Iceland - May 2023 - Day 1 - Around Reykjavik

The flight touched down at around half ten local time and we were out and collecting the car pretty quickly as we had no luggage to retrieve. Nearly all my trips, no matter how far, are hand luggage only. I detest having to wait for suitcases and I am more nimble without one. Very occasionally I need to take one, for instance earlier this year I needed to import a very large quantity of Flamin' Hot Cheetos from the good ol' USA, but normally I take (and bring back) the bare minimum. 

We had left the terminal before the car guy could even sell us pumice insurance and were on our way. The weather was disappointingly grey and murky, even approaching the middle of the day. That's Iceland! With photography therefore unlikely to feature Mick and I reverted to plan B. Birding. And twitching actually. A few years ago we had done a similar trip and tried to find a White-winged Scoter near the capital. Long story short we didn't see it, but it had been seen that same morning per eBird and we went straight to the site which is on the west side of Reykjavik at Alftanes. I think the water body in question is called the Bessastadatjorn. You can only drive around one side of it because the President lives on the other side. We started on the south shore but it was pretty massive, and carpeted in Geese and Ducks - a good sign. Eider were the most common, with smaller numbers of Brent, Greylag, Tufted Duck, Red-breasted Merganser, Shoveler, Long-tailed Duck, Wigeon and Mallard. Large black American ducks? No. 

Eventually we spied a car on the far side, a car that very much looked like a birders car, stopped, with the window down. Find the birder, find the bird, and sure enough once we had worked out how to get around to that side we discovered the drake WWS asleep on a small island. This was my second of this species in a week, the week before I'd been up in Fife and had seen one off Dumbarnie Links at the same time as the Stejneger's Scoter. Crazy times. We hadn't been watching it long when for some reason it popped into the water and then flew directly at and then past us, seemingly heading out to sea. We continued to bird the area, eventually totalling 34 species, which is pretty decent in Iceland. Waders encompassed Oystercatcher, Golden Plover, Whimbrel, Black-tailed Godwit, Snipe, Redshank, Turnstone, Knot and Purple Sandpiper, the latter on the same tiny island that the Scoter had been on. The lake also had both Red-throated and Great Northern Diver. Interestingly there were quite a few Wheatear about, a reminder that we were much futher north - at home the bulk had gone through already. Despite their presence it not feel very spring-like at all, a rather penetrating wind and regular squals of cold rain. 

A short distance away we birded the Kasthusatjorn and the Bakkatjorn for more of the same - birds are plentiful but the diversity is prett low. We saw our first Glaucous Gulls here, huge ragged beasts that resonate pure evil. Maybe that's harsh, they are just gigantic and look unfriendly. If you died suddenly it wouldn't be long before they were gouging your eyeball out kind of vibes.

Next we tried for the long-staying Black-winged Stilt north of the town. Can you imagine it, a Black-winged Stilt in Iceland - talk about getting it wrong! Despite it having been seen earlier in the day it wasn't present at a rather unprepossessing site near some kind of dredging works and a rubbish dump. There were nine Red-necked Phalaropes doing 360s in a tiny pool of sludgey water that neither of us fancied getting down low for, and in any event we would have needed ISO 1 million as it was practically dark. We tried a few other spots we knew around Reykjavik, including a small lake we knew to have breeding Slavonian Grebe, but the weather was now foul, driving rain. We picked out six Grebes but it was the kind of rain that would soak you through in a matter of minutes so we gave up very quickly.

Trying to leave the rain behind we decided to head north, the direction we were staying in anyway, and spent the rest of the day birding our way up to Borgarnes. Lots of Ptarmigan by the roadside, small groups of Whooper Swan, and some Harlequin Duck on the sea. Around Hvanneyri we spent some time looking for wild Geese in the fields and were pleased to pick up both Pink-footed as well as White-fronted. We crossed over the low causeway into Borgarnes as dusk fell and had pizza at the huge N1 service station before heading the short distance to our accomodation and collapsing. A good day, but a little frustrating that the weather had been so poor.

Iceland - May 2023 - Logistics and Itinerary

As I write this in November 2023 Iceland is in the headlines again due to volcanic activity. The whole village of Grindavik in the extreme south-west has been evactuated and huge rifts have appeared in the ground. Grindavik is on the same peninsula as Iceland's major airport, Keflavik. Who knows what will happen, these things are measured in centuries, but imagine if that area of the country simply became too dangerous. Hopefully not next year as I've already booked again. 

