As we are already in August, the puffling time is going fast! The adult puffins have the duty to feed the young ones during this period. The pufflings, or chicks, don’t leave burrows before knowing how to fly and both male and female puffin take turns bringing fish to them.
In Skjálfandi Bay, besides humpback whales it is also possible to spot minke whales! These whales are regular visitors in the bay and might be seen throughout the year. Minke whales are widely distributed, occurring in the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans and they received this name after a Norwegian whaler named Meincke.
Another fantastic month is ending and once again we collected some of the highlights from the last weeks. Whilst July challenged us several times with unpleasant weather and sea conditions, the whales were making up for the situation the entire time: Humpback whales have been spotted throughout July, often several of them on a tour and numerous individuals in different areas of the bay.
Daily, humpback whales in Skjálfandi Bay display different types of behaviors. In our recent posts, we explained why humpback whales during the night are actively feeding closer to the surface. In the last days, humpback whales are frequently seen resting or displaying acrobatic behaviour, like “Lobtailing”.
Throughout our whale watch season, many different humpback whale individuals come to feed in Skjálfandi Bay. Some might stay for just some hours, others for days and even weeks. Some might actually return year over year.
Krill are small crustaceans and are found in all the world's oceans. Krill look shrimp-like with a size of about 2 inch / 5cm. All together, there's 86 krill species worldwide. Alongside small schooling fish and plankton, krill are among our whales' main diet.
Do you remember our recent post about what makes this place such a great feeding ground for whales and why these magnificent animals actually migrate into cooler waters for their feeding season? In fact, this has not always been the case! Around 4.5 million years ago a sudden cooling and forming of ice caps in the northern hemisphere and thus a change of food supplies took place.
The humpback whale has a distinctive body shape, with long pectoral fins, also commonly named flippers. In fact, the scientific name “Megaptera novaeangliae”, of this species, means “big wing of the New England”, referring to this unique characteristic.
Nutrient rich waters are essential for the feeding grounds of our whales and the reason why the abundance of food for these gentle giants stays stable. But why is there such an amount of nutrients especially in cold waters? First of all, glacier melt delivers nutrients into the oceans.
If you visit a puffin colony on your journey around Iceland, you'll probably notice quite quickly how clean the nesting grounds are compared to those of other birds. Puffins are extremely clean birds and make sure to keep their homes tidy.
