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Skálanes is a private sector nature and heritage centre within a 1250 hectare nature reserve in East Iceland, 16km from the nearest town of Seyðisfjörður. For the next 5 months (April -September 2011) I will be working as a Ranger on the reserve, undertaking practical management, monitoring wildlife and leading volunteer groups.

During my time at Skálanes I aim to try and keep a regular diary of my work on the reserve and my life in this beautiful and wild country. This blog is mainly aimed at my family and friends, but I also hope it will appeal to anyone who might be interested in nature conservation.

Friday, 15 April 2011

Visitors!

Yesterday, while sitting in the lounge Bjartur (Oli's labrador) started barking.  Now this is not an uncommon event in itself as weird noises, low flying Redwing/Greylag Geese and random gusts of wind set him off.  This time however we discovered that he was actually barking at PEOPLE!


Wandering out and having a chat with the group, we discovered that they were from Belgium and were traveling around Iceland.  They had been staying in Seyðisfjörður and had come out to Skálanes in the hope of seeing some Puffins. Unfortunately none of our Puffins have turned up yet, so to make it up to them (and because it was nice to have visitors) we invited them in for tea and coffee. Quickly explaining that the centre is not open until 15th May, and to excuse the clutter, we spent a pleasant hour with them and even convinced them to try some of my Banana Bread!

Our first visitors of 2011 from Belgium

Another intersting visitor today was our first Merlin (Falco columbarius), who we spotted hunting on the south side of the carpark. Merlin are small falcons that specialise in catching other small birds. They have bred at Skálanes in the past, so hopefully we will have a male turn up soon. We assume she is after the Redwing, as we do not have any Rock/Meadow pipits yet and the Greylag Geese are a bit on the large size.

We finally managed to finish painting the decking yesterday, despite some windy conditions, and just in time as today we have had sleet/hail showers and gale force winds, despite which the sun has been shinning at all times!
The finished decking with sauna and hot-tub (Note wild weather in the background!)
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2 comments:

  1. Rosie16 April 2011 at 02:12

    This is a seriously beautiful landscape.

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  2. kezia17 April 2011 at 12:29

    Hi Paul ( and Izzy)so pleased to see you have posted on LG Bloggers , I did put your link on the other day as I thought some of the bloggers might like to see your banana bread !!! and of course read up about your adventures , I shall make sure I put it on every so often so they can keep up to date .
    So much is happening at the moment with both EJ and the Lady at LOTL with 2 eggs each also a lot happening at the Dyfi centre in Wales , they have at last got a pair 'mating frantically' as Emyr says !! so its looking good for them after 3 years with nothing they are soooooooooo excited this is the link and you must look at Ems pics they are awesome . http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21788673077#!/dyfiospreyproject
    Glad you had some visitors hope they liked the banana bread !!!
    Take care and enjoy

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