I Left My Heart and Binocs in Finland

4/27/2025 - 5/7/2025

It is early May, and I am excited. May is the beginning of migration in Indiana. State breeding migrants have already been here for a couple of weeks, and passage migrants are starting to show in numbers. By mid-May, migration will be at its peak, and birders will be combing the woods for beautiful wood-warblers, flycatchers, vireos, and tanagers. Except, that is not what this post is about.

It is early May, and I am excited. The Western Capercaillie are hitting their leks in Europe. A prime location for this is Finland. So, yeah. I am going to spend a good chunk of prime migration in the lapland region of Finland. Why? Well, I have always wanted to see a capercaillie. For those of you who do not know what a capercaillie is, you have to imagine a bird that looks like a cross between a turkey and a grouse. It is a big, impressive... I dare say, badass looking bird. Okay, that may just be to me. Regardless, I have wanted to see one for quite a while. When it appeared that Carmen was not going to be able to take vacation earlier this year, I picked a destination I figured she would not want to go to, and Finland (being cold) seemed to fit the bill. Spoiler: She went with me.

Planning did not take a lot of research. I found a place that ran a series of blinds for a number of species in Finland. Capercaillie, of course, but they also had Black Grouse, a feeding area for "small birds" (common feeder birds), Common Crane and geese, and even White-tailed Eagles and Brown Bear. If you wanted to try your luck and sit in a blind for a few days, you could even go for Wolverine. For various reasons, I limited myself to the capercaillie, grouse, small birds, and cranes. This alone would be quite a bit of activity packed into around four days. Throw in travel time and a bit of sightseeing, and we had a very busy schedule.

While Finland conjures images of frozen, snowy landscapes, the weather in early May was actually fairly nice. It was sunny the first few days, and temps hit as high as 50 F. There are also 18 hours of daylight this time of year. We had a lot of time for sightseeing through the day. Spring had arrived early in Finland, and a lot of the snow had melted. The forests were green and beautiful. In the Ranua area, the forests were primarily a mix of birch and spruce trees. Later in the trip, we would seem to cross some invisible line, and the forests would change over to birch and pine. The people here were extremely friendly, and a lot of them spoke English. Food was a little odd. It seemed to run to two extremes. There was what amounted to local/foraged fare (like reindeer and mushroom soups) to very American-like (hamburgers and "pinsa", which is pizza with a slightly different type of dough). Most of what we had was really good. The hotel food - not so much. Our biggest issue was that most places were closed for the season. Finding an open restaurant was a bit of a challenge. Driving was super easy, and the cars came with studded snow tires. This would be important later in the trip.

4/29 -

It basically took two days to get from Indiana to Rovaniemi. Rovaniemi, aside from being the "home of Santa Claus", is right on the Arctic Circle. We drove from here to Ranua, which is only about an hour south of there. With flights, etc. this is really the first day we are actually doing anything in Finland. Carmen was in love with the idea of staying in a glass igloo. It was pretty cool. The igloos are stand-alone buildings, where half of it is a glass, geodesic-like dome. This is where your bed is, and it is designed with the idea of staying during the dark months, when you can watch the northern lights from bed. The other half of the room has the bathroom (including a shower and a sauna), a small kitchenette, and an entryway with a small closet and table. Not huge, but plenty big and cozy. While cool, the igloo was also a bit of a poor choice for the beginning of the trip. Trying to adjust sleep schedules in a location with 18 hours of daylight in a bedroom you cannot darken makes for some long nights.

View from bed

Sauna

There was a little bird activity in the area. We often saw birds in town but did not have a place to stop and look. Eurasian Chaffinch, Great Tit, and White Wagtail hung out near the igloos. Whooper Swan, Mallard, and Lesser Black-backed Gull were common birds in town.

Eurasian Chaffinch

Whooper Swan

Eurasian Chaffinch

White Wagtail

4/30 -

We started our first morning of sightseeing by driving to Auttikongas. This is a national park and hosts Finland's second largest waterfall. I was hoping that we could find White-throated Dipper here. The early spring seems to have sent them all north to their breeding grounds, though. What we found instead was almost as good. Maybe even better. We found quietude. There was no one else there. It was quite. No sounds of people or traffic. Just us and nature. Granted, that nature was a large, loud waterfall, but it was beautifully peaceful. We spent a couple hours hiking around and enjoying the place. We had some good birding, but pictures were scarce. Most of the birds stuck to the tops of the trees.

