Madagascar introduction

Madagascar has always been a dream of mine to visit. Because of its unique fauna and flora, and extremely high rate of endemism (species only excisting in Madagascar and nowhere else in the world), the country off the eastern coast of Africa is often referred to as the 7th continent. And it really is true, the wildlife here is fantastic and abundant depending that the right places are visited. The country suffers a lot from deforestation, but a few scattered forest reserves are protected and a good eco-tourism industry is now established.

My first ten days in Madagascar was spent working in the remote Kirindy forest reserve together with French and Malagasy herpetologists. I also enjoyed assisting a good colleague and friend of mine, who is currently doing some very interesting frog research here. To underline the uniqueness of Madagascar’s fauna, I briefly mention that during the few days we spent in the forest we found an incredible 4 probably new species to science never described before. This included three lizards and one frog. Furher analyses needs to be taken before final conclusions, but because of scientific publication matters I can’t publish images of the new specimen here on the blog yet.

Anyway, I will show you a brief introduction to some of the amazing wildlife we have encountered during the last week.

Fosa, the largest land predator in Madagascar. A bizarre looking animal which is the size of a small dog, and looks somewhat like a hybrid between a cat and a maarten. Except for in Kirindy, it is virtually impossible to see it anywhere in Madagascar. Needless to say, to be able to  photograph this species  was an amazing experience!
 
 

Giant jumping rat – a 1,3 kg rodent that was once widespread in Madagascar. The population is now restricted not only to Madagascar, but to Kirindy and the surrounding areas only. The nocturnal Giant jumping rat is now considered to be one of the absolute rarest mammals on earth, with a population of a few hundred only.
 
 

One of the few chameleons encountered so far on the trip. Chameleons usually becoming abundant after rain, but so far we only had three afternoons with rain, so the forest was still very dry on our visit.
 
 

We spent a lot of time searching for frogs, frog eggs and tadpoles. This is probably a member of the genus Aglyptodactulus.
 
 

When most people think of Madagascar, they also think of the acrobatic lemurs. These primates are unique to Madagascar, as well as abundant. Here is a Verraux sifaka with her offspring flying through the air...followed by a curious baby.
 
 

 

As you probably understand, the first ten days have given me some amazing photography oppurtunities, and I have a lot more images to show. As our travel plan includes visiting fairly remote places in Madagascar, I am not sure when I will get internett access next time. I promise I will try to keep the blog updated as far as possible.

-EG-

WildNature in Media

On the Saturday web-edition of the national newspaper Klar Tale, there is an interview with me and some images of my work. I have already had a feature in the paper edition this week. Check out the 27 Nov issue of klartale.no. The article can be seen here (Unfortunately in Norwegian only).

I am now on my way for a 2 months photo expedition to Africa - not sure how much internet is available but will try to keep the blog updated whenever possible.


-EG-

The Red List – a powerful tool or just an illusion?

Last week, a new list about species considered to be at high risk of extinction was presented by Norwegian nature management authorities. This Red List has been compiled by different specialist groups put together to assess the different risks of extinction for the Norwegian fauna. The previous Red List was made in 2006, but our Government wanted an updated version already now – only 4 years later. Four years is not a long time in nature time, but surprisingly many changes have been made in the new edition.


The Red List is ment as a tool to facilitate nature management. Areas with many red listed species at high risk of extinction will get a stricter protection than areas without. Here is my problem. Norway has been, and even if slightly improved the last decade, still is for the larger part hugely neglecting nature. Consequences are that Norway is one of the worst countries in Europe when it comes to take care of, and produce knowledge about our nature. If it can’t be hunted or fished, Norwegians doesn’t seem to care too much about it.

The seldom seen Spotted crake (myrrikse) is listed as Endangered, which means more than 20% chance of extinction within five generations. That is the same status as in the 2006 edition. Eight bird species are listed in this category.
 
The result of this is that, with the exception of a few huntable species and easy monitored species like our seabirds, we don’t have a clue about population trends, risks or even distribution for many of the species assessed. Even so, instead of being honest and say that there is data deficiency, many species have been moved down on the risk assessment status and some even kicked out all together of the new edtion since the 2006 version. Some of the changes are made because of differences in the way of assessing a species in Red List standards, more than actually biological changes in nature. Even so, reading the authors’ argumentation for ranking a specific species, you will soon see that most of the changes are just made mostly from subjective criteria by the expert groups. However, for most of the species assessed, there are no new knowledge today compared with the 2006 version. My main concern lies with the degraded status of many species, even if the actual knowledge about them is status quo. Based on the fact that areas with Red Listed species of a high risk of extinction are much easier to protect than habitat or areas with no such species, wouldn’t it be vice to act from a cautious angle and assume the worst instead of the best as long as there is very little knowledge anyway?


