Thursday, 23 May 2013

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: It always surprises me how quickly nature changes. The wind had calmed down to almost nothing, the wildlife activity had picked up a lot, it was incredible. At one point in our tour we had 3 Minke Whales surface at the same time but heading different directions. We turned off our engines and listened to the beauty of nature. We even got to see the White-beaked Dolphins again, a group of 4-6 with a calf, which seemed to be resting but whilst we had our engines turned off waiting for the Minkes they came rushing over, played around the boat and then headed off again. There were puffins everywhere too, both on the island and out to sea. Great evening tour. Nature the cheapest form of therapy :)

Tour ar 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: This tour took a bit of a turn for the worst in terms or both weather and wildlife. The wind had picked up and the rain was mainly felt on the way back to the Harbour. We still did see three species on this tour but they were more elusive, the Minke Whales in particular. Maybe saw at least two individuals but they were only surfacing once so very hard to show our passengers, There was one small pod of 2-3 Harbour Porpoises came up a couple of times which was nice but it was the White-beaked Dolphins (5-7 animals) that was the star of the show. Got to see them really well, once again with a flock of Terns hovering over head. They looked to be resting but that is only my interpretation of it, these animals are and always will be a mystery to us all.

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed out into the bay this morning in not the nicest of weathers, but you need the bad days to appreciate the good and the weather never affects the wildlife. We started our tour at Puffin Island Lundey and were not disappointed, plenty of puffins to observe. Once we left the island it was only 10 minutes until we saw a pod of White-beaked Dolphins, 10-15 individuals that were being followed by a flock of Arctic Terns, just by watching the terns you could see where the dolphins were going to surface next. The next cetacean we saw was a small pod of Harbour Porpoises (2-3 animals) and then suddenly two Minke Whales surfaced simultaneously, one about 40 meters away and the other 2-300m away. We watching the minke whales surfacing many times and even just 20-30 meters from us 2-3 times. Then they went for a deep dive and left, whilst we were waiting for the minkes to return we got a wonderful encounter from 2-3 Harbour Porpoises which played around the boat, it was incredible to get an interaction like this from a usually shy and elusive species. We went looking for the minkes again and watching them surfaces a couple more times before we headed back to the harbour. Very nice tour despite the weather.

Birds seen on today's tours: Atlantic Puffins, Kittiwakes, Black-backed Gulls, Fulmars, Northern Gannets, Eider Ducks, Cormorants, Common Guillemots, Arctic Terns, Arctic Skuas.

-Megan Whittaker