We left and visited a few other areas. We tried hiking down to a frozen waterfall at Korouoma, but the trails were steep and covered in ice. We visited a birdwatching tower just outside Posio and then headed back to Ranua. We got excited on the way back when we ran into a small herd of reindeer. Turns out, they were just domesticated reindeer. The farmers let them roam the forests and feed. They all have GPS tracking collars on them. Back in Ranua, we visited the local zoo, which specializes in arctic animals. Here, I got to see (captive or otherwise) my first Wolverine. It was cool, but zoos always make me a bit sad. They had Polar and Brown Bear, Arctic Wolf, Forest Reindeer (the actual wild species), Siberian Lynx, Moose, and even White-tailed Deer (yes, they are wild there); along with a host of other arctic species. Carmen, of course, loved the lynx.

Eurasian Wren

Eurasian Jackdaw

Eurasian Magpie

Eurasian Treecreeper

The rest of the day was spent having dinner and figuring out how to use the sauna. Being a bit off schedule still, we both opted for an early bedtime.

5/1 -

The next day was spent much the same as the first, but we actually drove back up to Rovaniemi. I had found a park up there that had a set of feeders that were maintained by volunteers in the winter. Given that it was spring, odds were that they were no longer being maintained, but I wanted to look anyway. We were out the door at 5:00 AM, and the sun had been up since 4:30. There was plenty of light and quite a bit of wildlife about. Shortly after getting out of town, we had a Black Grouse displaying in a field. About a mile up the road from there, we had three moose. Unfortunately, they quickly ran for cover in the forest.

The park itself was quite nice. Well maintained, but quite icy. At least it was flat. Like everywhere else, it was quiet. We saw nor heard anyone. The feeders were located at a lean-to built in the middle of the park. While there was a bit of graffiti, the lean-to was nice. There was a firepit with everything to make a fire. The lean-to had comfortable seating. Logs were arrayed around the firepit, which also had a metal stand for cooking. I could not help but look at the whole thing and think about how all of this would have been demolished back home. The feeders, as I guessed, were no longer being maintained; although a couple still had some mixed seed in them. They were mostly being visited by Great Tit and the cute Red Squirrel they have in Europe - the one with the huge ear tufts. We hung out for a while in hopes that something would show. A large flock of Brambling were in the area, and we saw some Great Spotted Woodpecker. The ever-present Eurasian Chaffinch was also around. I had seen reports of Siberian Jay and Northern Spotted Nutcracker visiting the feeders and stayed a little long while holding out hope one of them would show. No joy.

We walked back via a different trail and had a nice surprise. From next to the trail, a pair of Hazel Grouse briefly flew up and then bolted for cover. I ran to get ahead of them as they scurried along and managed to put myself at the edge of a tiny clearing in the direction they were heading. They calmly walked by, and I got a couple of shots. I kind of messed up by putting myself to the side of where they walked out instead of more in front of them. Regardless, it was a nice find, and not one I had planned on.

Willow Tit

Great Tit

Hazel Grouse

Hazel Grouse

We headed back to Ranua and then started the drive to Kuusamo. It was only a couple of hours to get there, but we needed to get checked in to our apartment, too. I also wanted to drive by some of the blind locations to make sure I knew where I would be meeting the guides over the next few days. The locations were easily found although a little tricky to access. Some of the roads had turned to a mud-covered ice. We had to reroute a few times to find a way around the problematic roads. No big deal, and we got to see a bit more countryside. While I would have said that the grouse were going to be the highlight of the day, I had another surprise in store. As we were heading to the blind for Common Crane, a bird flew across the road and into the ditch. The bird rushed into some vegetation to hide, but I could see it through a window. It was a Eurasian Woodcock. It stayed long enough for Carmen and I to get good looks but no photos. I was going to be at this blind in the afternoon/evening in a couple of days, and I was hoping to find the bird displaying that evening.

It was an early bedtime this evening. I had my first blind coming up in the morning.

