Iceland Round Three

I looked at my holiday calendar in March of this year and realised that I had very few dedicated bird photography trips. Mistake. I tend not to bother in this country nowadays, in and around London where I live it's very hard to create the conditions that I like, and I don't frequently have unfettered access to a car at the weekends. I do however have access to my passport and good links to several London airports. Cue abroad. So a few days after realising I was short of opportunities I booked my third trip to Iceland for a weekend at the start of June. My shortest trip ever, and also by far the cheapest.

Logistics

• A two day solo trip in early June.
• Two key sites identified. Eiders and Arctic Terns close to the airport, and then Red-throated Divers about 90 minutes away.
• Wow Air flight to Keflavik for £101 (which included a piece of chargeable hand luggage) departed Friday night after work and an early return on Monday that saw me back at my desk before lunch.
• Car hire from Avis, but taking advantage of "free weekend" voucher that I had earned after a certain number of previous rentals.
• Accommodation - see car hire above ;-). This did somewhat limit the amount of sleep I had, but I took the view that the daylight hours at this time of year would want to see me out and about and thus limit that anyway. So why pay? I took a small sleeping bag, Iceland in June is still not a warm place.
• Took most food with me - A loaf of bread, a pack of salami, 4 bananas and 4 Double Deckers. I bought a couple of coffees and a few bottles of water.

Day 0-1
Wow Air from Gatwick was right on time, and got me into KEF for about 11pm local time. I presented my car hire voucher and without fuss was given a brand new VW Golf with 20km on the clock. I handed it back with over 800 on it, but more on that later! I headed west towards the slowly setting sun at Gardur. This was a popular event on a clear evening, and there were plenty of people parked up around the Light House taking it in. I did the same, noting happily that the public toilet in the car park was nice and clean and appeared to be 24h due to the next door campsite.

When the sun finally disappeared underneath the horizon, I drove the short distance towards the Eider Colony, found a quiet spot away from the birds, parked up and settled down for what would be a very short sleep. It was 1am and still perfectly light.....

I woke up at 3.30am in broad daylight feeling somewhat worse for wear but determined to make good use of the fine conditions. I unpacked my photography gear, got dressed and carried on up the road to the birds. This area contains both an Arctic Tern colony as well as an Eider nesting area. This is roped off and fiercely guarded by locals who have a vested interest once the Eiders have finished breeding, but once it was clear that I wasn't a feather rustler and was only taking photos from the car windows they seemed to lighten up a bit. The light was amazing, I had really lucked out in my choice of weekend - Iceland in June can easily be miserable, wet and grey affair. I spent the entire morning here slowly rolling up and down the road, stopping whenever a good situation presented itself. It felt the like the entire morning,  but when I had had my fill I looked at my watch and discovered it was only 8am! I headed off to my previously spotted toilet for morning ablutions, and had a spot of breakfast - namely a banana.

I felt I had had enough of the Eiders, and there didn't seem to be as many next to the road as there had been early morning - presumably the birds were off feeding. With the weather still decent I decided to check out my next spot, the reserve at Floi. Rather than go via the Blue Lagoon and Grindavik I took the northern route via Reykjavik, taking a short-cut before I got the city. This took me through a landscape of lupins and lakes which was really very pleasant , so I stopped a while for a snack and a break. There were a few unusually tolerant Redwings around, and whilst chasing them around I noticed a small Grebe on the nearby lake. A quick check through the bins confirmed this a smart summer-plumaged Slavonian, and it appeared to favour an area very close to the bank, which was also extremely close to a footpath which had numerous walkers and joggers going round it. Thrushes forgotten, I watched for a while and the human traffic seemed not to be bothering it, could this be this one of those incredible opportunities?

It could! I spent a fabulous half hour with this bird as it cruised along mere metres from me. I wondered for a while if there was a partner bird hidden in the bankside vegetation, but if there was I never saw it. The bird was also calling frequently with no response, so maybe it was still trying to attract a mate? Whichever, it was a superb place and although busy by Icelandic standards this seemed to work in my favour as the bird was used to people. By this time the light was actually getting a little harsh, so I carried on over the pass to the Divers at Floi. This side of the mountains the weather was not as good, but at least the harsh sunshine was gone. I still had just enough light for decent speeds, but really I was here for the soft evening light and so crossed my fingers that by that time the nice weather on the coast might have come a bit further inland. 

I had unfinished business here from my last trip when I felt Shaun and I had departed the site far too early, and rectifying this had been in the forefront of my mind when booking the trip. As ever the entrance track was good value, with numerous Godwit and Snipe along the edges, but as it was the Divers I was after I didn't really linger. Parking up near the triangular toilet (I had this all figured out!) I was pleased to see numerous RTDs dotted on almost every small pond. There was even a bird nesting on the first pond in what I reckoned was the exact same spot as my last visit. I didn't want to linger near a nesting bird so I bypassed this pond and its mate and moved on to the next one, which was larger and appeared to be hosting two pairs, neither of which had an active nest yet. I adopted the usual tactic of waiting until the birds dived (which they frequently did together) and then running as far as I could before going prone when I thought they might resurface. In this manner I got very close to the edge, and whilst the first click of the shutter caused instant alertness, when nothing further followed the birds both relaxed. One even went to sleep right in front of me, and I reckon I probably dozed off too!

