Sveriges Radio Västerbotten på besök i mitt örngömsle

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Guardian of wall and mire.

A shy bird that`s constantly on guard and with help from spies and several guard posts keeps lookout in the area. It keeps it self safe while also warning other wild animals when danger draws close. That is our raven in north of Sweden. This bird is both cunning and inventive in it`s hunt for food while also being an important garbage collector.

Just over a week later i`m photographing raven again; this time in London`s old mythical fortress The Tower. Here though, the raven have a diffrent purpose; according to the legend the British kingdom will fall when the seven ravens either die or leave the Tower. (Good thing the legend was most likely proven wrong when most or all ravens died of shock during the Nazi bombing of London in World War II. According to some sayings one raven survived. In present day the raven are taken care of by a special " ravenmaster", who sees to it that they get there daily meal consisting of 170 grams of meat and special bird biscuits drenched in blood. They even get to feast on eggs once a week.

Ravens are always skilled imitators and here in the tower they seem to have picked up sounds of mantle motions from rifles. To keep the ravens in check - despite the good food some ravens have left the tower - they clip their left wings. Though thera have been occasion when raven got fired.



One of these had the bad habbit of breaking TV - antennas and the other one - fittingly named Grog - was last seen outside East End pub.

Six nights and mornings in my Capercaille hide

In one of my tent we were visited by an impertinent capercaillie. When one of my guests was in the hide, tried the grouse to fly up and sit down on the tent. I was awakened by the capercaillie ran into the tent. The name of this capercaillie is Great Albin.

Capercaille and Black Grouse

The Black Grouse are also busy, this is a picture from yesterday

The first night and morning in my in my capercaille hide was a success, I was lucky and got the bird in good light for three hours in front of the hide.

Capercaillie hide

One of the hides we put up today is for photographing capercaillie courting on the ground. The peak of the season is usually in early May.

My favorite eagle landed today...........

New tree hide

New plans for the summer!

My intentions are to have my third tree hide ready this autumn. I have found a suitable place for it up in some pine trees. From this hide it will be possible to take pictures with wide-angle lenses and telephoto lenses.

This picture was taken from my second tree hide. I used a 16-35 wide-angle leans and a flash assembled about 30 cm under the camera. I put out some meat on the roof of the hide. Than I just had to wait and pull the trigger of the camera when the eagle jumped out.

I have retouched from the picture some smaller snow flakes falling from the roof when the eagle jumped.