5/2 -

The next day started early. I had to be at the Black Grouse location at 3:15 AM. I got there at 3:00. There was quite a group of us there. A couple of Germans, one Belgian, and four Italians. We walked a couple hundred yards and were at a set of blinds arrayed in a row. The blinds were a mix of sitting position and laying down. I had requested a lay down blind. Not the most comfortable thing to shoot from. It is tough on the neck. A small hatch on the back lets you crawl in. The front features a plexiglass window that has had a mirroring tint applied to the front. A hole with a cloth sleeve lets you put your camera out the front, and there is a plate where a ballhead can be mounted. Small tea candles are provided to place in front of the window. This helps clear off the condensation. If desired, a small can of sterno can be placed in a pot and lit for heat, and there is a sleeping bag. If needed, a bucket with liners was available for emergencies. I went well dehydrated to avoid that. We would only be in the blinds for a few hours; so, it was not that big of a deal. Here are a couple shots of the blind at the start and end of my time in it.

Waiting for things to start

Shooting is over

The blinds themselves were set about 90 degrees off light angle. It seemed a bit of an odd or uninformed choice, but I think it was probably for the best. Positioning the blinds this way gave the only dark background available to shoot against. Setting the blinds with the light would have put you against open sky. Regardless, it is hard to complain about the shooting. My biggest complaint was being on the end. Most of the activity was a little further away. Luckily, I had decent reach (560mm) and a large sensor camera that allows for decent cropping. The birds came out about an hour into our wait. It was a bit too dark to shoot, but I pushed up the ISO to compensate. As the morning progressed, the lighting got really nice. I shot way too many photos, but it was interesting to see how things changed throughout the morning. By the time the birds left (I think we had six or so), the sun was over the trees enough to shine directly on the birds; causing some ugly side lighting.

The birds themselves were great and reminded me a lot of prairie chickens. There is a lot of dancing, calling and display flights. Occasionally, one would march across the lek and fight with another one. This rarely moved into direct confrontation. There was a lot of feints and posturing. One would kind of bow to the other, but as soon at the other turned their back, the bowing one would lunge at them again. This would start the whole thing over again. Eventually, they would separate and go back to their spots on the lek. So, what does this look like?

Lots of dancing and moving around the lek. The trees also started lighting up with color as the sun rose.

It was chilly, and the dark background allowed me to capture the breath of the bird as it called.

Part of the description for the blind had mentioned that the birds tend to interact with the snow and throw it in the air. Since the snow had melted, I did not get a chance to photograph this, but you can kind of see it in the debris thrown up by this bird. They would kick up a lot of stuff as they moved around.

The birds would also do small display flights.

There was a lot of posturing, but the birds rarely fought. The bird would bustle over to the other one, and then they would square up. Just as it started to get serious, they would back up. Sometimes one would kind of bow to the other. Often, one would just wait for the other to look away and then lunge at it.

Just before things ended for the morning, there was a brief fight between these two. I would have like to been at a better angle for these shots.

As I mentioned, I took way too many shots. Digital makes that too easy. It was also nice to see how the changing light affected the various shots; so, I am not too mad for taking so many. Here are some more from throughout the morning.

I got back to the room and promptly took a nap. I had a long night ahead of me. As Western Capercaillie was my target for the trip, I planned two nights for this bird. The key word here being "night". My first trip to the capercaillie blind was this night, and I needed to be there at 6:30 PM. These blinds work a little different. The birds are known to display in the evening. In fact, my impression was that this was their preferred time. That did not seem to be the case. The birds would then reappear in the morning and display again. I would arrive at the blind and settle in for an evening shoot. Then I will spend the night in the blind (setting a silent alarm for 3:30 AM) and then setup to shoot again in the morning and out of the blind at around 8:00 AM. Yes, I will be in the blind for about 14 hours in total. Luckily, the temps are not too cold. Overnight lows are around 30 F. The blinds are setup similar to the grouse blinds; except that I was in a sitting blind.