Mick and I visited last May for a weekend. Birding and photography, as is always the case. We faced frankly terrible weather, with one patch of clear sky out to the west one day. The rest of the time it remained incredibly murky, with rain, snow, wind and hail. Typical Icelandic weather in other words and you can't legislate for it. Ditto volcanic eruptions. Let's see.

Logistics

• A long weekend in mid May leaving early on Saturday morning and returning on Monday mid morning. This meant we had just a day and a half really, what could we see and where could we go.
• Flights were on British Airways from Heathrow to Keflavik, bought during one of their frequent sales, and booked with a car to turn it into a holiday and thus defer payment until shortly before departure.
• We had some kind of miniscule Dacia 4x4, and the BA holidays booking meant the insurance was fully comprehensive and we didn't get stung for lava insurance and all the other add-ons that are peculiar to iceland.
• Accomodation was a basic but functional self-catering lodge akin to a self-service youth hostel near Borgarnes called Hestaland. Clean and warm.
• We birded where the weather would allow us to, spending most of our time around Reykjavik on day one, and then on the Snaefellsnes Pensinula on day two as it was the only place where it wasn't raining.
• There were a couple of rarities that kept us interested - one, a White-winged Scoter (Deglandii) we saw, the other, a Black-winged Stilt, we dipped repeatedly.
• We basically ate junk food all weekend, but there was an excellent café called Hja Goou Folki on Route 54 as we drove towards the bird colonies around Arnarstapi and Hellnar, and the N1 service station at Borgarnes also helped keep us alive.

Itinerary

• Day 1 - concentrated on the water bodies around Alftanes - in particular Breidoabolsstaotjorn. Bessastadatjorn and Bakkatjorn. We also spent time to the north-east of Reykjavik not seeing the Black-winged Stilt before driving up to our accomodation at Hestaland.
• Day 2 - We birded some of our favourite roads to the west of Borganes, the 533 and the 540, both of which are extensive loops. The weather was rather against us however and these were significantly less productive than we had hoped. At around lunchtime we gave up, and looking at the local weather map determined that the only place we could realistically go was the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. We spent most of the time simply admiring the landscape, but there were nonetheless birds, including some seabird colonies at the western end. We also visited some woodland near Stykkisholmur, as well as the headland there.
• Day 3 - We left early to get closer to the airport, and birded to the west of the runway, mostly around Sandgeroi to top up the trip list, but surprised ourselves with Manx Shearwater before we had to leave.

Finally

Once upon a time I drove up to Suffolk to twitch a Lesser Kestrel. I had the whole of the school day yet I very nearly dipped it and was on my way back to London to pick up the children, disgusted with how my day had turned out, when it reappeared. I had not gone far so I did a U-turn on the A12 and snaffled it by the skin of my teeth, arriving back at school with seconds to spare. There had also been a Pallid Swift a little further up the road, where exactly escapes me all these years later but had I gone straight there I would have seen it immediately and still been able to stare at (nearly) Kestrel-less skies all day at Westleton.

My twitching career carried on without any hint of Pallid Swift for a few more years before drifting to a near complete standstill. There may have been loads of gettable ones between then and now, I've no idea, but for quite a few days now there has been a juvenile at Winterton in Norfolk, roosting every evening on the church tower. Twitching Hirundines and Swifts immediately makes me nervous, they could head up into the clear sky at any moment, driven by a weather front or passing birds, and that would be that. I'd probably arrive just a few minutes later to hear a variation on the immortal words "It was showing brilliantly five minutes ago...".

I should have gone straight there from last Sunday's Canvasback at Abberton but I don't think I knew about it until after I'd arrived home. I could have snuck it in yesterday morning but I had an afternoon social event and I didn't want to be limited by needing to leave Norfolk by midday. Yesterday evening I definitely wasn't going. Rain was forecast late morning, it was over two hours away, I was tired, the car had no petrol in it.....any old excuse basically. I woke up at 6am and had a change of heart, it had been there late afternoon yesterday and this might be one of my best chances ever. I got in the car. 

I needn't have worried, it showed about five minutes after I got there at around 9am, and then almost continually thereafter as it did wide circuits around the area. Initially quite distant, it eventually did some low passes over the village for astoundingly good views in lovely morning sunshine. Would that I had had my camera. Still, a great experience, and I'm very pleased to have finally seen Pallid Swift in this country. I expect it was one of my 'easiest' ticks, up there with Terek and Broad-billed Sandpipers. I might not do a massive amount of twitching these days but there is still definitely some thrill to be had and I definitely still enjoy it for that. I wonder what will be next?

