Orsolya Haarberg - Iceland 06
August 22nd, 2008 Posted in Northern Europe, Uncategorized | 2 Comments » |Other Languages:
In my previous report I wrote about revisiting the Myvatn area. During the last two weeks of our stay, my husband, Erlend and I, continued our nostalgic trip in Iceland, starting with Jökulsárlón and then to Landmannalaugar.
However, first of all I collected my new friend, a Nikon D3 camera, which would have been great to have during the entire trip, but it is never too late!
It is good to know that Nikon finally has a camera that makes almost everything possible. Many thanks to Nikon for kindly supporting me with this equipment on my mission!
Jökulsárlón itself had not changed much since we left but it was a totally different experience this time, especially its wildlife. The nice male eiders left Jökulsárlón, and not many seals were residing in the meltwater lake any longer. The tern-colony had also disappeared, although the birds did not move far away – some chicks still needed to be fed so they were lying on the lake shore waiting for their parents to bring food. Their activity in Jökulsárlón was varied and depended on the amount of fish coming from the sea to the lake. If fish was in abundance, they were only interrupted in their busy fishing activity by the great skua, whose appearance always caused great panic among the terns. The great skua has its largest Icelandic breeding population in this area, keeping the terns constantly on alert for them, but it does not always prove enough to save their chicks – I have often witnessed that a skua managed to take young terns in order to feed their own hungry young.
I also observed many snow buntings, who had become a little overweight since our last visit, due to abundant food supply nearby the busy parking place.
So this time there were other things to take pictures of at Jökulsárlón.
The rhyolite mountains of Landmannalaugar were as beautiful as they were in June – this time without snow. We drove back there with the plan of walking part of the Hot Spring Road from Landmannalaugar to Hraftinnusker (our earlier trip to Markarfljótsgljúfur was at the other end of the trail), but the weather was not favourable. Whilst waiting for the right walking conditions, we were taking pictures nearby Landmannalaugar again. This was very inspiring, despite recurring rain-showers and spotlights only came during the hours when the sun was at its highest. After four days of waiting, with a forecast of continuously grey and rainy weather, we postponed our walk on the Hot Spring Road yet again…
Tags: Egilsstadir, Erlend Haarberg, Great Skua, Hengifoss, Hengifossá, hot spring, Hraftinnusker, Iceland, Jökulsárlón, Landmannalaugar, Litlanesfoss, Markarfljótsgljúfur, Myvatn, Orsolya Haarberg, Seydisfjordur, Snow bunting, Tern, wildlife