Although the light was not wonderful I loosed off far too many frames over a couple of sessions over the afternoon before deciding I wasn't getting what I came for and heading off to see if I could find better weather and something different. I drove a few roads around Villingaholt and Arnessyslu without a great deal of success and had another nap in the car until the early evening when I returned to Floi. The cloud layer was still thick but as time progressed the sun sank below it and partially gave me the light I had come looking for. Unfortunately this also came with a breeze that made the water rather choppy, but rarely do you win them all I suppose. Once again the Divers went to sleep, I must be very boring.

This session lasted a couple of hours before the sun sank behind the tall hillsides that border the site. I headed back to the Grebe site to check the bird was still there, which it was, and gave Mick S the directions. Unbeknownst to me he had also booked a trip to Iceland and had been looking for this species further north without success. He decided to head down that evening to give it a go the following morning, agreeing to meet me at the Eider spot at first light. It was about midnight and still broad daylight, sleeping was hard, but on the plus side I had roughly 1,900 images safely nestling on my memory cards. Surely it was worth it?

To be continued....

Where shall we go on a family walk?

Using an old Jedi mind trick employed by birders with families the world over, I persuaded the family that the ideal pre-lunch family outing should be to Ruddon's Point on the north side of the Firth of Forth. "Is there a rare bird there?" was Mrs L's immediate response. "No no no no no no no, er well yes maybe. Well, it was there yesterday. Probably gone now, I wouldn't worry". Somehow the destination remained unchanged, and so a small gaggle of us arrived to some mild rain at the Shell Bay caravan site mid-morning. The target was a female King Eider a lovely family walk in a beautiful location. A location that frequently attracts rare nearctic ducks. Allegedly.

No proper camera today, but there were loads of these about looking marvellous.

I walked briskly to the Point, children, wife and father left in my wake. It was going to be challenge with bins only but I felt confident I could pick up her supreme gingerness at some distance. Mistake. The flocks of ducks were generally miles out, and with the nearer birds quickly dismissed any hope of finding the Queen Eider was basically dead in the water. Still, it isn't all about rare birds these days, and so just with bins I had a careful scan of what was identifiable. And it was superb, from a Londoner's perspective there was quality everywhere! A Red-throated Diver was close in, and small flocks of Mergs drifted along. As well as the Common Eider, small numbers of Common Scoter were visible, but nothing gave a flap to show white panels so Velvet remains needed for 2016. Two larger Divers were further out, but I wouldn't like to put a name to them. Probably one each of GND and one Black-throated if I had to guess..... A Long-tailed Duck was diving constantly quite close in, and Mrs L and Père L were able to get on a Gannet flying over. A few Razorbills were seen, and before I was dragged away I also saw groups of Oystercatchers, Redshank and a Curlew. So although necessarily brief, you really can't fault even the shortest time birding Largo Bay. Most enjoyable, and all to the backdrop of singing Skylarks, Meadow Pipits, Yellowhammers and Chaffinches. 

Mrs L describes my waistline.

Along the beach we were diverted by stone skimming, and the children were pleased to get up close and personal with a Common Eider which showed very well indeed. Back where we had left the car, right at the entrance to the caravan park, were two birders with scopes. You know what they say, find the birders find the bird. Well it's very often true and remained so today - they had Mrs King Eider lined up and ready, and had done really rather well as she was pretty far out towards Edinburgh. Decent views though, and easily pickable amongst the Common Eider. 

Afforded excellent views whilst resting on the beach.

By fortunate happenstance there was a drake Ring-necked Duck at Kilconquhar Loch, only a short distance away from where we had ended up on our family outing. It would have been rude not to go really, so the family waited patiently* in the car whilst I walked through the church yard to have a look. Without a scope this was rather a challenge, but my recent familiarisation in Arizona helped my clock the two-toned flanks from quite a way away. Not the best views ever, but when ticking rare birds when did that ever matter? Quite. Kerching. 

All good and so back to Uberchateau L for a lovely and well-deserved lunch, two rarities UTB and a host of decent and distinctly non-E11 birds seen in a great location. I've never been disappointed birding the Fife Coast, and I'm fortunate to have a second base up here from which to conduct filthy twitchery and other bird-based activities. Aviemore etc is only a couple of hours away, Norfolk distance basically, and you've a ton of great birding spots up there. As the old folks, er, get older, no doubt I'll be making more trips this way, and that can only be a good thing. For family harmony. Obviously.


* not patiently at all, do they not realise that one does not simply rock up and instantly find yank Ducks?