Time is passing rather too quickly. The photos that are the subject of this blog report were taken 7th June - 6 weeks ago - still, better late than never!!!

Day 3 of my Iceland trip was also spent entirely at the Floi Bird Reserve. This was our last day before moving on and Red-throated Divers were to be the main subject.

The long access road to the reserve produced more Redshank sitting well. I have loads of Redshank images so it is time that I replaced some older ones.

There were also herds of Icelandic Horses in the fields.

An unusual subject but I was rather fascinated by the fact that they are direct descendants of those imported by the Vikings when colonising Iceland in the 8th century, and they are unique in that they have 5 gaits, two more than normal horses. A quick Google will reveal all, but interesting enough to warrant a photo, I thought.

Arriving on the reserve, it was grey and cloudy but a Whooper Swan family rapidly noticed us and made off in the opposite direction.

Arctic Terns were feeding on the ponds

and a Red-throated Diver gave us a shake but this was the sum total for the morning.

Arriving again early afternoon, the sun was shining so we settled down by the side of a pond where there was a Divers nest. The adults feed in the sea so there are comings and goings if one is patient.

However, the first to show was a male Red-necked Phalarope, noticeable because it is less brightly marked than the female - unusual for the avian world.

After a while the main subject made an arrival with a small fish fry,

and proceeded to call it's mate from the nest.

Surprisingly, she did not appear so he ate the morsel and paddled around looking lost. Then it became obvious why she had not appeared. When she did, it was with a recently hatched chick

Was he showing his pleasure with this pose, or just showing off in front of his chick?

It was time to depart for dinner, and return mid evening for another session, with low sunlight and that orangy glow, so liked by landscape photographers.

The drive down the access road produced a Whimbrel.

We settled down by another pond with a different pair of Divers, not wishing to be too intrusive to the first pair.

Not too long, and we were treated to a take off.

An Arctic Skua was hunting in the distance

and then flew right over us.

By now is was getting rather late. The absent Diver made a quick return splash-down, taking us all by surprise as it was getting cloudy and gloomy. It swam around with a Sand Eel in the gloom, diving and then surfacing right in front of me so I tried a different shot

and it then proceeded to present the catch to it's mate on the nest.

This last image was taken approching 11.00pm so time to head back to the hotel.