Arctic Foxes of Iceland 2024

For a quick look at a selection of 10 photographs from the trip, click on the thumbnail below-centre.

For the story of the trip click on the thumbnails to open each gallery in turn.

Once you have opened the gallery, click on an image to see a larger version of it. You can then scroll through the rest of the gallery.

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Home Page An arbitrary collection of 10 photographs from this expedition



Reykjavik
I arrived a couple of days in advance of the official start of the holiday, and used the time for going on a "touristy" coach trip of the South West coast of Iceland, and also renewing my acquaintance with the city that I had previously visited in September 2019. One major difference I found with Reykjavik compared to my previous trip was that the streets and pavements (sidewalks) were very icy, and the pond in the middle of the city was frozen. Fortunately I had a set of clip-on crampons to make walking around a little less hazardous. Journey to Hornstrandir Nature Reserve
The Hornstrandir Nature Reserve, where we were to spend six nights, is on a peninsular in the North West of Iceland. We (five clients our leader and our driver) travelled from Reykjavik in a minibus through interesting landscape, stopping occasionally for coffee, lunch and photo breaks. Our driver was very skilled at driving in the increasingly icy roads as we progressed north. Our destination that day was the small town of Ísafjörður, where we spent the night, before journeying on to the nature reserve by boat.



Landscape
Kviar Lodge, where we were to stay, was positioned near the edge of a fjord and surrounded by undulating terrain. There was little vegetation visible above the snow, other than a row of conifers a few hundred metres from the lodge. The weather was very variable from day to day, with temperatures ranging from -10 C to +5 C with periods of snowfall, cloud, and sunshine. This gallery captures the ever changing landscape under some of these conditions. Foxes
This gallery shows foxes at varying distances and exhibiting different forms of behaviour. The Arctic Foxes in Iceland are generally of the "blue morph" type. This has a brown coat throughout the year and the ones we saw were all of this type. There are also some "white morph" foxes on the island and they change the colour of their coats from brown in summer to white in the winter, to provide camouflage against the snow.
In general (with one notable exception) the foxes kept their distance from us, meaning that photography was challenging, although a good place to get close to them was on the sea shore, where they would scavenge for food.


The Fox and the iPhone
One of our group was in the habit of putting his iPhone on a small tripod, directed across the fjord, to take time lapse sequences of the sunsets. One day one of the foxes became curious about this "structure", in fact one could say the fox was fixated by it. It approached the iPhone, walking round it and digging near its base, eventually knocking the tripod over. Despite its normal shyness it seemed unperturbed by the presence of we six humans in close proximity, taking as many photos as our excitement allowed.

Home Page		An arbitrary collection of 10 photographs from this expedition

	Reykjavik I arrived a couple of days in advance of the official start of the holiday, and used the time for going on a "touristy" coach trip of the South West coast of Iceland, and also renewing my acquaintance with the city that I had previously visited in September 2019. One major difference I found with Reykjavik compared to my previous trip was that the streets and pavements (sidewalks) were very icy, and the pond in the middle of the city was frozen. Fortunately I had a set of clip-on crampons to make walking around a little less hazardous.	Journey to Hornstrandir Nature Reserve The Hornstrandir Nature Reserve, where we were to spend six nights, is on a peninsular in the North West of Iceland. We (five clients our leader and our driver) travelled from Reykjavik in a minibus through interesting landscape, stopping occasionally for coffee, lunch and photo breaks. Our driver was very skilled at driving in the increasingly icy roads as we progressed north. Our destination that day was the small town of Ísafjörður, where we spent the night, before journeying on to the nature reserve by boat.

	Landscape Kviar Lodge, where we were to stay, was positioned near the edge of a fjord and surrounded by undulating terrain. There was little vegetation visible above the snow, other than a row of conifers a few hundred metres from the lodge. The weather was very variable from day to day, with temperatures ranging from -10 C to +5 C with periods of snowfall, cloud, and sunshine. This gallery captures the ever changing landscape under some of these conditions.	Foxes This gallery shows foxes at varying distances and exhibiting different forms of behaviour. The Arctic Foxes in Iceland are generally of the "blue morph" type. This has a brown coat throughout the year and the ones we saw were all of this type. There are also some "white morph" foxes on the island and they change the colour of their coats from brown in summer to white in the winter, to provide camouflage against the snow. In general (with one notable exception) the foxes kept their distance from us, meaning that photography was challenging, although a good place to get close to them was on the sea shore, where they would scavenge for food.

	The Fox and the iPhone One of our group was in the habit of putting his iPhone on a small tripod, directed across the fjord, to take time lapse sequences of the sunsets. One day one of the foxes became curious about this "structure", in fact one could say the fox was fixated by it. It approached the iPhone, walking round it and digging near its base, eventually knocking the tripod over. Despite its normal shyness it seemed unperturbed by the presence of we six humans in close proximity, taking as many photos as our excitement allowed.