No Capercaillie

I headed out this morning with a friend of mine. Our aim was to get some capercaillie (a.k.a. caper tailed grouse) pictures. My friend had scouted a good spot for getting pictures, the entire hillside was covered with tracks and while we were waiting for the sun to rise, some capercaillies landed in the trees around us. The nearest one was in a tree no more than 10 meters from us. Unfortunately, the birds obviously had noticed us, since they did not come down from the trees, nor make much sounds. After some time, we decided it was a no win situation for us and headed for home. With a slightly different approach, there are some great photos to be gotten from that location.

The best capercaillie this morning was this one, in a tree on the other side of the clearing. So, so far away:
The capercaillie in the tree right next to us was so hidden by branches, that there was no photo-opportunity there. As the sun rose and the day became brighter, some smaller birds took flight also, some close enough for quick pics:
Eventhough we didn't get the pics we were aiming for, I think this was a good morning outing. The only thing I didn't like was that my feet were cold. I'll have to re-evaluate my footwear for these cold spring mornings.

A few more grouse pictures

Grouse morning II

The rest of the pictures of a good morning for black grouse.

There is plenty of action in these first pictures of the morning, but unfortunately there was not quite enough light:
The knoll on the right of the first picture seemed to be the place the biggest ones were after. In the end this bird managed to secure it for himself:
Some of the birds from the nearby spots came close at times, but backed off fast when this one flexed a bit. Settling the hierarchy called for some tough looks being exchanged:
As the light increased, I got more of the colors and feeling of the morning into the pictures:
As the morning progressed the hens showed up also:
After the hens had dropped by, the party began to quiet down. Some of the leaving birds flew right over my hide. For a moment I thought this one was going to crash straight in:
Quite a load of pictures for one morning. I'm still looking to go back for one more morning of grouse action before the mating season is done. I'll just have to figure out a way to get there without sinking in too deep.

Grouse morning

Moving the hide paid off. I arrived at the hide about four thirty. The trip over went well, except for the fact that what had a few days earlier been frozen ground was now extremely soft at some places. Noticing the deep and soft places in darkness before sinking in them was quite a task. For a moment I also doubted my navigation skills, since I did not see the hide when expected. Finding a safe path thru the swamp had caused me to judge the distance I had walked a bit wrong and also slightly off course. I managed to get my bearings right quickly enough and got to the hide without taking an unwanted swim. The length of my boots was just barely enough at some points along the way.

The sun began to rise and with the increasing light more and more grouses arrived. The first ones started to arrive well before there was enough light for me to see what was happening, but I could hear them coming. Especially the ones that glided in right over the top of my hide. As the light increased the birds became more and more active and the noise grew louder as about thirty birds started calling out. From time to time the ruffling of feathers and a slight move towards a better knoll would result in a clash. There was so much to action going on that I didn't feel any urgency in taking pictures and could take moments off to eat my sandwiches and just follow what was going on.
A few examples from the morning:
In addition to eating and taking pictures of the grouses, I managed to capture this piece of spring action:
On the way back to my car I just had to take a picture of the first butterfly for this spring.
I got a lot of pictures of the grouses, I'll probably post some more tomorrow.

Grayness and grouses, the continuation

Off I went again. And again the morning turned out to be gray and foggy and the grouses were far away. I sat and listened to the sounds of spring. The grouses, swans, cranes, lapwings and a number of other birds calling all around me. It just felt good. I tried to take some pictures, but they didn't really work out. Even with a 2x extender I could not get a tight enough picture and extenders tend to reduce the light and soften the pictures too much. Just not good enough. I deiced that the better option is to move the hide closer when the grouses have stopped their show for the day. We'll see in a couple of days if my move worked or not. Hopefully I'll be able to get better pictures next time out. Here are a few examples from this morning, not good:

Gray morning grouses in the distance

I woke up just after two in the morning. This time it was a slightly different trip to my hide at the swamp, since another photographer was coming along, usually I go on my own. We headed off around three and arrived at the hide about four thirty. The break of dawn arrived foggy and gray. The grouses started arriving when there was just enough light for taking pictures. Unfortunately they landed a bit too far from the hide. We did take some pictures, but I'll have to go back out for another try at photographing black grouses at their mating season. These are not the type of pictures I was after:
The pictures do show what mating season looks like, but that's just about it. The season is definately on and picking up in pace.

Another morning at the hide

Once again I started off during the early hours of the morning. At 5 am I had set myself up in the hide with all my gear ready. It was still far too dark to take any pictures, but I was still late. The sun was already making the horizon lighter and therefore I was not able to get to my hide without being detected by the birds resting at the swamp. Soon I'll have to start going to the hide in the evening and sleeping over to be ready in the morning. With the advancement of spring soon there will not be many dark hours to use for covert movement.

As the sun rose, the lapwings started their morning concert, as did the curlews, swans, cranes, grouses and a number of smaller birds that I can't identify by their sound only.

Noticing that the ospreys had returned to their nesting tree brightened my morning considerably:
As usual, cranes could be seen only in the distance:
The grouses were busy with settling their mating territories, however this time they stayed further away from my hide:
The swans made several fly-by's:
Lastly, no trip to my hide can be made without a few pictures of a sunrise:

Grouse

This morning’s phototrip started as many previous ones, my alarm clock rang at three a.m. For a moment I thought of staying in bed, my blanket felt so lovely and warm. In the end I decided to get going. After all, I was all packed and ready to head off. I had even made sandwiches to take along and it would have been a shame to waste them. (As everyone knows, sandwiches taste much better out in the wild than at home.) The weather looked good also, -6 degrees and a clear sky were promising a good morning to come.

The dirt road was a little soft at some places, but I managed to get thru without problems. A full moon lighted my way as I walked along the trail towards my photography hide. At the hide I took my gear from my backpack, set up my cameras and sat down to wait. The sun rose in due course and the weather was pretty close to what I had hoped for:

I sat in the hide and munched my sandwiches, drank some tea and listened to the sounds of the morning. Lapwings were making sounds as the first rays of the sun started to shine and a swan was sounding from the other side of the swamp also. Grouse were not to be seen or heard. As the light increased, I noticed two swans resting at the opposite side of the swamp from me. I wondered if they were the same couple that I had been following last summer. I kept an eye on the swans, but didn’t take too much notice of them.

I had just poured myself another cup of tea and started on a sandwich, when I heard the sound of the swans change. I looked to see what was happening, maybe I could get a picture of the swans in flight if they decided to move on. I almost choked on my sandwich as I realized what was happening. I am sorry for the poor quality of the pictures, the distance was so long that I’ve had to “crop” the pictures with a heavy hand to be able to show even this much:

A lynx tried to get a swan for breakfast. It’s a pity I was situated so far away, but that’s how it goes at times. I don’t think I will be seeing a similar situation anytime soon, so who cares if the pictures weren’t top quality? Nature gave me a thrill I will not forget anytime soon.

Oh, yes, the grouse? A short moment after the episode with the lynx and swans, a flock of about 20 birds appeared in the middle of the swamp. I really don’t know where they came from, all of a sudden they just were there. The birds seemed to be feeding, slowly walking towards my hide. I watched the grouses and snapped pictures. Apparently my hide worked well, since the birds walked right past it, some as close as 10 meters. The grouses didn’t seem to be interested in settling their mating territories which I had expected to be happening. On second thought, this is rather understandable, why have turffights when one can be enjoying breakfast with the guys?