Bombus lucorum will burn a third of their body weight during three hours of flight, but they more than compensate with nectar collection.[DOI:10.1007/BF00384264]
2023-05-17 Svínafell, Iceland
With his feathers styled and waxed* he shows off his silly walk.
2023-05-15 Nesvöllin golf course, Seljararnes, Iceland
* Most birds have a gland in their rump which they rub with their beak during preening. It secretes a waxy substance which helps keep their feathers in tip-top shape. The composition may change during breeding season, either to a high volatility composition to advertise sexiness (perching birds) or low volatility to evade predators (ground nesting birds). [DOI:10.1111/brv.12837]
The Esja mountains dominate the Reykjavik skyline. Laid down between 3.2 and 1.8 MYA in a series of lava flows, they show layering reminiscent of sedimentary rocks. Some sequences are olivine theoleiite, indicating recently melted mantle, while others are silica rich, the magnesium having precipitated out as olivine crystals before the eruption. Interspersed with the lava flows are thick layers of hyaloclastite, a mash of volcanic glass formed by rapid quenching when the eruptions could not penetrate the multi-kilometers thick ice sheets during the periodic ice ages.[1]
2023-05-15 Grotta Lighthouse, Reykjavik, Iceland
[1] Kristjansson, L., Fridleifsson, I., & Watkins, N. (1980). Stratigraphy and paleomagnetism of the Esja, Eyrarfjall and Akrafjall Mountains, SW-Iceland. Journal of Geophysics, 47(1), 31-42. https://journal.geophysicsjournal.com/JofG/article/view/184
When not on offer as a prenuptial gift, the sand lance spends much of its life buried in the sand. Some live in the intertidal zone, relying on the trickle of water flowing through the wet sand above the low tide line. They come out to graze on "marine snow", the detritus and plankton drifting down from the ocean surface. They stay buried all winter, dropping oxygen consumption to 1/4 summer levels.[DOI:10.1007/s00227-011-1774-8]
2023-05-15 Nesvöllin golf course, Seljararnes, Iceland
Ice sculpture. Arctic terns are world travellers. Breeding in the far north they follow the sun to the Antarctic for winter then back again next spring. Some birds log 80000+ km per year. [DOI:10.1073/pnas.0909493107]
2023-05-17 Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon, Iceland
A relatively monogamous species, showing an average "divorce rate" of 6.4% per year. With 1 in 5 pairs differing in age by 10+ years, the death of a partner is more common. It is the female that leaves for another partner, sometimes usurping an existing female in the process. These fights are violent and sometimes deadly but the male watches without getting involved. [DOI:10.1006/anbe.1997.0552]
As an apex predator, great skuas not only bully other birds to give up their catch (for example, grabbing a gannet's wings mid-flight to force it into a stall), but also catch their own, to the point of attacking lambs [DOI:10.1080/00063656409476077] and foals[wikipedia] (which seems a tad ambitious for a 3 lb bird with a 4' wingspan).
2023-05-17 Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon
Who needs to catch fish when you can catch birds with fish? Another kleptoparasite, these jaegers patrol the cliffs waiting for puffins to return then chase them until they release their catch (60% success, or 75% success if two or three go after the same bird). This costs the puffins about one trip per week. Gulls and terns, the other sister families to the skuas and jaegers, are similarly afflicted. [DOI:10.1093/auk/95.2.377]
2023-05-15 Vik, Iceland [11 PM and still a bit of light.]
Predator-prey cycles get complicated. For example, the peak of the infamous lemming cycle is tied to a collapse of first year brants the following year. In a good year for lemmings, lots of stoat and fox kits are born. The next winter the ermine (stoat with a winter coat) follow the lemmings under the snow and crash the population (the mass suicide in the Disney documentary was faked). All those hungry foxes then go after the geese nesting on the tundra. Not quite that simple since there are several other rodents (voles, shrews), predators (snowy owls who love to eat stoat), birds (red knots, curlew sandpipers, white fronted geese), and climate effects (warm weather brings rain on snow which leads to an ice layer which makes it harder for lemmings to burrow and stresses their winter breeding). Not to mention parasites and overgrazing. Strong cycles don't persist in more complex webs.[2] For example, the brant population collapsed in the 1930's due to a crash in eel grass, but they were able to switch to sea lettuce for winter food, so only a single dip and not a cyclic pattern.
