Edward's Birding Diary

Edward Barry RicksonThis diary feature is designed to complement the latest bird news section, and it may occasionally be entertaining although I make no promises. After having updated the Iceland Birding website every day for more than a year I came to realise that the birds entered under the "Rare Bird News" section in no way reflected the birding Iceland experience, and I began to wonder whether I should launch yet another birding blog. The final straw came a couple of weeks ago when birding in SW Iceland with three others. We stopped to watch a juvenile Gyr Falcon sitting very close to the car. Suddenly one of my colleagues spotted a Eurasian Curlew behind it and shouted, "Hey, look a Curlew!" Immediately all Icelandic eyes were turned to the Curlew, a scarce bird in Iceland, far rarer than a common and garden Gyr Falcon. I can't imagine many other places where the locals would drop a Gyr Falcon like a hot potato for a Curlew. But later that evening I was duty bound to enter the Curlew in the rare bird news, whilst making no mention of a close encounter with the world's largest falcon. So I'm keeping this diary to give a more complete picture of what birding's like season by season at this edge of Europe.
23 September 2009 PDF Print E-mail

Tunu nunaanngilaq - nujuartuuvorli*

Without having visited the place I've had a bit of a thing for Greenland for many years The promise of spectacular scenery, the harsh environment and the totally different culture made Greenland seem an irresistible location, so much so that I wondered if I'd be disappointed when I actually went. I'd been putting it off for years (too expensive, I could see more new birds virtually anywhere else in the world etc.) but at the end of June JÓH and I took the plunge and booked a flight to Kulusuk on Greenland's east coast. The east coast of Greenland is far more sparely populated than the west coast, being home to only 3,500 people in two areas, the area round Ammassilik at 65°N and Ittoqqortoormiit at 70°N.

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14 July 2009 PDF Print E-mail

How to see Red Phalarope in Iceland

It's been too long since I've seen my favourite Icelandic bird, Red Phalarope. Just as I prefer the North American name for Lapland Bunting, Lapland Longspur, then I also prefer their name for Phalaropus fulicaria, Red Phalarope to the British name Grey Phalarope for the simple reason that 95% of all the individuals I've seen have been in bright red breeding plumage rather than grey winter attire. Grey Phalarope is far too prosaic for such an attractive bird. The Red Phalarope population is small and vulnerable in Iceland and all breeding sites are off limits to visitors. There is, however, one place where visitors have a pretty good chance of seeing them in summer without disturbing breeding birds, and this is the island of Flatey in western Iceland. It's a wonderful place and worth every effort for visiting birders to visit.

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3 July 2009 PDF Print E-mail

Farthest West

There are a few things that I'd consider essential birding experiences during the short Icelandic summer: a visit to the Red Phalarope colony at Flatey, a trip to Iceland's duck factory at Myvatn, a night in a storm-petrel colony on Elliðaey and a visit to one of the three vast bird cliffs in western Iceland. In the BC (before children) era all these experiences (and much more) could easily be squeezed into the weeks either side of the summer solstice, but these days I have to pick and choose, and after I didn't visit a bird cliff in 2008 for the first time in years, I decided to make a short trip to Iceland's biggest seabird colony, Látrabjarg, which forms Iceland's most westerly tip.

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May 2009 PDF Print E-mail

Deja vu all over again

May is the probably the month most keenly anticipated by birders across the northern hemisphere, unless you live in Qaanaaq or somewhere equally far north. May started out very cool in Iceland and in some areas downright cold, with heavy snow in northern Iceland closing most roads on the first weekend in May. On the last day in April I went on a short evening trip with SÁ and ÓR to Skorradalur in western Iceland where last year we'd come across several displaying Woodcocks. En route I picked up quite a few year list birds, including Great Northern Diver, Whimbrel and Arctic Tern, the former showing just how stationary I've been this winter. After a chilly wait in the Skorradalur, with a view of the extraordinary snow-covered ridge of Skarðsheiði looming across the lake, we eventually heard the peculiar song of the male Woodcock in its roding flight across the tree tops.

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April 2009 PDF Print E-mail

Dipping in the shadow of the glacier

At Easter I ventured out of Reykjavík for the first time in months, ostensibly to see the Bufflehead which had been more or less in the same area for two months, but in reality I was just as keen to see some spring birds in south-east Iceland. Which is just as well as the Bufflehead apparently disappeared three days before we arrived and went to Norway, where a bird turned up on the west coast. Surely no coincidence? Well, it was and the Bufflehead turned up again two days after we left the area so I'm still waiting for my first lifer in nearly 10 months. But the trip to Höfn and the glacial landscapes of south-east Iceland was by no means a wasted journey as the countryside was heaving with migrant wildfowl.

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