25/09/2026
Day 6 – Black Grouse and forest feeder
Today we had our second Black Grouse morning. The birds arrived later than last time and were very quiet at first. After about ten minutes they finally became more active – but almost immediately something spooked them. They flew off and never came back, so our morning ended up being a very short one. Disappointing, of course, but that is nature photography!
During the day, the clients had a chance to rest or photograph from the hide at Villa Finnature. While we were having breakfast, a beautiful female Goshawk visited the feeder – but naturally, once the clients were in the hide, she decided to stay away! Luckily, there were Bullfinches, Crested T**s, Nuthatches and many other beautiful species to photograph.
In the afternoon, we drove to our forest feeder, hoping for another Goshawk encounter. Unfortunately, the Goshawk decided not to show up this time either, but a Sparrowhawk did its best to keep us entertained! The weather was rather grey and cloudy, making it challenging to get enough shutter speed for the fast action.
Today was actually a good reminder of why we always recommend two visits to each hide. The first visits to both the Black Grouse hide and the forest feeder were amazing for this group, while unfortunately the second visits were much quieter. After such fantastic first sessions, today's visits naturally felt even more disappointing – but it could just as easily have been the other way around. With wildlife, you simply never know!
Luckily, we have one more chance with the Black Grouse. We had to make a small change to our programme, as one of the sites we had planned to visit doesn't seem to be working well at the moment. So we'll stay one more day in Oulu and give the Black Grouse another go tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed! 😊