2023-05-15 Nesvöllin golf course, Seljararnes, Iceland
[1] https://macleans.ca/society/lemming-population-cycle-explanation/
[2] DOI:10.1111/oik.09443
Consider the story of barnacle goose, said to emerge from goose barnacles growing on bits of driftwood, whose long stalks resemble the necks of geese. Since barnacle goose breeding grounds are so far north, it wasn't until the late 1800's that their migration and breeding were understood. There were skeptics, such as the Holy Roman Emperor Fredrick II (1241) who sent envoys to collect supposed driftwood precursors and dismissed the claim that they gave rise to geese. However, it is convenient that the geese be born of barnacles, for then they are seafood that can be eaten on Fridays during lent, at least until Pope Innocent III (1213) declared that if it acts like a duck then it is meat.[1]
Like kittiwakes, murres and razorbills, barnacle geese nest on high cliffs. As grazing birds their parents don't bring food to the nest. Instead, day-old chicks leap into the void, falling a hundred meters onto the rocks below (the BBC video on YouTube is astounding[2]). Those that survive follow their parents to the local rivers and ponds. The murres bring in food for the chicks for a week (900+ doordash deliveries[3]) and the razorbills for two to three weeks, but then those chicks must also make the plunge without flight feathers. Kittiwakes supply food for about 5 weeks until the chicks are ready to fly.
2023-05-17 Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon, Iceland
[1] Barnacle goose myth. Wikipedia.
[2] Baby Chick Jumps Off Cliff, Life Story, BBC Earth (Youtube)
[3] DOI:10.1034/j.1600-048X.2003.03008.x
Another auk, razorbills are often found in mixed flocks with murres. They nest on the same cliffs but razorbills use wide ledges so their eggs don't roll off (even though they are less pointy) and they don't nest so close together, which perhaps explains why there are ten times as many murres. The razorbill is the closest relative to the now extinct great auk. Though they used to number in the millions, food for fishermen and feathers for pillows drove them to extinction. An expedition in 1844 harvested the last pair to sell to collectors.[DOI:10.3390/genes8060164]
2023-05-14 Hafnarberg Seacliffs, Iceland
Another member of the auk family, they look very much like penguins when they are on shore, dapper in their tux and monocle (see Common murre at All About Birds). Evolution loves to provide little challenges. If you lay eggs on ledges without nests it helps if they are pointy so that they roll in a circle rather than rolling into the sea. And if you brood beak-to-beak it helps if you brand your eggs with your own colour and pattern so you can separate them from your neighbours.[1]
2023-05-14 Hafnarberg Seacliffs, Iceland
[1] https://americanornithology.org/distinctive-egg-color-variations-in-common-murres/
Form follows function. Puffins are in the auk family, which are much more closely related to seagulls than to penguins. Like penguins they are diving specialists, with short wings carving out a figure eight to provide power throughout the stroke.[DOI:10.1242/jeb.205.3.371] Speeds of 7.7 km/h edge out the world record for the 100 m freestyle, but more importantly this is about 4 times the speed of the capelin that they are chasing. Unlike the great auk which lost all ability to fly, puffins can also power through the air, flapping up to 400 beats per minute for sustained 70 km/hr flight during migration. All in an amazingly cute package!
2023-05-16 Reynisfjara, Iceland
Evolves from petrel. Evolution: albatross.
Fulmar 35 HP+
The beak monster. Length 45 cm. Weight 750 g.
** Salt bomb. 10
Spits brine out its nostrils concentrated from sea water. [Common to all seabirds via osmosis filtration in a nasal gland. One study pumped 1/10th the body weight of a great black-backed gull into its stomach and found that the excess salt was ejected within 3 hours.]
** Vomit comet. 50
Stores a waxy substance in its stomach which it can spit up to several meters. This can coat the wings of an attacking bird causing it to plummet to its death.
Weakness: electric++
Resistance: flying+++
With its prodigious wings it sometimes travels up to 1000 km (round trip) to fetch food for its young. During particularly long flights it digests its defensive wax and can no longer perform its primary defensive move.
2023-05-15 Seljalandsfoss, Iceland
+ A long lived bird, some surviving into their 50s. They don't start breeding until they are 10-20 years old.
++ Some whooping cranes drown after being stunned by lightning in Florida. I found no specific reports of lightning strikes on birds at sea. [Spalding, M. G., Terrell, S., & Brooks, W. B. (2010). Pathology associated with lightning strike and drowning mortality of whooping cranes in Florida.]
+++ Petrels and other seabirds fly toward the center of a storm, following the eye wall to avoid being blown on land. [DOI:10.1073/pnas.2212925119]
Even though they were not breeding, a number of one-year-old gulls were hanging out around the cliffs (black beak, "M" pattern on wings). Toward the end of the season they will start to occupy nesting spots to establish status for future breeding years. Chicks genuflect when strangers come calling (Appeasement behaviour) instead of begging for food like they do with their parents.[DOI:10.1016/S0003-3472(87)80213-0]
2023-05-14 Hafnarberg Seacliffs, Iceland
Spending most of their life on the sea, Rissa tridactyla come to the Icelandic cliffs in vast numbers to breed every spring. Raising two chicks is an enormous investment, requiring 1/3rd of the entire food budget for the parents.[1] Fortunately(?) half of them die, including siblicide with the elder dispensing with the younger soon after hatching. After to 5 months of building, laying, incubating and feeding the chicks have fledged and parents are free to return to the sea.
