The secret for succesfull Owl photography is to feed them. We are feeding the owls with dead mice and voles. Throughout the year I collect trapped rodents from my home village and put them in freezer. Then when we start to feed the owls, I have food for the owls ready.

In extreme cases I believe we actually save lives of owls. Since owls come most eagerly to the offered bait when they are starving. This winter Great Grey Owls have been struggeling in Northern Finland, since there are almost no voles at all.

First two days we spent with very co-operative first winter female Snowy Owl. Both days were bright and fairly cold (-15 to –25 Centigrade) so we were photographing the bird in the morning from 6.30 until 9.30 and again in the afternoon from 15.00 until 18.00. That gave us the best possible light with the bird. Since when the sun is too high above the horizon light is just too bright and you will not get light in owls eyes properly, but they will be partly in shade.

At this site we saw 3 other Snowies, but they were not so co-operative than this one bird which we were mainly working with. Our third morning was grey and temperature was obviously warmer, only –10 Centigrade, so a real heatwave…

We spent the morning with our familiar Snowy Owl and around lunch time moved about 100 km to another place closer to Montreal, from where we had information about the Owls. Althought it was grey afternoon we went to check the owlsites and found the young male and adult male. Young male was very co-operative, but the adult seemed to be quite shy. Despite the grey weather we photographed the young male.

Next two days we spent with this young male photographing it in the morning and again in the afternoon. Between these sessions we went to see beautiful adult male Snowy Owl, which had it´s regular watch point close to road on top of the haybales. At his site we saw two other Snowies, one older female and a young looking bird from a distance. We managed to take some images of older female.

On the afternoon of day 5 we came back to first winter female and had good evening session and good photography session with it on next morning as well. After the morning we decided to to look for a Hawk Owl which had been seen regularly about 40 kilometers away. While driving there we found perching adult male Snowy Owl on top of the tree on the side of the road. When we arrived to the place, we spotted the Hawk Owl immediately. However, we didn´t get good photos of this one. By now the sky clouded over and we returned to hotel via slightly different road and found one more Snowy Owl and this one was also perched on top of the tree! They can be very well visible birds and this one looked like young bird! Short break at the hotel and back to first winter female. We had very productive evening with it, because of the snow fall.

Because weather forecast wasn´t great we decided to have a lay on at Friday morning. Sky was all grey and temperature was around +5 Centigrade. Decided to move back to Ottawa today, since on Saturday weather should be better with sunny spells.

Saturday morning started cloudy, but during the day weather improved. However, it was very warm +10 Centigrade and snow was melting fast! It seemed like spring is coming in quickly. In the morning we went to see Great Grey Owls, but didn´t see them. Then we went to see Northern Hawk Owl and we managed to photograph that one nicely in beautiful perch. In the afternoon we decided to go back to Great Grey Owl site, where one bird appeared after short wait.

We managed to photograph this beautiful birdspecies well in flight and sitting in snow. Good reference material to show the difference between Eurasian Great Grey and North American Great Gray Owls. They are very different looking birds!

One week in Canada with Snowy Owls was a real “dream come true” trip, since I have photographed Snowy Owls on the breeding grounds in Finland, but never properly during the winter before this!

You can see other photos from this thip at http://finnature.fi/photo_album.html.16.html

You can see a collection of my photos of Dalmatian Pelicans at http://finnature.fi/photo_album.html.14.html

Had another boattrip to the Strymonas river delta and took some more photographs of Great Cormorants and some more Dalmatian Pelicans. That river delta is a truly wonderful place for birds! The boatman was telling me that I should come back in May or June, apparently then the delta will be full of breeding Egrets and Herons! In Europe there are so many great places for wildlife and this is definitely one of those places!

In the afternoon I went to meet fisherman Tom, and this time he managed to attract many Pelicans at his shore. It was really nice to see how Pelicans, which were just flying over, immediately landed by Tom’s shore when he was throwing fish out from his boat. Today I also got on his boat, but then unfortunately the Pelicans didn´t come quite so close as last week. However, I got some nice images of fisherman Tom and his Pelicans!

