Request for info on Birding Northeast Iceland - June 2016 (1 Viewer)

Hi,

I'm planning to visit NE Iceland in June 2016 - for the purpose of birding - and have a few questions:

- what birds are found in the Snæfellsnes Peninsula that are not in NE Iceland?
- where is the best place to see the Pink-footed Goose in NE Iceland?
- where is the best place to see the Goldcrest in NE Iceland?
- is a 4x4 recommended to access birding hotspots in this area?

Any other advice will be appreciated!

K

Hopefully Edward or someone better place to give you good, up-to-date information will see this and reply but in the meantime I offer the following comments:

1. Birds around Snaefellsnes: Red-throated Diver, White-tailed Eagle, Whooper Swan, Arctic Tern, Black-headed Gull, Kittiwake, Red-necked Phalarope, Guillemot, Fulmar, Purple Sandpiper, Glaucous Gull, Dunlin, Auks offshore, waders, etc.;

2. Pink-footed Geese breed mostly above 400m altitude;

3. Goldcrest is a vagrant in Iceland;

4. I assume by NE Iceland you mean the Myvatn area - if so a 4WD vehicle would not be required.

I've been in Iceland last year (early July) but not in the Snaefellsnes area which seems to be the best spot for White-Tailed eagle and Brunnich's Guillemot (I've seen the Guillemot at a small Auk cliff near Grindavik in the South West but they were not easy to find).
Also seen a nice flock of Pink-Footed Geese in the open area just East of the small town of Varmahlíð, on my way to Akureyri.

KHamblett said:

Hi,

I'm planning to visit NE Iceland in June 2016 - for the purpose of birding - and have a few questions:

- what birds are found in the Snæfellsnes Peninsula that are not in NE Iceland?
- where is the best place to see the Pink-footed Goose in NE Iceland?
- where is the best place to see the Goldcrest in NE Iceland?
- is a 4x4 recommended to access birding hotspots in this area?

Any other advice will be appreciated!

K

Click to expand...

1) NE Iceland is generally the best birding location in Iceland and you can see almost all the main breeding species in that area. The main exception is White-tailed Eagle, which is almost exclusively found in western Iceland (it does wander but you'd be very fortunate to see it in the NE). Glaucous Gull is also much more common in the west (thousands of pairs nest on Snæfellsnes) but it does occur in coastal areas in NE, just far less common. Auks are arguably easier to see on the Snæfellsnes peninsula as their colonies are slightly easier to reach but there are huge numbers of all breeding auks in the north at the colonies at Rauðinúpur and Langanes, you just need to walk a couple of miles to see the first colony and drive a fairly rough road to see the second.

2) Pink-footed Goose has expanded its range significantly in recent years and now breeds lower down. It is for example generally easy to see, as Val 35 mentions, by the river along the main road just south and east of Varmahlíð. It also breeds at Mývatn on the islands in the lake but they might not be easy to see there. And failing these sites then they are also found by the road on the highland areas between Mývatn and Egilsstaðir.

3) Goldcrest used to be a vagrant but then became a common breeder but is subject to huge fluctuations in population. For example, according to eBird I had 137 observations of Goldcrest in 2013 and 9 in 2015! It seems that Goldcrests find the stormy Icelandic winters tough to deal with and last winter almost wiped them out. I suppose the best place in the NE is Kjarnaskógur, just south of Akureyri. Normally they would be much easier to find in Reykjavík but I make no promises while the population is in its current trough.

4) No you don't need a 4x4. Just don't be tempted to drive a road prefixed with F- as this means it's a mountain road and suitable for 4x4 only and may also involve unbridged river crossings.

Other advice is to look at this website http://www.birdingtrail.is/ and use eBird. We have a lot of data from Iceland on eBird and it's the best resource for planning where to see target species.

Thank you so much for the valuable information on birding Iceland! I'm now planning on visiting the Snæfellsnes Peninsula - as I would like to see the white-tailed eagle.

Great to know that Iceland birders are posting observations on ebird. I'm an avid ebirder and will use it as a resource.

Thanks again for taking time to respond to my questions!

Karen