Iceland

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Polar Shades

Protecting your eyes is very important in the Land of the Midnight Sun. In the summer the Polar day can last for 24 hours.

The sun is intense and extreme in the Polar regions in the summer, with rays being reflected from snow, ice, and water into your naked eyeballs.

That’s why you need to clothe your eyes in Polar shades!

I chose to dress my eyes with the Julbo Montebianco 2.

These French glasses are made for high altitudes and snow sports. The Spectron 4 lens blocks out 100% UV rays as well as a, b, & c rays. The glasses also come with removable side shields which protects your peripheral from intense blinding light.

I also like the fact that Julbo has been making eyewear for explorers and adventurers since 1888. And I would be carrying on with the explorer’s tradition.

With so many hours of daylight, you need a different type of eyewear to get some shuteye during the summer Polar “night”.

I found this out on my summer of 2023 birding trip to Iceland. High up on a summer Scandinavian packing list is a quality sleep mask. Most of my accommodations had blackout shutters but a few did not and having a sleep mask gave me much needed shut eye.

My sleep mask of choice for Scandinavian is the Alaska Bear (could it be a polar bear?!) sleep mask. This mask is comfortable and does it was it designed to do: keep out the light.

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Iceland Falcon

A raptor on my wishlist for Iceland is the Iceland falcon or gyrfalcon, the world’s largest falcon.

I believe that if you wait long enough, birds will come to you. Such was the case with the gyrfalcon.

On February 2, 2019 I saw my first gyr at the Arcata Bottoms in Northern California. What an amazing view of this female gyr that perched on power lines and then hunted coots near the road where we where the lone audience to nature’s sometimes cruel theater! This was one of my best observations of any raptor in the field.

A spread of field sketches about a long sought after lifer, the gyrfalcon.

So gyrfalcon would not be a lifer on my Iceland birding saga but seeing the Iceland falcon in Iceland would be a special experience. But first we had to find one.

Our guide had staked out a gyrfalcon nest on a cliff with two chicks. Through the scope, we could just pick out the chicks, sitting on either side of the nest but the adults were nowhere to be seen. They were probably off hunting to feed their future falcons.

This nest is believed to be the only active nest in Iceland this breeding season. Whether avian flu is to blame or a crash in prey populations, the reasons are unclear.

Our birding posse enjoying views of the gyrfalcon nest.
Ain’t that the truth!
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Seabird Cliffs of Látrabjarg

One of the visits that I was really looking forward to on my Icelandic birding trip was to see the seabird colony at Látrabjarg, the most western point in Europe.

In the Land of the Midnight Sun where the sun never truly sets in the summer, the best time to visit the bird colony is in the early evening, when many birds have returned from the sea to their nest burrows after feeding.

Luckily it is easy to get close to puffins without getting too close to the unstable cliffs.

The cliffs at Látrabjarg are the largest sea bird colonies in Europe. Here puffins, razorbills, kittiwakes, murres, guillemots, and fulmars breed. About ten million birds are present here during the summer breeding season but we were only viewing a small portion of the cliffs that spans about eight and a half miles long with a maximum height of 1,400 feet, nearly the height of Chicago’s Sears Tower (1,451 feet).

The Látrabjarg Cliffs were high on my sketchlist and I was determined to add this natural wonder into my Iceland sketchbook. The problem: rain was forecast for our evening visit. Now rain (or wetness in general) does not go hand in hand with field sketching, especially when using ink or watercolor. So I had to find shelter to start my sketch.

The westernmost lighthouse in Europe provided a weather break so I could get my initial anchor sketch in (featured sketch). In the finished sketch a few telltale ink smudges bear witness to the drizzly weather on our Látrabjarg visit.

The big draw to visiting these cliffs are the large numbers of seabirds and the close proximity to one of Iceland’s most beloved breeding species: the Atlantic puffin.

You can get close to puffins, very close at the nesting colony. This one was about six feet away.

Seabirds nest at different levels of the cliff with puffins occupying the tops of the cliffs, followed by razorbills, and towards the bottom, kittiwakes. This is represented by the vertical portraits of the three species on the right side of the sketch. Seven other species of birds also use the cliff for nesting.

40% of the Razorbill population breeds at the Látrabjarg cliffs.
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Kirkjufell

Near our digs in Grundarfjordur is Iceland’s most photographed mountain: Kirkjufell. Which is translated as “Church Mountain” because it’s shape resembles the roofline of a kirk (church).

I have seen this mountain in guide books and on maps, never knowing where in Iceland it was or even what is was called. The mountain was always photographed with the waterfall (Kirkjufellsfoss) in the foreground (Iceland boast over 10,000 waterfalls). The mountain has been used as a filming location in television series such as Game of Thrones.

