Saturday, 23 November 2013

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: What a beautiful day! It was stunning as we headed out of the old harbour of Reykjavik, Seas were calm (some swell offshore), blue skies and a breath-taking sunset. We searched a very large area today and because the weather was great we stayed out even longer than usually, getting back into the harbour around 5pm. For a long time there seemed to be no life in the bay, except many seabirds, usually a good sign for seeing the whales but there were no whales with them. It was the passengers that spotted the first species of cetacean, a pod of 2-3 Harbour Porpoises which disappeared as soon as they were spotted. We carried on for a very long time. We even started to head home, disappointment setting in, in the thought of not seeing anything else. But.....suddenly something was spotted in the distance, a Minke Whale surfacing in the sunset. The last time we saw a minke was on the 3rd of November. We were so happy especially as it surfaced many times and even close to the boat on a couple of occasions. We stayed and watched for a while until it was time to leave it and head home. On the way back we saw another pod of Harbour Porpoiese (10-20 individuals i´d say) and we also got a wonderful look at these. On the way home the sunset got more and more beautiful the closer we got to Reykjavik. I really hope this weather continues.

Birds seen on today´s tour includes: Common Guillemots, Razorbills, Kittiwakes, Glaucous Gulls, Lesser Black Backed Gulls, Cormorants, Shags, many Long-tailed Ducks, Snow Buntings and Eider Ducks