View out the back (over the entry)

View out the front

Yes, that is the bucket

The capercaillie is a forest bird, and the leks are inside the forest. It was about a half mile hike back to the blinds. I cannot tell you how excited I was. It was me and one other person. Another group was at a different location. I got in and got everything setup - then I waited. And waited. And waited. By 10:30 PM, it was too dark to seriously shoot. I pulled my camera from the sleeve and laid it on the floor. I hunkered down on the floor and slept fitfully. A storm was blowing up, and the winds were crazy. From inside the blind, the winds were very loud. At one point, I dreamed that the winds were so strong, I was floating in the air inside the blind like I was a skydiver over one of those large fans.

5/3 -

When the alarm went off at 3:30 AM, I was not really prepared for the day. I was tired. I got the camera setup. Relit candles and a can of sterno. In short, it was all for nothing. The birds did not show around the blinds. They had moved the lek about 100 yards across a ravine to a large open area. There were three of them parading around and calling. The view was pretty obscured by trees; so, I did not get any shots. I tried. They were terrible. The guide eventually came to fetch us and explained that the birds had been moving around a bit. I was glad I had a second chance at these birds, but I was pretty unhappy that they seemed to know this would be an issue. It is birding, and nothing is guaranteed. Still....

By the time I got back to the apartment, it had started raining. I had no plans for the day, and Carmen was going to spend most of the rest of her time here working remotely. I took a nap, and then we headed out to drive around a bit. I wanted to visit the small bird blind and ensure I knew where I was going. With the rain, I left my camera back in the apartment. That was a mistake. Just before the blind, we ran across a Common Snipe (an actual Common Snipe) sitting in the middle of the road. This would be the first of many encounters we would have throughout the afternoon, and I would not have my camera with me for any of them.

The blind location is actually only a few miles from the Russian border. Along the way, we crossed the Salpa Line These are a series of trenches and reinforcements that span 1,200 km along the Russian border. Where we stopped, it was all trenches. It was an interesting piece of history.

As we were here, the rain started to transition over to snow. The storm that was kicking up was about to get serious. While spring may have arrived early, winter was not done with this part of Finland. Predictions were for about 7 inches of snow and high winds and then things would clear up. The forecast was wrong. Really wrong. It snowed some every day for the rest of our trip. That 7 inches? We got 12 inches in about 24 hours, and the following days piled a little more on each day.

We drove around doing some sightseeing, and we had some really great birding. It would have been nice to have a camera. We drove up to a small set of rapids (Kaylonkoski) to look for White-throated Dipper. Again, no joy. I would continually strike out on this bird, but I kept trying different places and hoping. We tried driving to Myllykoski, but the roads had not opened yet. We drove around the lake to Pieni Karhunkierros and then headed to Oulanka National Park. This place had a waterfall to hike to, but with the high winds and rain/snow mix, we put it off for another day. Everywhere we went, birds were out and frantically feeding ahead of the storm. We had whole fields of Redwing and Fieldfare. We had female capercaillie feeding along the road and perched in trees. We had a very cooperative Song Thrush perched along the road. There were Whimbrel, Common Gull, and a host of birds in various places. As the snow fell harder, we headed back to Kuusamo to eat and get inside for the night. We huddled up for a relaxing evening in the sauna and talked over future travel plans at the snow quickly piled up outside.

5/4 -

I feel a little bad about this day. This was Carmen's last free day. A ton of snow had fallen overnight. We made it about an hour north of town before I called it. The car had snow tires on, which helped a lot. The main highway had been plowed but still had about 5 inches of snow on it. Nothing else had been plowed yet. I just did not want to get into a situation on a remote road and have to figure our way out of it. It was the safer call to head back, but I felt bad for Carmen. We got back to the room and caught up on notes. We went to a local gift shop and bought souvenirs.

Around lunch time, I got a message from the blind company. They felt the road to the crane blind would not be passable in the afternoon. I was scheduled to be there. Instead, they wondered if I could switch to the small bird blind. It was only about 3/4 of a mile from the highway and easier to reach. Later, they contacted me to ask if I could take a group of French tourists with me. They did not have a car that could handle the snow. I would just need to get them back to the main road, where they would be leaving their car. Then they messaged to say the evening was cancelled. I asked if I could still go. In the end, the guide said he would drive them out if I could drive them back. Originally, I was supposed to be the only person at the blind, and they had already asked if I could get myself there. So, it was none of this was a huge deal, but it was a bit odd. I wanted to make sure I got the spot I wanted, though. So, I headed up early and got setup. With the snow still pouring down, activity at the feeders was intense. Mostly, though, it was chaffinch. They had mentioned that they were reworking the blind. I am not sure if that had been done yet or not. Most of the feeders were away from the perches. There were only a few workable perches; so, the shots look a bit repetitive.