In my opinion, the new edition of the Red List has unfortunately made it much easier to destroy valuable nature in Norway than it was just two weeks ago.

As sad as it is, I am afraid that the new Red List will be used as a tool and ”fact sheet” for our bureaucrats to assess important nature areas and give them precise validation. When reality is that it is an illusion, and the actual knowledge about the species assessed is still as non-exsistent today as it was in 2006. The result will be that Norway’s many important nature areas soon will be gone – and so will the species living within them.

This is a new species on the Red List since 2006, and Black red-start (svartrødstjert) is now listed as Vulnerable which means 10 % chance of extinction within a hundred years. 23 bird species are listed in this category.
 
The Red List can be downloaded for free at this adress:  www.Artsdatabanken.no , The list is both in Norwegian and English.
 
 
-EG-

W I N N E R !

I am both flattered, humble and of course proud, to announce that my image of a polar bear taken last year has been awarded the winner of the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the year, Animal portrait category 2010!

This competition is considered to be  the most prestigeous of all nature photo competitions. This year, there were a stunning 31 000 entries from more than 80 different countries! As many times before, I was on an seabird expedition for the Norwegian Polar Institute when this bear approached. We retreated into our zodiac, to not risk any unfortunate incidents before we started to photograph this very curious bear. When taking picture of nature, safety for the animal or bird I am working with is always of first priority!

I am also very pleased to see that there were images from no less than three other Norwegian photographers at the exhibtion. Tom Schandy, Roy Mangersnes and Orsolya Haarberg all achieved honorable mention in this very prestigeous competition. This shows that Norwegian nature photography are really at the high end amongst the world's nature photography buisness.

The exhibition with all the winning and highly commended images will now tour the world, and is expected to have more than one million visitors world wide before the end of next year.

-EG-

Payday!

After two weeks on my prime local birding spot, not a single new bird was seen. Nice observaitons of Greater short-toed lark (dverglerke), Citrine wagtail (sitronerle) and numerous rather confusing varieties of Arctic redpolls made the hopes stay high for the whole period, but we all felt like the star was missing. I tried to make a star of myself when I was interviewed by the Norwegian Broadcasting Radio (NRK) in a 2hr show about nature, but that was about it of fun events on the magical island. Hard work in the field despite, no big rarities wanted to pay us a visit this year.

It wasn't until I arrived back home that the nice message turned up on my cell phone - Stilt sandpiper! Only a short drive away, and what a bird! A long wanted "lifer", and he was a real crowd pleaser. For once, a bird that was cooperative, and the ever increasing crowd of happy birders could enjoy the spectacular bird until few meters distance. The Stilt sandpiper (styltesnipe), is only previously recorded two times in Norway with the last one all the way back in 1993. It breeds in subarctic and Arctic North America, and if they don't get lost on their way south like this one - they should spend the winter in Central- and South America.

This morning, some friends and I went out for an early morning photo shoot of the very welcome celebrity.

A big thank you goes to the local birder Per Inge Værnesbranden for passing on the message of this extraordinary recording, and let the rest of Norway's bird community take part in the nice experience.

Now I'm off to London to take part in a big nature photo award ceremony I was invited to join. More on that later.

-EG-

Rarity Alert!

My interest for nature started with birds. From bashing through the forests in the outskirts of my hometown looking for bird nests as a 8 year old kid, I evolved my interest further and stronger and before long found myself spending all my spare time searching for new birds I had previously only seen in the book. This was about twenty years ago, and as funny as it is – I still find myself doing exactly the same thing today. I just have to admit and acknowledge, that I am a genuin bird nerd!


One of my best times through the year is a couple of weeks in the autumn, where myself and some equally bird nerdy friends meet at my local patch to do some birding. The end of September is THE time in Norway to find migrating birds that are a bit off track from their normal flyways. Birds that should have gone to the Far East, South America or at least in a totaly different direction than Norway, suddenly find themselves exactly here – in Norway. The reasons for the unfortunate circumstances are often a combination of weather and misnavigation. But for most and for all – it’s still a mystery. Bird migration has been studied since the beginning of yesterday's century, but are still one of natures’ biggest secrets.

