Harbor light

  

Black Guillemot (Cepphus grylle) in the harbor on Heimaey (Iceland) with beautiful golden reflections from the cliffs.

Land of fulmars

After spending this past week in Iceland, I started thinking about Iceland as the land of fulmars.  It was amazing to see Northern Fulmars (Fulmaris glacialis) everywhere — over the ocean, soaring around sea stacks, perched on sea cliff ledges, resting next to waterfalls, gliding among the icebergs, and high above inland cliffs.

If you look closely, I’m guessing you’ll be able to see fulmars in all of the photos below.  Sometimes the scale of the photo is such that the fulmars appear quite small, so you might need to click on the image to view larger versions.

Ice!

Icebergs in the Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon on 10 September 2024.

The colors of water and light

  

We stopped at some impressive waterfalls near Skógar today, and the light was just right for beautiful rainbows next to the falls.

Rock art

Sea cliffs on the approach to Heimaey in the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago in Iceland on 8 September 2024.  [You can click on the image for a larger version.]

Golden like rockweeds

European Golden-Plovers (Pluvialis apricaria) roosting along a rocky shore in Iceland on 6 September 2024.  The plovers matched the colors of the rockweeds so well that it was hard to see them.  [You can click on the image for a larger version.]

P.S.  We’re on an adventure to celebrate my mom’s 80th birthday, so there might be a few posts from afar!

Waving hello

Christian spotted this beautiful nudibranch in Bodega Harbor last week, and Eric was able to capture some nice video footage, so here you go… 

…meet Dendronotus iris!

Below is a short clip of this juvenile Dendronotus iris in action.  It was only ~1 cm long, so this footage was taken with a microscope.  [If you can’t see the video player in an e-mail, just click on the title of the post to go to the NHBH website.]

The rhinophores (sense organs at the front) are so tall it made me think of antlers!  And you’ll probably be intrigued that the nudibranch is transparent, so you can see the orange-colored branches of the digestive gland extending into the cerata (tall extensions on the nudibranch’s back):

 

With many thanks to Christian and Eric for the great find and fun video!