in grey, dark blue, silver and golden coloured sea during our journey. No bigger flocks of birds were spotted even with the binoculars but a lot of different species of scattered singles or pairs. Our attentive passengers were pointing at a lot of Harbour Porpoises and birds while we passed alongside them or they alongside us. We also found 2 elusive Minke Whales which were very difficult to watch. We searched in different areas but no whale was in the mood to be properly observed. So we decided to give everybody the chance to come again and enjoy the next trip with hopefully better views at the whales.

- Carine ZimmermannTour at 13:00Report from Hafsúlan: The wind had calmed down since this morning and the weather was quite nice accept from a few rain drops. We headed towards the same area as this morning and on our way we spotted a few groups of Harbour porpoises surfacing around us, some even came very close to the boat. When we got to the area we saw two big flocks of feeding birds, but unfortunately no cetacean was spotted around them. We searched for over two hours and our patience was almost running out when a Minke whale was spotted in the distance. It seemed to be heading towards the flock of birds so we watched that area very carefully. All of a sudden the minke whale surfaced in the middle of the group of birds. We could see the whale was feeding as it rolled in the surfaced so we got a good look at the white pinkish belly and the flippers. It was fun to watch the whale and we could see it blowing bubbles a couple of times which is a feeding behaviour! We could enjoy the feeding behaviours of the minke whale for some time but unfortunately our time was running out so we had to head back to the harbour. It was a very nice tour and just showed us how patient and stubborn we sometimes have to be. But we sure got rewarded for it. - Freydís Ósk

Tour at 09:00

Report from Elding: With easterly wind, white caps and an overcast sky we drove out into Faxaflói where an entire rainbow was delighting us. We passed a big flock of arctic terns circling and lots of puffins sitting on the water and starting to fly shortly after clearing the harbour entrance of Reykjavik. A bit later being in the hot spot area we started with an elusive Minke Whale. The different whale watching vessels spread out because there were enough whales for everybody, in total between 6 to 8. We had closer looks several times, observing the whales in every angle to the boat. Sometimes even the two blowholes and the tip of the head were visible. In between the minke sightings some Harbour Porpoises appeared next to the boat swimming along our side. We spent more then an hour with these minke whales before we had to leave them.

- Carine Zimmermann

Birds seen on today's tours include: Black-backed gull, kittiwakes, northern gannets, fulmars, puffins, common guillemots, black guillemots, razorbills, arctic terns, european shag, artic skuas, great skuas, eider ducks, manx shearwaters.