Tuesday, 12 March 2013

Tour at 13:00 Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed out today in beautiful weather. Mirror calm seas and cloudy skies that did not threaten rain. Calm after the storm considering the weather here last week. We sailed for a bout 30 minutes and found lots of seabirds, Fulmars mainly so our hopes where high. It wasn´t until about an 1hr 1/2 into the tour however that we saw our first whale and it was a Humpback Whale. It had a few birds flying around so it could have been feeding but it wasnæt obvious. It surfaced frequently so that everyone got a good look. Whilst we were watching the humpback we saw a Minke Whale in the distance, we went to say hello. The Minke was doing long dives so we didn´t stay long but it was nice to see two species in the same area. On the way home we happened across another Humpback Whale and this one was the star of the show as it lifted it´s beautiful tail out of the water, with the snow-capped mountains and Reykjavík city in the back ground. Fantastic ending to the tour. Lets hope they stay around for a while.

Birds seen on today´s tour include. Glaucous Gulls, Black Guillemots, Eider Ducks,  Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Sandpipers, Black-backed Gulls and Cormorants.

-Megan Whittaker