Welcome to dickforsman.com

It has been a strange spring. We had a very long winter which seemed to continue forever. Normally the first migrants would start to appear around mid-late March, but this year full winter prevailed almost until mid-April. But once the bird-circus started there was no end to it. Species after species arived in very fast succession and in some places birds concentrated in numbers never seen before. Personally I love this time of year, when days are bright, there is snow on the ground and the skies are sparkling blue. Shooting birds in flight in those conditions is like living a dream. After trips to Oman and Israel in Feb and Mar, I decioded to stay in Finland to experience this once more. And I was not disappointed. In two weeks I must have fired something like 20 000 frames, mostly on flying birds, which is a lot more than my average. The above shot is one of those, a male Osprey, freshly arrived, hovering over a small patch of open water in an otherwise frozen inlet. At the moment I was busy photographing a pair of Goldeneyes, which made use of this pool, when the male Goldeneye suddenly looked up. And so did I, and found this osprey hovering just above my head, only some 20-30 metres away. I had always wanted to shoot Ospreys over snow and ice, but never had the opportunity before. Another dream fulfilled. (Hanko, Finland, April 20th, 2013).

It has been a strange spring. We have had a very long winter, which seemed to continue forever. Normally the first migrants would start to appear around mid March, but this year the birdless winter prevailed almost until mid-April. But once the circus started, there was no end to it. Species after species arrived in very fast succession and in some places birds concentrated in numbers never seen before. Personally I love this time of year, when days are bright, the snow is still lying on the ground and the skies are sparkling blue. Shooting birds in flight in those conditions is like living a dream. After trips to Oman and Israel in Feb and Mar, I decided to stay in Finland to experience the transition from winter to spring once more. And I was not disappointed. In two weeks I must have fired something like 20 000 frames, mostly on flying birds, which is a lot more than my average. The above shot is one of those, a male Osprey, freshly arrived, hovering over a small patch of open water in an otherwise frozen inlet. At the moment I was busy photographing a pair of Goldeneyes, which made use of the pool, when the male Goldeneye suddenly looked up, and so did I, and found this immaculate male Osprey hovering just above my head, only some 20-30 metres away. I had always wanted to shoot Ospreys over snow and ice, but was never that lucky before. Another dream fulfilled! (Hanko, Finland, April 20th, 2013).

Relating articles

Recently blogged

Blog categories