WildNature-live

Droplets and a Swan

2012-02-10T21:14:00.000+01:00

Finally I got a few days away from my computer, and time to do some photography. Only the local swans and ducks in my garden and in the town, but good to see the scenery through a viewfinder again. Below are two of the local whooper swans (sangsvane) portrayed as a cloud of droplets drifts by.

- EG -

Night creatures

2012-01-28T23:38:00.001+01:00

The first month of the year, I have barely touched my camera. Office work and planning the year ahead has unfortunately taken most of my time. It is a bit ironic that when you try to make wildlife photography a living, one need to spend at least half the time behind a computer preparing and promote your images. During this frustration, it is good to look back at images and field trips and remind yourself that life as a photographer is pretty nice afterall.

About exactly a year ago, I returned from one of my most exciting travels I've ever made. Madagascar is a treassure for those that are interested in nature. During my visit there, I did a lot of nightspotting and this was the first time I tried seriously taking picture during the night. As anyone that has ever visited a rainforest knows, it is a very different world that appear after dark. Well worth exploring - so is playing with lights, and I found that often you get a much more interesting image just having a strong torch instead of using the flash. Here are some of my first nocturnal rain forest images.

A fossa is the largest land predator in Madagascar. Only maglight used to enhance the predator look.

A Brokesia, one of the smallest chameleons, that is flashed from behind.

This is one of the rain forest's most saught after creatures, a satanic leaf tailed gecko. As its scientific name Uroplatus phantasticus indicates, it is really a fantastic experience to see it!

A snake swimming, only showing its head to navigate. A strong torch as the only light source.

For this beautiful chameleon, I've used a combination of a strong torch from underneat/behind and weak flash from the front. I wanted the colours in the moss that hangs down from the branch to be enhanced through some backlighting.

-EG-

The Ultimate Arctic Seamammal Experience

2011-12-31T17:38:00.000+01:00

WildNature arrange Svalbard expedition 03-17 August 2012

Join me on a wild experience in one of the world’s last wilderness. Svalbard is famous for its pristine and wild nature, and of course for the cold scenic landscape and roaming polar bears.

On this trip we will focus on the large whales that are coming to the archipelago to feed during summer. This is one of the best places in East Atlantic to see blue whales and feeding fin whales are in good numbers. As I only work with wild animals, I never give any guarantees. However, there is a lot of things that need to go wrong if we don’t see most of the species I advertise here. Other cetacean species that we can expect to see are humpback whales (often observed in groups doing their famous bubble netting behaviour), white-beaked dolphins (often come to the boat bow riding) and of course minke whales. In the fjords we have reasonably good chance to see belugas, often feeding with a spectacular glacier setting as a back curtain. Seals are often around, and we will most likely see all of the Svalbard species (ringed seal, bearded seal, harbour seal, hooded seal and harp seal). We will spend time at some of the walrus haul out sites, meaning normally good photo oppurtunities for these weird, but fascinating creatures. Polar bears will also be on the agenda, and we will stop whenever the opportunities arises. However, keep in mind that this is not a designated polar bear trip, but is the only trip available in Svalbard that focuses on the cetaceans. The weather and ice conditions will decide where and when we go for the different localities.

While August is arguably the best time for cetaceans, it is at the very end of the breeding season for birds. Most of the bird cliffs will be more or less empty at this time. We will anyway make an effort to see most of the breeding species in Svalbard. Ivory gull, Sabine’s gull, Grey phalarope, Brunnich’s guillemot, Atlantic puffins, Little auk, Barnacle goose, Pink-footed goose, Great-, Pomarine-, Long-tailed- and Arctic skua as well as Snow bunting, Purple sanpiper and Glaucous gull just to mention a few.

Why travel with me?

I have worked 8 seasons as an expedition leader for different bird and cetacean science projects in Svalbard. I have explored most of the coastline in Svalbard in a zodiac, and hence know where to find the different species. There are probably no other tour operator that are able to show you as many species – simply because many other tour operators travel with guides that don’t have the nescessary identification skills and they don’t have the field experience. I’ve guided other photographers and film teams with great success in earlier trips.

To ensure good photo oppptunities – we will make exstensive use of zodiac whenever weather permits.

When not in the zodiac, we use a 49 feet sailyacht specially made for Arctic conditions. This is smaller than what most other people use, which means we are able to reach places that others give up. We sacrifice luxury of spaceous cabins for the intimate nature experience!

I do have extensive Arctic field experience. This includes boat safety and polar bear safety, which is of upmost importance on a trip like this into remote areas where the nearest help might be days away.

I am an educated biologist, professional wildlife photographer and a keen birder – which all ensures a good general knowledge about behaviour and how to increase our chances to see and photograph the animals without disturbing them too much.

Only 4 custumers allowed, means exclusive experiences and photos as well as flexibility regarding where and when to go as the group wants.

The price – no other tour operator match this price. NOK41000/person (about EUR5100) for 14 days of true Arctic experience. This price includes all guiding, all food onboard (alcoholic drinks needs to be brought onboard yourself), all fuel and boat costs.

What to bring
Warm clothes – normal temperatures 0-5 degrees C. Keep in mind that standing out on the deck of the sailboat watching the wildlife can be cold at times. You don’t want to miss the best experiences and photo opportunities because you didn’t bring enough clothes…Hiking boots for landings, and some sneakers or light shoes to use when on the boat.

Binoculars – even though the guide will constantly watch for interesting animals and birds, it makes a huge difference to watch the wildlife through your own pair of binoculars.

Camera – For clos up portraits of birds and mammals I recommend at least a 300mm lens. For more landscapes and cetacean shots, something like 70-200mm is very handy (For the last years, I almost exclusively shoot with 70-200mm myself). Wideangle lens for land based photography can also be useful.

Personal (normal) travel insurance. No need for the extra search and rescue insurance normally needed for independent travelers in the Arctic since this is all sorted by the boat owner.

Since the price is pushed to an absolute minimum, we need 4 people to let this trip go.

Closing date – 20th of January.

Contact details for ordering or questions about this trip:

Eirik Gronningsaeter

Email: EG@WildNature.no
Cell: (+47) 95257710

Highly Commended

2011-11-01T13:56:00.003+01:00

I have just returned from a super weekend in Lünen, Germany where one of my images has been highly commended in the landscape category in GDT European Wildlife photographer of the year. This is considered one of the most prestigeous nature photo contests in the world with about 1000 photographers from 39 different countries entering this year, so it is no secret that I feel a bit proud and honored to receive such a prize.

This was the first time ever I entered the competition. I have always had a somewhat ambivalent feeling about photo contests, and I have only entered my images into competitions four times in my life. There is certainly a bit of lottery involved in this game as you never know which images will reach the feelings of the jury. I am sure that a lot of great images don't make it to the top, so there is also a need for humbleness for the winners involved.

Last year's success in the BBC Wildlife photographer of the year and this year's prize means that I have a pretty good hit rate so far, and maybe I should stop while I'm on top. Then again, going to these prize ceremonies also means the chance to meet colleagues from around the world. I get new ideas, new inspiration and the chance to attend different presentation where great images and stories are showed. Time will show if I enter again.

