Lady's Birthday Adventure - Part 3

Today we bring you the wildlife adventures.  On my list of things to do in Iceland was to see the wildlife. I wanted to see the arctic fox, seals, puffins and reindeer. I got very lucky that I saw all the above and more!

The Arctic Fox

Everything I read about this fox suggested that the likelihood of us seeing one was very low. First, we weren't going to the West Fjord where they live and also seeing them during the day is rare.  We got lucky, because in the end we saw 2. The picture if of the first one we saw. We saw a second one toward the end of the trip also while driving. The second one had a bird in his/her mouth. I didn't get a good picture of that unfortunately, but was thrilled to have seen 2!

Reindeer

The reindeer live on the east of the island only. I believe they were brought to the country by the Vikings, like almost everything but the arctic fox:)  On my birthday, we were at a former movie set (more about that in a later post). We came out of the set to see a herd of reindeer. We saw a second herd later that day, but this was the best encounter as we weren't in a car and we could just stand and watch until they ran away.

Seals

We saw seals in two places. One in the south, near Hofn and one in the north near Hvammstangi.

These are the seals near Hofn

After visiting the Seal Centre in Hvammstangi, we drove the peninsula to 2 spots where the seals live.  We had been told at the centre the best time to see the seals was about 8 pm. We visited the spot around 2:30 and went back around 8 pm. Here are some of the highlights.

Mom feeding her pup. The pup had come up and barked and barked. Mom hopped up, feed the pup and they disappeared. 

A seal showing off

Two seals playing or maybe mating, we couldn't tell for sure

Puffins

There are a lot of puffins in Iceland, however, like every creature on this planet except humans, the numbers are declining.

In the south, near Vik, we saw one nesting.

On a boat tour to Puffin Island near Husavik we saw several thousand. 

Those are all puffins

Whales

I am an animal lover, but I admit to being a big whale hater. I started after reading Moby Dick. Since then I have had a very strong fear of being crushed by a whale. I can't go under a whale skeleton in a museum. I have gotten better as I can be in the room with a skeleton without crying. One of my goals for this trip was to overcoming my fear. I had started doing cognitive behaviour therapy on myself (I am a behaviour analyst after all) and had made some progress. Then in March I believe, a Canadian woman was killed when a whale jumped up and landed on the zodiac she was on. Freak accident yes, but it made my phobia go from the completely irrational to possible, even if unlikely. I had given up on it until about 2 days before we were near Husavik. I decided I would try it. New decade, new me! The rules were no zodiacs and I wouldn't take the pictures. 

It wasn't easy, I thought I was going to faint or throw up much of the 4 hours and I did a lot of cognitive behaviour therapy in my head. But I was able to look at the sea life we saw. Interesting to note, after the tour we went to the whale museum and I still couldn't be under the skeleton. Maybe I will live the rest of my life that way, and that is ok!

What we saw:

We saw dolphins and porpoises. Not sure which these are.

We saw a humpback.

What we didn't see - Blue Whales. Apparently 3 have been visiting the bay. I think I am ok with not seeing the biggest creature to ever live on the planet. The humpback was more than enough!

The next day, on our search for seals, we saw 2 whales in the bay. Here is one. Our guess given the size and location and what we learned from the marine biologist who was our whale watching guide is they were Minke whales. 

I am happy to say, all my wildlife adventures came true on my trip.

Come back next Saturday for "the road". In future posts we will explore, fire, ice and waterfalls too!