Iceland - Gyrfalcons & the Northern Lights

During the height of the Arctic summer the dramatic volcanic island of Iceland is bathed in 24- hour daylight. As the summer sun sinks lower in the sky, however, and winter’s icy grip gradually takes hold, the nights lengthen and heavens darken to reveal one of the natural world’s greatest spectacles, the ethereal flickerings of the Aurora Borealis, or ‘Northern Lights’. The Aurora has been a source of wonder and mystery for thousands of years and, although we now understand the science behind the spectacle, these mesmerising, other worldly lights still transfix all that witness them to this day.

To enjoy the Northern Lights at their best we must head north and position ourselves beneath the Auroral Oval, a ‘doughnut-shaped’ expanse of atmosphere that sits over the Earth’s magnetic north pole. This oval expands or contracts with the intensity of the solar wind, the stream of hot plasma ejected from the sun reacting with gas molecules in the upper atmosphere to create the light display itself. When solar wind activity is high, the Lights often take the form of dancing curtains which evolve and change continuously, each curtain consisting of many parallel rays lined up with the direction of the magnetic field. At other times it may take the form of a slowly pulsing green, blue or red glow in the sky. To stand the best chance of witnessing the very best of auroral displays we have based our tour in northern Iceland, not only because it lies further under the Auroral Oval, but because the weather is typically drier than in the south. Since there is also plenty of daylight at this time of year, we will spend our diurnal hours exploring the dramatic landscapes of northern Iceland, enjoying the winter birdlife and geothermal features of this geologically active island.

We begin our tour with a flight to Keflavik and one night at a comfortable hotel overlooking Lake Ellidavatn, on the outskirts of Reykjavík, away from the city lights. The following morning we take the short flight to Akureyri and drive east to the beautifully positioned Hotel Myvatn which will be our base for the next three nights of the tour. Our hotel overlooks Lake Myvatn and offers a wonderfully open panorama from which to enjoy the Northern Lights. It is also on the flight path of the local Gyrfalcons! We will return here each evening to gaze upwards to the heavens in the hope that the skies will be clear and the Aurora on show. The Northern Lights can be active at any time after dark, but activity tends to peak around midnight. We can therefore expect late nights on this tour, but no compulsory early mornings!

During the daylight hours we will focus our attention on the scenic delights of north Iceland and the limited wildlife on offer at this time of year. Lake Mývatn (one of Iceland’s foremost birdwatching spots in the spring) is likely to be mostly frozen in February and March, but there will be areas of open water. Here we will be looking out for such ducks as Barrow’s Goldeneye, and perhaps a few wintering Whooper Swans or geese. Snow Buntings are often recorded around the lake shores, whilst a little further inland Ptarmigan are common. The winter landscape here is spectacular and we will stop frequently to take short walks and to admire the cinder cone of Hverfjall, the Psuedo-craters and the peculiar lava formations at Dimmuborgír.

Iceland sits astride the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and is geologically active. One of the most accessible pockets of geothermal activity is found at Námafjall and Krafla, a short distance from Mývatn. Here boiling mud pools and steaming fumeroles create an alien landscape of yellow sulphur deposits and swirling clouds of steam. These are in turn surrounded by vast black rocky lava fields, some of which erupted as recently as the 1980s. We will also venture north to the coast at Husavik in search of birds such as Glaucous Gull, Iceland Gull and wintering sea-duck, including the beautiful Harlequin Duck.

Whilst we have done our very best to ensure that this tour is located to give the best chance of witnessing the Northern Lights, ultimately only ‘mother nature’ will decide whether or not the show will take place. Aurora or not, a journey around north Iceland during this season has much to offer and we are sure to return home transfixed, not only by the nocturnal light displays but also by the spectacular landscapes, wildlife and hospitality of this unique, and far-flung, corner of Europe.