Finland
Half an hour in Helsinki airport, so thought I would upload a few pics from the trip with Jari Peltomaki where I met up with a couple of buzzers, both of whom keep their heads down on this site - David white (who anyone who came to the FB conference a couple of years ago will remember from his farm buzzer hide pics) & Phil Dennison. First Oulu, then Kuusamo for the Black Grouse Lek, but also some eagles. Bit chilly!
"I want a good clean fight"
I had never seen a Lek before.
Even getting up at 3am. The sounds & aggression make for a memorable experience.
Then off to see some wild Golden & White-tailed eagles
To Jari's home for some waxwings
Some rather dark red squirrels with the biggest ear tufts I've ever seen. Easier for the eagles to spot them.
Spring hasn't yet really sprung in Finland & we were too early for the bears to have woken up properly, so we have a couple of quite thin nights in the hides, which are quite comfortable (& heated).
But we found some Great Grey Owl
and some White Tailed Eagles to keep us entertained
At first, quite shy & in poor light
Then better light.
Finally, out in the open, but it needed some patience!
Quite a lot of ravens to keep us busy during the long waits.
As well as dog food, they're fed on Salmon offcuts, which don't always make for the prettiest pictures. Over to the Wolverines next...
If you're still with me, more pics from Finland. Now wolverines which are even harder to find than bears, but do not hibernate. A highlight for me as I had never seen one before.
Lots of waiting in hides, some not very warm! Once 14 hours in a hide for 3 minutes of action. Sometimes heavy snow, sometimes a bit more light.
Tricky to focus through snow as well as getting the exposure right with bright snow & dark animal
They were tempted up the trees by food. These wolverine have been fed every day for 20 years, but were still quite shy.
Huge "snow shoes", but with claws
Make you understand why the X Men called him Wolverine. Good for climbing trees.
Just uploaded these 3 bolts quite quickly, so apologies for errors.
Overall a great trip. Jari is highly recomended, but you need to be ready to "earn" the wildlife encounters with long hours, even in "pay & display" hides.