This scene seems desolate, requiring a long hike or drive to get to.

This was further from the truth as a major road runs between mountain and waterfall and a port, big enough to handle cruise ships, is a quick five minute drive away. As for the long hike, it is three minute ramble from car park along a paved path to the famous vista.

The famous vista of Kirkjufell.

I knew I had to sketch this iconic Icelandic icon and I hoped the weather would be accommodating.

It is said of Icelandic weather, “ If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.” It seems you can experience all four seasons in a quarter of an hour.

When we arrived there was rain and wind. Icelandic wind seems more intense that other climes. When I stepped out of the van, the rain nearly ripped my raincoat off!! The wind was so intense that it was blowing water from the waterfall upstream and over the foot bridge!

Clips are essential for field sketching in windy and wet Iceland.

But I was determined to get Kirkjufell into my sketchbook, by hook or by crook! Having clips to keep my sketchbook open in heavy winds was a big help. Between periods of precipitation, I sketched the mountain quickly with my brush pen and I was happy with the result despite the inclement weather.

Corvidsketcher birding in Iceland. What’s that? A colony of fulmars.
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The House Full of History: Höfði House

Not far from the sea wall and a short walk from the historic old town Reykjavik is a white two story house that sits alone among a sea of green grass.

The house looks like it belongs to a member of Reykjavik’s upper middle class but it is actually much, much more than this.

It hard not to love a nation that erects a statue to a poet (politicians already have too many airports named after them). This is just to he north of Höfði House and statue represents poet Einar Benediktsson standing in front of a harp.

The house was built in 1909 as the French Consulate. It later was the home of a poet and then a painter. During the 1940s and 50s it was the British Embassy.

The front of the Höfði House.

In 1958, the city of Reykjavik purchased the house and restored it and since then, the house has been used for formal receptions and diplomatic meetings.

This house is really famous for a meeting that took place here in October of 1986 between Mickhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan. This meeting is regarded as the beginning of the end of the Cold War.

And like all good houses full of history, it is rumored to be haunted.

For my sketch, I sat on the sea wall and sketched the back of the house where the windows look out to the waters of Faxaflói Bay, while overhead black-headed gulls and fulmars flew by.

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The Whales of Iceland

Whales are some of the most amazing creatures that have ever lived on planet Earth. And one Reykjavik site that really piqued my interest was Whales of Iceland!

This museum is housed in a massive warehouse near the harbor and includes life sized models of all the dolphins, porpoises, and whales found off the shores of Iceland.

This really is a sketcher’s paradise and I found a bench located against a wall and I started to sketch the humpback, blue, and right whales that were suspended from the ceiling.

I was interrupted in mid-sketch, by a Yank (yes there are Yanks working in Iceland!) who informed me that I was not sitting on a bench but on a child’s coloring table and I was about to break it! Opps, so I found a chair and finished the sketch (featured sketch).

A small child provides scale to how large these whales really are. Perhaps she is headed towards the coloring/sketching table/bench.

It was really interesting to see the true sizes of the whales compared to others. I had seen a handful of blue whales off the California coast but you only see small parts of the dorsal side and if you’re lucky, the fluke. Here you could see the entirety of the whales. I was impressive to see just how large the largest animal that ever lived on the earth really is!

For my second sketch I drew the bowhead whale, the whale was so large that it did not fit into the pages of my sketchbook.

The eye of the largest animal on earth: the blue whale.
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Birds of Iceland

I figured I might see 20 to 25 lifers on my ten day Icelandic birding tour. This was a good goal and I hoped I’d meet it.

In the end I added 22 lifers to my world life list bringing my total to 1,740!

Aside from puffin of course, I had two species that stood out as lifers of the trip. One was the stunning male king eider, the other the powerful and menacing great skua!

The king eider is just one of those ducks that you see in a field guide and say to yourself, “I really want to see that bird!”. The male is such an amazing mix of color, shape, and form. So I had to sketch it of course.

Lifers weren’t the only draw for my Iceland trip, getting quality looks at birds, most in their stunning summer plumage, was another.

I had only seen Arctic terns while on pelagic birding trips off the California coast (it was a good day if you saw one or two on an eight hour cruise). Here in Iceland, the world’s longest migrant can be seen in the thousands. And from land! The terns have to come to land to breed and Iceland is that land.

Another pelagic species that I had seen on pelagic boat trips and occasionally while doing a land-based seawatch was northern fulmar. Fulmars where everywhere in coastal Iceland where they nest on cliffs with a close proximity to the ocean. Walking along the coast, at times fulmars outnumbered gulls as they most common bird passing overhead.

