Day 3 - Auks and Gulls

Following a slightly earlier breakfast we made our first stop at the patch where there were a lot less gulls than yesterday but still a good selection of different ages and species. We then drove west along the north coast of Snaefellsness visiting the harbours of Olafsvik, Rif and Hellisandur where there were a good selection of gulls to look at as well as Eiders to check through and work on the identity of common vs borealis. We also saw a Black Guillemot, a few Long-tailed ducks and a Red-throated and a Great Northern Diver.

Along the road there were some amazing ice columns and on most of the cliffs there were prospecting Fulmars. Although the weather wasn't great there were several dry spells between the snow showers and even some sunny spells so we decided to drive out to the cliffs at Ondverdanes to see if we could see any auks, especially Brunich's Guillemot. The road wound it's way across a huge black lava field until a T junction where we turned left and drove on across the stark landscape until we parked up where we could easily see the cliffs. A short, careful walk across the grassy tussocks and rough rocks and we reached a sheltered area where we could scan the sea and the cliffs.

We then drove on until we reached the lighthouse with two names as it can be seen from two directions, the sea and the land at Skalasnaga/Svortuloft Scanning through the telescopes found thousands of auks spread across the sea in long lines and we spent some time trying to identify Brunnich's. Although we were somewhat confident we had found some, the distance, light and sea spray meant that we couldn't be 100% certain so we finally gave up and returned to the hostel, via a second visit to Rif harbour, where they were busy loading and unloading fish and some of the gulls were taking advantage of the free fish guts for a meal.

We decided to eat out this evening  and as there is only a choice of Hotel, expensive, or Italian restaurant, we went for the restaurant and enjoyed a really nice meal.