We just came back from an amazing and breath taking trip from a spectacular place in Norway. Physically we are back in London but all our thoughts are still with majestic Golden and White - tailed Eagles. This eagle adventure was much more than we expected and memories from the trip we will carry with us all our lives. All thanks to “Eagle Man” Ole Martin Dahle. He is a man with big passion and huge love for eagles and wildlife. It was simply a privilege to meet him.
On the first two days of our trip we had early start as we had to get in a hide before the birds saw us. But honestly there was no problem to get up at 4.15 a.m. as we were very excited and couldn’t wait for our days with eagles to begin. Ole and soft light from our headlamps were leading us to a hide in the snowy mountains.
It didn’t take long for us to settle down in our new “home” and Ole left us alone with a promise to return in about 12 hours time. With the headlamps off we were sitting silently in the pitch black hide waiting for the eagles to come. The sky was brighter every passing minute and we started to see a silhouette of mountains in front of us. The first Golden Eagle landed about 7:30 a.m. It was simply amazing…
Eagles were showing well till 9 a.m. Sometimes they made us freeze or stop us breath, but we really enjoyed their company and asked them to stay as long as possible…
It was amazing to see how snow was coming in from the mountains hiding everything behind a white wall. When the wind was picking up we knew we didn’t have a lot of time until a powerful, muscular Golden eagle with a wingspan of more than two meters would be blown away by a strong gust.
With the heavy snow closer our worries for our lenses were higher as we couldn’t remove them from lens holes. With the snow and wind blowing from all directions couple of times we ended up having a lens hood half full of snow. Even if it is highly unrecommended we had to remove our lenses for cleaning… Of course we left the lens hood inside the hole and tried to do as minimum movement as possible. To our big relieve, the birds were not distracted and they visited us again in the afternoon. As nature haven’t decided what to give as weather wise we were rewarded with a mixture of snowfall and sunshine. We were very pleased with it.
The next day was as good as the day before...
The peak of the day was a remarkable performance of a White - tailed Eagle. We couldn’t stop giggling when we saw it’s funny and clumsy walk. We simply felt in love with this bird.
The most entertaining hour with adorable and powerful White - tailed Eagle was gone like 10 minutes.
For couple of seconds we were lucky to witness two White – tailed Eagles in action ...
Both days which we spent with the eagles were absolutely sensational – the right weather and a good activity from birds. We simply couldn’t ask for more…
Our third day with the eagles started later and we were able to enjoy longer mornings in the guest house – a great place to rest and get inspired by brilliant pictures and photo books from well known photographers.
We never thought we would do White - tailed Eagle photography from a boat in the sea... It’s unforgettable and simply amazing experience. Luckily Ole provided overalls which helped us to cope with cold and wind in the sea. Dressed in red outfits we immediately doubled our sizes and looked like hobbits in sumo wrestling suits but they were very helpful in temperatures up to -100 C.
We left the harbor with Ole’s boat which was a very good icebreaker too while moving through ice – covered waters. Ole was feeding gulls or how he calls his "friends" our entire trip to the Norwegian Sea as their noise and activity attracts attention of White - tailed Sea Eagles. Ole knows all 37 pairs of Sea Eagles in his area and some of them even have names. As Ole is with the eagles over 20 years it’s not a surprise that they as well as gulls recognize and trust him. His gull Charlie has been eating while sitting on his head on a cap for several years in a row now. Unfortunately we didn't met Charlie as he visits Olie in summer. But we witnessed a couple of White - tailed Eagles which followed our boat just few meters away. For a few seconds we even believed that the eagles will take fish from Ole’s hands. It was simply amazing...
During the first day we had more than 20 dives. Ole works incredibly hard in positioning the boat in the best possible photographic position. He worked out a very helpful routine as well. When we see an eagle coming, we always now that we will have to photograph to the left. Then Ole throws out a coalfish shouting “fish is out” and follows by “eagle is coming”. The action then starts really quickly: eagle lands, grabs the fish and flies away.
Surprisingly there were times when the eagles, mostly the younger ones, had to give several attempts for catching the fish. Speaking about the age of the eagles its’ interesting to mention some data which could be read from the bird rings. Ole has provided a very useful bird ringing info on his blog. For example blue ring on the right leg of the White - tailed Eagle means he was ringed in Norway. Red/silver ring means the eagle was born in 1989.
Apart from a light sea sick it was a surprisingly good day and we couldn’t wait for tomorrow. It came quick and we headed to the harbour with some music playing from a CD with a cover of Ole and his friend Charlie sitting on the head. Only back at home we realized that the songs were sanged by Ole...
Thanks to Ole’s great ideas and persuasion, the last day with eagles was dedicated to more creative in Ole's words 'arty-farty' photography. It was fun.
During the eagle adventure we really appreciated a good chance to photograph smaller birds and red squirrels. Bullfinches were on the top of our list but it was a good fun with siskins, great tits, blue tits, Eurasian jays, crows, coal tits, crested tits and even redpolls. Four hours before our departure we even ended up photographing common eiders. It was simply amazing...
Sadly all good things come to an end…We’ve spent only four days with Ole Martin Dahle and his eagles but those amazing days will stay in our hearts forever. We are sure we’ll be back in this superb place but this time with a single malt whisky for Ole. It’ll be quite a challenge to find something unique for his collection as it contains more than 120 whiskies already, but it’s nothing comparing to the great job he does…