THE GREAT NORTHERN LAKES TOUR

Besides Myvatn and Hel, there are 5 other lakes we study.  This is simply done by placing sticky tape in strategic places at each lake.  Of course, this means someone has to go to each of the lakes, a difficult task that involves driving along the coast, hiking in gorgeous places, visiting the town of Husavik, seeing lots of birds, and occasionally having coffee with the farmers who are allowing us to use their land.  Just kidding, it was a fantastic day that I don't even count as work.

This is what the experiments look like.  It's a piece of sticky plastic tied to a pole.  Later we'll come back and collect them to see how many and what type of bugs are stuck to them.  There are up to 4 of these poles in a straight line at 5, 50, 150, and 500 meters, and multiple sets of poles at each lake.  The poles are sometimes very difficult spot in the bush!

The lakes are all very picturesque!

We stopped in Husavik for lunch.  It's a fishing/tourist based town which apparently has some interesting festivals we will attend later.

One interesting point is that all the land we work is privately owned.  Even all the land around Myvatn is all privately owned - although it is a nature preserve, it's not public.  So every time we want to place an experiment, we have to ask permission from the landowner.  Most of the time it's not a problem.  In fact, one of the farmers we spoke with to let him know we were checking on our experiments invited us in for coffee and told us all about his family history. 

We stopped at some bird cliffs along the way.  There were mostly gulls, but we also saw a few puffins farther out.