Three other Norwegians (Orsolya Haarberg, Ole Jørgen Liodden and Knut-Sverre Horn) were successful as well, and I think its really nice to see that Norwegian nature photography is at such a high international level. An exhibition of the winning photographs will now tour Europe, and will be seen by a huge audience.

My image was taken at the end of July in Svalbard two years ago. We where having dinner at the sailboat we were working from, when the low clouds finally liftet a bit. Fresh snow had made the land formations in the mountains of Svalbard even more obvious than usual, and I saw the oppurtunity to make this image at the southern tip of Edgeøya at the eastern part of Svalbard.

-EG-

Rabies outbreak in Arctic Norway - Hysteria or sensible management?

2011-09-28T22:47:00.000+02:00

A menace to society!

Rabies is a viral decease that is common worldwide, except for in a very few countries in the world (eg. Norway, Sweden, UK, Australia, Japan, Iceland). It is also known as dog madness decease as the virus mainly spreads through saliva which gets transmitted when a dog or an other canine species bite another warm-blooded species. The virus goes into the neural system and eventually reach the brain in which it infects. Once reached the brain, the strong symptoms starts to show and the decease is virtually incurable. One of the symptoms is that the infected animal get aggressive for no apparent reason and might bite anything that comes close. About 55 000 people worldwide are killed every year due to rabies infection.

I was recently in Svalbard, where there have been a few cases of rabies in arctic foxes. We were at the harbour, and some of our crew saw a fox that was biting rubber tires of cars, and was very approachable. A woman bent down, stretched her arm out to feed it and got bitten. The fox was killed, and proved positive to rabies. This was the beginning of what is now known as a rabies outbreak in Svalbard. The Governour is now flying around the whole of the archipelago, and especially around the year round settlements, to find animals (foxes, reindeer and I guess polar bears) that behave in a strange way – if so – they shoot them. Arctic foxes in Svalbard has become extremely common and due to no hunting (only trapping in traditonally made traps) most of these are very tame and easy to approach. In fact, they often approach you to within a meter or so if you remain calm. How the Governour is asessing the behaviour and what is normal from not I don’t know. They already killed many foxes – and except the very first one - all of them proved perfectly healthy…..I think they have admitted some problems themselves with this since they decided that in and around Longyearbyen (the main settlement of about 2300 habitants) they will kill ALL foxes – sick or not.

The decease probably arrived to Svalbard via Arctic foxes migrating over the drift ice from Russia, Greenland or Arctic Canada. Due to this migratory pattern, and even though very rarely documented (last in January 2011, and before that in the 1980s), I think it is safe to say that rabies might always be present in Svalbard. Longyearbyen has a lot of people, dogs and not the least children, and I therefore understand there are some concerns. But given the slight chance to get infected, and the relatively easyness to treat the decease (when treated at early stage, there is a 100% recover) isn’t this yet another example of Norwegians absurd view on nature? The rest of the world is living with rabies present around them all the time, but they don’t go around killing every animal in nature. There are also other methods to prevent the decease to spread than killing – for instance has North America had great success with ”vaccinated” bait put out for raccoons. Once again, Norway show themselves as the hunting nation it is, and find the only way to manage nature is through hunting and killing.

There is a concensus in all the countries that have signed the Svalbard treaty, that Svalbard should remain as natural and pure as possible and the archipelago should be viewed as a reference area to how nature would look without human interference. To eradicate a totally natural decease like rabies is thus not obeying to this objective. The arctic fox is a very important top predator in the Arctic ecosystem, and the number of foxes present has large affects on population distribution in many sea bird species. Rabies is one of nature’s ways to reduce the arctic fox population. When our wildlife management starts to pick out pieces of nature, to select them away from the ecosystem we so desperately want to preserve - they virtually make the whole idea of Svalbard as a reference area for science and future look like a big illusion.

My advice is therefore not to go around like cowboys to kill foxes that shows perfectly normal behaviour, but to make people watch their dogs, vaccinate all dog owners that frequently get in touch with canine saliva (there are a lot sledge dogging activity in Longyearbyen) and to keep some vaccination stored in case of a rare incident of a fox biting a person should happen.

The arctic fox is an important top predator in the Arctic eco-system

-EG-

Canon eos 7d - made for wildlife photographers?

2011-09-06T17:47:00.001+02:00

I had this camera for about a year and a half, or more precisely – I had three of this camera for a year and a half. I like it very much, and until this summer I had only good things to say about it. The autofocus system, the image output, the fastness, the flexibility and not the least the price. Compared to most other professionals and semi-professional photographers I regard myself as fairly conservative when it comes to the equipment hysteria we have witnessed as the digital era has evolved. I like to think of my equipment as work tools – not diamonds or treassures. Therefore, I rarely buy the most expensive or the newest equipment out there. Sometimes, things go wrong. It also means that I can take some risks regarding the equipment in pursue of the images I see in my mind. A good example is the award winning polar bear picture in the BBC WPY competition last year. When putting up the equipment for this image, I considered the camera and lens as a write off. Surprisingly, both the camera and lens survived with no permanent damage. However, a week after it was destroyed by an angry walrus.

As a wildlife photographer, I learned a long time ago that the best images are not necessarily made in nice weather. Therefore I upgraded myself to a camera, where the manufacturer promise weather resistanse and highly trust worthy for action photography. The 7d is also a ”crop camera” which is perfect for my bird photography since it fits well with my 300mm lens. All things combined, the choice was quite straight forward when deciding on which camera should replace my broken Canon 40d. Soon I got the 7d, and I have been very happy with it, contrary to the walrus I met this summer. Another angry walrus. Another camera broken. I can’t blame this on the Canon manufacturer, and since I’ve been happy with it so far I bought myself yet another new 7d. This one had some problems from the beginning. Since I was doing fieldwork in the Norwegian Arctic and far away from any internet or post service, I couldn’t report it imediately.

One day, I was again out photographing some walruses. The weather was light rain, and I was for once actually careful with my camera to avoid getting it wet. For maximum five minutes, I had it outside in light rain, and was careful to dry it off with a cloth before putting it back into the camera bag. Since this day, It has never worked and I was quite sure that this would be possible to reclaim from Canon as a fault. Could I be more wrong about it! Not possible according to the workshop, and they suggest to write off this camera as well. I was quite pissed off by this, but searching the internet it seems that I am not alone. Many others report the extreme low weather resistanse of this camera despite the the adds from Canon. It is worse than all my lenses and previous cameras I’ve ever have had my hands on. I was very surprised when I heard that Canon write on their web site that by weather resistant, they mean the time it takes from it starts raining until you have put the camera into your back pack. In reality, this means 10 seconds! This is actually like being spit in the face, and I must say that I’ve rarely heard such bullshit.

Canon sells their camera under false conditions, and as a customer I feel tricked and fooled. In short – if you are a serious outdoor photographer – stay far away from the Canon 7d! You have been warned!

