Thursday, 27 November 2014

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: And there were Orcas! Yay! Our first since July! The tour started with another boat telling us that they had seen a few white-beaked dolphins but by the time we arrived, the dolphins had vanished. Disappointed, but knowing we had the whole tour ahead of us, we continued further out in search of something else but did not find anything. It was a strong eastern wind but thanks to the skillful work of Captain Jón, we hardly felt it until we were on the way back but then most passengers were too happy to even notice. Why? Here's why! Suddenly a dorsal fin appeared about 300 meters away and it looked too tall to be that of a dolphin. As we got closer, we saw that it was actually one of a dolphin but belonged to a specimen of the largest of the dolphins, and that it wasn't alone. We had come across our very first Orcas since July! This was a pod of 5-8, including one old bull with a curved dorsal fin, at least three cows, and one calf. Gosh it was hard to leave but we were running out of time. However, it is good to have them back and hopefully they will stick around for a while (Photos: Charla Basran & Heiður Ósk).

- Baldur Thorvaldsson

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