Monday, 31 March 2014

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Again the weather was just beautiful as we headed out, totally smooth ocean and the sun came out in between the clouds. We headed towards the area where we were this morning but there wasn't as much life there like earlier so we decided to head more to the south. After a short sail we saw a few Harbour Porpoises that surfaced very quickly, very elusive and small animals but fun to see them when they allow us to! The sun came out and it showed a sparkling black back in front of us in the distance. We sailed towards it and we could see that there was a lot of bird life in the area and when we took a better look there were feeding Minke whale all around and we could even smell the "bad breath" that they are known for ! there were at least 10-15 animals in the area and one of them even surface lunge fed right in front of the boat so we could see it come up to the surface with it's mouth open! it also rolled and showed us it's spectacular feeding behaviours! Everywhere around us there were minke's surfacing and even a mother with a young that surfaced both at the same time very close to the boat. After we spent a good amount of time in that area we decided to head to a different spot and try our luck in finding other species, and we weren't disappointed as a fluke was spotted from an animal taking a deep dive further away. It was a Humpback whale! The animal seemed to be quite small and it wasn't the same one as this morning, but like the one this morning the animal was very calm allowing us to get a great look at it. After our time ran out we headed towards the harbour and on our way there we could see 20-30 Harbour porpoises and many minke whales. It was a beautiful day full of wild life .. It obvious that summer is getting closer ! - Freydís ÓskTour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Sailed out in beautiful weather, a slight chill in the air but the sea could not have been better. We saw Harbour Porpoises first, a small pod of 2-4 animals surfacing fast and hard to track. Then after about 20 minutes sailing we had our first Minke Whale. They seemed much calmer today maybe due to the weather, but they seemed much more relaxed and surfaced close to us on many occasion. One Minke even surfaced about 2-3 meters from our boat, just as we were looking at a flock of kittiwakes sitting on the surface. Saw maybe 4 or 5 scattered Minke Whales on this tour and another 2-3 pods of Harbour Porpoises. It is really fantastic to see so many of them, coming back into the bay after their winter vacation south. Then we tried looking for some dolphins but found a Humpback Whale instead, an individual we recognise by the very black fluke. Probably the same one we saw a couple of days ago and the afternoon on the 28th when we had 4 humpbacks in the same area. Wonderful humpback that showed its beautiful fluke many times. A great start to the day.

-MeganBirds seen on todays tours : Eider-ducks, Black-backed gulls, Kittiwakes, Shags, Fulmars, Glaucous Gulls, Phalaropes, Great Skua, Northern Gannets.