Sunday, 16 November 2014

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: second day in a row that was as good as a November day could ever be; chilly but virtually wind-free and incredible visibility as far as the eye could see. Our first sighting was of 2 white-beaked dolphins, which may have been a mother and sub-adult calf for the smaller one was incredibly inquisitive, spent long time close to us, checking us out, diving under us and so on. It was hard to leave it behind as it was so beautiful and curious but we were dying for something bigger. We decided to go west and as far out as we could time-wise, to an area where we had had reports of whales earlier this week. Once we were about an hour-and-a-half out of Reykjavik, we came upon a second lot of dolphins, this time 4-5, which were no less curious! Yesterday they were hyberactive, today's theme was curiosity! We enjoyed their company while looking for blows from larger cousins of theirs but the dolphins seemed to own the stage today (along with some 6-10 harbour porpoisesencountered briefly enroute back) but it was a wonderful tour nonetheless and worth the extra hour it took to get back home!

- Baldur Thorvaldsson

Birds seen on today's tour include: black-backed gulls, glaucous gulls, iceland gulls, eider ducks, common guillemots, and kittiwakes.