Krísuvíkurberg Cliffs

A grey & rainy day offered a great opportunity to go looking for seabirds on Krísuvíkurberg Cliffs. Inclemant weather could increase the odds for interesting sightings…

Flói Bird Reserve

On the way at Flói Bird Reserve and, at this time of year, was a treat of raucous caterwauling from red-throated diver / loons. The hide was everything it should be, and this brief stop was a wonderful start to the day. Driving back and forth along the country road to the reserve gave some additional varied bird sightings, with the ability to pause and observe with no pressure from other traffic. Also, the snipe were seriously active overhead.

Passable Road

The road in to the cliffs was large/rough gravel, with some puddles in potholes, but it wasn’t challenging for an SUV proceeding gently. Two of spots, including the culvert crossing over a small stream, needed a moment of pause. Rock ptarmigan were the first welcome along the way.

Merlin Upon Arrival

Upon arrival a smaller brown falcon flew quickly past. My first raptor of the Iceland trip, and likely a merlin. A very brief encounter, but a promising one. What more might I find here?

A sign CAUTIONED that the cliffs were cracked, and WARNED to keep back from the edge. That felt hard to do with all the tempting views, but it was important. Along the clifftops there were quite a few very significant signs that small and large chunks of the cliff could separate. Keep back from the edge.

Gulls and more …

The cliffs were mostly occupied by gulls, although the seas were more varied. Various guillemots, a few small divers, eider ducks, the obligatory fulmar, shag, gannets traveling by. On land a raven and the merlin from earlier. Again, the site was mostly gulls … but quite a variety of gulls. Not nesting, but resting.

Puffins

Glassing the cliffs and water, various patterns became clear. Birds would fly from the cliffs and circle around, returning to the cliffs. Sometimes birds would fly out to feeding spots, or back. Observing every dark bird it became apparent that most were dark headed and pointed with a rapid wingbeat, but a few were smaller, more stubby than pointed, and had a different wingbeat frequency. When viewed closer … they had some facial color! Following one back to the cliffs I saw an upright bird, with orange legs and orange beak. Puffin!

Once I’d seen on puffin I started to get better at identifying them from the other darker birds. A few hours watching these cliffs, and the cliff-life, and started to be able to identify puffins.

With nothing more than a phone camera, this is my puffin photo. 🙂

Wonderful

Walking along the clifftops was a wonderful morning’s excursion. The light rain was no hinderance. Hours very well spent. A wonderful site.

Fox scat?

Walking along the clifftops I found this scat. Arctic fox maybe?

More Snip and a Heron …

The drive back had more snipe in the air, and a heron (which I didn’t know was on the Iceland list) flying over.

Nothing moving, everything in motion…

Wind enveloped and dominated as I entered the dark at Hessie trailhead. Surely it’d stop as the sun came up. What were those flecks of moisture? Once again I’d checked the weather, but failed to check for wind. Colorado weather reports should start with wind. When active, wind overpowers the other elements.

I hike at dawn to increase my wildlife encounters. A coyote amongst the beaver ponds, a busy beaver on a beeline in low light, an elk shortcutting on a human trail, a moose stopping to look both ways before it steps across the same. When early and lucky, a weasel hunting amongst the pika, a bobcat moved along by shouting jays or a bear bulking up on berries for hibernation. Dawn is better than dusk ‘cos the tardy are visible.

Critters who rely upon sense of smell for their safety don’t like wind. They cannot trust that sense in the confusing swirls; they can be surprised too easily. They bed down early and stay bedded. Nothing is out this morning, nothing is moving.

The flecks of moisture multiply, and grow. Drizzle becomes rain becomes a downpour. I can no longer push through this, I take shelter to save some part of me from being soaked through. The rain is cold, bone chilling cold to the point where long-healed bone breaks ache. Cold but invigorating.

Everything is moving, everything is in constant motion. Needles fall all around, littering the ground. Leaves fall all around, carpeting the ground. Trees quake. Wind forces its way through the trees with the sound of a small passing locomotive. Season change is in the air, and all over the ground.

The smells are rich; full, pungent and complex … unusual for Colorado; more commonly dry and lacklustre to the nose. Enhanced, and maybe dispersed, by the chill mist tumbling the churning and splashing mountain stream. Wet, damp, a subtle combination of rotting timbers and sodden leaves, maybe even the peat from high above, but also new growth and life. Oh, to capture that smellscape, it conveys the energy of mountain life.

Tall grasses – red-green for fall – shake and rattle in the breeze to compete with aspens for the most beautiful presentation of chlorophyll breakdown. Aspens have fall majesty, but my eye often gets drawn to those translucent deep reds of grasses.

A burst of movement. Surely a flock of evening grosbeaks darting up into the sky, startled and splitting to evade a real or imagined predator? No, one more batch of quaking aspen leaves – large, round and bright yellow – loosed and lifted high into the air by an updraught. One more frame of the animation as summer landscape transforms into winter through fall.

I took a moment to sit in a clearing enjoying the sights, sounds, smells while ducking another squall of rain that bordered sleet. (No doubt it was participating in depositing the fresh snow up above.) Morning light is glorious as it filters through the foliage, but fall morning light is beyond spectacular through fall foliage. I soaked it up.

No wildlife encounters but I encountered nature throughout, was enveloped in nature more powerfully than I expected. Invigorating.

Up at altitude…

Recently I allowed myself a hike up to altitude. Up early to beat the heat and the rush, and to greet the crepuscular wildlife. (I was treated to a mother Moose and her young twin offspring feeding at the trailhead for that decision.)

Above tree-line I found a spot to sit over some cliffs and watch and listen to the the Whistle Pigs (Marmots) and Pika on the rocks below, and in the scree behind. It was idyllic with the early morning sun sparkling off water running down the rocks, through bright green carpets of moss, and tumbling down to the valley far below. It felt like a little corner of Colorado paradise, sitting high in the world.

Merlin-Sitting-Tall — Spot the Merlin – sitting tall…

First I noted a (first for me) Merlin hunting the bowl-shaped cliffs. I spotted the movement and immediately lost her as she dived down behind and onto some alpine tundra (maybe after a bug or small critter.) Later I found her sitting tall on a rock – surveying the scene below – eyeing for targets. I was able to watch her for a long while before she floated past me and away. That made my day.

Over a Pika-filled scree field I watched (in some amazement) as a Harrier floated low over the rocks, turned sharply and hovered a few times, and seemed to be hunting for Pika. I think of Harrier as flatlander birds (more at home on grasslands or marshes) but it was a pretty distinctive sight. Cool behavior.

On the way down a Golden Eagle flew past, then worked down the valley over the treetops. A Golden Eagle sighting always makes for a good day, but three raptors, each successively larger, felt like a gift of a day. I was right to make the time for the hike.

There were also many hard working & tough little birds up there. LBJs to my eye, but inspiring for their endeavors.

I wasn’t expecting a birding day, but I was treated to a special one.

Visitors (via Wildlife Camera)

Some visitors. For me, it’s not about the photo quality – I’m not looking for art – it is about the confirmation of the critters presence. Nice to know who is out and about…

We’ve had lions, regularly, and sometimes mothers with full grown cubs. Often they are there soon after we are out, or the dogs are out. Good to remember.

We get bears and bobcats and coyote (less regularly) and foxes (red, grey), deer, turkey and more. Rabbits, skunk, raccoon less often still.

We get visitors. It is good to know.