Thursday, 02 August 2012

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: We just simply can't get enough of these midnight tours! The beauty is really indescribable with the sun sitting behind Snæfellsjökull (Snælfellsglacier) and lot of colours in the sky. We managed to find a small pod of white-beaked dolphins and they were very curious about us. They came really close and swam under the boat and then surfaced just right in front of us over and over again! We enjoyed it very much and decided to stay with these dolphins for a while. After some minutes we spotted a minke whale about 300 meters away from the dolphins. This minke was busy feeding so we could observe it for quite some time! It was really beautiful to see these cetaceans in the midnight sun tonight!

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: A beautiful evening out into Faxaflói Bay, calm seas and blue skies. We started out at Lundey and saw hundreds if not thousands of Puffins flying around and on the island. We then headed out to sea for about 45 minutes and saw a Minke Whale in the distance. This Minke was obviously resting and it was doing slow movements, and sometimes looked to be logging (behaviour of rest when whales lay on the surface motionless). After a little while other whale watching boats came to join so we decided to see if there was anything else in the bay but unfortunately not so we went to see the Minke again before heading back to land. A nice restful tour for all.

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: The wind had picked up just a little bit this afternoon, but the weather was still very nice! It took us about 20 minutes to spot our first minke whale! This one was swimming quite close to land and was coming up quite often! It was a great start of a great tour! After staying with this minke for a while we headed further out. After a long time we saw a very large flock of feeding birds! We did not see any whales around that flock but in a distance we noticed that there was another flock there and a lunge feeding minke whale underneath it! This was just great! An actively feeding minke whale rolling in the surface not minding us at all! It is always incredible to see animals in their natural habitat and it does not hurt to see different behaviours as well! In the end we spotted few harbour porpoises on our way to the puffin island. Really a great day so far!

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: After a very successful morning also our midday tour was simply perfect. The weather was still great and we were only 15 minutes away from the harbour as we spotted our first minke whale. We enjoyed the whale for a while and then we went further in the bay. All in all we saw 5 to 7 minke whales on this tour. There were also many sea birds around and it was great to watch the nothern gannets - the largest sea birds in Iceland. At the end of our tour we even saw a group of white-beaked dolphins. They swam relatively fast but we were able to follow them for a while. We saw 8 to 10 individuals. On our way back we stopped at the puffin island and we could not only enjoy these cute birds but also a seal that swam very close to the island.

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: What a nice tour! The weather was amazing and the whales as well! Our first specie in this tour was a small pod of very nice white-beaked dolphins! It is always very nice to see them as they can be quite playful! We noticed that we had few minke whales in the area as well! It was so beautiful to see them surface in the sun and even listen to them ex-and inhale! The puffin island was also great this morning, thousands of puffins flying all around us! What a beautiful morning!

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Our morning tour was a perfect combination of great weather conditions and great spottings of whales. The sun was shining and the sea was very calm as we sailed out. Already the puffin island was a small highlight because thousands of birds flew all around the boat. It took not long until we spotted the first minke whale. We enjoyed him a while, continued our journey and found another minke whale. This guy was feeding in the same area as northern gannets. It was also great to see how the gannets fall very very fast to the water surface to hunt fishes. Suddenly we saw big splashes in the distance and as we went closer we saw jumping white-beaked dolphins. We could see them totally good as we went closer, they swam even under our boat and surfaced only a few meters from the boat - it was simply amazing. After the dolphins we saw another minke whale and we wanted to stay for hours in this beautiful bay but finally we had to go back to the harbour.

Birds seen on todays tours include; Puffins, Guillemots, Eider Ducks, Gannets, Kittiwakes, Fulmars, Manx Shearwaters, Arctic Terns, Arctic Skuas, Great Skuas, black-backed Gulls and other species of seagull.

Pictures taken on the 9 o'clock tour by Megan and Erna Kristín