Grouse morning

The weather was good for my photo-outing, the temperature had gone just below freezing during the night, creating a icy crust on the snow. The crust carried my skis and sledge nicely as I made my way to the hide. Dawn was just breaking when I got to the hide and the half moon I had admired along the way lost its beautiful red color just moments before I got my camera out:
The rising sun colored everything around me in different shades of purple, red and orange as the morning progressed.
While waiting for the grouses to arrive, I had my usual "hide breakfeast" of tea and sandwiches. It was still a bit dark for photography, but when the lone swan that had been hooting nearby took to its wings, I decided to try a inflight pic against the dark background created by the trees surrounding the swamp:
As the light increased, the grouses started landing around my hide and soon territorial disputes broke out. A quick count gave me approximately 40 males at peak time and a couple of hens dropped by to bring even more heat to the situation. Clashes between males happened in every direction around the hide and at times I had trouble trying to figure out which birds to follow for the best photos. Below are some of the pics I took of the clashes that occured:
When the grouses had had enough and took off, I packed my gear and moved the hide a couple of meters to the side, since the melting snow was creating a flood right next to it. As I was moving the hide, a lone goose flew by. I would not have noticed it at all, had it not honked loudly as it approached me. Thanks to the sound it made, I had plenty of time to grab my camera from my backpack and take a picture of the fly by:
As I was skiing back to my car, I saw my old friend, the osprey that nests at the swamp:
All in all, I am happy with the outcome of my morning outing. I will try to go thru all the pictures I took in the near future, so more picture are to be expected to published soon. I am hoping to take my daughter out for one more "grouse outing" in the next couple of days and then I'll most likely move the hide to another location for the summer. I am hoping the snow will hold for the next few days, since that would make our journey to the hide much more enjoyable, after all, being finns, we love to ski whenever we need to move thru the woods.

Berries

I had to drop by at work to take care of something in the morning. I got the job done and was heading back home at around 10 a.m. At 10:30 I was on my way to the wilderness. I picked a bucketfull of blueberries and half a bucket of cloudberries. For my photoproject I took a few pictures while I was picking berries:

My butterflyspot didn't let me down:
A slightly different shot of a pine cone:
This butterfly seemed to love my backpack:
The osprey came to check me as I walked towards the nesting tree:
There appeared to be some birds in the nest:
Cloudberries:

All in all, a nice day and a good trip.

New camera on a walk about

I got my new camera yesterday. Today I decided to go out to the wild, mainly to check out if my hide was allright after the stormy winds of the last few days. I also planned on taking some of the camo netting off, since I no longer needed the "extension" to my hide that I made for our little meet at the swamp some time ago. I gave my good friend Simo a call, and even though my call came on a short notice, he was all set to go out and see what we could find at the swamp.

Our walk about started off on a good note, as soon as we got out of the car we spotted a black woodpecker at the other side of the clearing. I managed to get a couple of quick snapshots, from a rather long distance away, though:
At the swamp a couple of wood sandpipers were flying about as we walked towards the hide. Judging by their behaviour, they had offspring somewhere close by. We took a few quick pictures and headed off, not wanting to disturb them any more than it was necessary to get past the area.
The hide had remained in place, and on the way back we saw the osprey returning to it's nest from its own trip.
For a quick walk about and a sort of "getting acquainted with my new camera" -trip, this was a pretty good outing. Now I need to take a nap before heading off to night shift.