On Saturday I finally made the one hour trip north of Reykjavik to a place where a Common Crane had been residing for the previous four days. It was first reported on Wednesday when a farmer phoned his cousin who happens to be my regular birding sidekick and reported a large grey bird with blackish head markings, about the size of a Whooper Swan but very different in shape. I dismissed it as a Grey Heron and didn't go but my friend went and had a look just to be sure and it turned out to be the first Crane of the year (about 30 previous records in Iceland). It's only the second Crane I've ever seen (one last year in eastern Iceland) and they really are majestic birds.
In the same area I saw a splendid pair of Great Northern Divers and then at a traditional site a magnificent pair of White-tailed Eagles, both of which were mobbed by Great Black-backed Gulls as soon as they took to the air. And of course there was the usual accompaniment of "dead common" Icelandic summer birds Whimbrel, Golden Plover, Snipe, Dunlin, Arctic Tern, Arctic Skua, Meadow Pipit etc.
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Hi Edward-no White Tailed Eagles near here at the moment.......
You seem to be getting out a lot at the moment. I`m finding that it`s starting to get a bit warm and buggy to go birding! Oh and all the birds are hiding behind leaves. And there`s loads of little green catapillars hanging in the forest-they always seem to head straight for the back of my neck. I envy you with your windy wide open spaces! One thing I was wanting to ask you-are there loads of mosquitoes/midges in Iceland in the summer?
Iceland is a mosquito-free country but it has various types of midges. One of Iceland's most famous birding spots, Mývatn, means midge lake and in the summer there can be dense clouds of midges in the area and they fill your eyes, ears and nose. They don't seem to bite though and I find you can learn to ignore them for the most part. Also any wind will send them diving for cover. And if visiting birders don't like the flies then they should remember that they are the main food source for Barrow's Goldeneye and Harlequin Duck. Otherwise I'm generally not bothered by insects in Iceland and can count the number of times I've been bitten on one hand. Contrast that with the misery of northern Sweden in summer......