Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Messengers of Spring (in the snow)

Here are the first few images from a successful trip to Horborgasjön. I had two very different days in the photo hides; the first being extremely cold but with lots of good light and second being mainly cloudy but with a morning of snow!There was lots of crane dancing but this is actually quite difficult to capture effectively with so many birds present. By the time I left on Monday, 18500 Eurasian Cranes had arrived! This is the largest number counted so far, surpassing even last year's peak of 15300. I have to say that for me this spectacle is even greater than the massive flocks of Scotland's winter geese. Within three weeks they will all have departed for a more solitary few months as pairs disperse to breed alone over Scandinavia. Check out the excellent website for Lake Hornborga: www.hornborga.com
More photos (with larger versions) and a trip report to follow on the main websites.

11 comments:

Dale said...

wow Fraser, some lovely pics. A friend in copenhagen just wrote to say that last week they had 2500 cranes in one day!
blows my mind

Fraser Simpson said...

Thanks Dale. Definitely one of my favourite birds.

Warren Baker said...

Stunning pics Fraser. Especially the red sunset/morning shot

Fraser Simpson said...

Thanks Warren. The image quality seems to have deteriorated worse than usual after uploading these to blogger. Will have better versions on my main website next week. The red one is from a really stunning sunrise on the final day but it was all over too soon as it rose higher into some think cloud.

Matt Latham said...

Stunning images Fraser. I visited Hornborjan a couple of years ago with the fiancee's parents but I was a couple of weeks early. I intend to do it again soon and these photos are a real motivation. I have been following your work for a while, keep up the high standard set.
Cheers
Matt

Fraser Simpson said...

Thanks Matt, definitely worth a trip. I enjoy your photographs too. Have added a link to your new blog. All the best, Fraser.

Anders said...

Great stuff!
Don't say I didn't warn you about the weather. ;-)

Hornborgasjön is not too far away from Stockholm and we will try to drive there during this weekend. I have never been there and seeing your images makes me really want to go.

Fraser Simpson said...

Thanks Anders. Yes, it was very cold - I was in two sleeping bags!
It's an amazing place. The rest of the lake is also very good for birding. Have uploaded the first of some larger photos here:
www.frasersimpson-birdphotography.com/crane5.htm

Wai Yien said...

these are poster quality. love it.

neil said...

Wow fantastic photos

Fraser Simpson said...

Thanks Yen and Neil.