Still haven't been out producing much new stuff, but present some more images from the siberian jay work in October. Aim of the year was to get some flight shots of this charismatic Scandinavian speciality. I also wanted to get some of the environment into the image so one might get a feeling of the species whereabouts and preferred choice of habitat. Winter has come on full force in Norway the last weeks with snow, ice and blue degrees. The weeks to come, I will try to capture some of the winter birds with my camera. Next update will show if I succeed or not.

11 November 2007

Haven't been out photographing much since last month, due to really heavy rain, snow and wind in the last few weeks. Though I have been a few days out birding with two richard's pipits, a very late red breasted flycatcher and yellow wagtail as the best birds. Also dipped out on an ivory gull. Bad weather means lots of time for editing images taken earlier this fieldseason. Again, I give you a taste of the old forest in northern Sweden where I'm working on a Siberian jay project. Truly spectacular forest and birds! Unfortunately, no brown bears this year either.

27 October 2007

The last two months have been spent in remote taiga forest in northern Sweden without any access to internet - thus the late update. Since I haven't been able to edit the forest images yet, I feed you with some more from the Arctic fieldwork earlier this year. Arctic terns feeding in front of enormous chunks of ice from glaciers in ice really put a meaning to their name, and at the same time a nice setting for an image. Sadly it also makes a statement about the condition of our planet temperature in oceans around Spitsbergen has never been as high as this year, and the melting of the ice goes in an accelerating pace. Scientists believe the Arctic will be free of ice just twenty years from now! Is it too late to reverse the climate change made by man?

01 September 2007

                        


                


Gallery WildFoxes

Another update with some mixed images from the Arctic. A new gallery is added of some very nice arctic foxes I spent some time with this summer. The species is almost extinct from mainland Norway, but are in good numbers on Svalbard and Siberia. I feel extremely privileged and fortunate to have the opportunity to "hang out" with them. I am still on a seabird survey and I publish some images from an awesome blue whale we encountered the other day. Not long after the pictured one, we actually met another one of this giant mammals but that one I didn't get any images of. The one on the images swam around our research vessel for about an hour feeding on krill - making all the "cruise" members extremely happy

14 August 2007

At the moment, I am doing some seabird counts in the Barents sea. During the last two weeks, I have had about 150 whale observations, but nothing exiting seabirdwise apart from a petrel that reminded me very much of Wilson's storm petrel, but everything happened too fast as usual. No images were taken, so I am just refreshing my website with this summer's fieldwork at Spitsbergen. Maybe next time you visit, you will find yourself looking at a wilson's

02 August 2007

I am sorry for the long time since last update, but the truth is that I have been superbusy with fieldwork and shooting new images. Living in the world northernmost settlement (78,6 degrees north) gives some real nice opportunities for photographing. With the midnight sun it is also difficult to actually find time to sleep, so not so much extra energy for editing images after long days/night out. Anyway, I hope to have more regular updates the coming months. At the moment I will spend two months doing seabird counts in the Barents sea. Should hopefully produce some possibilities for nice whale photography as well.

11 June 2007

Things hasn't all worked out as planned photo wise this month. Meaning a lot less time for photographing than ideal. Highlight of the month was probably a very territorial pygmy owl, which I found on my search for three-toed woodpecker. Followed a memorable Great snipe lek, I also managed to find, but not to photograph, a lesser ringed plover which is a real local rarity in my home county. Beginning of June, I had a flying start on my field season (which actually this year will last until mid October) in the Arctic working for different biological research projects. The first week I managed to see a good bulk of local rarities like tufted duck, golden eye, barn swallow, black-tailed godwit and some others which all has less than ten records on Svalbard (78 degrees north). A nice pectoral sandpiper was also a good Svalbard tick for me. Hoping for more photography time in between all the work that has to be done in the months ahead.

02 May 2007

April has been fairly quiet bird wise for me. Just been a few days out birding, but managed to twitch a king eider in my home region, which was a long overdue species and highlight of the month. Unfortunately it was too far away for any good images. April has been more snowy than usual, and only in the last week and a half have I got the "spring feeling". The lakes in middle Norway are mostly still frozen, so a great egret turning up in Trondheim has been lingering around a river. It is still a good rarity in Norway with only 5-10 ind annually. I managed to get a nice series of a hunting goshawk on one of my afternoon trips. Hopefully May will turn out to display more photo opportunities (it normally does), when I have a red throated diver project going on.

06 April 2007

This month has been exciting with several good days of photographing. In the beginnning of March I tried some common eiders in middle Norway, and got fairly good results even though the king eider I was hoping for remained far out of photography distance. In the end of the month, some friends and I, tried going out with a boat for White-billed diver shots, but inspite of finding at least 15 different individuals no good images were produced. They proved very shy and difficult indeed! Some long-tailed duck images became a good substitute. We also came across some oil damaged birds, and it is sad to see that even 2 months after the ship going down in Southern Norway, birds are still being killed from this accident. Next month will be busy workwise, starting the contract with the Norwegian Polar Institute coordinating a researchteam going to Spitbergen for fieldwork on Brunnich's guillemots. Meaning less time for Photographing, even though it is spring! At the end, I just mention that I am glad my book is selling well, and hope that more people will buy this little gem in the weeks to come :-)

08 March 2007

     

   NEW BOOK!

For two years, I have been working on an accurate and detailed "Where to watch" guide for one of the most bird rich parts of Norway. The region covered is called Mre & Romsdal, and lies in western Norway. This guide covers more than 15 years of experience searching for birds and mammals. Areas from birdcliffs, coastal, inland and mountain localities are described. Not only how to get there and what to see, but also how to move and behave when on the spot to make the most out of the visit. This is one of the first locality guides ever written for Norway. Unfortunately published only in Norwegian so far, but a translation is planned. The booklet is now sent to print, and will be on sale from this website, and some Norwegian bookstores in near future. This means that I haven't done much photographing this month. I did however manage to twitch Norway's 6th oriental turtle dove. A good start on the year birdwise.

06 February 2007

My final ten days in Finland, before moving back to Norway, were spent trying to get some images of hunting great grey owls. I spent 5 days together with two owls. Apparently they had quite good hunting during night time, so they were only active during dusk and dawn. The rest of the day was spent at the dayroost, something which ment many hours of waiting in minus 15 degrees celsius before any interesting moves were seen from the owls. Anyway, seeing two great greys hunting at the same field (away from any known breeding sites) is truly worth the waiting. One morning, a very hungry (I guess) ural owl was seen on a nearby field. The owl probably had a bad hunt the previous night as it continued to be active until 11 am. I truly love spending time with these owls, and I really hope to get the opportunity to spend some more days together with them soon. A very nice way to test my new camera :-)