The heavy snowfall caused a lot of issues. I discarded a lot of shots because the birds had a large white blob over its face. The French group eventually showed up, and we shot for quite a while. Overall, we had a good selection of species.

My favorite bird of the afternoon was this gorgeous Yellowhammer. It is such a weirdly named bird. Yellowhammer is the old name for our Northern Flicker. As such, I think of it as a woodpecker, but it is a finch. It is not all that uncommon of a species, but I had also never seen one before.

Second favorite (okay, this is probably actually my favorite) was a bird I had long wanted to photograph. The Eurasian Bullfinch is a beautiful bird. The female is a bit plain but still pretty.

This Eurasian Blue Tit only came by the feeders twice. The feeders in front of the second blind tended to attract more of the tits than the ones closer to me. I had to lean the camera out the port to get a shot.

Not nearly as colorful was the Great Tit.

Drabbest of all was the Dunnock that would come in and skulk around the area under the feeders.

A pair of Eurasian Blackbirds stopped by a couple of times. While they are named "blackbird", they are not in the blackbird family. These birds are actually thrushes.

Eurasian Siskin was a common visitor.

Similar in coloration was the European Greenfinch. The female is much drabber than the male and had me second-guessing myself when I first saw one.

Brambling were quite plentiful and came in a variety of patterns.

Lastly, as noted, there we tons of Eurasian Chaffinch.

I was here for around 4 hours and, again, shot way more than I should have. It was a lot of fun, though, and I was happy to have a number of shots of common birds that we had seen elsewhere but could not get photos of.

Brambling

Eurasian Bullfinch

Eurasian Siskin

Eurasian Blackbird

Dunnock

Great Tit

Eurasian Blue Tit

European Greenfinch

Eurasian Bullfinch

Brambling

Eurasian Siskin

Eurasian Siskin

Eurasian Bullfinch

Eurasian Bullfinch

Yellowhammer

Eurasian Bullfinch

Brambling

Brambling

Dunnock

Eurasian Bullfinch

European Greenfinch

Brambling

Brambling

Yellowhammer

Eurasian Bullfinch

Brambling

Eurasian Chaffinch

European Greenfinch

Eurasian Bullfinch

Great Tit

I kept waiting for a raptor to show, but one never did. A Hooded Crow swooped in and surprised us a couple of times, though. The crow never perched anywhere I could get a photo. The only other species I missed a shot of was the Great Spotted Woodpecker that came in twice. By 9:00 PM, most the birds (except the chaffinch) had disappeared for the night. There was still plenty of light, but the birds had called it a night. I got the French group dropped and made a very snowy drive back to the apartment.

5/5 -

The trip is winding down, but I have a rather hectic schedule ahead of me. I would be up early in the morning to head to the crane blind. I purposely started a little later; thinking it would help with the roads. I am not sure it did. I immediately ran into issues with the car. The snow had melted in the rims and froze to the inside of them. This unbalanced the tires; causing the whole car to vibrate and practically shake itself apart once I sped up. I had to pull over twice and use the ice scraper to knock ice out of the rims. With that issue finally solved, I had a rather uneventful drive out to the blind. Every thing but the final farm road had been plowed. Even the secondary gravel roads had been plowed. It was an amazing testament to their road crews. Of course, it was still snowing. Thankfully, I had scouted this blind earlier. The blind company had called to say their person could not make it out but that I was welcome to try. When I had scouted the blind, I noted that there was a rather large ditch in the area and that the pull-out was soft and muddy. Not wanting to get stuck, I found a spot on the opposite side of the road to safely park and started the short hike out to the barn where the blind was located. I promptly forgot about the ditch and stepped onto a level-looking patch of snow. I sunk up to my thigh in snow. Thankfully, the ditch was dry.

