Iceland Impressions - Animals

Unlike our trips to the national parks in the US, the trip to Iceland did not involve the expectation to see large mammals such as grizzly bear, black bear, wolves, moose, or bison. But our experience with the large Icelandic bird population and the various domesticated animals proved to be rather satisfying on several different levels. The animals appeared free and friendly in the open fields of this beautiful country, allowing me to personally interact with these animals.

All of the photos and videos below were taken with either my iPhone or a small Canon point-and-shoot camera. The variety and quality were no match for those taken by Bob with his photographer's sense and better equipment, but they more closely represent my personal experience.

Birds
After extensive research for this trip, Bob bought a monocular for me to watch birds in Iceland because I used to complain about getting dizzy with the typical binoculars. I was grateful for the monocular but, honestly, I did not expect to be bird watching at all! It seems to be a big challenge based on my past experience and my eyesight has been declining in recent years.

Who knew? Bird watching in Iceland turned out to be much easier than locating our next meal. Birds of all kinds were everywhere, from the capital city, Reykjavik, to every corner of the island, coexisting with humans. The various species of gulls and similar sea birds were the most widespread, seemingly always hovering above us. As it was nesting season, every ledge on every rock cliff was occupied by a bird family.

On the fourth day of our 10-day trip, we took a boat tour to Papey Island, in search of the national bird, puffins. Unfortunately, the weather was very nice (cloudy but windless), perfect for puffins to be out on the open ocean! Only a few lingering around the island that could be seen with binoculars (or my monocular!). However, the island was teeming with other bird species, including many other species of the auk family (which includes puffin), which were also completely new to me. They lacked the colorful face of the puffin but more than make up for it with the interesting lines and patterns in black and white.

I have little knowledge in ornithology, but I do appreciate watching them and observing their behavior very much. It's hard to imagine another place where bird watching is so accessible and yet totally exciting to tourists.

 

Given the choice of watching the birds with my eyes or capturing (or, more accurately, trying to capture) the birds with my camera, I always opt for the former! Some of the sensory experience is impossible to capture anyway, such as the experience of seeing six swans flying as a group across the lake. Occasionally, however, I was able to record the birds in action: 

On occasions, we were severely "warned" by the birds when we were getting too close to their homes. The Oyster-catchers could get really loud while the arctic terns would physically attack any intruders while making loud noises (unlike their normal chirping sound). They are known for their fierce defensive behavior! 

Sheep
Sheep were literally everywhere in Iceland. I heard that the sheep population was five times the human population in Iceland, but we definitely saw a higher sheep/human ratio since people don't usually roam the field during the day! Often we climbed or hiked to a view point and turned around to see them right there with us. When seen from a hill top, the milky-white dots on the grass reminded me of the silkworms I once raised when I was in elementary school. A couple times we saw the sheep being herded by a person on foot with a dog, but one rancher actually switched to driving an ATV behind the sheep when the herding was going too slowly across a huge field.

The majority of the sheet had a creamy white coat, but there are also brownish black or mixed color ones. Often there is just one black sheep in a family, hence the phrase of "the black sheep in the family"? It's worth noting that the black sheep didn't always have a negative connotation in old English. Well, one bad thing about black sheep may be that the fur could not be colored? Anyway, what was crossing my mind was that the black coat must have been controlled by recessive genes, which was later confirmed when we got home.

It was always such a pleasant surprise to find sheep in the most unexpected places, often enhancing the wonderful scenery. And I honestly think that they try to make eye contact to figure out our intentions, as in this video:

Another discovery about sheep was that they could run really fast!

During the trip, we got used to slowing down when there were sheep standing near the road because they often picked the wrong time to cross the street or simply stood in the middle of the road waiting for their companions to catch up.

A lot of the sheep had not been shaved for the summer yet so they shed quite a bit everywhere. Bob found this particularly well-preserved specimen and it became the best souvenir I had ever gotten. But I also bought two skeins of woolen yarn made in Iceland so that I can knit something as a memento for this incredible trip.

Horses

Prior to the Iceland trip, I had had little experience with horses, which was limited to observing horses at "work", like the horses pulling carriages in tourist spots, the horses for the mounted police, or the horses taking their owners for a ride in rural areas. Those horses never gave me the impression that they were interested in humans or interacting with humans. The Icelandic horses seemed quite different to me. Perhaps because of the open spaces and minimal restraints in their living environment, they were interacting with one another a lot and appeared to enjoy human interactions. In any case, the horses, just like the sheep, often greatly enlivened the background scenery.

My very first interaction with horses, of course, happened during our Iceland trip! One day we saw a horse rubbing its neck against a big board by the road side like scratching an itch. So we stopped to take photos and video of the horse and its companions nearby. Then another driver stopped and pulled some grass from the ground to feed one of the horses. Even though the grass was exactly the same as the grass they had been eating on the field, the horses came over to the fence, once by one. So I followed suit and fed a horse with the grass, before petting a couple of them on the nose. They really seemed to enjoy the contact with us strangers, but the experience would leave a deeper mark in my heart than in theirs.

The behavior of the horses in the field was very interesting to watch, I could almost feel the dynamics among those horses as they communicated without an obvious "language."

Cows

One day we entered a private ranch by mistake, searching for a historic site of turf houses. As it turned out, there was almost no separation between the ranch and the historic turf houses. The cows in the ranch again broke the "mode" for me in terms of what cows are like. These cows were so energetic and full of character. As we got closer to watch them, a couple of them became quite alert and started to moo loudly, as if to warn us (and perhaps the rest of the cows). One of them watched us with the big eyes very intently！

Cats and Dogs

When we mistakenly entered the rancher's property, we were first greeted by a somewhat fierce-looking dog. I was anxiously trying to figure out the area that I did not notice the dog putting a small rock in front of me. As I moved around the yard, he picked the rock up and followed me, again putting it in front of me. It was then I realized that he probably wanted me to play games with him. But I had to leave him as we finally figured out how to get from the ranch to the historic site we were looking for. I felt so bad about leaving the dog without playing the game, though. It still bothers me even now when I think about it.

At several of the hotels in the country side, we saw several other very friendly dogs. But none of them ever invited me to play games. One of the hotels lived a pretty cat with snow white fur, who came to greet every guest arriving at the hotel. Now, cats I do know quite a bit about, having lived with three cats at some point. I had no problem playing with the resident cat while Bob was checking us in.

On our last day in the capital city, we saw a few more graceful cats on city streets. One of them living by the big church was really affectionate, greeting Bob when he came out alone early in the morning to take pictures of the church, and then again coming to play with me when we visited church together later that morning. She barely limped with the three legs, but did have to sit in an odd way. Another cat roamed the sculpture garden near the church, acting like a live sculpture himself.

We actually saw several other animals on this trip, including whale (only one) and seals. Both were perhaps rarer to see but they were simply in existence in the distance. I felt much more connected to the domesticated animals, who were part of the reason why the experience on this trip moved me so deeply.