Flora and Fauna

Iceland is a place curiously devoid of mammals, having only the rarely-seen arctic fox, the equally elusive mink and a few sea mammals such as whales and seals. According to Wikipedia (that excellent source of accurate info) there are rats, mice and rabbits here, but they sure are not around. Once in a while a polar bear floats in from the Arctic on an ice floe, but they are not native and can’t survive here, so usually have to be shot. It is quite strange to me not to see squirrels, mice, rabbits, or any other small furry things about. Even domesticated pets are not in abundance—I’ve seen some dogs but not a single cat in Skagastrond. Farm animals (sheep, horses, and less commonly pigs and cattle) are for work or for eating (apparently even the horse sometimes), and those that are not useful do not stay around. I suspect that this comes from a history of hard living off the land, where anything that can’t graze to survive can’t afford to be kept. Horses and sheep are often driven up into the mountains to graze for the summer and brought back in a big fall roundup to take shelter for winter.

There also seem to be very few songbirds. There are, however, tons of sea birds here nesting along the coast. Bird identification is not one of my strengths, but I’ve been told there are gulls, ducks, fulmars, terns, oyster-catchers and eiders, among others. The Arctic Tern, known here as Kria, can be ferocious when you get near its nest, shrieking and dive-bombing the unwary walker’s head, leaving him or her bloodied. The gulls are subtler, just swooping silently closer and closer. There are some comical ducks here that have a call like “aaaah-oooh-uh”, that when they get going in a group sounds like a lively discussion or disagreement.

On every walk I seem to discover a few new tiny wildflowers tucked into rocky niches. Only the dandelions and lupines seem to thrive on a larger scale. Though beautiful, lupines are considered a bit of a pest, as they were introduced to control erosion and made themselves rather too much at home.

This guy, an oyster-catcher, I think, did not like me around at all...

This one I know from NY, Thrift