The thrill and adrenalin kick, that rush through my body when I find a new bird that I have never seen before is enormous. The good feeling is uncomparable to ANYTHING – yes, even ... can’t come close to it.

This is what makes birding at this time of the year so interesting and exciting – you never know what is luring in the next bush – it might be a new adrenalin kick!





The Yellow-browed warbler  (gulbrynsanger), is not a huge rarity, but is what we call an indicator species. When seeing this bird in Norway, breeding in Siberia and supposed to reach the wintering areas in India and South-East Asia, you know that some easterly winds from far away have reached our west coast. Such winds can also bring adrenalin kicks :-) Ona, Sept. 2007






This North American White-crowned sparrow (hvitkronespurv) is the biggest "bomb" that has ever hit my local patch Ona. Only the 11th bird of this species ever to be found in Europe, and a 1st record for Scandinavia. This bird certainly made rush hour for my adrenalin! Ona, Oct. 2009







This Masked shrike (hvitpannevarsler) was together with the white-crowned sparrow certainly one of the most adrenalin rewarding birds that I saw during 2009. Only the 2nd record for Norway. Lista, Nov.2009.



At the same time, and only 300m away from the stunning masked shrike above, this Steppe-grey shrike (steppekrattvarsler) was lingering for a few weeks. This bird was about the 6th record in Norway. Lista Nov. 2009.



The Barred warbler (hauksanger) falls into the same category as the yellow-browed warbler. Contrary to the yellow-browed, this species can be a real skulker - meaning it hides really well in the bushes and can be frustratingly difficult to obtain good views of. When you see this species, you know you are doing a firm job, by checking the gardens properly and it's only time before you find the real skulky "sibes" which makes the adrenalin flow. Ona, Oct. 2008.  



Lista, the south tip of Norway delivers yet another time! This bird is the 3rd record for Norway (and 2nd for myself), and even how much of a "little brown job" this bird looks like - beeing able to photograph it in a stunning evening light was certainly a mindblowing experience! Isabelline wheatear (isabellasteinskvett), Lista, Nov. 2008. 

-EG-

Svalbard Guiding

The first week of August, I was guiding a group of photographers for a ten-day trip on Svalbard. I like going with a small group size and small boats. This way you get a much more intimate experience with the Arctic landscape, harshness and of course most importantly also the wildlife. Even though we might be a bit more vulnerable to the weather and ice, we almost always find all the things we are looking for. I have now eight years of experience working as a fieldbiologist/guide on Svalbard.


Some of the highlights the last trip were Pomarine- and Long-tailed skuas, total of 4 Sabine’s gull (3 observations), 20 ivory gulls in front of a fantastic blue glacier, Polar bear killing an Arctic fox puppy and all possible seal species on Svalbard including Harbour-, Hooded and Harp seal. We missed out a bit on the cetaceans due to bad whale searching conditions, but we managed to photograph Belugas in front of blue ice and addtionally a large flock of about 70 animals in one of the west coast fjords. A jumping minke whale was quite spectacular to see and photograph as well. The highlight of the trip happened when we had belugas, sabine’s gulls, polar bear and a spectacular calfing blue glacier in the same view at the same time! All this and more together with stunning landscapes, means only one thing – happy clients!

Watching seven polar bears feeding on a whale carcass was a memorable experience for the whole group - including the guide

 

A polar bear is close to getting crushed under falling ice

 
 

Svalbard is one of few places in the world, where you can expect to see the increasingly rare ivory gull.

 
 

Glaciers are vital to the extreme biomass productivity in many of the fjords of Svalbard. Thousands of kittiwakes feeding on amphipods is an unforgettable nature spectacle.

Minke whale breaching! On the last trip, we had about 15 sightings of this spectacular whale.

Every trip is different from the last one, so time will show what we find next time.











At the moment I am attending a scientific expedition, and although we have seen a few ivory gulls and pomarine skuas, no big surprises have be seen yet. One of the first days in the drift ice west of Spitsbergen we came across about 40 Fin whales, one Blue whale. No less than five blue whales have been seen so far on the trip. A Polar bear on a seal kill was also seen, but photographing these things from a big ship is far from ideal….

