Smiles of a summer night

Now the World Cup is over I can start doing something vaguely worthwhile again. Summer is generally a time of incidental birding, usually whilst I am hiking in the mountains around Reykjavík. As I virtually never take my binoculars with me on these walks (as I don't expect to find anything unusual - the day I find a Dotterel when I don't have bins with me I'll have a heart attack) I have to get close to the birds to see them. This generally involves no greater fieldcraft than sitting still and letting them come to me and some of my closest encounters have come on walks when I've left the binoculars at home. Last week I enjoyed the attentions of a male Northern Wheatear as I sat on a jagged tangle of palagonite, weird rock formations shaped like crones.

I was obviously resting in the middle of its territory and it circled me, whistling and clicking as well as embarking on short song flights along the walls of its natural ampitheatre. A common bird but most enjoyable nonetheless. At this time of year not even I could use the World Cup as an excuse not to get any exercise at all, since it's light 24-hours a day, and so there is nothing stopping me going walking at midnight if I feel like it. I went on one late night walk the other weekend, up a 750 metre mountain near Reykjavík.

The birds I encountered were pretty much those I expected: Whimbrel, Golden Plover, Meadow Pipit, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Northern Wheatear wherever there were rocks, and mournful Snow Buntings singing higher up. An Arctic Skua did a very involved broken wing display (I hadn't noticed this behaviour until last summer and then they were all doing it -either it's the latest fashion or I was blind as a bat until last summer) and just as I was jumping over a stream, my feet heading for a tussock on the far side, a Meadow Pipit erupted from the grass just where I was about to land. Fortunately, I surprised myself with my dexterity and managed to avoid trampling over a nest containing four eggs, presumably a second clutch.
I've been very idle as far as twitching is concerned this summer. A singing Tree Pipit was in Höfn for the best part of two weeks, a very rare vagrant in Iceland. The last time I saw a Tree Pipit was in the Kakamega Forest in Kenya in January and it was sharing the garden with some pretty exciting species then. I told SÁ that I'd come and twitch it with him if there was also a Great Blue Turaco and Double-toothed Barbet with it Höfn, but apparently there weren't. One failed twitch I did go on was to see another major Icelandic rarity, Common Sandpiper, which BB had found whilst looking for another good bird, Lesser Scaup on the river Sogið an hour from Reykjavík. GÞ and I had no luck whatsoever but we did see several Barrow's Goldeneye and a nice drake Harlequin Duck.
Whilst walking up the spectacular moutain Hengill 30 km from Reykjavík on Saturday, I saw a sure sign that summer is quickly approaching its sell by date, at least as far as the birds are concerned, as on the mountain we came across a large flock of Golden Plovers. Waders are thinking about leaving the country but although I feel the summer is passing too quickly I have some late summer birds to look forward to, Storm Petrel, Sooty Shearwater, perhaps a Snowy Owl and I might even go whalewatching. Last time I was at Garður in mid-June there were half a dozen Minke Whales close to land. Last summer I saw Humpbacks from land, a Sperm Whale would be nice this year, even if I have to brave seasickness in the attempt!