Walrus killing a Canon 7d

-EG-

Silhouettes of greatness

2011-07-30T13:28:00.002+02:00

The high mountain plateau of Dovrefjell is almost like a national monument in Norway, and even though being an introduced species, the musk ox somehowe fits into this mystical world of greatness. Despite being very easy to approach, I found them extremely difficult to photograph in an interesting way. We anyway had a nice time up there, and these are actually my very first images of these animals. At least I added a new species to my archive.

I am sucker for silhouettes, as I think they add a nice atmosphere to the images. An atmosphere which I tried fit into the Norwegian myths and fairytales about this area.

Solarizing the image in the editing process, can sometimes make them look more dramatic and fit better into the story.

Our kingdom....

Til Dovre faller!

- EG -

A trip into No Man's Land

2011-05-29T17:22:00.003+02:00

In the last blog, I wrote about how a wildlife photographer always must be versatile and ready for the unexpected. This was certainly true for this week's blog. A very good friend and colleague of mine, Kjetil Schjølberg, and I had for a long time planned an Iceland trip to photograph some of its amazing wildlife and landscape.

However, the evening before departure, one of Iceland's many vulcanoes started to rumble and airports were closed. One and a half hour after our flight got cancelled, we were on our way to Finland and a major road trip layed ahead of us. Bears and wolves were our target at one of Finland's famous feeding sites for these spectacular animals.

Due to the Norwegian government's successful policy of actively trying to eradicate the Norwegian populations of the four large predators in Scandinavia, Norwegian photographers need to go abroad to have a realistic chance to experience these species. We spent three nights in the hides on the border between Russia and Finland, and since there are no hunting or people allowed into these areas without special permition, this area is extraordinarily rich in wildlife. However, there are still a lot of luck involved to get the animals to perform as a demanding photographer wants to. The large predators are mostly active in the darkest hours of the night, and they don't always appear as close as one wants to. Anyway, I think I managed to catch some of that mystical atmosphere that these animals are surounded with into my images. If you agree, then I feel I have succeeded.

A lonely brown bear cub feeding at a carcass, perfect old forest setting. A few minutes later, it was hunted by three wolves and dissappeared into the forest and probably up into a tree. I had never expected either wolf or bear to be able to run this fast. In the books it says about 60 km/hr, my estimate would be well above a 100 km/hr.

The wolverine is one of my favourite mammals in the world. Within 24 hours, we managed to see wolf, brown bear and wolverine - something that is virtually impossible anywhere else in Europe.

Close up portrait are not always the way to describe an animal in an image. Unsharp in an old forest scenery captures some of this shadow's myths.

The alpha male carries food back to the nearby den, and the waiting alpha female that probably is resting with small puppies somewhere in the forest.

- EG -

To expect the unexpected

2011-05-18T18:22:00.005+02:00

As a wildife photographer, one is always on the hunt for new stories to make and new images for the archive. When I enter into nature, I usually have an idea of what image I want to capture. At least what species to photograph. However, since I am only working with wild animals it is more than often that not everything goes as planned and I come home empty handed. At other times, just like this week, I don't get what I set out to get but something totally different.

Last week, a friend and I spent several nights in what is arguably the area with densest brown bear population in Europe. At this time of the year, the possibillity to find females with very small cubs is at its best. The dream would be to photograph a bear family feeding on a moose kill in a boreal forest settting. But even to catch a glimpse of the large carnivores is a challenging task in Scandinavia, due to decades of people hunting them. Anyway, many hours and several nights without any sleep we didn't find any bears and I decided to take a short trip to the coast instead.

A couple of weeks ago, I was interviewed by the radio about some dolphins turning up far away from their normal distribution range. My hope was that these still were around. After the dolphins got media coverage, they turned into celebrities and many people and local photographers have enjoyed their unusual visit. The luck was on my side this time, and even though the sea and light was not ideal for photography I really enjoyed spending 3 hours watching these fantastic sea mammals. Because of the size difference between the two animals, I am pretty sure it is a mother and her calf. As far as I know, there are only about 15 previous records of Common dolphin in Norway - so this was a highly appreciated addition to my Norway mammal list which now is counting 13 different whale species.

Common dolphins is a bit of a head ache for the taxonomists, and common dolphin might actually consist of two or even three different species. The ones turning up this far north is believed to be Long beaked common dolphins.

It is ironic though, that after spending a week deep inside the Scandinavian forest, I come home with dolphin pictures on my camera. But as a wildlife photographer, I learned a long time ago to be versatile and always expect the unexpected.

- EG -

The forest lake

2011-05-08T23:22:00.000+02:00

Spring colours in evening light, and the red listed slavonian grebe (horndykker) posing for the camera man.

-EG-

Varanger duck

2011-04-16T22:47:00.001+02:00

A few weeks ago, I was in the Varanger fjord in the very north eastern Norway to photograph one of Scandinavia's most beautiful birds. Combining this with visiting a good friend had to make the perfect setting for a good trip. I enjoyed it very much. Because the birds weren't too cooperative to be honest, close up portraits was not possible and I was forced to think a bit alternatively. The type of images below always receives somewhat mixed applaude. While they might not show the beauty regarding the colours of these ducks very well, they are however (hopefully) interesting in its own way.

-EG-

From the African veld

2011-04-03T01:05:00.003+02:00

In January, I spent a week in Kruger National Park, South Africa. Here are a few images from that week.

Elephants are plentiful in Kruger NP - in fact, contrary to many believes, there are far too many of them to form a sustainable ecosystem in the 20 000 km2 park and a certain number of elephants needs to be shot each year to keep the population healthy. I find photographing the larger game in Africa to be one of the most difficult things to make interesting. As usual it all depends on light and composition.

A mother shows her strong maternal instinct when she carries her dead offspring at the same time as she struggles to keep up with the rest of her flock. Do animals really have no feelings?

African wilddogs belongs to one of the rarest animals on this planet. Even in Kruger NP, you are by no means guaranteed a sighting during a visit. The territory size of a pack is equivalent in size to that of Scandinavian wolves - about 1500 square kilometers. While I have kept the original composition of the animals in this image, I made the background all white in post editing process.

-EG-

Another brick in the wall!

2011-02-23T20:57:00.004+01:00

A bit personal this time – if I may…Since four years ago, I decided to try to be a fulltime wildlife photographer. A bold and risky thing to do you might say. Most of the people I meet think it is virtually impossible to make a living from it, and some of them even discourage me to go further with the idea.

I have always had a reputation of being stubborn, and I always have felt an urge to do things my own way. This might not always be a good thing, but through the years it has certainly helped me to gain self confidence as the number of victories increased. Growing up with a huge fascination for nature, and birds in particular, I’ve spent countless days outside and this has slowly shaped me as a person. Money has never taken a big part of my mind. Being able to have the freedom to go where I want, whenever I want and at the same time do what makes me smile every single day is worth more than what any money can buy.