California add-on

The flight from Oahu arrived at six in the morning, a nasty red-eye in a recliner seat. With the flight back to London not leaving until about three in the afternoon there was plenty of scope for further birding. With this in mind I'd hired a car cheaply and with no hold luggage and no immigration we were on our way very quickly. I've spent a fair bit of time hanging around LAX and had a good list of sites to visit that were not too far away given the awful traffic in LA. Still, I just love California, kind of my 'home' State, the only place I've ever lived in the US for any length of time. If I can ever get my arse in gear to register to vote it would be here, but as it is staunchly Democratic there seems little point at the moment.

Anyway, our first stop was the Playa del Rey which is at the end of the runway. It's always a good spot to start a California list. Looking out to see we counted about ten Surf Scoter, at least 350 Western Grebe, and uncountable numbers of Double-crested Cormorants and Brown Pelicans. On the beach itself a few Gulls were loafing, and a Heermann's flew south. Also present were three Marbled Godwit and two cups of much-needed coffee. We upped the number of Surf Scoter by changing position and looking from the Pacific Avenue Bridge, and also found a pair of Red-breasted Merganser. The sheer numbers of birds on the distant breakwaters was a sight to behold, but no way to grill them properly without a telescope. An Elegant Tern flew past close enough to see it properly. 

The sea exhausted we headed just inland to Ballona Freshwater Marsh, no more than a two minute drive. When I was last here in January 2020 there had been a few people camping in their cars alongside the reserve. Now there is practically a village - beat-up campervans, wrecked cars, shacks, and predictably rubbish everywhere. Welcome to America in 2023, the California dream is not enjoyed by everyone and it was the same if not worse in San Diego. The birds don't seem to mind their human neighbours however, and we spent 90 minutes here racking up close to 50 species. There were lots of freshwater Ducks, including Cinnamon Teal, lot of waders including Wilson's Snipe, Long-billed Dowitcher and Western Sandpiper, whilst White-throated Swift carved through the sky overhead. Smaller birds in the bushes included Common Yellowthroat, Yellow-rumped Warbler and California Towhee, and I was pleased to see Bushtit again which had been a new bird for me at this very site not that long ago.  

Allen's Hummingbird

Green Heron

Our final stop was Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park, a little further south near Torrance. I'd never been and had chosen it from recent eBird lists - it was excellent, with both Anna's and Allen's Hummingbird, and many more smaller birds than Ballona. The full list is here, and you can get a feel for what was where from the table below. Yellow-rumped Warblers were particularly prevalent, and we also had a Hooded Oriole and an Orange-crowned Warbler in some trees at the south of the main lake. We had to call it a wrap far too soon, but missing the flight would not have been much fun and in any event we wanted to clean up and have showers etc before we left. We packed up our gear, broke down the cameras for the last time, and headed back to the airport. In our few hours we had managed 65 species, almost all of them different to what we had seen in Hawaii. Always nice to break up what would otherwise be a really long trip back home. So long California, hope I see you again soon.

Oahu - Trip List

Here are the 50 species we saw, of which over half are naturalised exotics. There is a list below, and for more detail about exact site please use this eBird link.

"Who? Me?"

 

"Yes, you"

  

Oahu - Day 4

What to do today, our final day on the island with a late evening departure to Los Angeles? Another tour of the island is what - when you have a Mustang convertible it would be rude not to, and you can't beat the wind rushing through your hair, or at least that's what Mick said. We had another look for ducks at Kahuku fish ponds (failed again), another look at the Bristle-thighed Curlew at the golf course (this time there were two birds), and then drove the Lyon Arboretum, lured by the possibility of Cockatoos that live wild there - White and Salmon-crested. We saw a few of these in trees distantly but were later told by the eBird reviewer that all the birds now present were hybrids between the two. Oh well. Standard Hawaii I suppose.

After an epic but slightly tricky snorkelling session at Electric Beach (advanced swimmers only, and you must have powerful fins!), where a power station warm water outflow attracts vast numbers of tropical fish and turtles it was time to think about leaving. We tried another seawatch down near the Japanese Fishing Shrine, but it was a shadow of what it had been previously as a result of different winds, so instead we went to a local park to concentrate on photography and to see if we could find any new birds for the list.

Yellow-fronted Canary

Ke'ehi Lagoon on the edge of Honolulu has Yellow-fronted Canary so that's where we went, and we managed to find a small group with ease near the bandstand. The list from this site is notable in that every single passerine species we saw was an introduction, with only the Turnstone and PGP lending any credibility to proceedings. Dear oh dear, but this is what it is. There was an article just this week declaring that yet another eight Hawaiian endemics have been declared extinct. It is fair to say that Hawaii is the extinction capital of the modern era. For many reasons, but part of me cannot help but think that the transposition of the American lifestyle onto Pacific islands has played a large part. I was looking at my list of native birds the other day and noted that despite four visits my list of Hawaiian native passerines stands at just 10, with 14 native birds in total - the others being a Duck, a Goose, a Coot, and a Hawk. Of the other 63 species the vast majority have been introduced by humans. Go while you still can! I'll leave you with a final selection of "Zoo"!