One benefit of living on the California coast is that rarities often work their way down south along the coastline. Such was the case when a snow bunting over wintered on a beach in Half Moon Bay. I first saw the bird on November 19, 2022 and the bird stayed into the new year despite the epic rains of 2023. The bunting was being seen until at least late March.

Now in the summer of 2023 on a beach in northern Iceland I was watching a beautiful male snow bunting perched on a rock. He was decked out in his black and white finery and it really put the word “snow” into snow bunting!

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Hallgrimskirkja

Hallgrimskirkja dominates the skyline of Reykjavik, Iceland. It’s the first thing you see as you head into the city from the airport. For many years it was the tallest building in the entire country. It’s design mimics the basalt columns found across the geology of Iceland. This Lutheran church is essentially Icelandic.

At first I thought this was some modern art but I soon realized it was really just a bicycle chained to the top of a light post, with Iceland’s largest church in the background.

Hallgrimskirkja is the largest church in Iceland. It was designed in 1945 but it was not completed until 1986. This gives hope to the continuous mass that is Barcelona’s unfinished Gaudi masterpiece La Sagrada Familia. It will be finished, someday.

This church topped my sketch list for Reykjavik. I love to sketch architecture. It is the best way to get to know a building and I sketched Hallgrimskirkja from a few different angles and perspectives. It is a building that holds up to many sketches. Here’s one:

While in Reykjavik, my apartment was a block and a half from Hallgrimskirkja, so it was easy to wander back to my home base. All I had to do was look for the tall spire, like a beacon announcing my Icelandic digs and wander towards it. It worked every time.

The church changes with the weather, from overcast to Icelandic sun.

One sketch I did was from a children’s playground at Njalsgata (half a block from my digs). The sketch was dominated by the tall spire of Hallgrimskirkja and in the foreground was my local coffee shop, Reykjavik Roasters. Here I enjoyed an double cappuccino and a blueberry muffin. Coffee in Europe always seems so much better. Perhaps it’s the porcelain. Perhaps it’s the view, perhaps it’s the knowledge of being somewhere exciting and new.

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Lifer on a Dirt Road

On the first day of my WINGS ten day birding tour of Iceland, we headed out from Kelavik International Airport and birded a dirt road between the airport the capital of Reykjavik.

We were birding from our Mercedes Bird Mobile and it served as a moving blind, allowing us to get close to the birds, including the hundreds of Arctic terns that were roosting on the road.

One of these birds is not like the others. A black-headed gull amongst the Arctic terns.

As we where driving north on the dirt road, we stopped to look at a common ringed plover (rhymes with “lover”) when I looked off to my right at what appeared to be a feathered periscope poking out of the green grasses. I put binoculars on the object and it turned into a lifer, the first one of the tour! A rock ptarmigan (Lagopus muta).

The ptarmigan seemed a little agitated by our presence. Perhaps the bird was on some eggs. The ptarmigan flushed, flying away from our van so we move off down the road.

We stopped at Garðskagi Lighthouse where I saw more black-footed kittiwakes (perhaps 1,000) than I have ever seen before and just below us we had amazingly close looks at common eider both males and females with their newly hatched chicks.

Now that’s a lot of kittiwakes! On the California coast I occasionally see a lone individual roosting with other gulls in the winter. This was something amazing. And kittiwakes were in breeding plumage.
The beautiful male and female common eider, the most common duck seen in coastal Iceland.
A mother eider leading her perhaps newly hatched ducklings down to the water for the first time.
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SFO to SEA, SEA to KEF

In previous SFO airport sketches I have drawn airplanes as they waited at gates. But this time I drew a swivel lounge chair. These are always prime real-estate at the airport and I found one to sit and swivel on and an empty chair to sketch.

I was pleased to know, after a bit of research, that my home international airport is highly rated amongst other airports. I guess it comes down to some simple details like where you park your butt on while you wait for your flight, and being able to swivel around to people watch.

Once on my flight to Seattle (SEA) I had a window seat in aisle 11, right in front of the starboard engine.

We were somewhere above Oregon or Washington, high above the clouds at our cruising altitude and I watched the clouds play across the landscape and the cloud’s shadows, well, shadowing it on the ground.

I did a sketch with my smaller panoramic journal, drawing in the starboard engine as a point of reference (featured sketch). Did I draw every cloud in my window view? We no, I used a bit of sketcher’s shorthand to sketch the most sketchable clouds.

At SEA, where it was raining of course, I transferred to my Icelandair flight to the Land of Fire and Ice.

On this flight I was glad to see some Icelandic beers onboard. Being a bird nerd, I ordered a Gull Lager. It met my expectations and I did a sketch to pass the time.

Skal!

I couldn’t wait to set foot in Iceland and add more ink and paint to my journals.