However, I will be the first to admit that taking a career move into wildlife photography is not an easy thing to do. When I did the step, I knew it would take many years to build up the business. I needed to build it piece by piece and brick by brick, and work hard every single day to achieve my dream. Every time an article or one of my images is published in a magazine, it is a small victory helping me to believe in my dream. Last year (2010), I had my first exhibition and won a first prize in the world’s most prestigeous photography competition (Veolia WPY). This year has kicked off with my very first National Geographic article (Nordic version, 2/2011). A magazine that only a few years ago seemed impossible to have on the client list. To be published in it, only excisted in the deepest dreams of mine. National Geographic is arguably the most prestigeous magazine to be published in among nature photographers. I am happy to see that my business seems to improve every year.

I still have some distance to cover before I can call myself a full time wildlife photographer. But I have always believed that if one wants anything strong enough, one will achieve it in the end as long as you work hard for it and keep focused. At the moment, I live in a mixture of being a photographer and a fieldbiologist who designs and runs field studies for scientists. I will continue to build my business brick by brick, and the National Geographic article which is on sale now, I consider to be an especially important brick in my wall. To be a full time wildlife photographer is still my dream, and I’ve always believed that dreams are there to be realized - isn’t it?

Online version of the National Geographic article can be read here

This "snowy eagle" was photographed about two weeks ago from the hide to Smøla Naturopplevelser. Experiences like this make chasing my dream well worth every minute of the effort!

-EG-

Shit happens!

2011-02-18T12:48:00.002+01:00

So it happened again – a serious oil spill along the Norwegian coast. Last night - a cargo boat, in nice and calm weather, hit shallow water and parked itself on a skerry. It seems that about 500 tonnes of bunker oil might pollute our ocean. This accident happend in Southern Norway in the outer part of Oslo fjord, and basically in Norway’s only marine national park!

Despite this, I need to admit that, when the accident anyway needs to happen, the Oslofjord area is probably the best place for it since this area is realtively poor in nature quality and especially of relatively low importance to birds compared to the rest of Norway. It is however, extremely important as a recreational area, as this part of Norway is densely populated and has several of Norway’s larges cities close by. However, I was anyway shocked to listen to the news last night when the responsible authorities for minimizing damage (Kystverket) in an interview says that we can’t begin damage minimizing activities because it’s dark and we can’t see the distribution of oil on the sea yet. In other words, in ideal conditions for a clean up, with dead calm weather (only 7m/s wind from NE according weather forecasting service Yr.no) our equipment is not good enough to start minimizing damage because it is dark!?

Everybody seems to be happy with the northerly wind direction and that the serious oil spill drifts southwards away from our coast. This might be good for beach loving tourists and hut owners in the area, but not necessarily for nature. The largest concentration of birds in this part of Norway are pelagic species, and if worse comes to worst – the oil spill might even reach the shores of Denmark where huge amounts of seabirds flocking at this time of the year. The potential damage is enormous. I guess Norwegian authoroties once again prove that nature is not important, but rather that things are ok if they look nice from the outside.

I was perfectly aware that Norwegian oil rescue facilities was in a horribly bad shape, but this is more than worrying for several reasons. At the moment, there is a poilitical fight if Norway should or shouldn’t start oil searching activities in the Lofoten area – on the edge to the Barent’s sea and one of the most bird and fish rich areas in the world. Several threathened species have their core breeding sites in this area. This is the coast of Northern Norway where you barely have a day without gale force winds, and for several months of the year have no light because of its northern latitude! In other words, if an oilspill happens here, our autorities have now admitted that we have absolutely nothing to help minimizing the damage.

Norway wants to make enormous amounts of money on oil – but not spend ”pocket money” to assure that we can cope with an accident if it happens. In my mind, this is reason more than good to ban all oil activities in nature rich areas such as the Barent’s sea as we never know when shit happens!

The black-legged kittiwake (Krykkje) is normally one of the seabird species that get hit badly in oil spills. The species has shown a heavy decline the last decade all over its distribution areas.

-EG-

The Ferrari of Mammals

2011-01-25T14:50:00.001+01:00

I have travelled all over the world in quest of seeing and photographing wildlife. However, there are a few species which in my mind stand out, and one of those is the leopard. Every time I see a leopard I get goose bumps all over my body – the adrenalin rush is intense! I have spent the last week in Kruger National Park in South Africa. Heavy rain this summer had made the grass very tall, thus searching for the elusive cat was more challenging than ideal. Parts of Kruger has the highest density of leopards in the world, and despite the difficult conditions this year - we managed to find five different leopards. We even saw a female with a newborn cub. Even though the leopard is rarely seen, it is actually widespread all over Africa and most of Asia. Maybe surprising to many, it is also fairly common outside the national parks. It is one of the very few predators in the world that on a regular basis kill people. Even so, the leopard is a highly respected and honoured animal, maybe strangely, it is in the areas it kills most people that it gains most protection.

The leopard is the master of all senses in nature. Stealthful yet large, fast yet silent, powerful yet gentle, camouflaged yet colourful, beautiful yet scary. It is the ferrari of all mammals. Please have a look at my images from last week, and you can make up your own mind.

A leopard crouching together, in hope of not beeing seen. I can just wonder how many times I've actually been watched by these intense eyes in the African bush....

A young male leopard watching a nearby flock of impalas, and is ready to start its evening hunt. The impalas of course, have yet no clue about the spotted cat watching them.

The leopard might look lazy and relaxed some times, but when needed, it shows the power and speed for which it is built.

By coincidense, we came across this leopard. This female actually hides her newborn cub between her front legs as the image is taken. Unfortunately for the photographer, she never lifted her offspring high enough so it came clear of the tall grass so I could photograph the rare event.

Careful, silent and well camouflaged,yet still perfectly aware of the photographer - the leopard takes its risks because water is a vital resource also for these cats. A forest stream in the African bush, makes a perfect setting for the natural scene.

-EG-

WildNature.no featured in the best Nordic Nature photo magazine!

2011-01-25T14:10:00.001+01:00

In the January issue of the Nordic nature photo magazine, Natur og Foto, there is an interview about me and a small portfolio from my work. Even though the magazine is only about one year old, with its 12500 prints it has turned out to be one of the most popular photo magazines in the Nordic (Norway, Sweden, Denmark) and it is a real honour to be portrayed in such a high quality magazine!

The magazine can be purchased in magazine selling kiosks in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, or you can become one of the other 3000 subscribers at their web site: http://www.naturogfoto.no/

-EG-

Madagascar introduction

2010-12-11T20:35:00.002+01:00

Madagascar has always been a dream of mine to visit. Because of its unique fauna and flora, and extremely high rate of endemism (species only excisting in Madagascar and nowhere else in the world), the country off the eastern coast of Africa is often referred to as the 7th continent. And it really is true, the wildlife here is fantastic and abundant depending that the right places are visited. The country suffers a lot from deforestation, but a few scattered forest reserves are protected and a good eco-tourism industry is now established.

