On 12 August 2013, we decided to take a day off from sampling, and instead join a group of birdies that were heading to Nólsoy to study storm petrels. At the end we couldn’t find the birders and decided to go on our own nevertheless.

Nólsoy is an island located in front of Tórshavn on the East of the Faroes. Narrow and long, the island has a small town on the North end. It is only a 20 minute ferry ride from Tórshavn. Yet it feels quite remote, and the weather (storm and windy) made it more of an adventure.

One of the main attractions of the island is the very large colony of European storm petrels. More than 30,000 birds nest on the cliffs in the east side of the island. Nils was excited to see these unique birds, and it sounded like a good adventure to me. Sadly, we never found them, in part because we were not aware of their night habit. If we were close to the colonies as we skirted the cliffs, we saw little evidence of them. Still, the walk from the village of Nólsoy to the south end and lighthouse was quite a day out. We traversed bogs, and saw many rabbits (maybe hares too?), and tons of seabirds, including some diving skuas!

Secretly, what really had driven me to Nólsoy was one of its inhabitants. I had read in some travel guide than among the houses in the village was the home of the only taxidermist that specialised in stuffing puffins. Imaging having a stuffed puffin looking down on you from the bookshelves of your office! I decided to try find this taxidermist and find out more about this unique and weird Faroese souvenir.For better or worse, when we finally found his house after much searching, the house/museum was closed. The taxidermist had gone hunting!

Mykines

The travel blog continues here…