The Tortoise and the Finch: Hornvik – Fox-filled Wonderland

hornvik

We made our way to the dock and met Josh (fellow monitoring volunteer) and Ester (director of the Artcic Fox Center) loading enough food and gear to invade Russia. We helped haul it aboard and were on our way to Hornstrandir! It was another beautiful day. We felt bad about their drought, but were praying it kept going for another several days.

En route we saw another minke whale! We took it as a good omen for wildlife viewing. We were landed by zodiac on the rock strew beach at the base of a 30 foot, 70 degree incline up to our campsite. We hauled all the food (so much food) and gear up to our camping place. Icelanders are very hearty eaters – we have been defeated by their portion sizes (unbelievable, I know) on several occasions. I concede that a day spent rowing to Ireland to raid coastal villages and capture treasure from monasteries probably works up an appetite, but we with our less challenging schedule couldn’t begin to absorb that many calories. Even in light of the typical Icelandic meal our provisions seemed wildly excessive. We were devastated to see them in any case, as we had been originally set to go out to Hestur on our own and had been told to equip and provision ourselves for that. We had packed and carried all our food and supplies (including the wretched stove that everyone is sick of hearing me carry on about) over the entire country. All I knew is that not a single packet of that oatmeal was going back to America in my bags.

our camp in hornvik

After we hauled everything up to our camping plateau, Ester gave us the grand tour. She suggested a “short-cut” straight up the cliff side as a time saver as she had to catch the ferry back at 5PM. So we gamely followed her bushwhacking through the Arctic jungle. With 24 hours of sunlight the plant-life goes nuts, so it was jungle-ish with butter cups up to mid-thigh and your boots hopelessly tangled in dandelions. Ester is also quite expert in botany and pointed out and fed us countless Icelandic plants and extolled their various medicinal virtues. The lichen thing was weird to me – optimally you brew it in hot water and then in hot milk before eating it. How does anyone come up with something like that? “Look at this bizarre thing I found growing on the rocks! Why don’t I boil it in milk and eat it?” Anyhow, she led us up and over and around. Each view and bird cliff was somehow even more impressive than the previous. Hornvik is unbelievably beautiful – truly sublimely lovely, and we could understand the envy expressed by all the Icelanders we’d told about our sojourn.

brad diligently scanning for foxes

After she’d pointed out all the monitoring locations and given us the basic information (pit toilet 800 meters south of camp, water from pretty much anywhere you find water), she raced off to catch the boat and left us to it. We had barely erected the kitchen tent and had not yet solved the mystery of the giant gas canister when a fox strolled leisurely through the camp to check us out. He casually looked us over and then proceeded to assert himself by marking a couple of posts and rock outcrops. We were thrilled/ shocked/ giddy and madly scrambling for cameras as he sauntered back up the hill and out of sight.

Kimberly on the look out for foxes

We retired that evening excited to begin monitoring. Brad and I split the watch on the Horn monitoring location – I took noon to six and he took six to midnight. Due to some scheduling issues, Suzanne was unable to start with us, so Josh went up to the saddle of the cliff to monitor three fox dens in the valley and meant to cover them most of the entire watch himself. (Suzanne arrived with the ferry on Friday on began monitoring that very day splitting time on the saddle with Josh) The hike up to each location was an hour to an hour and a half and once there you settled yourself into a likely spot and prepared to be silent and vigilant for six or more hours. We recorded all the human activity as well as the animal behavior – trying to see if links can be formally established between human use and animal behavior.

fox pauses from his serenade

We await the ferry with our gear pile

It was really hot hiking in the brilliant sun and very cold sitting in the biting winds. You had to bring many layers to adjust to the extremely variable weather and a big thermos of hot drinks as well. What we found is that the foxes are not particularly active on the noon to 6 watch. Mostly what Kimberly monitored were hikers, boats and the weather. Part of the job was timing how long people spent around the den we were watching. Most people walked right over the den (which was in the middle of the trail) with only the briefest of pauses. Some stopped long enough to point out the holes to their companions and take a few photos. Then there were those charming few who tried to conjure foxes out of the dens by rattling their trekking poles in the holes a shouting. I’m not sure where these people got the idea that threatening an animal with a stick and shouting will encourage it to approach you. I suspect that these were Icelanders most of whom Ester and others told us harbor a profound dislike of the foxes. This disdain goes back to the agricultural root of the country and the ubiquitous belief of farmers the world over that any animal with sharp teeth is a threat to the livestock. In Iceland that means that the farmers think that the foxes eat the sheep. If it wasn’t for the fact that people can shoot foxes on sight anywhere in Iceland but on Hornstrandir it would be amusing. Please, look at our fox pictures and videos and let us know if they look to you like they could take down a sheep that wasn’t already chopped up on a dinner plate.

Brad enters the data

Far more exciting from a fox watching perspective was my 6 to midnight shift which featured about 3 hours of sitting in the shade once the sun slid around to the north. Despite the bitter cold I endured with the help of my snowsuit and thermos of coffee, I had the consolation of many foxes to watch. The first two nights the foxes I saw were pretty far away and difficult to see without the binoculars. However, on the third night a fox came so close I thought he was going to sit in my lap (which would have been very welcome since it was a particularly cold and windy evening). He snuck up on me while I had the binoculars glued to my face scanning the face of Midfell. I heard a noise close by and turned to find a fox not more than 6 feet behind me. He walked around me for a minute or 2, then lost interest and walked away. Later he returned for another look and then seemed to head for cover lower down on the mountain. The same fox came to visit me on the 4th night out also. For this reason, Kimberly and I decided to trade shifts on the last day so that I would have the hiker observation shift and she would get to watch the foxes. She was not disappointed because my friend visited her and put on the show you can watch on our youtube channel. Here: http://youtu.be/Xeaf6OHlhcA

the arctic fox center in sudavik

This fox monitoring business was the centerpiece activity of our Fund for Teachers grant and it was exactly what we had hoped it would be. We learned so much about what goes into a wildlife study. Each morning before heading out to monitor we discussed the ways we will incorporate the experiences.

Our week in Hornvik flew by and before we knew it we were packing up and hauling our weighty gear back down to the beach (which was only slightly less tiring that going up). The ferry arrived on time at 11:30, we were shuttled aboard, and settled in for the 3 hour ride back to Isafjordur. When we landed we were met by Fanney (Ester’s wonderful daughter) and Sonja (who works at the center for the summer) and they carted us and all the gear to the Arctic Fox Center in Sudavik.

We wrapped up our fox monitoring experience at the Arctic Fox Center in Sudavik. It is a beautiful facility with thoughtful, well displayed exhibits, two orphaned “ambassador” fox kits and a fantastic café. http://www.melrakki.is/ We were feted with marvelous waffles, cream and jam by the awesome staff (thank you for everything Fanney, Sonja and Isabelle) and then set to work entering all the data from our field logs. It took hours and we began to regret the verbosity of our weather and tourist recording. The center also arranged camping for us at the local campground. The whole experience was beyond our wildest imaginings and we are deeply grateful to both Fund for Teachers and to Ester and the Arctic Fox Center.