Trip to Iceland pt.1

Hello bird fans. You may have noticed, or maybe not, that your favorite bird blog hasn't updated in a pretty long time. There are several reasons for this, but most crucially, I just don't have that much time. Don't have much time for trips where I might get to do some good birding, don't have much time for photography don't have much time to write these little updates. It doesn't help that I left twitter due to it becoming a cesspool, and so now my audience is just you, the person who stumbles upon this or who I know on facebook.

Anyway, it's ok for me to be out of the bird blogging game, I am content. I've seen a lot of good birds, and I will always love birds, and the experience of identifying birds, either for myself, or for others. So that being said, this will not be a traditional bird blog, but more like a travelog. Those who go way back might remember my other blog. Imagine something like that. 

Now, recently I was able to sneak a little trip to Iceland in during what was otherwise a summer family vacation to Nova Scotia. Our plan for our first day was a drive on the fabled Golden Circle- a circuit of natural wonders easy driving distance from Reykjavik, where we were based. After partaking of a lovely hot springs (the second of the trip), we were on to our first natural feature, the famous waterfall Gullfoss (lit. Golden Falls).

It was an incredible waterfall, easily making it's way in to my top tier of waterfall experiences, despite the grey weather we had that day. Just look at this bad boy, it's got it all- a rugged and striking landscape, massive volume, an aesthetically pleasing mist, and... wait a minute... 

Computer, enhance. 

Is that a fucking BIRD???

Oooooh shit, every time I think I'm out, they pull me back in. I mean it folks, when I saw this swan just completely chilling as millions of gallons of water (this is literally true, it is an approximately 1.7 million gallons/minute waterfall) rushed past it, I said "ok, I guess I will do a bird blog about this".

So who do we have here? I'm glad you asked

Whooper Swan aka. The Elk aka. Hooper aka. Wild Swan (Álft)
Gullfoss, Selfoss, Iceland
Member of the Duck, Goose, and Swan Family
★The National Bird of Finland★
★The Largest Native Herbivore in Iceland★
§A Lamentation of Swans§

~True Bird Fact~ Very accomplished fliers, despite their size (frequently noted online as 'one of the heaviest flying birds'. Their typical airspeed is around 62mph, however, they have been known to travel to extraordinary heights, up in the lower stratosphere, in order to make use of the jetstream. One group of birds was clocked traveling almost 100 miles per hour using this technique while migrating from Iceland to Ireland. Extremely tough!

~Real Bird Myth~ A wikipedia 'citation needed' fact (off to a strong start) notes that sounds this bird makes upon death and the source of the phrase 'swan song'. I did not hear any of them die, so thus cannot verify myself.

~Real Icelandic Bird Myth~ A 1921 Icelandic Fairytale, Sagan af Dimmalimm by Guðmundur Thorsteinsson, recounts a tale of a princess who, through the power of love, breaks a curse on a swan, who then becomes a prince. It's essentially Swan Lake.

Well, I hope my extremely scant handful of readers have enjoyed this rare bird blog. But you know what? I'm going to do some more. Because shockingly being in Iceland for 4 days without my kids afforded me the time to see some pretty cool birds. And now you're going to see them too, or at least you will, if you keep clicking on the bird blog.

Eastern Bluebird

Eastern Bluebird
Cochran Mill Park, Palmetto, Georgia, USA
April 2018
Member of the Thrush Family

§A Mutation of Thrushes§

★State Bird of Missouri and New York★

~true bird fact~ Interesting conservation history here- this bird really struggled in the early 20th century as a result of competition from more aggressive introduced European species, like the European Starling and the House Sparrow (curse you again, Shakespeare-bird-lunatic). Since these are all hole-nesting birds, the more aggressive species often beat out the Bluebird for spots. In the 1960's an effort was started to create bluebird trails and bluebird specific nesting boxes, accessible only to them and not their competitors. As a result, bluebirds have made a real comeback, but almost all of them live and nest in one of these man-made boxes. Perhaps this great effort was made because, quoth wikipeida "The bright-blue breeding plumage of the male, easily observed on a wire or open perch, makes this species a favorite of birders." No. Citation. Provided.

A real hat-wearer

Has strong feelings on the superiority of the East vs. the West coast

Presents well initially (as a friend/employee/partner), but often will let you down over the long term as his natural habits and personality come out

Red-breasted Merganser

Red-breasted Merganser

Monterrey Bay, Monterrey, California, USA 
January 2018 
Member of the Ducks, Geese, and Swans Family 
§A Raft of Ducks§

{Etymology Corner} You might wonder what exactly a merganser is, if you're the type of person who reads this blog. Well, what separates this guy and his relatives from other ducks, for the most part, is that he is a hunter. He's got a saw-toothed bill, and dives for fish (Red-breasteds like to hunt at sea, other mergansers prefer rivers or lakes). But what does the name Merganser mean? Well, it comes from his Latin name, Mergus (no surprise there, when you see a nonsense word in a bird's name, it's probably from the latin). The fun part is that Mergus translates to 'unidentified water bird'. Really reaching for the stars with that ID.


