Saturday, 19 March 2016

Tour at 13:00

Report from Elding and Hafsúlan: The sun today had brought out lots of lovely sea going passengers, we took out two boats once again to accomodate. The swell was still there which caused a few green faces but most enjoyed the beautiful day with some chilly wind. It was nice to see blue skies after over a week of it being overcast. We headed straight for the are where the humpback whales were and once again they did not disappoint. Elding encountered three humpback whales, one pair and one single, the single humpback was the best as it surfaced close to the boat and gave us many beautiful high flukes (tail above the water). We then heard from hafsúlan about a humpabck whale that was travelling with loads of white-beaked dolphins. At least 100 dolphins scattered in smaller pods of 10-15. Dolphin calves bow-rid the humpback whale and the humpback followed the dolphins and socilised with them. The dolphins were the best as they leaped high out of teh water and surfed the swells. It was just incredible, the whole day. On the way home Elding also encountered a minke whale which was a real treat as the minke whales have not been seen for a while. 

-Sigurlaug and Megan 

Tour at 09:00

Report from Elding and Hafsúlan: It was a bit windy at the beginning of the tour our boats rocked up and down when we headed out on the bay. We went far out on the bay to find cetaceans. It was easy to spot the humpbacks from and even in far distance we saw that there were at least 3 individuals there. When we got to the area we split up and each followed one humpback. All around were huge flocks of birds of many species that we could watch while the whales went for dives. It is really nice to just listen to the birds while they feed close to our boats. On the way back we traveled with the wind so it felt a bit warmer so it was even easier to enjoy the amazing landscape we see on the bay.

-Sigurlaug and Megan 

Birds seen on the tours: Northern fulmar, northern gannet, herring gull, glaucous gull, Iceland gull, kittiwake, eider ducks, long tailed ducks, greater black backed gull, lesser black backed gull, razorbill and whooper swans.