After spending the first couple of weeks of April near Búðarhólshverfi on the south coast of Iceland, Gordon moved to Klausturholar (northeast of Selfoss) mid-month. On 24th April he tracked further west, by-passing Reykjavik (where he stopped off last year) and is now on the northern shore of Hvalfjörður, well to the west of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano. Meanwhile, Tony has been having a much quieter time and is still on Lonfjörður in east Iceland. If he stays there he’s unlikely to breed as Lonfjörður is famous for its flock of non-breeding whooper swans. But it is still early days and he could move to a breeding territory over the next 2–3 weeks.

Of the other satellite-tagged whoopers, S3T has flown north to Bjarg in northwest Iceland, H5Z is northeast of Geysir and Y6K and Drangey (NA3) are both in southeast Iceland at Kalfatstellsstadhur and Brunnholl respectively. We’re particularly surprised at Drangey’s location as he is known to have bred at Skagafjörður in northern Iceland for many years. Indeed he is named after Drangey Island off the Icelandic coast at Skagafjörður, said to be the refuge of the outlaw Grettir in one of the Icelandic sagas (Grettis Saga). We’re therefore waiting to see if he is just staging in the southeast, or if he’s going to skip breeding this year