Wednesday, 17 September 2014

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: it was getting a little colder as the day went by and we got a light rain on us every now and then through tour. The sea conditions were just amazing, the sea was very flat and bright which made it easy for us to spot animals from a great distance. The tour began with a very friendly minke whale! When we came closer to the whale it started to come towards us, it came closer and closer until it surfaced right next to the boat and swam under it and came up on the other side! We could enjoy this minke whale for some time, while it was calmly milling around in the area. After some time it started to travel faster out on the bay and that was when we decided to go somewhere else in hope to find another species. We sailed only for a short time until we saw splashes in front of us and realised that they were made by 6-7 jumping white beaked dolphins, the dolphins had calmed down when we got closer but still we got amazing look at them because they surfaced often very close to us! On the way back we found another group of dolphins that also gave us a good look at themselves.

- Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: the sky was covered with clouds but fortunately it did not rain on us until in the very end of the tour this morning. The tour began with a group of 3-4 white beaked dolphins, they were very playful, breaching close to the boat! Not far from the dolphins we spotted a minke whale that was going fast by, it was hard for us to follow it but we could get a fair look at it for a short time. But the rest of tour was just amazing, we kept on running into groups of white beaked dolphins and harbour porpoises! Sometimes we had them very close to us and could get wonderful sightings of both species.  Over all we saw 6 groups of dolphins, each with about 3-5 individuals and 3 groups of harbour porpoises, two with 2-3 individuals but one with about 7-8 individuals! This was literally a full backed tour that had very few quiet times and was just incredible!

- Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

Birds seen on today´s tour include: Eider Ducks, Kittiwakes, Black-backed Gulls, Black-headed Gulls, Glaucus Gull, Arctic Terns, Fulmars, Northern Gannets, Common Guillemots, Great Skua, Meadow Pipit and Cormorants.