Iceland Blog — Earth Impressions Photography

Day 11 Route with photo locations marked

Puffins! Day 11 was the first of two days that we had hoped to get close up views of Puffins nesting. It was not a disappointment. We ventured to Borgarfjordur Eystri harbor (Stop A), where there is a colony of several thousand Puffins and many other shorebirds that nest in the cliff of what used to be a small island (before the harbor was built). Many of the Puffins had already left for the open sea where they winter, but there were still hundreds around getting ready for their migration by catching and eating the plentiful small fish there. Kittiwakes were also about chasing the Puffins to steal the fish that hang from their mouths. The weather was in the mid-sixties, so it was very pleasant to hang out and watch the action.

In the afternoon we took a wonderful hike in an alpine valley up to the base of a towering mountain that still had some small glaciers in the cirques around it (Stop B). The wildflowers were particularly nice. On the pass just west of there were views overlooking a long black sand beach at Husey. We returned to Seydisfjordur for dinner and walked around the town a bit afterwards (Stop C). All around Iceland the rainbow flag is flown, and rainbow colors are painted on the streets or in town squares as a symbol of equality, as is readily seem in this small port town.