Black grouses in Finland (I)

Dear friends,

Last week we spend a terrific week in Finland. We (Martine and Jacky Launoy, Erik van Velden, Chris van Rijswijk, and me) joined Han Bouwmeester for a try-out journey to Oulu, Finland. Our goal was to photograph lekking black grouses. A wildlife experience of the first class in a amazing setting with beautiful weather. We had to wake up every night at around 2.30 in order to be on time inside of our hides at the lekking site. The hides were situated in two different swamps in the middle of a taiga forest. Hides with chairs were available, as well as hides with matresses for low angle shots. I preferred the later ones because the contact with the birds was most intense.

walking to the lekking side at night

it's me laying in the hide (thanx Han)

Every morning we were treated with about 10 lekking males around our hides. The sound and the atmosphere that they produce is hard to describe. The males arrived about an hour before sunrise. It's a mystery to me why they always come to the same area of a few square hundred meters within a swamp of several kilometers wide. I constantly had the impression of being a spectator in a medieval theatre. The males are walking around in their own territories of a few square meter while making strange hissing and bubbling sounds. Once in a while they have to defend their own territories against intruders with fights and impressing behaviour. Their hormones got even more activated when the females showed themselves in the arena.

impressing behaviour

fighting for the territories

posing female

There is more to come in the coming two weeks. Later this week I will post some backlight pictures of the grouses. The other birds of this Finland trip will follow next week. Hope you liked it so far. I'm looking forward to see you back on the blog and please feel free to leave your reaction/feedback.

Dirk-Jan

Black grouses revisited

Dear all,

Tomorrow I will leave for 6 days to Finland with a group of 6 photographers. Our main target is to take pictures of lekking black grouses in the early mornings. The rest of our time we will spend on owls, woodpeckers, and perhaps we find a capercaillie or hazel grouse. Lets see what this trip will bring. The stuff is packed and I am ready for it. Sure some pictures will follow next week. Via the following link you will find detailed information about the program:

http://www.finnature.fi/black_grouse_lek_photography_in_oulu.html .

See you,
Dirk-Jan

Hawfinches!

A dream species in front of the forest hide. He, the male hawfinch, appeared on saturday afternoon only for a few minutes. Few opportunities for photos but none of them were completely satisfactory to me. Would he return? Was there a female as well? Are they breeding in the neighbourhood? Was this only migration? Lots of questions...........

I spend three hours in the hide on sunday together with my family. Unfortunately, no hawfinches. Another attempt on monday and yes ...... he returned. This time he brought his female as well. They came back together twice within a few hours. The light was excellent during their second visit, which last for about 15 minutes. Lots of pictures, some of them are shown below. Hopefully they stay with me for the coming breeding season. Let's see. I can never get enough of such beautiful birds.

Best regards,

Dirk-Jan

First April Fools' Day

Last friday afternoon, I found an 'official' letter at the doorstep of my photography hide. The sender of the letter was the municipal of Oldebroek, where the hide is located. The bottomline of the letter was that I owned a recreation object on their soil. The size of the parcel was estimated to be 130 square meters. As a result I had to pay them the so-called WOZ tax of 382 euro's. This kind of tax needs to be paid by house owners in the Netherlands. As the letter was dated on the 1st of April it was clearly a joke. But now I had to find the offenders. That wasn't easy. Was it my family, friends, or perhaps the manager of the forest? It cost me several days to unravel the mistery. Today the pieces fell together. My dear colleagues were behind this first of Aprils' joke.

Thanks guys, it was great fun!

Dirk-Jan

Exhibition

The Wild Brown Bear lodge near the Russian border in the neighbourhood of Kuhmo Finland is a very special place. Between April and September this is one of the finest places for brown bear photography in Europe. This year, the lodge is celebrating it's 10th anniversary. Congratulations to Ari Saaski and his team! Starting from coming May, the bear adventure can be followed each night via a dedicated bearcam. A world premiere! I'm looking forward. Last year I visited this wonderful place twice and also in 2009 two visits are planned. Who said that bear photography is addicting? Ari asked me to participate in the special anniversary exhibition. So I send him 7 of my best photos made in his lodge. They are shown in this post. If you like to obtain more information, to view the bearcam or to make a reservation please visit http://www.wildbrownbear.fi/. Highly recommended!

Cheers,
Dirk-Jan