Photo at right: an Iceland Gull 
The species breeds not in Iceland, but in Greenland.
It arrives in Iceland in numbers in September and October.  
One of as many as eleven species of gulls seen during our Autumn 2013 Iceland Tour.
(Not among them was the Lesser Black-backed Gull. ) 
 


Dates:  

September 26 - October 5, 2013


Codes:

(ICr):        rare in Iceland
(ICv):       a vagrant in Iceland




Links:

Part #1: Grouse to Puffin     Part #2: Sandgrouse to Buntings

Birds during previous FONT Iceland Tours

Complete Iceland Bird-List
(over 350 species, including vagrants from mainland Europe, Asia, & North America)

A List of Icelandic Wildflowers & some Other Plants  (with some photos)

Upcoming Iceland Birding & Nature Tours

1. Whooper Swan   sep,oct 
   
   
2. Greylag Goose  sep,oct 
   
   
3. Pink-footed Goose  sep,oct  
   
   
4. Barnacle Goose  sep
   
   
5. Mallard   sep,oct 
   
   
6. Gadwall  oct
   
   
7. Eurasian Wigeon  sep,oct
   
   
8. Eurasian Teal  sep  
   
   
9. Tufted Duck  sep oct
   
   
10. Greater Scaup  oct 
    
    
11. Barrow's Goldeneye  oct 
    
    
12. Long-tailed Duck  sep,oct 
    
    
13. Harlequin Duck  sep-oct
    
    
14. Common Eider  sep,oct 
    
    
15. Common Merganser (or Goosander)  sep,oct
    
    
16. Red-breasted Merganser  sep,oct
    
    
17. Common Loon  (or Great Northern Diver)  oct
    
    
18. Northern Fulmar  sep,oct
    
    
19. Horned Grebe  (or Slavonian Grebe)  oct
    
    
20. Northern Gannet  sep
    
    
21. Great Cormorant  sep,oct     
    
    
22. European Shag  oct
    
    
23. Merlin  sep,oct
    
    
24. Eurasian Oystercatcher  sep,oct
    
    
25. European Golden Plover  sep,oct
    
     
26. Common Ringed Plover  sep
    
    
27. Common Redshank  sep,oct
    
    
28. Purple Sandpiper  sep,oct
    
    
29. Dunlin  sep 
    
    
30. Little Stint  (ICr)  sep 
    
    
31. Ruddy Turnstone  sep,oct
    
    
32. Black-tailed Godwit  sep
    
    
33. Bar-tailed Godwit  sep
    
    
34. Eurasian Curlew  oct
    
    
35. Buff-breasted Sandpiper  (ICv)  sep
    
    
36. Black-headed Gull   sep,oct 
    
    
37. Common Gull   sep
    
    
38. Iceland Gull   sep,oct
    
    
39. Glaucous Gull  sep,oct
    
    
40. "European" Herring Gull  sep,oct   
    
    
41. Great Black-backed Gull  sep,oct
    
    
42. Ring-billed Gull  (ICv)  sep
    
    
43. Little Gull  (ICr)  sep
    
    
44. Sabine's Gull  (ICv)  sep
    
    
45. Mediterranean Gull   (ICv)  sep
    
    The identity of an "odd gull" seen on September 29, 2013 during our Iceland Tour, at the glacial ice at Jokulsarlon, with mostly Black-headed Gulls, was not known at the time.
    But a week later, what was seemingly the same bird (documented in a facebook photo) was identified by Icelandic birders at the same place as a first-winter Mediterranean Gull, Ichthyaetus melanocephalus, and confirmed as the first record of the species for Iceland.        
    
    
46. Black-legged Kittiwake  oct
    
    
47. Black Guillemot   sep,oct 
    
    
48. Dovekie (or Little Auk)  oct
    
    
49. Atlantic Puffin  oct   
    
    
50. Feral (or Common) Pigeon   sep
    
    
51. Northern Raven   sep.oct
    
    
52. Goldcrest  (ICr)  sep
    
    
53. "Icelandic Wren"  oct 
    
    The "Icelandic Wren", Troglodytes troglodytes icelandicus, is a subspecies of the Eurasian Wren, endemic to Iceland and slightly larger than other subspecies.      
    
    
54. Northern Wheatear  sep      
    
    
55. Common Blackbird  (ICr)   sep
    
    
56. Redwing   sep,oct
    
    
57. Common Starling   sep,oct
    
    
58. White Wagtail   sep
    
    
59. Meadow Pipit  sep
    
    
60. Eurasian Siskin  (ICr)  sep
    
    
61. Common Redpoll  sep,oct
    
    
62. Arctic Redpoll  (ICv)  sep
    
    The subspecies of the Arctic (or Hoary) Redpoll seen in Reykjavik on September 26, 2013 (2 individuals) was Carduelis hornemanni hornemanni, the "Greenland" or "Hornemann's  Arctic Redpoll".
    It breeds along the east coast of Greenland from Kangertittivag/Scoresbysund area northwards. It winters further south along the Greenland coast, and small numbers occur in Iceland in the autumn and spring, but where they spend the winter is seemingly unknown.
    
    Another subspecies of the Arctic (or Hoary) Redpoll also rarely occurs in Iceland: Carduelis hornemanni exilipes, the "Coues Arctic Redpoll" that breeds on the tundra of Eurasia & North America.
    Carduelis hornemanni hornmanni is paler than Carduelis hornemanni exilipes.         

Other Wildlife & Nature during the FONT tour 
in Iceland in September/October 2013


 1.  Harbor Seal  sep,oct 


 2.  Gray Seal  sep


 3.  Moon Jellyfish  oct
      Aurelia aurita


 4.  A brilliant starlit sky, with a vivid Milky Way  oct