Bears, Wolverines, Sea Eagles & Grouse

Finland, April, 2024

We arrived at a the lodge to find a hot meal waiting, comfy beds and fantastic hosts, all very welcome after a long day of travel. It was early to bed though as we had the unexpected offer to photograph Black Grouse in the morning. This did mean a 4am alarm, followed by a short snowmobile trip! to get to the hides before first light. Well worth it to watch the Grouse fly in as the sun rose.

Four days of photography followed, with a routine of a afternoon meal and then overnight in the hides to wait for the bears! Only about 6 hours of dark at that time of year so we could photograph late into the evening, get a little sleep and photograph again at first light. 

Over those four days we get very lucky to see multiple different Brown Bears, the resident Wolverine several times, and one wonderful afternoon with a family of four White Tailed Eagles.

During the day we had time to empty memory cards, charge batteries and spend some time in the adjacent little bird blind. Many visitors including the beautiful Bullfinch and local Red Squirrels. The only challenge was managing the -10 temperatures!

Couple of days we had some good snow storms to really provide different images, although the snowflakes did play havoc with the cameras auto focus at times!

Sadly no sightings off the Wolf (we did see tracks on two days) or Northern Lights but a fantastic trip with the unexpected bonus of Black Grouse and Sea Eagle.

Massive thanks to Tracey Lund of Wild Aperture of making the top possible. Also to Tim and Karen for being fantastic travel companions. 

Hope you all enjoy the images. There is a link at the bottom of the page to see larger versions of all the animals.