My first ten days in Madagascar was spent working in the remote Kirindy forest reserve together with French and Malagasy herpetologists. I also enjoyed assisting a good colleague and friend of mine, who is currently doing some very interesting frog research here. To underline the uniqueness of Madagascar’s fauna, I briefly mention that during the few days we spent in the forest we found an incredible 4 probably new species to science never described before. This included three lizards and one frog. Furher analyses needs to be taken before final conclusions, but because of scientific publication matters I can’t publish images of the new specimen here on the blog yet.

Anyway, I will show you a brief introduction to some of the amazing wildlife we have encountered during the last week.

Fosa, the largest land predator in Madagascar. A bizarre looking animal which is the size of a small dog, and looks somewhat like a hybrid between a cat and a maarten. Except for in Kirindy, it is virtually impossible to see it anywhere in Madagascar. Needless to say, to be able to photograph this species was an amazing experience!

Giant jumping rat – a 1,3 kg rodent that was once widespread in Madagascar. The population is now restricted not only to Madagascar, but to Kirindy and the surrounding areas only. The nocturnal Giant jumping rat is now considered to be one of the absolute rarest mammals on earth, with a population of a few hundred only.

One of the few chameleons encountered so far on the trip. Chameleons usually becoming abundant after rain, but so far we only had three afternoons with rain, so the forest was still very dry on our visit.

We spent a lot of time searching for frogs, frog eggs and tadpoles. This is probably a member of the genus Aglyptodactulus.

When most people think of Madagascar, they also think of the acrobatic lemurs. These primates are unique to Madagascar, as well as abundant. Here is a Verraux sifaka with her offspring flying through the air...followed by a curious baby.

As you probably understand, the first ten days have given me some amazing photography oppurtunities, and I have a lot more images to show. As our travel plan includes visiting fairly remote places in Madagascar, I am not sure when I will get internett access next time. I promise I will try to keep the blog updated as far as possible.

-EG-

WildNature in Media

2010-11-26T13:01:00.002+01:00

On the Saturday web-edition of the national newspaper Klar Tale, there is an interview with me and some images of my work. I have already had a feature in the paper edition this week. Check out the 27 Nov issue of klartale.no. The article can be seen here (Unfortunately in Norwegian only).

I am now on my way for a 2 months photo expedition to Africa - not sure how much internet is available but will try to keep the blog updated whenever possible.

-EG-

The Red List – a powerful tool or just an illusion?

2010-11-18T11:55:00.005+01:00

Last week, a new list about species considered to be at high risk of extinction was presented by Norwegian nature management authorities. This Red List has been compiled by different specialist groups put together to assess the different risks of extinction for the Norwegian fauna. The previous Red List was made in 2006, but our Government wanted an updated version already now – only 4 years later. Four years is not a long time in nature time, but surprisingly many changes have been made in the new edition.

The Red List is ment as a tool to facilitate nature management. Areas with many red listed species at high risk of extinction will get a stricter protection than areas without. Here is my problem. Norway has been, and even if slightly improved the last decade, still is for the larger part hugely neglecting nature. Consequences are that Norway is one of the worst countries in Europe when it comes to take care of, and produce knowledge about our nature. If it can’t be hunted or fished, Norwegians doesn’t seem to care too much about it.

The seldom seen Spotted crake (myrrikse) is listed as Endangered, which means more than 20% chance of extinction within five generations. That is the same status as in the 2006 edition. Eight bird species are listed in this category.

The result of this is that, with the exception of a few huntable species and easy monitored species like our seabirds, we don’t have a clue about population trends, risks or even distribution for many of the species assessed. Even so, instead of being honest and say that there is data deficiency, many species have been moved down on the risk assessment status and some even kicked out all together of the new edtion since the 2006 version. Some of the changes are made because of differences in the way of assessing a species in Red List standards, more than actually biological changes in nature. Even so, reading the authors’ argumentation for ranking a specific species, you will soon see that most of the changes are just made mostly from subjective criteria by the expert groups. However, for most of the species assessed, there are no new knowledge today compared with the 2006 version. My main concern lies with the degraded status of many species, even if the actual knowledge about them is status quo. Based on the fact that areas with Red Listed species of a high risk of extinction are much easier to protect than habitat or areas with no such species, wouldn’t it be vice to act from a cautious angle and assume the worst instead of the best as long as there is very little knowledge anyway?

In my opinion, the new edition of the Red List has unfortunately made it much easier to destroy valuable nature in Norway than it was just two weeks ago.

As sad as it is, I am afraid that the new Red List will be used as a tool and ”fact sheet” for our bureaucrats to assess important nature areas and give them precise validation. When reality is that it is an illusion, and the actual knowledge about the species assessed is still as non-exsistent today as it was in 2006. The result will be that Norway’s many important nature areas soon will be gone – and so will the species living within them.

This is a new species on the Red List since 2006, and Black red-start (svartrødstjert) is now listed as Vulnerable which means 10 % chance of extinction within a hundred years. 23 bird species are listed in this category.

The Red List can be downloaded for free at this adress: www.Artsdatabanken.no , The list is both in Norwegian and English.

-EG-

W I N N E R !

2010-10-23T02:05:00.004+02:00

I am both flattered, humble and of course proud, to announce that my image of a polar bear taken last year has been awarded the winner of the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the year, Animal portrait category 2010!

This competition is considered to be the most prestigeous of all nature photo competitions. This year, there were a stunning 31 000 entries from more than 80 different countries! As many times before, I was on an seabird expedition for the Norwegian Polar Institute when this bear approached. We retreated into our zodiac, to not risk any unfortunate incidents before we started to photograph this very curious bear. When taking picture of nature, safety for the animal or bird I am working with is always of first priority!

I am also very pleased to see that there were images from no less than three other Norwegian photographers at the exhibtion. Tom Schandy, Roy Mangersnes and Orsolya Haarberg all achieved honorable mention in this very prestigeous competition. This shows that Norwegian nature photography are really at the high end amongst the world's nature photography buisness.

The exhibition with all the winning and highly commended images will now tour the world, and is expected to have more than one million visitors world wide before the end of next year.

-EG-

Payday!

2010-10-18T14:37:00.002+02:00

After two weeks on my prime local birding spot, not a single new bird was seen. Nice observaitons of Greater short-toed lark (dverglerke), Citrine wagtail (sitronerle) and numerous rather confusing varieties of Arctic redpolls made the hopes stay high for the whole period, but we all felt like the star was missing. I tried to make a star of myself when I was interviewed by the Norwegian Broadcasting Radio (NRK) in a 2hr show about nature, but that was about it of fun events on the magical island. Hard work in the field despite, no big rarities wanted to pay us a visit this year.

It wasn't until I arrived back home that the nice message turned up on my cell phone - Stilt sandpiper! Only a short drive away, and what a bird! A long wanted "lifer", and he was a real crowd pleaser. For once, a bird that was cooperative, and the ever increasing crowd of happy birders could enjoy the spectacular bird until few meters distance. The Stilt sandpiper (styltesnipe), is only previously recorded two times in Norway with the last one all the way back in 1993. It breeds in subarctic and Arctic North America, and if they don't get lost on their way south like this one - they should spend the winter in Central- and South America.

