Arctic fox on the Látrabjarg Cliffs
This page follows the
one on the birds of Iceland's cliffs
and stacks and offers more pictures of the 1,400 feet (450 metre) cliffs at Látrabjarg in the far north-west of the country. It also features a particular non-winged inhabitant. I was crouched down on the ground and down wind of the arctic fox, in its summer coat, as it came my way. It knew there was something strange and hesitantly explored the change it detected, tacking back and forwards towards me until some 10 feet away, at which point it was caught in the picture above...
...At which point (of course!) the film ran out and my movement turned the half perceived heap on the ground into something distinctly un-savoury.
The lighthouse at the western tip of Iceland
The local map shows the birds to be seen
A mini bus brought visitors to the lighthouse (above) from Breiðavik, at the centre of the biggest road on the map, where there was accommodation. This allowed visitors a couple of hours to walk up onto the Látrabjarg cliffs and get back for the bus. By using the bus to start the walk, it was possible to make a circle along the length of the cliffs and then cut back directly across country to Breiðavik. A 10 mile or so walk also made practical by the 24 hours of daylight available, and the totally relaxed Icelandic attitudes to formal check-ins or meal times.
Visitors walking along the first part of the cliffs (left) looking down at the bird and guano covered outcrops of rock, (above) and the churning sea below.
A buttress not far from the lighthouse; scale given by a person on the cliff top
One of the projecting rock formations that gives birds an ideal look-out
A major buttress further to the east, the top is just touched by cloud
From the highest point of the cliffs looking eastwards towards Stykkishólmur,
the cloud level well below this point which is 1,400 feet above the water
The white colouring along the cliffs (left), here running up to their high point, is the guano of the 5 million nesting birds. On the cliff tops sheep graze, (above) a black mother and white lambs at the highest point, with the spectacular cliffs as background, and (below) a slightly forlorn white mother with a semi black youngster
Looking down from the heights through the cloud to the cliffs beyond;
an intriguing large bird with up-turned wing tips soars to the right
This sequence of shots starts with the mosses over which I was crouched when the fox appeared. In the first picture of it above, it is just above the horizon several hundred metres away, its distance is better conveyed by the next picture showing it beginning to tack its way back and forwards across the cliff top, stopping to turn and look in my direction occasionally (as in the shot below), sometimes retreating a few metres (below right) and then, propelled by its curiosity, returning to the approach.
Arctic foxes in the summer lose their white coats, the tail of this one shows its not so long since winter. The black fur has a bluish ting hence the nick name 'blueys'
It tacked on and reached me, and stared at it knew not what - until I moved
Trailers...
The next page
has more nesting places for birds in Iceland - the coastal stacks.
The next page
in the Mosaic Section is headed
'What is a Rose?'.
Or go to the contents of the Mosaic Section.
The last page showed birds from the Látrabjarg Cliffs
To another high place - Mount Teide in Tenerife - 8 times higher than the cliffs above