The blind company puts out oats to attract Common Crane and Taiga Bean Goose. Nothing had been put out for a couple days, and there was not much around. A single crane. Maybe a handful of geese. A number of Whooper Swan. The swan are not normally here, but with the early spring, they arrived early. The lakes are still frozen though, and they were attracted here by the food source. As nice as it was to see them, they were a bit of a nuisance. They were in about every photo. With so many of them, it was hard to isolate the birds I wanted to shoot, which was really just the cranes. Of course, that would require them to be there.

As I approached, everything flew. I found the bin with food and spread a few buckets of oats for the birds. Then I setup my camera and waited. I was told that it would take about an hour for the birds to reappear. I waited and hoped. The birds slowly came back. Other birds seen here included: Yellowhammer, Eurasian Chaffinch (of course), Common Wood-Pigeon, White Wagtail, Hooded Crow, Mallard, and, oddly, Northern Pintail. A flock of about a dozen pintail flew in and waddled across the snow to feed about 15 minutes before I needed to leave. I did have one raptor zoom through and grab something, but I did not see it right away. All I could really see was the back side of the bird. I had higher hopes for this blind. I was happy to get some shots, but the overall experience was a little disappointing.

As I said, Common Crane was my target species here. I love taking photos of the Sandhill Crane back home and was hoping for a similar experience with these birds. I captured a bit of the playfulness of the birds, but the inability to isolate them dampened the overall experience. Still, it was a life bird for me, and getting photos was nice. Here are my favorite photos.

I did get a variety of other photos. A lot of the shots have swans hunkered down or walking around them. Interestingly, when standing at full height, the swans are nearly as tall as the cranes. They are a large bird.

Speaking of swans, I did, of course, take some shots of them, too. Overall, the shots look a bit odd to me. Maybe because I feel they should be swimming in water instead of walking around in the snow. Here is my favorite shot.

The swans would squabble a bit. They would walk in and feed a bit and then lay around the edges of the area. There were around 20 or so birds here. I did witness an interesting bit of behavior, and I wish I could have gotten a better photo of it. There was a third bird sitting in the background directly behind the birds I was trying to shoot, though. A pair had come in and were moving to greet each other. They slowly walked towards each other while loudly calling. As they got within distance of each other, they started caressing each other along their necks.

Then there is this guy. Whatever is going on here.

Again, they look odd just walking around in the snow.

The Taiga Been Goose never really came in. I think I had two or three while I was there. The surrounding field was packed with birds, but they were way too distant to even see well. I had hoped to spend some time searching through the birds looking for a stray Tundra Bean Goose; something I am not sure I could readily identify. The key is in the bill shape. Taiga is the most common for the area, and the birds I had seemed to fit the description well - elongated bills usually with pronounced amounts of orange on them.

The only other birds I photographed here were the Northern Pintail. They just looked funny waddling though the snow. About a dozen flew in and walked around a bit. Two males had a bit of a shoving match (?) when they first arrived. I am not sure what is going on here.

Nothing more happened. The group broke up and made their way over to feed on the oats after a minute or so.

It was poor timing on their behalf. I had to leave shortly after they arrived, and it flushed everything when I did. There was no way to avoid it. I had to leave to get back and get things squared away for the evening. I would be heading to my second capercaillie blind this evening.

To say I was nervous would be an understatement. I was going to a different blind location. This blind had been quite active, and the bird was sticking to the lek. The problem was that it was A (as in one) bird - not multiple. I was concerned about what the snow might do to the bird, as well. Would it still show?

It was about a half mile hike to the location. The lek was up on a hilltop where a felled tree had left an opening. There were blinds on opposite ends of the lek, which was somewhat L shaped, but the angle was more like 120 degrees instead of 90. All I am trying to say is that the blinds did not squarely face each other. You could see the prints in the snow where the bird had walked. There was one blind that looked perfect. Unfortunately, I was told that it was being held for one of the French photographers.... A guy from Belgium claimed the second best blind. The third blind on this end had a tree obscuring its field of view. I, begrudgingly, headed for the second set of blinds and picked what I felt was the best one. I would be in this blind a bit longer than the previous time - a little over 15 hours. In an effort to avoid the bucket, I had, once again, ensured that I was pretty dehydrated as I walked in.