This morning, some friends and I went out for an early morning photo shoot of the very welcome celebrity.

A big thank you goes to the local birder Per Inge Værnesbranden for passing on the message of this extraordinary recording, and let the rest of Norway's bird community take part in the nice experience.

Now I'm off to London to take part in a big nature photo award ceremony I was invited to join. More on that later.

-EG-

Rarity Alert!

2010-09-26T15:14:00.001+02:00

My interest for nature started with birds. From bashing through the forests in the outskirts of my hometown looking for bird nests as a 8 year old kid, I evolved my interest further and stronger and before long found myself spending all my spare time searching for new birds I had previously only seen in the book. This was about twenty years ago, and as funny as it is – I still find myself doing exactly the same thing today. I just have to admit and acknowledge, that I am a genuin bird nerd!

One of my best times through the year is a couple of weeks in the autumn, where myself and some equally bird nerdy friends meet at my local patch to do some birding. The end of September is THE time in Norway to find migrating birds that are a bit off track from their normal flyways. Birds that should have gone to the Far East, South America or at least in a totaly different direction than Norway, suddenly find themselves exactly here – in Norway. The reasons for the unfortunate circumstances are often a combination of weather and misnavigation. But for most and for all – it’s still a mystery. Bird migration has been studied since the beginning of yesterday's century, but are still one of natures’ biggest secrets.

The thrill and adrenalin kick, that rush through my body when I find a new bird that I have never seen before is enormous. The good feeling is uncomparable to ANYTHING – yes, even ... can’t come close to it.

This is what makes birding at this time of the year so interesting and exciting – you never know what is luring in the next bush – it might be a new adrenalin kick!

The Yellow-browed warbler (gulbrynsanger), is not a huge rarity, but is what we call an indicator species. When seeing this bird in Norway, breeding in Siberia and supposed to reach the wintering areas in India and South-East Asia, you know that some easterly winds from far away have reached our west coast. Such winds can also bring adrenalin kicks :-) Ona, Sept. 2007

This North American White-crowned sparrow (hvitkronespurv) is the biggest "bomb" that has ever hit my local patch Ona. Only the 11th bird of this species ever to be found in Europe, and a 1st record for Scandinavia. This bird certainly made rush hour for my adrenalin! Ona, Oct. 2009

This Masked shrike (hvitpannevarsler) was together with the white-crowned sparrow certainly one of the most adrenalin rewarding birds that I saw during 2009. Only the 2nd record for Norway. Lista, Nov.2009.

At the same time, and only 300m away from the stunning masked shrike above, this Steppe-grey shrike (steppekrattvarsler) was lingering for a few weeks. This bird was about the 6th record in Norway. Lista Nov. 2009.

The Barred warbler (hauksanger) falls into the same category as the yellow-browed warbler. Contrary to the yellow-browed, this species can be a real skulker - meaning it hides really well in the bushes and can be frustratingly difficult to obtain good views of. When you see this species, you know you are doing a firm job, by checking the gardens properly and it's only time before you find the real skulky "sibes" which makes the adrenalin flow. Ona, Oct. 2008.

Lista, the south tip of Norway delivers yet another time! This bird is the 3rd record for Norway (and 2nd for myself), and even how much of a "little brown job" this bird looks like - beeing able to photograph it in a stunning evening light was certainly a mindblowing experience! Isabelline wheatear (isabellasteinskvett), Lista, Nov. 2008.

-EG-

Svalbard Guiding

2010-09-04T20:45:00.006+02:00

The first week of August, I was guiding a group of photographers for a ten-day trip on Svalbard. I like going with a small group size and small boats. This way you get a much more intimate experience with the Arctic landscape, harshness and of course most importantly also the wildlife. Even though we might be a bit more vulnerable to the weather and ice, we almost always find all the things we are looking for. I have now eight years of experience working as a fieldbiologist/guide on Svalbard.

Some of the highlights the last trip were Pomarine- and Long-tailed skuas, total of 4 Sabine’s gull (3 observations), 20 ivory gulls in front of a fantastic blue glacier, Polar bear killing an Arctic fox puppy and all possible seal species on Svalbard including Harbour-, Hooded and Harp seal. We missed out a bit on the cetaceans due to bad whale searching conditions, but we managed to photograph Belugas in front of blue ice and addtionally a large flock of about 70 animals in one of the west coast fjords. A jumping minke whale was quite spectacular to see and photograph as well. The highlight of the trip happened when we had belugas, sabine’s gulls, polar bear and a spectacular calfing blue glacier in the same view at the same time! All this and more together with stunning landscapes, means only one thing – happy clients!

Watching seven polar bears feeding on a whale carcass was a memorable experience for the whole group - including the guide

A polar bear is close to getting crushed under falling ice

Svalbard is one of few places in the world, where you can expect to see the increasingly rare ivory gull.

Glaciers are vital to the extreme biomass productivity in many of the fjords of Svalbard. Thousands of kittiwakes feeding on amphipods is an unforgettable nature spectacle.

Minke whale breaching! On the last trip, we had about 15 sightings of this spectacular whale.

Every trip is different from the last one, so time will show what we find next time.

At the moment I am attending a scientific expedition, and although we have seen a few ivory gulls and pomarine skuas, no big surprises have be seen yet. One of the first days in the drift ice west of Spitsbergen we came across about 40 Fin whales, one Blue whale. No less than five blue whales have been seen so far on the trip. A Polar bear on a seal kill was also seen, but photographing these things from a big ship is far from ideal….

The giant of the sea! The blue whale, the world's largest animal, is a regular sight in certain areas of Svalbard. Note the embarrasing small dorsal fin and blue grey colour compmared to the more or less equally sized fin whale seen in the next image.

A flock of fin whales in the drift ice on Svalbard.

I only do guiding on chartered boats, so if you want to use my services for a Svalbard expedition you will have to book early as both my own schedule and the boat charter is allready starting to fill up for the exciting year ahead.

If you want to see sights like this through your camera lens – then you should go wild with WildNature.no!

-EG-

Trip Advice - Smøla Naturopplevelser!

2010-08-26T22:19:00.002+02:00

Last weekend, I was invited to a quite recently established eco-tourism company in Norway. Smøla Naturopplevelser (or Smøla Nature adventures) are run by three young guys, and their base is on the west coast of Norway. The island Smøla is situated just south of Trondheim (2,5hrs) and the area actually holds the densest breeding population of eagles in Europe. Two of the nests here are located only 280 meters apart! Their main focus is obviously white-tailed eagles taking fish at sea. They don’t visit the actual nest sites, but on a 3 hour session we visited about 9 different eagle territories! With so many eagles, you are almost guaranteed a lot of dives even if some of the eagles should not be in a ”show off” mood that particular day. I went for one evening and one morning session, and many of the eagles behaved fantastically well by taking fish just meters from the boat. Unfortunately the weather was not great for photography on my visit, with wind and rain in the best hours of the day. Even though its windy, most of the localities visited are inshore and quite sheltered from splashing waves – something which is quite practical considering saltwater not beeing a friend of expensive camera gear.

