Scotland 2019 23: Loch Garten birds

Our next accommodation after Pitlochry was in Ballachulish (near Glencoe); but, because of the expanse of Rannoch Moor, there wasn't an obvious direct route between the two.  The choices were to go south, via Crianlarich, or north via Spean Bridge and Fort William.  Since we had the whole day for the journey, we decided to take a slight detour and head up through Aviemore to the Loch Garten Osprey Centre.  The eponymous birds have nested in Loch Garten every year since 1954, and the RSPB have installed a "nest cam" so that the chicks can be observed at close quarters without being disturbed.  Sadly the birds didn't return in 2019, but our visit was far from wasted.  Loch Garten is in the Cairngorms National Park, and its ancient Caledonian Pinewoods are ideal places to spot two of Scotland's iconic species: crested tit and red squirrel.  After the damp squib of Mar Lodge Estate, we had high hopes that the glorious sunshine would gives us better luck this time.

I spotted a red squirrel running across the track, but didn't manage to photograph it.  Perhaps our optimism would be justified after all?

The Visitors' Centre at Loch Garten is absolutely brilliant, with plenty of opportunity to watch the comings and goings on the various feeders.  Photographic conditions weren't ideal, unfortunately, with extremely harsh back-lighting and perches which were obviously man-made.  Even so, our patience was rewarded - briefly - when the feeding station was visited by one of the local cresties. 

Other visitors were siskin, chaffinch, great tit and a juvenile spotted woodpecker.

Iceland 2.34: Hvolsvöllur, Reykjanes and Grindavík

The long drive west along Route 1 was actually rather dull in terms of both the weather and the scenery.  Heavy rain had started soon after we left Reynisfjara, and the landscape became much less dramatic once we were past the Eyjafjallajökull museum in Þorvaldseyri.  In order to relieve the boredom and stretch our legs, we decided to visit an exhibition about Njáls Saga (one of the original stories telling the history of Icelandic settlement).  Rather more interesting, in fact, were the farm co-operative museum and the area where an enormous tapestry was being constructed.  Think Bayeux, but brought up to date a bit.  Sadly there was nobody working on the tapestry on a Saturday, but a whole wall was dedicated to showing what it will look like when it's finished.

By the time we reached Selfoss the weather had started to clear up a bit, so we made the short diversion to Hveragerði in order to pick up some presents to take home with us.  We then left the main road, heading south into the Reykjanes peninsula.  This area is famous for its bird life, and - since the sun was now shining - we drove down to one of the large cliffs which was home to thousands of nesting kittiwakes, along with a handful of fulmars and puffins.

Just inland from the cliffs there was a sandy area absolutely covered in wild flowers.  I walked away from the car and waited to see if anything turned up; and, sure enough, my patience was rewarded with visits from both golden plovers and whimbrels.

Our bed for the night was at the evocatively-named "Northern Light Inn" which is right next door to the Blue Lagoon, one of Iceland's top tourist attractions.  What the brochures don't show, however, is that the location is also the site of an enormous geothermal power station and right in the middle of a huge lava field!  Despite the less than attractive views, the hotel was absolutely excellent.  It claims to be one of the best places to watch the aurora borealis, boasting a 360 degree indoor viewing area.  The hotel even manages to have its own personalised number plates.

Rather than eat at the hotel's restaurant, we decided to go to the local fishing town of Grindavík to see what we could find.  Our guide book listed various eateries, all but one of which was either shut or had been converted into something different.  After driving around what felt like a ghost town for 20 minutes or so, we eventually accepted the inevitable and headed for the Bryggjan Café on the harbour side.  It was the only place which was open, after all.  We needn't have worried, however, as the welcome was warm and friendly, and the food on offer was to die for.  Lobster soup with home made bread followed by home-made cake, all washed down with Faroese beer.  Simple, honest fare which was some of the best we'd encountered anywhere in Iceland.

Sadly it was now end of our final full day on this particular trip, but the Bryggjan Café provided a fitting location for our "last supper".

Iceland 2.30: Ingólfshöfði 2

Puffins weren't the only birds at Ingólfshöfði, of course, and plenty of gulls were also in evidence: mainly great black-backed and fulmars, but we also saw the occasional kittiwake.

Ingólfshöfði is usually a safe breeding area for ground-nesting species: especially great skuas (bonxies) which have a large colony there.  The sheer scale of the sandur separating the rock from the mainland means that predators, such as arctic foxes, are kept well away.  This was certainly the case in 2013, and we had to be careful not to tread on bonxie nests while, at the same time, suffering an aerial bombardment from the chicks' parents.

In 2015 a pair of arctic foxes managed to make the crossing, and this spelt disaster for the bonxies.  Their first brood was totally wiped out, as the foxes used the plentiful supply of food to raise a large litter of pups.  They then attempted a second brood, but this too was also completely obliterated.  Not one chick survived, and the parents didn't try a third time.  As a result, all the adult bonxies were - effectively - standing around, twiddling their thumbs.  They had no young to feed and no nests to protect, meaning that the usual aggressive  behaviour was completely absent.  All desperately sad, although I'm sure the family of arctic foxes (now, thankfully, removed) didn't see it that way.

There were precious few seabirds on the cliffs, so we eventually walked back to the escarpment past the sheep hut.  It looked very dramatic with Vatnajökull as a backdrop.

Going down the sand slope was significantly easier than going up it, and then it was all aboard the tractor for the ride back to base.  As with our previous trip, the visit to Ingólfshöfði was definitely one of the highlights of the holiday, and it really should be on the itinerary of anyone who is visiting this part of Iceland.