Wednesday, 4 August 2010

Tour at 17:00

We kept the same routine during this tour as the other tours to begin with the Puffin colony and we went to Lundey. There were not as many Puffins on the Island this time but some of them were flying around the island along with Kittiwakes, Arctic Skuas, Lesser Black-backed Gulls and Black-Guillemots. We then headed out. The Gannets were still there and it seemed as if there were more of them this time. Around the Gannets we spotted some White-beaked Dolphins after staying with them for a little while we lost them so we headed on and after a long long search we finally spotted blows from a whale so we headed on full speed. When we got to the area we found out that there were two Minke Whales there. The first one surfaced several times really close to the boat before going for a deep dive. Then the second one surfaced twice. We then spotted it again further away from us but time was running away from us so we had to get back.

 

Tour at 14:00

Again we headed out in windy weather and started the tour in Puffin Island Akurey where there was literally ONE puffin. Then we sailed out to Faxaflói and after searching for a long long long time in an area with lots of Feeding Gannets we spotted some Harbour Porpoises, but only for a couple of minutes and coming up really fast before disappearing. Then after searching for a long long time again we spotted a Minke Whale once but then it disappeared. Since the sightings were so poor and not very many people could spot these difficult whales we gave our passengers a complimentary ticket to come again.

 

Tour at 13:00

This tour we started out by visiting Lundey as well to see the Puffins and again on this tour the island was packed with Puffins. We then headed out and aimed for the flock of feeding Gannets. They were still there but unfortunately there still were no whales around them. So we headed on. During the tour we spotted at least 7 obvious blowes from Minke Whales and one black back. But it was very difficult to track them so we weren't able to get close to any of them. Beautiful birds live all around the tour but unfortunately not as much luck with the whales so we offered our passengers a complementary ticket to come again.

 

Tour at 10:00

We sailed out in windy weather and started the tour in Puffin Island Lundey. There were really many puffins on the island this morning, flying all around the boat. A great start! Then we sailed out to Faxaflói where there were many Feeding Gannets, and searched for a really long time before we spotted the first Minke Whale. It was a little difficult to follow the whale but it came up from time to time, sometimes close to the boat so we could have a look at it. Then we found another Minke Whale a little further away and this one was a little easier to spot, came up in front of us a few times before it disappeared. All in all, a successful tour after a difficult search in the beginning.

 

Tour at 9:00

We started this first tour of the day with a stop in Lundey to see the Puffins, it was very good to see how many there were there and also so many Black-Guillemots. After staying there for a little while we headed out to Faxaflói. First we spotted 2 Minke Whales the first one surfaced several times really close to the boat before going down for a deeper dive and we didn't see it after that, the second one was a bit more difficult and surfaced only twice further away before going for the deep dive. Soon we then spotted a huge flock of feeding Gannets, but unfortunately we didn't see any Whales around them so we kept on searching until we came across a flock of feeding birds, Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Gannets, Puffins, Arctic Skuas as well as Arctic Turns. Around this flock and right underneath it we spot a really good pod of Harbour Porpoises surfacing many times coming up in between the birds. Then on our way back to the harbour we spotted the third Minke Whales surfacing 3 times but unfortunately time was running away from us so we couldn't stay with it longer.