Audun, guide and gründer is showing the eagle it might be worth hanging around

The eagle is not playing hard to get.....

Bullseye!

..Happy eagle - happy photographer...

I was quite surprised about how well trained the eagles were when considering the recent starting point of this buisness. One eagle followed our boat before we threw the fish, and another even made the dive straight towards the boat – which is extremely rare and difficult to get eagles to do.

Despite white-tailed eagles beeing the main focus, there are also chance of spotting different sea mammals like orcas, pilot whales, harbour porpoises and of course harbour seals. Smøla has also arguably the densest population of otters in Europe.

During the eagle safari at Smøla, there is always a good chance of seeing whales and other sea mammals

whalewatching at its best! This curious harbour porpoise is making us wonder a bit who is watching whom?

The guys running the buisness provided excellent service, knew every sitting post to all the eagles visited, and in general the whole thing seemed very well organised both for photographers and equally important also for the birds. So if you want to take pictures of fishing white-tailed eagles, or just have an extraordinary nature experience in the best coastal landscape Norway has to offer – I would most certainly consider a trip with Smøla Naturopplevelser.

Have a nice trip!

Smøla Naturopplevelser having their safaris in spectacular landscapes!

-EG-

A Fight for Life

2010-08-12T16:09:00.000+02:00

We people often like to think of nature as a romantic place, and that all the animals and birds in general live in harmony and peace. As mind disturbing as it is, the truth is actually quite the opposite. Except for the odd occasion of witnessing an eagle taking a fish, or a hawk eating a bird, I rarely get to see the cruelty when I am just out birding or photographing. However, when I am out doing fieldwork, I get a much more intimate version, and I often spend weeks and days going in the same area for doing nest checks, meassurements and other scientific necessities. In this way, one get very close to the every day life of the object one is studying, and often I find myself in situations where my mind is disturbed a little bit from the reason why I got interested in biology in the first place. To realize how brutal and cruel the natural world actually can be, is indeed far from the thought of purity and harmony where life is a contest about friendship, beauty and beeing preetiest.

I came across one such situation the other day, when a brünnich’s guillemot came walking on the beach. The bird was seriously wounded, and blood was dripping on its otherwise white feathers. He had been in a fight. The bird came walking straight towards us, and stopped litterealy between my legs. Nearby, there were several glaucous gulls observing it all. Glaucous gull is the top predator of the Arctic, and they immediately see if an easy meal is about to happen. The poor guillemot knew his life was ebbing out, and going towards an end. I think this otherwise quite shy bird came to us, because he wanted some protection. He knew that the gulls didn’t dare to eat it when he was close to us, and by doing this he extended his maybe already 30 year old life by an hour until we left him alone on the black sandy beach….

The Brünnich's guillemot deadly injured in a fight for life

This scenario happened close to a bird cliff on the east coast of Svalbard. Bird cliffs are places where certain species gather in high numbers to breed. At this particular bird cliff, we counted 44 000 of them together on a very limited space (yes – I did count them all – as this was one of my tasks this summer). Why they choose to breed in flocks and not one by one is complex and far beyond my understanding of how life is put together, but in short it has to at least something do with certain requirements to the geology to make potential nesting sites and that its less chance of beeing killed by a predator when you are one of many instead of alone. One hitch by nesting close together is of course that it gets crowdy, and that somebody might take the place that you actually wanted yourself. In fact, these birds nest so close to each other that if they miss their landing spot by a few centimeters they land on the neighbour’s property. They have to rely on high precision flying, but even when all precautions are made for turbulence wind or last second divertion from another of the thousands of birds in the air to avoid a collision - the final approach can be more challenging than ideal. This is indeed a fertilizer for disputes. A breeding spot, or nest site is of course a valuable thing. The more experienced and dominant the individual is, the more nesting spots you can choose from. Making the right decision and allocation of a nest can easily be the difference between life and death. A nesting site is a valuable resource – and the more individuals competing for the same resources the more likely it is that the individual has to fight for its position. The competition increases, and winners and loosers are made.

The bird knew he only had minutes left to live, desperately trying to

extend his life by seeking shelter from the glaucous gulls perching nearby

- watching him step by step

As if this is not more than worrying when studying and realizing this in nature, I often think of what the world will be for humans in the future. When I went to college, I was told there were about 4,5 billion people on earth. Today, about 15 years later, the same population estimate has increased to about 7 billions, and the number is increasing every single hour of the day. All this people needs a place to stay, something to eat. Basically they need to live, and to live they need to use natural resources. To live is a constant fight for life, both for the humans and for wildlife.

Planet Earth is unfortunately not a renewable resource – and that is the real worrying part!

-EG-

Busy busy busy.....

2010-06-25T15:32:00.003+02:00

After a week camping on the wonderful island of Bear Island, I am now back i civilization. Working mostly 15hr days, trying to solve the mystery of the great skua, I was looking forward to a few relaxing days working on the computer. But things want it differently. Since I arrived Spitsbergen (another Arctic island) I’ve been busy running around preparing for the one month long expedition I am leading on the east coast of the archipelago. Its probably one of the most remote places in Europe, so its important that everything is in shape. On top of this, I am also putting up a nice exhibition about the Arctic wildlife called ”Polar Moments”. It has allready been up for a month in my home town, and there I got really good backfeed on it, so I am a little bit excited to see how the true Arctic people judge these images. In other words not much time for photography, so I leave you with a few images from my work on Bear Island.

Our camp. It doesn't look like much, but its one of the best places I have ever been.

Myself negotiating with a GREAT skua - at the end we agreed to let him fly. Photo: Hálfdán H. Helgarson

-EG-

Out and About

2010-06-10T14:57:00.001+02:00

In a few hours I leave for my 7th summer in the Arctic. I am off for a nice start to a very remote and beutiful island - Bear island. Nine people live here as part of a weather station. The weather station change crew every six months, and for the rest of year they barely see any people.

Well, I am not going there to see the people either, but to do fieldwork on seabirds as part of a team employed by the Norwegian Polar Institute. I will be busy, teaching new people the methodology and catching great skuas. Hopefully I get the chance to do some photography inbetween all the work. People often think I am going on holiday when I'm off for fieldwork. Even though I get to see many interesting places, its often hard work with 12-18 hrs working days in all sorts of weather and usually seven days a week.

Anyway, the nature experienses I get during my fieldbiology jobs is worth the effort. Going to remote places also means no phones or email for some time - which itself is making going to these places worth it.

The island and the great skua. In July, the average is 27,5 days with fog, so this view is actually pretty rare on Bjørnøya. Because of all the days with bad weather, you learn to appreciate the good days even more.....

Nature is great - at a distance.....