The giant of the sea! The blue whale, the world's largest animal, is a regular sight in certain areas of Svalbard. Note the embarrasing small dorsal fin and blue grey colour compmared to the more or less equally sized fin whale seen in the next image.

A flock of fin whales in the drift ice on Svalbard.

I only do guiding on chartered boats, so if you want to use my services for a Svalbard expedition you will have to book early as both my own schedule and the boat charter is allready starting to fill up for the exciting year ahead.


If you want to see sights like this through your camera lens – then you should go wild with WildNature.no!

-EG-

Trip Advice - Smøla Naturopplevelser!

Last weekend, I was invited to a quite recently established eco-tourism company in Norway. Smøla Naturopplevelser (or Smøla Nature adventures) are run by three young guys, and their base is on the west coast of Norway. The island Smøla is situated just south of Trondheim (2,5hrs) and the area actually holds the densest breeding population of eagles in Europe. Two of the nests here are located only 280 meters apart! Their main focus is obviously white-tailed eagles taking fish at sea. They don’t visit the actual nest sites, but on a 3 hour session we visited about 9 different eagle territories! With so many eagles, you are almost guaranteed a lot of dives even if some of the eagles should not be in a ”show off” mood that particular day. I went for one evening and one morning session, and many of the eagles behaved fantastically well by taking fish just meters from the boat. Unfortunately the weather was not great for photography on my visit, with wind and rain in the best hours of the day. Even though its windy, most of the localities visited are inshore and quite sheltered from splashing waves – something which is quite practical considering saltwater not beeing a friend of expensive camera gear.

Audun, guide and gründer is showing the eagle it might be worth hanging around

The eagle is not playing hard to get.....

Bullseye!

..Happy eagle - happy photographer...

I was quite surprised about how well trained the eagles were when considering the recent starting point of this buisness. One eagle followed our boat before we threw the fish, and another even made the dive straight towards the boat – which is extremely rare and difficult to get eagles to do.


Despite white-tailed eagles beeing the main focus, there are also chance of spotting different sea mammals like orcas, pilot whales, harbour porpoises and of course harbour seals. Smøla has also arguably the densest population of otters in Europe.

During the eagle safari at Smøla, there is always a good chance of seeing whales and other sea mammals

whalewatching at its best! This curious harbour porpoise is making us wonder a bit who is watching whom?

The guys running the buisness provided excellent service, knew every sitting post to all the eagles visited, and in general the whole thing seemed very well organised both for photographers and equally important also for the birds. So if you want to take pictures of fishing white-tailed eagles, or just have an extraordinary nature experience in the best coastal landscape Norway has to offer – I would most certainly consider a trip with Smøla Naturopplevelser.

Have a nice trip!

Smøla Naturopplevelser having their safaris in spectacular landscapes!

-EG-

A Fight for Life

We people often like to think of nature as a romantic place, and that all the animals and birds in general live in harmony and peace. As mind disturbing as it is, the truth is actually quite the opposite. Except for the odd occasion of witnessing an eagle taking a fish, or a hawk eating a bird, I rarely get to see the cruelty when I am just out birding or photographing. However, when I am out doing fieldwork, I get a much more intimate version, and I often spend weeks and days going in the same area for doing nest checks, meassurements and other scientific necessities. In this way, one get very close to the every day life of the object one is studying, and often I find myself in situations where my mind is disturbed a little bit from the reason why I got interested in biology in the first place. To realize how brutal and cruel the natural world actually can be, is indeed far from the thought of purity and harmony where life is a contest about friendship, beauty and beeing preetiest.


I came across one such situation the other day, when a brünnich’s guillemot came walking on the beach. The bird was seriously wounded, and blood was dripping on its otherwise white feathers. He had been in a fight. The bird came walking straight towards us, and stopped litterealy between my legs. Nearby, there were several glaucous gulls observing it all. Glaucous gull is the top predator of the Arctic, and they immediately see if an easy meal is about to happen. The poor guillemot knew his life was ebbing out, and going towards an end. I think this otherwise quite shy bird came to us, because he wanted some protection. He knew that the gulls didn’t dare to eat it when he was close to us, and by doing this he extended his maybe already 30 year old life by an hour until we left him alone on the black sandy beach….