~true bird fact~ May in fact be the fastest duck. Wikipedia states that the fastest recorded speed for a duck came from a Red-breasted Merganser, flying at 100 miles per hour. The speed was recorded as the duck was being pursued by an airplane. To me this just raises so many questions about what we're doing out there with these ducks. Did the Merganser commit a crime? Anyway, I don't feel confident in really calling it for the record, since who knows what many species would be capable of with a plane barreling after them. Still. an impressive feat. No word on whether the bird got away or not.

Owns a lot of obscure metal band t-shirts (doesn't play an instrument)
Definitely thinks hunting in the ocean rather than a lake makes him cooler and more legit
Gets a tattoo every year on his birthday

Curve-billed Thrasher

Curve-billed Thrasher aka. Cuitiacoache (lit. Songbird) aka. The Default Desert Bird... wait, what?
Big Bend National Park, Texas, USA
July 2017
Member of the Mockingbird and Thrasher Family
Apparently there is §No Name for a group of Thrashers§ May I suggest §A Shred of Thrashers§?

Favorite Cactus: Chola

~true bird fact~ Just hates the Cactus Wren. The Wikipedia article states that our Thrasher here "will usually destroy any nest of cactus wrens." It's been a while since we've gotten a good Avian Rivalry on the ol' blog. Although now that I'm thinking about it, I certainly should've named that feature Avian Adversaries. Oh well, literally no way to fix it now! So why do they hate cactus Wrens? One could assume it's because they're competing ground-foraging species who live in the same area, but maybe it's more personal than that.

Honestly this Wikipedia article has a number of pretty bananas quotes about Curve-billed Thrasher, perhaps indicating that the world's only person who is truly passionate about Curve-billed Thrashers authored it. Literally every other resource I visited had like zero to say about Curve-billed Thrasher, but the wiki was filled with tidbits like the aforementioned dubious nickname and animosity towards Cactus Wrens. It also mentions editorially that the Curve-billed Thrasher's "...voice is regarded as more pleasant" than the Northern Mockingbird's. Also, there's this: "The demeanor of the curve-billed has been described as "shy and rather wild", but it allows humans to view it closely". Ok bud, cool normal observation there.

Shy, and rather wild
A hot sauce connoisseur
Sure, she can sing, but what she'd really prefer to do is rap battle

Greater White-fronted Goose

Greater White-fronted Goose aka. White-fronted Goose (regional) aka. Greater Whitefront aka. Specklebelly (colloq.)
Wetland's Edge Park, American Canyon, California, USA
January 2017
Member of the Duck, Goose, and Swan Family
§A Chevron of Geese§

~true bird fact~ Like many geese, whitefronts have unusually strong familial bonds within the bird world. Not only do couples stay together, but children will often migrate and form lasting relationships with their parents. Goose siblings even continue to interact with one another throughout their lives. This is kind of a tangent, but why are we so quick to point out and assign value to animals showing monogamous behavior? This is listed as a fun fact on so many birds. Seems like we might be projecting..



~also of note~ The Greater White-fronted Goose wikipedia page contains one of the more egregious examples of someone editing themselves onto wikipedia that I've personally encountered. Check out the section entitled 'Backtracking Technique" near the bottom for a passage about Micha Horacek's Goose tracking technique that definitely, definitely was written by Micha Horacek. Or more likely, copy-pasted from his research paper.

Smokes a pipe
Resentful of being seen as 'part of the flock'
A creature of habit. Always orders the same thing at restaurants.
Hides a dark suburban secret

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Point Pinole Regional Shoreline, Richmond, California, USA
June 2014
Member of the Titmouse/Chickadee Family
§A Dissimulation of Chickadees§

~weird Wikipedia quote masquerading as a true bird fact~ "It is often considered the most handsome of all chickadees"

~actual true bird fact~ In areas where they overlap with their close relative, Black-capped Chickadee, they divide up the trees in an orderly fashion to avoid nesting confusion. Black-cappeds take higher branches, Chestnut-backeds lowers. How they arrived at this division is unknown to me.

Gets emotionally close very quickly with new people, usurping older and more reliable friends
Obviously this creates drama. Whether the Chickadee wants this or if it's just an unwelcome bi-product of her actual personality is unknown
Sews and knits
Always searching for meaning