| FINLAND - FEBRUARY 2003 | |
| Another trip to Finland | |
| Having already been lucky enough to have visited Finland on four previous occasions Helen and I decided to go again but this time concentrate on a more difficult subject, namely Golden Eagles. Finland is well known among wildlife photographers, amongst other things, for allowing carcasses to be put out to attract Birds of Prey. A number of Finnish Photographers have been attracting Goshawks and Eagles down to bait for a number of years and recently some of them have opened up their hides to foreign photographers, a move that has not been welcomed by all Finnish photographers I believe. However, as these trips are not cheap and are becoming more popular they are proving to be a good source of sustainable income for Finland and a major drain on our resources!. | |
| Getting there | |
| After a 3 hour flight to Helsinki and an hours internal flight to Kuusamo, just below the Arctic circle, we were met at the airport by our guide Lassi Rautianien but unfortunately not by all our baggage. As the next flight to Kuusamo was not until the following day we had to somewhat alter our plans. Instead of going straight to our first Eagle hide, much of the cold weather clothes and photographic gear being in the lost bag, we stayed in a Ski resort Hotel near Posio, a 50 minute drive from Kuusamo. This was to be our base for the first half of our weeks time in Finland. | |
| Getting down to business | |
| The first morning saw us getting to grip with the cold weather and with
the 'proper' clothing provide by Lassi. An improvised visit to a log cabin complex saw us
trying to photograph, willow tits, siberian tits, red squirrels and siberian nuthatch. The
latter was a rarity for Lassi, and certainly for us, and provided some amusement as we
tried to photograph it as it came out of its roosting nest box. Eventually Helen managed
some reasonable shots using a touch of fill in flash.
Siberian Nuthatch - notice how pale the belly is compared with the UK Nuthatch |
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