The Icelandic Canadian - 01.04.2007, Side 31

Vol. 61 #1
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
29
Iceland’s incredible bird life
by Denise Wilkins and John Wilson
The Skua
Before we got to Iceland it seemed like
a remote northern island with a cold
sounding name. However, since traveling
and filming there we discovered that it
does get cold even in the middle of sum-
mer, but it is a beautiful country with areas
just teaming with wildlife. Although there
are no reptiles or amphibians and only one
indigenous land mammal, there are literally
millions of seabirds and of course, the place
to find them is along the coasts.
Latrabjarg, on Iceland's northwest coast,
is one of the world's most magnificent bird
cliffs. Different species of seabirds nest on
the lava ledges and puffins occupy the
penthouse of this high-rise.
I would guess that puffins are one of
the best known and loved birds in the
world. Looking like they’re dressed in lit-
tle tuxedos and wearing a clown makeup,
you can certainly see what makes them so
endearing. They are Iceland's most com-
mon breeding bird with an estimated pop-
ulation of 8 to 10 million. With its irre-
sistable charm, it's not surprising the puffin
has been named Iceland’s national emblem.
In an enormous fjord on the northwest
coast, a large percentage of the country’s
seabird population nest on thousands of
small islands. Here we visited one small
rocky isle with a colony of shags. Unlike
their shy cormorant cousins, shags are
completely unafraid of people, which made
them very easy to hunt and almost result-
ing in the demise of this handsome bird.
The shag chicks feed by plunging their
heads as far down their parent’s throat as
they possible can and pulling out some par-
tially digested, regurgitated fish!
The arctic tern spends more hours in
daylight than any other animal on the
globe. It’s a very common bird in Iceland
but only in the summer when it is here
nesting and raising its young. Once the
job is done, this champion flyer heads
south to the Antarctic. It is the longest
migration of any bird in the world, but the
Arctic Tern gets to enjoy a never ending
summer.
In the maze of small islands, you can
also find Iceland's largest bird of prey,
one of Europe’s only eagles. On a small bit
of rock offshore the white-tailed eagle
chicks sit in their unpretentious nest - just
a hollow in the grass, lined with touches of
seaweed. In mid-July these eaglets are
about 7 weeks old. Their parents spend
hours at a time off hunting for food. Once
the eaglets are 11 or 12 weeks old, they
will begin hunting with their parents.
There are only a couple of dozen nest-
ing pairs of white-tailed eagles in Iceland.
Accused of carrying off lambs, they were
poisoned or shot until near extinction.
Since 1913 they have been protected by
law, but this hasn’t helped. It would be a
tremendous loss if this magnificent bird no
longer soared in these skies.
In the extreme northeast comer of
Iceland, we went in search of one of the
country's five gannet colonies. No space
is wasted in a gannetry. Among a carpet of
snow white seabirds, it may take several
passes for a parent to find its own nest, but
find them they do and a ceremony ensues
to bind the pair together. Throughout the
breeding season, gannets bring in new car-
goes of grasses and seaweed to shore up the
nest for their one chick, often the load