Wednesday, 28 October 2015

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: The weather forecast was a little mis leading today as it said it was going to calm down and yet the wind increased. Still it was quite comfortable, at least on the way offshore. We went straight to the same area as in the morning and was lucky to find maybe 2-3 minke whales. They too came very close to the boat especially at the back and side giving everyone ample opportunity to get a good look and if they had a good camera, pictures too. Dolphins and minke whales are fast surfacing and so a good fast camera is good to have, otherwise it better to use video to capture these incredible animals. On the way offshore we also encountered a small pod of 3-4 harbour porpoises but they were not sticking around and disappeared as soon as they were spotted. The bird life was also great with gannets flying close and many seagulls, fulmars and shearwaters.

-Megan Whittaker

Tour at 09:00

Report from Eldey: A very nice sail out into the bay of Faxaflói, chilly on the way home in the easterly winds. After about 30 minutes of sailing we saw a fishing boat and a big flock of gannets plunging into the sea, always an incredible sight to see. We waited for a while but saw no cetaceans until we were about to leave when a minke whale popped up suddenly and not any minke whale, Humpie the minke whale (an individual seen every year from 2011) It´s great to see these guys escape another year of whaling. Humpie surfaced 3 times before disappearing. We left the area and headed further out. Then we saw another minke whale, then another, then another. Must have been at least 4 minke whales in this food rich area. They were great, surfacing very close to the boat and slowly for everyone to get good pictures. A minke morning. fantastic!

-Megan Whittaker

Birds seen on todays tours: Northern fulmars, blue fulmar, northern gannets, common guillemots, iceland gulls, glaucous gulls, black-backed gulls, black headed gulls, eider ducks, european shags, sooty shearwaters.