After somehow disappointing morning photography I made the right decision. I went to the village of Kerkini, from where I booked a boattrip to the lake. While waiting for a boatman to arrive I made some good shots of Collared Doves in their display flight. Then I spent a couple of hours at the lake, since there was a good chance for flight shots of Pelicans today with long lens! Backdrop mountain was under cloud, so there was really nice dark backgrounds for Pelicans flying in sunlight. Exposure was difficult though!

Tonight there is a bright sky with full moon and stars are also well visible. It seems that tomorrow will be the morning for sunrise photography!

Fisherman Tom invited me today to have lunch with them, food and drink was good, but because Dimitris was not here today we didn´t have any long conversations…

The lake around the town of Kastoria is probably the best place in Greece to photograph Pygmy Cormorants. Today I got some perched birds also with their wings open in good light, swimming birds and I also tried to take some flight shots. We will see later if there are any good ones. Pygmy Cormorant is a fast flying bird and I tried to capture them against the colourful Greek town, so it was a real challenge for the autofocus.

Bonus of the day was a breeding plumaged White Pelican which swam into the small harbour while I was waiting for Pygmy Cormorants to do something photogenic. Apparently White Pelican is a more difficult species to photograph than Dalmatian Pelican in Greece. The very first time I also realised that it is really not a white bird at all, but it should be called Pink Pelican!

Tonight I drove for 3 hours back to Lake Kerkini. Most of the main roads are really good and Greeks drive fast, so a 300 km distance can be driven in 2,5 hours! Still four and a half days left of my mission in Greece. Unfortunately the weather forecast promised rain here for the whole day tomorrow. However, I will go to meet fisherman Tom´s Pelicans tomorrow!

We arrived after midday to Kastoria and looked at the shores. Only 2 Dalmatian Pelicans were in front of the town, but there were plenty of Pygmy Cormorants. I got some images of distant Pelicans showing the Greek town as background, but today was especially good for Pygmy Cormorants. Here it seems that they are pretty used to people and easy to approach. Some time here and I think one could make some really good images of Pygmy Cormorants!

I should also mention he Coots of the town. They are numerous and they seem to be very used to the feeding and it would be easy to make some good photos of this species here. I also tried to make some images of Coots running on the surface of the water…

Black-headed Gull is very common, but Pochard, Great Crested Grebe, Great Cormorant and Moorhen are just few around, but they are also fairly approachable here.

Boattrip to river Strymonas delta for Great Cormorants and Pelicans. We managed to get fairly close to Cormorants nesting in the trees. Also artificial platforms built by local authorities for Pelicans were occupied. Good to see that people are helping the endangered wildllife! It can really make a difference!

Afternoon back to the ”fisherman Tom´s Pelicans”. He is a very friendly and very co-operative local fisherman. He doesn´t speak any English, but fortunately with help of Dimitris we have become as friends. It really helps for a photographer to get better shots of the Pelicans. Anyway these fishermen, like Tom, have been here for 35 years and they have established a very special relationship with the Pelicans. It is really amusing to see globally endangered species like the Dalmatian Pelican following these local fishermen like dogs! Pelicans can even take fish from their hand. No doubt that they both benefit from this relationship!

Weather was first very grey and when I got into the water it started to rain, which didn´t make me any wetter… Fortunately I had protection for my camera, so it didn´t get too wet and it was working alright. Then we got some sun and for the background there were dark clouds. Actually really good conditions for Pelican photography! Today I made some nice action shots of feeding Pelicans.

When I got up from the lake, the local fishermen invited me and Dimitris to have a little wine and Ouzo with them in their cottage. Naturally we couldn´t resist this attempting invitation. Beside the alcohol there was also boiled fish liver, fried fish, fermented cabbage and bread on offer. So we had a very good lunch! Actually these local fishermen are so friendly and hospitable to us, that I can´t imagine this kind of hospitality in Finland or elsewhere where I´ve been.

The evening continued at the hotel with the processing of some images and trying to make my first blog submission.
Tomorrow morning is supposed to be fairly bright, so we are aiming for sunrise shots of Pelicans.