Species seen today: Minke whales, Harbour Porpoises, White Beaked Dolphins

Birds seen today: Atlantic puffin, Arctic tern, northern fulmar, black-legged kittiwake, herring gull, manx shearwater,  sooty shearwater, great black-backed gull, lesser black-backed gull, common guillemot, black guillemot, northern gannet, storm petrel, cormorants 

10:00 - What a beautiful morning that we had, the sun was strong and shinning and the minke whales are still around in the bay. The northern gannets were striking agains the water multiple times and also the seagulls were fishing so there was a lot of fish in the bay still. We stayed in the area seeing the minke whales for quite some time but we dont want to stress the animals for long periods of time so eventually we went to another area to try to find something else. In this area we found 2 curious white beaked dolphins coming super close to the boat but after realizing that we were not a fish the swam away. This dolphins were our last sighting before we started to head back tot he harbour.

Crew: Captain Oddi & Guide Rodrigo  

12:00 - Plenty of Atlantic puffins at Engey on the way out in to the Bay. Soon there will be none but this tour had some lovely views of birds at the burrows and sat on the water. It was a beautiful day as we headed out although the sea was a little choppy. On the way out we spotted some white beaked dolphins and had some great views of them before carrying on to see what we could find. We headed far out where our expert Captain Oddi knew to find plenty of feeding birds and fabulous diving gannets. Considering how much food there must have been in the area, it took us a little time to find the whales but we had some excellent sightings of 4-5 individuals before it was time to come home.

Crew:  Captain Oddi & Guide Rachel 

14:00 -  After seeing the lovely puffins we face the faxafloi bay to search for the cetaceans and didn't took long until we saw some splashes in the water so we tried to get closer to understand what it was. This splashes were coming from a pod of white beaked dolphins and in the pod there were 2 baby ones jumping with the parents. They were quite elusive because of the baby dolphins but still everyone managed to see them multiple times and very well at the surface of the water. After the doplhins we continued the tour and we saw 2 harbour porpoises very close to the boat we could even see them underwater. This porpoises led us to the area of the minke whales, this ones much bigger than the porpoises were passing around us enjoying our company on the boat. After the minke whales we had to start to head back to the harbour becuase our time was ending.

Crew:  Captain Oddi & Guide Rodrigo

16:00 -  We saw some Atlantic puffins at Engey again on our way out. Conditions were still a little choppy and we still had to drive quite far to find the birds and the minke whales. We were able to enjoy some great views of the minkes, and there must be 10-15 individuals in the area, some near and some far! We stayed with them and tried to search for dolphins on the way back in but they gave us the slip this time.

Crew: Captain Daniel & Guide Rachel

20:00 - Conditions had calmed slightly in the bay as we headed out to sea. We stopped at Akurey but there were very few Atlantic puffins remaining there now, as we come to the end of the breeding season. We saw plenty flying as we headed further out in to the bay to search for whales. After some driving time we sighted some birds and stopped to look. Nothing there. We carried on and caught a glimpse of a minke whale. We stopped in the area and got occasional whiffs of rotting fish from the minke’s blows! We had several sightings of minke whales, some quite near the boat but the whales were elusive and we lost them again. We spotted some splashes further away and headed towards them to find some white-beaked dolphins playing, feeding, tail slapping and jumping. They hung around the boat with us and looked spectacular against a very beautiful sunset with a blood red and orange sky. Stunning. We headed back in towards the harbour and had some fun around Solfar, and checked out Harpa the concert hall on our way back. Beautiful evening, great wildlife, lovely guests.

Crew: Captain Eggert & Guide Rachel

Today we are running our whale watching tours as well as our puffin tours all day.

For more information come see us at Ægisgarður 5D

email us at info@whalesafari.is or call us at +354 497 0000