Birds of Myvatn

Birds are kind of a big deal around here.  When I interviewed for this project, they asked if I liked birds, and said that if I didn't, I would by the end of the summer.  They were right.  I have never been this excited about ducks.  People bird watch for fun around here.  The latest town gossip is that there's a juvenile eagle in the area and everyone is hoping to catch a glimpse of it (the other piece of gossip is that apparently a bunch of Americans were having a great time watching the Eurovision finale at the pizza place and knew the songs better than the Icelanders...)

There are a lot of interesting and unique birds!  There are a variety of ducks, geese, swans, grebes, loons, ravens, gulls, puffins, terns, and several kinds of little long-legged shorebird.  Most birds in Iceland are migratory and don't stay there the whole year - the familiar Canadian goose and the mallard duck can be seen here, as well as birds more commonly found in Europe.  The most common bird in Myvatn is the tufted duck, but the real star of the show is the Barrow's Goldeneye, a vagrant sea duck that breeds in large numbers at Myvatn. People come from all of the world to go bird watching here!

Everyone on the team has a favorite bird; my current favorites are the phalarope and the snipe, both cute little birds that hunt along the shoreline.  Snipes I like because I didn't actually think creatures called snipes existed - I thought snipe hunting was something made up to keep the kids busy! They're pretty funny looking with long legs and a long curved beak, and when they fly, their tail feathers make a weird whistling noise.  Phalaropes are awesome because they aren't scared of us at all, and because they are one of the few bird species to display reverse sexual dimorphism - the females are larger and more colorful, and they're the ones who fight for mates and territory.  Go girl power!

We went bird watching on the Laxa River with a friend of the group's who used to work at the research station.  She has lived along the river her entire life and knows a lot about the birds that live there!

Barrow's Goldeneye

Harlequin Duck

A Barrow's Goldeneye egg tucked away in a crevice.  This is only the first of many eggs the duck will lay.  Icelanders collect and eat the eggs, and they are very careful not to take too many.  Our friend served us a chocolate cake made with a goose egg that night.