2010-06-04T16:52:00.005+02:00

I live in Norway’s 5th largest town, Trondheim. I live just three minutes walk from the town square, where most people don’t think its possible to experience any wildlife at all - except for the few seagulls and city pigeons that roam the area in hope of getting a piece of anthropogenic left overs of course. I think, and I know, differently. Every evening I have a river otter swimming past by my garden, I have a badger that often play in the garden and just the other day, there were also two young moose strolling around in the neighbourhood. Most people never notice all these animals, but when they do – its always a cry out in the local newspapers that there is too many of them, they don’t behave normally beeing so close to humans, they can be dangerous to people etc etc……

The two young moose, recently been pushed away from their mother (as is common this time of the year), was out exploring life on their own and trying to get a grip on what to do and not to do in this world. Testing boundaries - normal youth behaviour I would say. Of course, many people thought it was interesting to have such large animals walking around in the neighbourhood. Our, as usual, trigger happy wildlife management authorities thought differently - and killed them! Afterwards, they said that it was not possible to sedate them and move them back into the forest as they then only would return back to the city. Well, they never tried – so we will never know, will we? For the best for the animals they said. Hmm….maybe its just me beeing stupid, but how do we actually help healthy animals by killing them?

I am quite surprised of many people’s low acceptance for nature, and their likewise high acceptance for playing God and to decide who is going to live and not. What makes it worse, is that the decisions are often based on a complete lack of knowledge of animal behaviour and biology. In Norway, we have a strong tradition for hunting, sadly this seems to be the only method that our nature management employees think its possible to use for ”managing” nature….by shooting and killing. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for hunting and eating meat and utilise nature resources. In fact – I think its much better ethically to eat meat from a hunted wild animal, than meat from a cow or pork that has all its life lived innside in a space not big enough to turn yourself around...But I am quite astonished by the low acceptance to actually enjoy wildlife and nature alive in this country. Norwegians like to think of themselves as a nature loving people. However, to me it seems that most people are only interested in the scenery, and not really the creatures that lives in the fjord, in the forest or up on our beautiful mountains – the things that actually makes nature beeing nature.

I’ve been participating in radiotracking both wolves and lynx from time to time, and most people would probably be amazed of how close to people these animals like to live. In case you didn’t know – these animals are in fact rarely out in the wilderness. I have tracked wolves lying virtually in the garden to people’s houses, and lynx hunting domestic cats in the suburbs of Norway’s capital – Oslo. Next time you see a deer in the garden, a fox chasing some birds in a field nearby – don’t immediately think of the animal as sick, injured or a result of beeing too many – don’t run for your rifle, but rather take your time to enjoy nature’s way of adapting to a world which get more densely populated by humans as every minute goes by. It’s all natural behaviour!!

I met this fox during rush hour in the biggest city of Norway. For some animals, an urban area might be as good habitat as any other territory far out in the wilderness.

-EG-

A close to death experience and then some orca action

2010-05-30T22:15:00.006+02:00

The last week, I went to a remote island together with my good friend and colleague Kjetil, his son and his father in law. We hoped to do some seabird photography, but out at the island Halten the weather was to be modest – not the best. There is a good sized colony of shag at the island, and this is actually the first time I try to photograph this bird. To be honest, I found it quite difficult. The birds actually carry a fantastically colourful plumage, but with heavy white clouds and in pouring rain its difficult to make the right exposure to give them justice.

I like to think of myself as quite used to live at remote places now and then, but I guess that the lighthouse master at this lighthouse was quite glad that Norway decided to automatize all lighthouses some years ago....

You never know when you will be eaten........

A group of shags posing for the cameraman

The trip out there wasn’t all that uneventful either. Almost there, at about 40 nautical miles from the mainland, and for the first time on the trip, we were quite close to some skerries. About 50 meters away to be precise, the boat decided to make our trip a bit more adventorous than we had expected. We lost the steering, and then the steering mechanism hit our propellar so the engine stopped and the propellar was heavily deformed. Not exactly what you wish for far away at open sea…Because of the current, we drifted towards the skerries a bit faster than ideal, but fortunately there was virtually no waves (you have to look for the positive in such situations). We hastely found the oares, turned the boat around with amazingly good precision, and got the small sail up (yes – in fact for the first time ever in my life, we had brought a sail with us on a motor boat….). The wind drifted us slowly away from the skerries, which is probably unnescessary to say that we all were quite pleased to see. I have never been so close to sinking a boat before in my life. The skipper onboard somehow managed to fix the engine and steering, but with one hitch – the boat only worked going backwards! A fun experience, when you realize that the nearest mainland was 5 hours away with normal sailng. To make a long night short – out at the island, we fixed the thing so it went the right way and then we got to enjoy the island as well. Because I had my mind on rescuing lives and boat, I unforutnately dont have any images to show you this memorable experience.

A whale blowing in no wind...

On the way back, we had another surprise when we came across a huge orca male. Maybe not as much action as our close to sinking experience, but just as much of an adrenalin kick and just as much memorable as well. He (the whale) decided to play with us, something we of course hugely appreciated. The whale followed us, and we him for about 1,5hrs. Every time we went away, he swam to us and vice versa.

Several times the 10 m long whale swam under our boat. To have an adult orca swimming along a 26 feet wooden boat on less than 10 m distance is something I can recommend to everybody who is remotely interested in cetaceans. The orca suddenly speeded up and we all thought that he was fed up with us, but to our surprise he came back up with a huge fish in his mouth! Unfortunately he swallowed it before we could make evidence of this with our cameras. After a while, we decided to leave the whale alone, and turned our boat away. The whale stopped, put himself on the back and started to flap his tail before he joined the rest of his pod on the other side of the fjord. We decided to take the tail lobbing as an orca’s way of saying goodbye and thanks for playing. We thank him too, and probably enjoyed it even more than him.

An orca saying good bye :-)

Latest: Part of this story is also published in one of Norway's largest newspapers here.

-EG-

Here I am

2010-05-25T17:33:00.004+02:00

Here I am, my very first blog. I don't know if it was the famous sheep herd, the urge to try something new, the exhibitionist in me or just plain lack of computer skills that drove me to make this blog. I allready have a web site, but for different reasons it's not up to date at the moment. I will still continue to have my website www.WildNature.no, but on this blog I will try to put more emphasis on the written part and maybe go a bit more personal regarding nature related thoughts, joys, and frustrations.

I do have a goal to update this weekly when its possible. Because I am often out and about and a long way from internet and phone connections (yes - its still possible to do this in 2010), I know my weekly blog schedule will be broken every now and then but I promise to do the best I can for this blog to be alive. If you ever for some strange reason wonder about becoming a fieldbiologist/nature photographer like me - my goal is to a certain extent give you an idea of my where- and whatabouts through this blog.

Yes, I will be writing in English. I myself, is Norwegian, so please disregard the misspellings, wrong grammar etc. If you feel offended by anything of what I am writing - please feel free to be so - it was probably my intention :-)

Tomorrow I am off for a few days on a nice boat trip in the local fjord where I live, and hopefully do some seabird photography - If I succeed? Pop by this blog in a week or so from now, and find out by yourself!

Feel free to follow this blog, and you might be as surprised of what you see as these snow monkeys I met in Japan earlier this winter.

- EG -