Monday, 28 June 2010

Tour at 20:30

The weather was beautiful this evening when we started our tour out in puffin island Akurey. There weren't many birds in the island but when we came out on the bay we saw a lot of puffins and other seabirds feeding in flocks. It didn't take long before we saw our first Minke whale. It surfaced really quickly and then stayed under the surface for a while. We sailed further and found another area with feeding birds. There we spotted several Minke whales, a couple of them showing feeding behaviour. Really nice! When we headed a bit further we saw splashes, again and again. We found a very active group of white beaked dolphins! They were excellent, very approachable and great to watch. We observed them for a while, jumping, bow-riding and enjoying themselves. Then came a period of time when we didn't spot anything, even the birds seemed to have disappeared. Then, when we were getting closer to the harbour, we spotted one more Minke whale. It gave us a good look at its back before it deep dived, and we headed home. It was a very nice tour :)"

 

Tour at 17:00

We headed straight out again. We spotted a Minke Whale and stayed with him for a while but he was diving so much so we decided to go on. We saw a lot of Minke Whales far away. We tried to get closer to one and as we were looking at him someone spotted a Minke Whale breaching behind use. Really nice for the lucky ones who saw it. We stayed a long time with the Minke Whales and could have a really good and close look at them. On our way back to the harbour we stopped at the Puffin Island Akurey. There some Puffins flying around the Island and some were sitting at the water surface. We also saw a group of geese flying away from the Island. It was a awesome day with 3 really wonderful trips!!

 

Tour at 13:00 We headed out straight into Faxaflói bay to look for some whales. We spotted a Minke Whale really quickly it surfaced 3 times but when we got closer it disappeared. So we went on to find another one. We came to a area were a lot of birds were sitting on the surface and flying around. We spotted many Minke Whales some far away and one was really close to the boat. It even swam under the boat and came up really close to the boat, the people on the lower deck could have almost  touched it. We followed the Minke Whales for a while but when we had to go back. We saw many more Minke Whales behind use and next to use. It was amazing. As a last highlight the stopped at the Puffin island Akurey. There were many flying around and sitting in front on the water surface.

 

Tour at 09:00

We were very busy this morning so both of our whale watching vessels went out (Hafsúlan and Elding). The weather was very nice, flat calm sea and very good visibility. We started the tour by visiting Akurey and saw thousands of Puffins as well as Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Arctic Terns and few species of Gull.  We then headed out into Faxaflói Bay. Hafsúlan came across a small pod of Harbour Porpoises on the way out. We came to an area where there were many birds feeding. This was the spot!! There were Minke Whales surfacing everywhere, some very far away and some close. We first concentrated on a Minke Whale that we saw yesterday (the Minke Whale with no dorsal fin). Throughout the tour we must have watched 5-8 Minkes but there was between 15-25 in the area. Other birds we got to see on the tour were Eider Ducks and Arctic Skuas as well as the birds seen on and around Puffin Island. Very good Minke Whale and seabird watching Tour.