Fall is taking our country step by step. Brown, orange, yellow, and red tones are dominating our landscapes. Lots of mushrooms, migrating birds ..... an interesting period full of photographic motives. Before we post some pictures of our current fall adventures, I'd like to post some older news. About 4 weeks ago I spend a few days together with Bendiks Westerink (http://www.bendiks.nl/) in the Wild Brown Bear lodge. Our goal was clear. We liked to take pictures of brown bears in fall colours. Some beautiful pictures were already made in our minds. Fall colours, fog, bears, sphere ......... you know. Our timing was right. After we arrived at Helsinki airport it was clear that fall had arrived in Finland. The more we drove to the north, the more intense the colours became. In particular the birch trees were coloured intensely yellow! What could go wrong? After arriving at the lodge at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, we had a quick meal and departed full of expectations for our first bear night.
Bendiks waiting for the things to come
When I visited this place last July there were at least 6 individual bears each night and they came already early in the evening. But what happened to the bears in the meantime? The hours passed and dusk came ...... no bears. Our first bear night wasn't successful. To make a long story short on the last of our three nights we only saw one bear in twilight. Was it the hunting season? Was it the abundant presence of natural food? I don't know ..... but there is one thing I learned ..... these brown bears are wild creatures that are not listening to the ambitious dreams of wildlife photographers. Let's keep it like this!
Didn't we take any pictures? Sure we did. A cooperative red fox, a common teal, and of course the beautiful fall colours in the land of the thousand lakes.
Cheers,
Dirk-Jan