The Brünnich's guillemot deadly injured in a fight for life

This scenario happened close to a bird cliff on the east coast of Svalbard. Bird cliffs are places where certain species gather in high numbers to breed. At this particular bird cliff, we counted 44 000 of them together on a very limited space (yes – I did count them all – as this was one of my tasks this summer). Why they choose to breed in flocks and not one by one is complex and far beyond my understanding of how life is put together, but in short it has to at least something do with certain requirements to the geology to make potential nesting sites and that its less chance of beeing killed by a predator when you are one of many instead of alone. One hitch by nesting close together is of course that it gets crowdy, and that somebody might take the place that you actually wanted yourself. In fact, these birds nest so close to each other that if they miss their landing spot by a few centimeters they land on the neighbour’s property. They have to rely on high precision flying, but even when all precautions are made for turbulence wind or last second divertion from another of the thousands of birds in the air to avoid a collision - the final approach can be more challenging than ideal. This is indeed a fertilizer for disputes. A breeding spot, or nest site is of course a valuable thing. The more experienced and dominant the individual is, the more nesting spots you can choose from. Making the right decision and allocation of a nest can easily be the difference between life and death. A nesting site is a valuable resource – and the more individuals competing for the same resources the more likely it is that the individual has to fight for its position. The competition increases, and winners and loosers are made.

The bird knew he only had minutes left to live, desperately trying to

extend his life by seeking shelter from the glaucous gulls perching nearby

 - watching him step by step

As if this is not more than worrying when studying and realizing this in nature, I often think of what the world will be for humans in the future. When I went to college, I was told there were about 4,5 billion people on earth. Today, about 15 years later, the same population estimate has increased to about 7 billions, and the number is increasing every single hour of the day. All this people needs a place to stay, something to eat. Basically they need to live, and to live they need to use natural resources. To live is a constant fight for life, both for the humans and for wildlife.

Planet Earth is unfortunately not a renewable resource – and that is the real worrying part!


-EG-

Busy busy busy.....

After a week camping on the wonderful island of Bear Island, I am now back i civilization. Working mostly 15hr days, trying to solve the mystery of the great skua, I was looking forward to a few relaxing days working on the computer. But things want it differently. Since I arrived Spitsbergen (another Arctic island) I’ve been busy running around preparing for the one month long expedition I am leading on the east coast of the archipelago. Its probably one of the most remote places in Europe, so its important that everything is in shape. On top of this, I am also putting up a nice exhibition about the Arctic wildlife called ”Polar Moments”. It has allready been up for a month in my home town, and there I got really good backfeed on it, so I am a little bit excited to see how the true Arctic people judge these images. In other words not much time for photography, so I leave you with a few images from my work on Bear Island.

Our camp. It doesn't look like much, but its one of the best places I have ever been.

Myself negotiating with a GREAT skua - at the end we agreed to let him fly. Photo: Hálfdán H. Helgarson


-EG-

Out and About

In a few hours I leave for my 7th summer in the Arctic. I am off for a nice start to a very remote and beutiful island - Bear island. Nine people live here as part of a weather station. The weather station change crew every six months, and for the rest of year they barely see any people.

Well, I  am not going there to see the people either, but to do fieldwork on seabirds as part of a team employed by the Norwegian Polar Institute. I will be busy, teaching new people the methodology and catching great skuas. Hopefully I get the chance to do some photography inbetween all the work. People often think I am going on holiday when I'm off for fieldwork. Even though I get to see many interesting places, its often hard work with 12-18 hrs working days in all sorts of weather and usually seven days a week.

Anyway, the nature experienses I get during my fieldbiology jobs is worth the effort. Going to remote places also means no phones or email for some time - which itself is making going to these places worth it.

The island and the great skua. In July, the average is 27,5 days with fog, so this view is actually pretty rare on Bjørnøya. Because of all the days with bad weather, you learn to appreciate the good days even more.....

Nature is great - at a distance.....

