Black grouses in Finland (III)

Dear friends,

As promised, I'm posting the last part of the Finland story. This one is about the other bird species. At the lekking sites of the black grouses, several other species were present. The cranes had just returned from their wintering grounds. They stayed far away from our hides, but their territorial calls added a special accent during the early morning hours. At one occasion a couple of whooper swans came flying over our hides with loud calls. Luck was on our side as they decided to land just about 50 meters in front of our hides. After some grooming they flew away and I managed to get sharp pictures of their take off.



After the black grouse sessions, we spend the rest of the day to search for other bird species. You can imagine that we also needed some rest in the afternoon after getting up at 2.30. Our Finnature guide Ari Latja drove us along the hotspots in the Oulu region. We observed groups of cranes and whooper swans on the fields, capercaillie and crossbills in the forest, as well as a group of three moose. Finland is well-known for its owls and woodpeckers. A resident black woodpecker gave a nice show and we were lucky that Ari found the largest and the smallest member of the Finnish owl family, the magnificant great grey owl as well as the pygmy owl. Both gave us unforgetable moments.

Thanks for visiting this site. Hope to see you back!

Dirk-Jan

Black grouses in Finland (II)

Dear friends,

As promised in the last post, the next one would deal with backlight photography of the black grouses in Finland. I'm really font of this type of photography as it can add a special 'dreamy' atmosphere. I was glad that we also got the opportunity for backlight photography in Finland. At one of the two places visited, the grouses were lekking around the hides. From both sides of the hide we had opportunities to shoot. You can imagine which side was my favourite. Two examples of backlight shots are attached to this post. The first is a calling male. Everytime it was calling its breath condensed into a small plume of steam because of the cold. The second picture is an example of an excited male. They make small vertical flights of about 1 to 2 meters high in order to obtain the attention of the females when these are sitting on or flighing over the lekking arena.

Some thoughts about the exposure of backlight shots. I like to underexpose my backlight photos as it gives a more intense sphere. On the other hand, I like to keep some detail in the photographic subject. In this case it's a black bird, which is certainly not the easiest one. An exposure compensation of -1,7 EV worked best for my taste.

Hope you like the pictures. The other bird species of the Finland trip will follow next week.

See you!

Dirk-Jan