Spring awakening – Young and wild

It has been an exciting spring for me and for my two-legged care­takers here in West Iceland. Esther & Pierre spent the entire trans­ition from winter to summer in Iceland for the first time and discovered quite a lot. For me, it was my very first spring on this Earth, and I could go on forever about my exper­i­ences. One of the fascin­ating things was watching the veget­a­tion come to life. Where there had seemed to be only dead soil, plants suddenly began to grow, and where there had been brown earth, colorful blos­soms started to shine. My sniffing nose could not rest at all! I will report more on the flora at a later date, but for now, I want to talk about the animals.

The birds have returned to Iceland in large numbers, including to Hvammsfjörður and the Mystic Light Lodge. There is now a lot of flut­tering going on around the holiday homes and I can hardly keep up with watching it all. I have learned that there are golden plovers, common ringed plover, oyster­catchers, arctic terns, various types of gulls, purple sand­piper, common redshank, whooper swans, eider ducks, and many more. Even the white-tailed eagle flies by regu­larly. I am well on my way to becoming an amateur orni­tho­lo­gist. Only the arctic tern makes me a bit nervous. It may be small, but it attacks quite aggress­ively. Besides, I never know if it is going to poop on my head. I have heard it is to defend its young.

In addi­tion to the birds, there are also numerous seals along the coast, and they can even be spotted from inside the Mirror Houses. A special high­light was the birth of the seal pups from mid-May. From the beach in front of the holiday homes, I could watch the little creatures as they discovered the sea by swim­ming and splashing around, cuddling with their mothers, and nursing from her. Esther was partic­u­larly fascin­ated and kept the camera running until the battery was empty or the memory card was full. Many tasks had to be put on hold, and Pierre had to take care of my walks.

Esther & Pierre were also thrilled to discover a golden plover’s nest with four eggs. In mid-June, incred­ibly fluffy, ador­able golden chicks hatched. I did not see any eggs or chicks myself and I suspect that was kept from me on purpose. But why?

At the same time, the fuzzy chicks of the eider ducks appeared on the beach. They now swim up and down the coast in groups. The little ones are appar­ently excel­lent divers, here one moment, disap­pearing into the sea the next, and then suddenly popping back up again.

Sheep roam freely around the Mirror Houses and of course, in spring, they also have cute, woolly lambs with them. As an Icelandic shepdog, I natur­ally have a very special interest in these creatures, woof!

I have already spotted several newborns around the holiday homes, but there are certainly many more I have not discovered yet. The little birds, in partic­ular, are masters of camou­flage and there­fore diffi­cult to find. But I keep my eyes open and the two-legged ones have their camera ready. The nature around Mystic Light Lodge is a true treasure for young and old explorers, espe­cially for seal lovers and orni­tho­lo­gists. Or for those who want to become one.

Sif
Head of Enter­tain­ment
Mystic Light Lodge