I live in Norway’s 5th largest town, Trondheim. I live just three minutes walk from the town square, where most people don’t think its possible to experience any wildlife at all - except for the few seagulls and city pigeons that roam the area in hope of getting a piece of anthropogenic left overs of course. I think, and I know, differently. Every evening I have a river otter swimming past by my garden, I have a badger that often play in the garden and just the other day, there were also two young moose strolling around in the neighbourhood. Most people never notice all these animals, but when they do – its always a cry out in the local newspapers that there is too many of them, they don’t behave normally beeing so close to humans, they can be dangerous to people etc etc……


The two young moose, recently been pushed away from their mother (as is common this time of the year), was out exploring life on their own and trying to get a grip on what to do and not to do in this world. Testing boundaries - normal youth behaviour I would say. Of course, many people thought it was interesting to have such large animals walking around in the neighbourhood. Our, as usual, trigger happy wildlife management authorities thought differently - and killed them! Afterwards, they said that it was not possible to sedate them and move them back into the forest as they then only would return back to the city. Well, they never tried – so we will never know, will we? For the best for the animals they said. Hmm….maybe its just me beeing stupid, but how do we actually help healthy animals by killing them?

I am quite surprised of many people’s low acceptance for nature, and their likewise high acceptance for playing God and to decide who is going to live and not. What makes it worse, is that the decisions are often based on a complete lack of knowledge of animal behaviour and biology. In Norway, we have a strong tradition for hunting, sadly this seems to be the only method that our nature management employees think its possible to use for ”managing” nature….by shooting and killing. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for hunting and eating meat and utilise nature resources. In fact – I think its much better ethically to eat meat from a hunted wild animal, than meat from a cow or pork that has all its life lived innside in a space not big enough to turn yourself around...But I am quite astonished by the low acceptance to actually enjoy wildlife and nature alive in this country. Norwegians like to think of themselves as a nature loving people. However, to me it seems that most people are only interested in the scenery, and not really the creatures that lives in the fjord, in the forest or up on our beautiful mountains – the things that actually makes nature beeing nature.

I’ve been participating in radiotracking both wolves and lynx from time to time, and most people would probably be amazed of how close to people these animals like to live. In case you didn’t know – these animals are in fact rarely out in the wilderness. I have tracked wolves lying virtually in the garden to people’s houses, and lynx hunting domestic cats in the suburbs of Norway’s capital – Oslo. Next time you see a deer in the garden, a fox chasing some birds in a field nearby – don’t immediately think of the animal as sick, injured or a result of beeing too many – don’t run for your rifle, but rather take your time to enjoy nature’s way of adapting to a world which get more densely populated by humans as every minute goes by. It’s all natural behaviour!!

I met this fox during rush hour in the biggest city of  Norway. For some animals, an urban area might be as good habitat as any other territory far out in the wilderness.

 

-EG-

A close to death experience and then some orca action

The last week, I went to a remote island together with my good friend and colleague Kjetil, his son and his father in law. We hoped to do some seabird photography, but out at the island Halten the weather was to be modest – not the best. There is a good sized colony of shag at the island, and this is actually the first time I try to photograph this bird. To be honest, I found it quite difficult. The birds actually carry a fantastically colourful plumage, but with heavy white clouds and in pouring rain its difficult to make the right exposure to give them justice.

I like to think of myself as quite used to live at remote places now and then, but I guess that the lighthouse master at this lighthouse was quite glad that Norway decided to automatize all lighthouses some years ago....

You never know when you will be eaten........

A group of shags posing for the cameraman

Here I am

Here I am, my very first blog. I don't know if it was the famous sheep herd, the urge to try something new, the exhibitionist in me or just plain lack of computer skills that drove me to make this blog. I allready have a web site, but for different reasons it's not up to date at the moment. I will still continue to have my website www.WildNature.no, but on this blog I will try to put more emphasis on the written part and maybe go a bit more personal regarding nature related thoughts, joys, and frustrations.

I do have a goal to update this weekly when its possible. Because I am often out and about and a long way from internet and phone connections (yes - its still possible to do this in 2010), I know my weekly blog schedule will be broken every now and then but I promise to do the best I can for this blog to be alive. If you ever for some strange reason wonder about becoming a fieldbiologist/nature photographer like me - my goal is to a certain extent give you an idea of my where- and whatabouts through this blog.

Yes, I will be writing in English. I myself, is Norwegian, so please disregard the misspellings, wrong grammar etc. If you feel offended by anything of what I am writing - please feel free to be so - it was probably my intention :-)

Tomorrow I am off for a few days on a nice boat trip in the local fjord where I live, and hopefully do some seabird photography - If I succeed? Pop by this blog in a week or so from now, and find out by yourself!

Feel free to follow this blog, and you might be as surprised of what you see as these snow monkeys I met in Japan earlier this winter.

- EG -