February, 2013
We were fascinated by the pictures of Great Grey Owls we saw in London Bird fair 2012. Since then we simply fell in love with this bird. Great Grey Owl also known as a Lapland Owl is distributed across the Northern Hemisphere and is the largest of the northern forest.
Finland is a great place for Great Grey Owls especially in winter, as they are more easily approachable this time of year. We kept checking information on the internet about any good sightings of this bird in Finland. Good news reached us in February. Owls were performing well in Oulu region. We booked our holidays, packed up our equipment and headed to Finland.
The first day with the Great Grey Owls turned out to be very challenging because of freezing weather temperatures. Before traveling to Finland, we checked the forecast which was around 10 - 15o C below zero. To our big surprise we had to face -23o C... It was almost impossible to stand still while being outside all day in such conditions. Press ups, excises and jumps helped our stiff bodies and numb feet to get warmer.
After a few hours of waiting the first unmistakable sight of Great Grey Owl we witnessed in the early afternoon.
It was the first and only owl we saw that day. It was quite unusual for this location with an average of 3 owl sightings a day. There is a possibility that such an unusual owl behaviour was related to a reduced activity of small mammals due to high temperature drop.
Luckily our immune system managed to cope with the harsh conditions and we were ready for our second day of photography. Temperatures were not higher than – 10oC and it was much easier to keep our hands warm comparing to yesterday’s tough cold which resulted in having an index finger with pale skin and light blister.
The first Great Grey Owl was spotted in the afternoon perching on a wire ready to hunt. It listened and watched the prey, then swooped down the wire... It was amazing how accurately it located the prey even under deep snow.
Our presence didn’t bother the bird at all and it gave us a really good performance for half an hour.
Later that day we spotted three more owls. One of them was very tame and didn’t react to us standing five meters away. The light was very poor, so we couldn’t manage to get decent photos but it was fascinating to see such an incredible owl from such a close distance. We left the field with the owl still calmly perching in a tree overlooking a white meadow and enjoying a quiet winter evening.
Finland is a good place for golden eagles, unfortunately we managed to get only couple of pictures of this beautiful and magnificient bird. Before our arrival possibly a snowmobile scared them off and the birds were avoiding the site.
After a long and not very successful day we had a surprise dinner. What a day... The lady prepared meal which looked really delicious, something like a beef stew. She didn't speak english, so couldn't explain what meat it was. The dish was perfect, meat soft and very tasty. We even took an extra portion. The next day the mystery was revealed - we had elk for dinner. Oops.
Breakfast was nice and simple without any surprises. As we wanted to get more photos of Great Grey Owl, on the departure day we decided to visit one more owl location close to Oulu airport. We were very delighted to spot Great Grey Owls there.
They preferred to stay further away from us but after couple of hours one of the the owls flew closer and gave the most incredible show in the falling snow... It was simply amazing.
Unfortunately we were running out of time as we had to go to the airport to catch our flight. It was so difficult to leave the Great Grey Owl ...
Back in London Heathrow airport our happy faces turned to very gloomy and worried as we realized that one of our bags was missing. Luckily there was a very happy ending; after three days of nervous waiting the bag was finally reunited.