The lek

The blind

The view

I messed up a bit on the hike in, and I would pay for it the rest of the night. I was overdressed. The winter rule is "hike cold". In other words, do not wear too many clothes while hiking. You will build up heat as you hike, and sweating is a bad thing. I did not manage myself well and sweat. I looked like I was on fire when I got settled into the blind. I would be chilled for most of the rest of the night.

Not that the night would last long. The short version is that I got so see and photograph my Western Capercaillie. The longer version goes a bit like this -

5/6 -

The bird did not show in the evening. I waited until 10:15 PM and then went to bed thinking about how I was going to have to plan a return trip. It was not going to be ideal, but I really wanted to photograph this bird. I set an alarm for 3:30 AM and laid down for another night of fitful sleep. At 2:30, I was jolted awake by a sound. At first, I thought I was dreaming. I was awake but groggy, and I could quite clearly hear a capercaillie displaying. It is hard to mistake. I quickly sat up and peered out into the darkness. The snow reflected enough light that I could see the bird right outside my blind giving it his all. He was strutting, calling, posing, and making small display flights. I carefully setup the camera and took a look. ISO 10,000, f/4.0, and a shutter speed of 1/13 of a second. I would like to say that I had enough sense to not shoot like this, but who needs that kind of negativity. Of course I took photos. I took a lot. This could have been my only chance. Here is what those photos look like when processed.

Passable? Barely. The fine feathers and the comb over the eye have no detail. In spite of my best efforts to fix the color balance, the whole thing looks cyan. The blacks are heavily tinged in magenta.

As the hours went by, the brightness slowly creeped up. I took a number of shots all the way up to where things were starting to look a bit more decent. I think I hit ISO 6400 and 1/160 of a second minutes before sunrise. Then it all came to an end. The bird wound down and wandered off of the lek. I kept a number of these photos just as a reminder of what things could have been like if I had better light.

Fortunately, the story does not end here. The bird spent a while hanging out in the top of a nearby pine, calling and feeding on pine needles. Then it took a nap. Finally, it hopped down and paraded around behind the lek for a while. I could see all of this from my blind, but I was about 20 foot above the bird, and there were a lot of trees in the way. After a couple hours of waiting, for what reason I do not know, I watched as the bird slowly walked back up the hill and onto the lek - right in front of me. It came in like Godzilla. Seriously, it looks like it should be shooting flames out its beak.

The bird spent about 2-3 minutes up here. It walked around a little bit, called, and looked angry. Then it walked down off the hill and rested under a small pine tree. I hardly let off the shutter release while it was there.

I finally had some good photos. About an hour later, the guides came to collect us, and we started the hike back to the car.

What had been a long day followed by a very short, but rewarding, night was followed by another long day. That day would be followed by an even longer one. I got back to the room and finished packing things up. We were starting the trek back home. We grabbed the last of the groceries and our luggage and headed out. We drove up to Riisitunturi National Park. We had hoped to find a beautiful little pulloff for lunch here but ended up eating in the parking lot at the top. From there, it was a long drive back to Rovaniemi. I did stop for a 15 minute nap along the way. We got into Rovaniemi a few hours early and hung out in the airport before grabbing our flight down to Helsinki. We got in late and had dinner at the hotel, which was a very short walk from the airport. We were up after another short night and back in the airport for the flights home. Helsinki to Amsterdam to Detroit and then home. It was somewhere around 19 hours of travel, but we still got home on the same day we left.

I am not sure when I realized it, but it suddenly occurred to me that I had left my binocs in the door of the rental car. Efforts to contact the rental company did not receive a reply. Aside from my binocs, I, only somewhat jokingly, feel that I left my heart in Finland, too. A month later, Carmen and I still talk about how quiet and peaceful the country was. It was something we both connected with. That you could truly go someplace and get away from everyone was just not something I have really experienced anywhere else. The stillness and quiet was amazing. The country is beautiful, and the people were friendly. I do realize that we were there somewhat between their busier tourist seasons. That we hit this just right and got to enjoy everything on our own was pretty spectacular. I do not know if or when I will make it back, but I think about it a lot.

Thanks for reading,

Mike