2023-05-14 Hafnarberg Seacliffs, Iceland
[1] Gabrielsen, G. W., Klaassen, M., & Mehlum, F. (1992). Energetics of black-legged kittiwake Rissa tridactyla chicks. Ardea, 80(2), 29-40.
A smaller gull, it finds itself low in the pecking order when it is feeding time at the dump. Even though they outnumber the larger herring gulls, they still yield when the bulldozers stop and the newly revealed buffet is open. But the black-headed gull is more maneuverable, so risking life and limb it weaves amongst the dozers grabbing what food it can.[1]
2023-05-15 Nesvöllin golf course, Seljararnes, Iceland
[1] Bellebaum, J. (2005). Brief report Between the Herring Gull Larus argentatus and the bulldozer: Black-headed Gull Larus ridibundus feeding sites on a refuse dump. Ornis Fennica, 82, 166-171.
Despite the name, the lesser black-backed gull (L. fuscus) is not that closely related to the great black-backed gull (L. marinus), though both lie in the very confusing "herring gull complex". Recovering from the latest glacial "squeeze" populations have radiated from the one or two refuges in the past 10000 years to form a dozen circumpolar species. Although they can hybridize, they prefer partners who look and sound right, so maintain separate species even if they live in the same area.[1]
2023-05-15 Nesvöllin golf course, Seljararnes, Iceland
[1] Collinson, J. M., Parkin, D. T., Knox, A. G., Sangster, G., & Svensson, L. (2008). Species boundaries in the Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gull complex. British Birds, 101(7), 340.
Largest of the gulls, this is a prime predator of eider eggs and ducklings. When the ducklings are too tired to dive anymore the gulls will scoop them up and drop them from a height of 30 to 40 rods (200 m). With a lot of practice on molluscs and small mammals they are pretty good at targeting a rock on the ground, moving windward to compensate when the winds are strong.[1]
Nesvöllin golf course, Seljararnes, Iceland
[1] Beetz, J., Bay, P., Labrador, C., & Townsend, C. W. (1916). Notes on the eider. The Auk, 286-292. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/4072326.pdf
Why did the duck cross the road? To get to the eider side. In this case, the female eider. More motherly sacrifice: she plucks down from her own breast to keep her eggs warm in the cold northerly summers. She will guard them assiduously until hatching, covering them with down, moss and leaves if a predator should come stalking (arctic foxes, gulls, ravens and introduced American mink). If she is surprised she will spray them with a noxious chemical deterrent before flying off. This dries to a harmless powder after 15 min.[1] Icelandic farmers will encourage the ducks, providing nest boxes and helping with the guard duty. After fledging (50 days) they will collect the down, wash it, and sell it to makers of jackets and duvets.
2023-05-14 Blue Lagoon, Iceland
[1] Beetz, J., Bay, P., Labrador, C., & Townsend, C. W. (1916). Notes on the eider. The Auk, 286-292. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/4072326.pdf
One of the lazier birds, why fly when you can walk from pond to pond? Lifting 2 kg of bird into the air on stubby little wings is an undertaking, raising power consumption from 20 W for normal activity 120+ W for flying. They can maintain a good clip once they are aloft (55 km/h on average, 120 km/h with a tail wind) but outside of migration they only spend 10 min/day in the air. Otherwise they are diving for mussels or lazing around in the spa. [DOI:10.1098/rspb.2008.0422]
2023-05-14 Blue Lagoon, Iceland
The birds are also happy to partake in the soothing waters of the Blue Lagoon. In this case, Anser anser, the wild ancestor of the domestic goose. The term "lag" refers to their late departure from England to their wintering grounds (OED Vol 5, 1933 "grey lag goose") or perhaps comes from a British dialect term for a flock of geese (OED Vol 6, 1933 "lag[sb. 6]").
2023-05-14 Blue Lagoon, Iceland
One man's industrial sludge is another man's miracle cure. Hot spring treatment (balneotherapy) has been a thing since Heracles bathed in the springs at Thermopylae. Between the heat, the water, the minerals, the sun, and blue-green algae (Cyanobacterium aponinum), the Blue Lagoon is a "health destination" for travellers from around the world.
Okay, they've pumped the water and exacted the heat, now what do they do with it? Given that they are sitting in the middle of an old lava field with jumbled porous rock as far as the eye can see, they simply dumped it so it could drain away. No luck. Excess silicates from the reservoir formed a thick white sludge, plugging the holes and forming a lagoon full of electric blue water.
If you are sitting on a mantle hotspot, why not use the heat? Drilling 1-2 km down to an underground reservoir they found brackish water at 240 °C. Since this is too hot and salty for home heating, they instead run a turbine to extract some of the energy then use a heat exchanger to warm fresh water to a more comfortable 125 °C. And still there is enough heat to make these awesome steam clouds.
2023-05-14 Blue Lagoon, Iceland
https://oregontechsfstatic.azureedge.net/sitefinity-production/docs/default-source/geoheat-center-documents/quarterly-bulletin/vol-17/art3.pdf