Red-billed Leiothrix

White-rumped Shama

Red-whiskered Bulbul

Panther (impact on Albatross colonies currently poorly understood).

Oahu - Day 3

Anyone who has been to Hawaii will know that it is for the most parts a zoo as far as the birds are concered, with the majority of the species you see having been introduced. The real birding spots are few and far between, with the endemic Honeycreepers confined to higher elevations where native forests still cling on and mosquitoes can't (yet) reach. Oahu has a couple of these endemics left, and the best place to see them is the 'Aiea Loop trail, which is reached by travelling east from Honolulu more or less opposite Pearl Harbour. The area is gated, a National Park, and opens at 7am so a little bit after first light - you can expect a short queue of vehicles filled with hikers and joggers, but very few birders. We birded as we waited, with our first Red-crowned Parrots of the trip on their morning commute at around 6.40am, and some relatively tame White-rumped Shama around the nearby gardens. Once open you continue in your car up the slope on a one way loop. We parked as close to the trailhead as we could, so at about 1pm on a clockface, but on reflection it would better to have left it at one of the lower car parks at, say, 3pm, so that we were not faced with a final climb at the very end.

White-rumped Shama. Another introduction.

It's a long walk! We covered nearly five miles doing the whole loop and there is fair amount of up and down to cope with. I am not as young as I once was! The big target here is the Oahu Elepaio, a type of Flycatcher, which has endemic status on Kauai as well as Big Island (Hawaii) - this would be my third and final one. Also present in this area of native habitat are Oahu Amakihi, which also has a cousin on Hawaii, and Apapane which has a wider distribution across the chain. There was also an outside chance of Mariana Swiflet, although this is an introduction from Guam. I had researched this fairly thoroughly and marked several specific spots along the trail that prior ebirders had noted with coordinates. Remarkably  this came good at only the second such spot, with a showy pair feeding a fledged juvenile. I had been expecting to dip so this was seriously good news and a big relief. Unfortunately it was very dark making photographing them pretty difficult.

Oahu Elepaio

Oahu Amakihi

The rest of the trail saw us pick up numerous Oahu Amakihi, but strangely we only heard Apapane and could never track them down. I guess of the three native birds these were the two I wanted, but the missing one would have been a tick for Mick. Non-native birds included Chestnut Munia, Warbling White-eye, Red-billed Leiothrix and Red-whiskered and Red-vented Bulbul. At around the halfway stage it is worth noting that there is a magnificent view over the Halawa Valley, the raised section of the Freeway is particularly striking as it curves into the distance. From my perspective the plants were almost as exciting as the birds, especially as the final stages of the loop were pure Araucaria forest with trees in all stages of development from tiny saplings just growing their first leaves to slender giants a hundred feet tall - again not native but regardless one of my favourite trees on the planet. We arrived at the end of the loop exhausted, hot and dehydrated, and the had to slog it uphill and back to the super-heated car!

Once we had recovered we wound our way down to Honolulu and picked up the H3 road we had been gazing down upon to take us to the east side of the island. Here we visited the Nu-upia Ponds just outside the Marine Corps Base and successfully picked up Black Noddy (the best place on the island to do so) as well as Wandering Tattler which was new for the trip. Hamakua Marsh and the Ka'elepulu Wetlands were a litlle uninspiring as access wasn't really possible, or not that we could work out, but we stoof as the edge to see what we could find - mostly Hawaiian Coot, Cattle Egret, American Moorhen and then all the usual introduced suspects.

Red-crested Cardinal from.....South America!

We then enjoyed a great seawatch from Sandy Beach Dunes Park, with thousands of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters passing at a hundred a minute, Brown Noddy, the three Booby species (Red-footed, Brown and Masked), and several Sooty Tern including a possibly unwell juvenile that landed right next to us in the car park. A scope would have made this final hour truly epic, but packing light we had not brought one - I must buy a travel scope one of these days, it would be transformative. As it was we had to use the cameras to take photos of distant specks, and by then studying the back of the camera through inverted binoculars we could confirm that we had indeed seen Masked Booby. A fairly long drive back to the North Shore for our establised food truck and one small beer routine ended a great and very successful day.

Sooty Tern