Into the snowy Finland
A golden eagle stares whilst devouring a hare carcass
I’d had, for a long time, a vague longing for photographing wild creatures enduring the extreme wintry conditions in the snow. It was something I hadn’t experienced properly and it could have been called an attraction to the unknown. I strangely yearned for some bleak colour palette such as white, grey, and blue, too.
Planning an overseas trip while the omicron variant was raging throughout Europe seemed crazy, though. Various immigration websites ensured to use wording to make ‘travelling for pleasure’ sound almost criminal while the travel industry demanded easing of the various testing requirements claiming the industry was on the cusp of going under without it. Contradictions and out-of-date information to confuse the would-be travellers were everywhere.
Psychologically I was also nearing my limit of having to shelve various plans for covid. After all, I have been compliant, still keeping my hygiene routine, avoiding social contacts and having had all the jabs. A small me inside said ‘What have you been this good for if you can’t even go abroad when you want to???’
The next moment, I was booking tests and flights and on my way to Finland to photograph golden eagles in the snow!
A scene from Utajarvi, Finland, where golden eagles come to feed to survive the tough winter
The area of Finland I visited was 75km away from Oulu, still covered in 30-40cm of snow in the woods. That would be enough to bring the entire Britain to a standstill but in Finland, cars fitted with winter tyres were whizzing through at 90kmh on major roads still slightly covered with snow. A huge difference!
My hosts in Finland are Kaisa and Jari, a happy couple, passionate nature lovers and established photographers knowledgeable about local wildlife. I felt immediately welcome as if I met some friends I had known for a long time.
The eagle hide was a further 40-minute drive from Kaisa and Jari’s house - which was our base during the stay. The plan was this. Get up early enough for breakfast which is served from 5:30am then depart at 6:30am so that we arrive at the hide way before sunrise (about 10:30am!) with enough time left to set up our gears and place the carcasses for the eagles. And wait.
A golden eagle taking off
Despite the simplicity, there are many challenges. First, the light, if at all, is very dim. It entirely depends on the day’s weather, so it can be decent, but it also depends on how hungry the eagles are. If they are starving, as they happened to be one morning, they turn up so early way before the sunrise, making photography impossible. That morning I had to increase my camera’s ISO to 12800 just to identify one eagle on the carcass. The best scenario is they turn up between 11:30-13:00, firstly perch on a bare tree near the hide to give you plenty of opportunities to get some portrait shots, followed by some action shots where they take off and fly before they land near the carcass. But you are dealing with wild birds here and there is no set pattern that one can rely on.
Second issue is again related to the sun - the daylight hours last for about 4 to 5 hours in January. There is no guarantee that the eagles appear to coincide with the best of the day’s lighting conditions.
Then for me, there was the issue of focal length. I knew the lighting would be so dim, so my first choice was a 600mm prime. That was more than adequate as long as the eagles didn’t flap their wings. Only when they spread their wings did I curse the long reach of my lens as they are huge birds if you consider the wing span. Framing them so as not to clip any part especially during flight was very difficult - an ideal lens would have been a 400mm prime for this type of photography. But you live and learn.
That might have sounded as though I was whinging, in fact far from it. The Finnish sky was ethereally beautiful showing slightly different colourations each day. On the first day there was strong orange and yellow hues, while on the second day it had beautiful subtle sprinkles of pink, orange and purple where the sky met the top of the woods.
All this is quite a lot for a photographer to grapple with but the experience was made all the more enjoyable because of these factors!
Apart from the resident pair of golden eagles, this place sometimes attract visiting golden eagles from other territories looking for food. Especially when food is scarce, should they happen to be in the same place at the same time, it leads to a fight. It didn’t happen on our watch, as apparently wild animals naturally avoid unnecessary confrontation if they could, so it was an orderly, peaceful affair. The views from the hide were complemented by the frequent visits by hungry great spotted woodpeckers, and less frequent visits by grey-headed woodpeckers which donned very chic plumage. I managed a very decent shot of a crested tit, too, which I am very happy about.
But what made me immensely happy and this trip very poignant, is that it reminded me of what was absent in my life for a long while due to covid - the joy of interacting with people from different cultures and countries. I know through my work that learning each other’s differences makes you more aware of such differences, but you almost always bond stronger learning coincidental similarities and through shared interests. That was the case with Judith and Kees from Holland, Antii, Kaisa & Jari from Finland, as we bonded well through our mutual love of wildlife, birds and anything fishy to eat as we found out. I already look forward to experiencing different beauty Finnish nature has in store for me not just in winter but in the other seasons, too.
Thank you to everyone at Finnature and co-guests on this tour for making this such a memorable, happy, and enriching experience, not just a ‘shoot’.