Great Northern Diver ~ Iceland - 30.06.14

This species was my most wanted target for the trip to photograph, they are just stunning birds ...

Unlike their smaller cousins we only found these on huge lakes and the birds distant, with little time we just moved on ...

Whilst Jono was on Flatey papping the Phals, we scouted out the Snaefellsnes Peninsula and found a pair, still on a huge lake but easy to approach in cover, returning the next day one of the pair was closer in, so we waited for our moment then got into position ...

Great Northern Diver

Above .....  1/1000 ~ F 4 ~ iso 640

This next series showing the display was fantastic to watch, shame not only for the bank appearing through the bird but also the bird is turned away, these faults would normally result in me throwing them in the recycle bin ...

  

Above ..... 1/500 ~ F 5.6 ~ iso 640

Our next encounter was returning back from Myvatn, another huge lake with 3 adults close in the light was poor but the birds looked superb ...

If only for better light, the grey cloud cover increased and the light failed so we gave in ...
A superb bird in summer plumage !!

Barrow's Goldeneye ~ Iceland - 30.06.14

This species wasn't going to be tried for in this trip, but after 2 good days on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula we talked ourselves into it !!

So after a few hours sleep we started off at 03:00am it was a 440km drive and about 51/2 hrs !!!

I thought that the chances of finding a bird was slim, and at most a few birds in total at distance, how wrong was I ..

We had only driven part way around the lake when we found a flock of 100+ birds on one side of the road and 3 odd birds on a smaller lake on the other side of the road ..

The 3 birds were tried and they just swam out to the opposite side of the lake, crossing back over the road to another bay we found a smaller flock c.30 birds which stayed close to the bank ...

This was on the 848 just past the turning to Skutustadhir ...

Lat .. 65.573222

Lon .. -16.951143

Barrow's Goldeneye

We had a good seesions with the flock before they all fell asleep so we moved on, returning later and finding all the birds had gone ...

A great day with the Barrow's as a bonus for the trip, we started back about 4ish and stopped a few times striking it lucky ...

Harlequin Duck ~ Iceland - 29.06.14

Most reports that I had read suggested that the drakes come down from the rivers to the coast around mid-June, but had thought that our best chance was on the Laxa River near Myvatn ..

So when driving on the 54 out towards Grundarfjordur on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula we spotted a drake in the roadside pools ...

The bird flew back up stream and joined another drake and a duck, all three drifted down into the pools ..

A pair remained in the pools most of the time, where as the lone drake flew up stream and drifted back many times ...

Great birds that were just feeding in the fast flowing water but gave us chances for some images ... 

Harlequin Duck

Settings were 1/800 ~ 1/1250 

F 5.6 at iso 400

Given that these were all taken in dull overcast conditions im pleased with my results ...