Waiting and worries

I was looking at my blogposts from last year and noticed that my first observations of black grouses was from the april 2nd posting. That one was only tracks on the surface of the snow. April 7th I got to see the birds, eventhough they were too far from the hide for good pictures. The reason why I was going thru the dates is that I am planning to head out on sunday to take pictures of black grouses. I am heading out a week earlier than last year. I'm quite worried if the grouses have started mating season or not and will there be anything to photograph on sunday.

Normally I wouldn't be worried at all. It would not be the first or the last time that I head out and come back without any pictures worth mentioning. This time however, the pressure is on in force. A seven-year-old naturephotography enthusiast is coming along with me, and she can hardly wait to see grouses and take pictures of them. I am also trying to figure out how much clothing to bring along for her. Sitting still in the hide with temperatures well below freezing requires quite a bit of clothing to keep things comfy. Skiing to the hide in the middle of the night has me worried also. I hope the trip will not be too tough. It is also hard to estimate what our speed of advance will be for the skiing. If things go as planned, we should arrive at the hide in darkness, but at such a time that we don't have to wait for hours on end for the sun to rise and enough light for photography.

Keep your fingers crossed that everything goes as planned, this is an important trip.

New version of the hide, continued

This is what the coloring of the hide turned out to look like once it was done:
I took the picture after I had set the hide up in preparation for the black grouse mating season that will be starting any day now. Obviously a greenish camo coloring does not blend in well with the white of the snow, but things look much better with some white camonetting:
From a distance, the hide blends in with the landscape rather well.

In my previous post, I forgot to mention that obviously the rainflaps need something to hold them up in the open position when the hide is in use. I sewed thin strips on both sides of the top of the rainflaps. The strips can be tied to hold the rolled rainflap up:

New version of the hide

My previous hide has been in use for two years and it is slowly starting to come apart. The few design flaws in it have also been nagging at my mind, especially with the spring season getting closer and closer every day. I decided to make a new top for my tested and well functioning base.

I started the project again by putting up the tent. This time in our livingroom, since my workshop is so full of stuff that there is simply no room to do anything there.
Next I checked the placements for the viewing- and photographyslits. To make sure I had the placements right, I placed a tripod and a lens in the tent:
I used a marker to draw vertical and horizontal lines around the lens so that I'd know where to cut the slits. I also placed the mesh that would come on the viewingslits in place. I attached the mesh loosely by its corners with pins:
By using a small spotlight affixed to the tripod, I could see the outline of the mesh from the outside of the tent:
I used a ruler as a guide and using a sharp knife, cut the crossedslits for the lens and a rectangle shaped hole for viewing:
I then took the tent down and turned it inside out to fasten the mesh in smoothly and tightly in place with pins:
Next it was time to abuse my wifes sewingmachine. The biggest challenge was keeping all the extra material from getting tangled and sewn by accident:
After all the viewingholes had their mesh sewn into place, I measured the size of the rainflaps that I would need for each. I cut the pieces from tarp that was left over from making my previous hide. I sewed the rainflaps in place from their top, well above the openings in the tent:
I also sewed elasticbands to the bottom corners of the rainflaps. These will be used to tighten the flaps to the bottom of the tent:
The better naturephotographer of our family took a quick check of the viewholes and gave her approval to my design:
I used spraypaint to give the hide a camoflagecoloring. At the moment the hide is still waiting for the paint to dry, so I'll post a picture of the final product at a later time.

Without my camera, again.

Today was one of those days that I really wish I'd had my camera with me at work. It would have been nice to have been able to take a couple of pics, but could not be helped. I really have enough gear to carry around as it is, without adding hobby related stuff to the pile. I think it's better to keep work and hobbies separate anyways.

The reason I missed having the camera with me, was that we saved an Eagle Owl (bubo bubo) today. The tough winter must have caused the bird to be so exhausted and hungry that it had ended up at the backyard of a house and was took weak to fly off. After a short run, I caught the bird in a net and then we transferred the owl into a cardboard box. Then we put the box in the back of the car and drove it to a birdhouse that takes care of injured wild birds and releases them into the wild when they are well again.

Chefs special

As some might know, I enjoy working in the kitchen. Cooking is just simply fun. I seldom make anything really fancy, mostly it's just basic home cooking for the family. The chef in the videoclip could be called my inspiration or maybe even an idol:

Freezing sunshine

It has been rather cold lately, especially the nights and mornings have been cold enough to make even a finn think twice about going outside. However, the day temperatures have been at a tolerable level and the sun has been shining brightly. Unfortunately I have not been able to enjoy the lovely wintery days, since I have been battling with a high fever for the last week and I still don't feel completely well. It would have been nice to have been able to go out and ski a bit and maybe even take some pictures.

I'm planning on starting to make the next version of my hide in the near future. I'll post some text and a few pictures on what I'm doing as soon as I get things started.

Two months

have gone by almost unnoticed. There is now snow on the ground and my photography has come almost to a complete stop. I have taken some quick snapshots, mainly stuff to go in the family album, but that's about all. This one will go in the family album also, I think: