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Finally I am back home for an extended stay after what seems like seven months on the road. I have been back in between trips but only for a few days at a time so now I am looking forward to a long rest. It has been a manic few months what with running trips for Natures Images, finishing off the book project which is due to go to print during September and also working on a long term project which so far has taken me three summers and I have a feeling that is not complete. In late July I was back in the Boreal forests of Finland running the Finnish Predators trip. This trip had been two years in planning and it was ambitious to say the least in the hope of capturing three Iconic predators of the Taiga forest.

Our aim was to see and photograph three elusive predators in the shape of the European Grey Wolf, Wolverine and Brown Bear all in the space of ten days. To really get the best out of this trip I had planned to visit three different locations which meant a lot of travelling on the days we should have been resting but the effort was worth it to maximise our chances. Our first base was to visit the excellent feeding site which has been run by Finnish Wildlife photographer Lassi Rautinen and his family for many years. Our main target here was the elusive European Wolf.

I first went to Lassi’s place a couple of years ago and over the course of 8 nights I wanted to photograph the European Wolf. I never even saw one so this location was going to be hard but it is still the best place in Europe to see this beautiful predator. The Grey Wolf has been relentlessly persecuted by man and now only hangs on in the remotest regions of the planet. The border zone between Finland and Russia is a legacy of the cold war and this strip of land which stretches the whole length of Finland has acted like a natural corridor for the endangered wolf. Even in all this space only around 140 individuals survive.

I went out a few days earlier to make sure everything was in place and so went to one of the hides on my first night. After a long night with no sleep it was getting towards the early morning and I thought my chance had gone for this first night. I was dozing when my friend Julian woke me with the immortal words of WOLF. I looked up but couldn’t see anything outside the hide; I looked at my watch to see the time of 5.30 and thought Julian was mistaken surely no self-respecting wolf would be out at this time. Then I saw him, a beautiful Alpha male wolf in his prime heading towards the edge of the lake. It was one of those moments in Nature that has had me hooked for all these years. The male then started to search the edge of the lake for the food that had been placed out. He eventually made his way towards the small hide we had spent the night in and these first images were the result. To be this close to one of the world’s most difficult and elusive animals was such a thrill. I still can’t believe my luck.

My next few nights were what I was expecting really with no sightings of wolves. They usually move around their territory and so I was hoping they would return once the guests on the trip arrived. That first night the wolves did return and it was such a great feeling that everyone had got images of them.

I had spent the night in a different hide and a young male came out of the forest clearing towards the food. These images were different to my first encounter as the wolf was further away but it was great to incorporate him in his forest environment.

After our first couple of nights and with wolf images in the bag we then headed towards our second location for Wolverine. This place is much better for Wolverine because no wolves visit and so they feel much more at ease. I had also been here two years ago so nothing is guaranteed in nature I knew that this would be our best bet. Again the wolverine didn’t disappoint us as we had two or three visits a night. They are not easy to photograph as they are so fast and just seem to bounce around. Our second night proved to be the best though because a female turned up in the early morning whilst the light was beginning to get better, so no stupid ISO settings were needed.

After our two nights we then headed back for our last night with the wolves. The group had a mixture of success and some of us getting some more images and others not so lucky. I was in the not so lucky group but we did have a nice encounter with a large male Bear.

That leads me onto our last location for this trip. Now Bears do visit the first two locations but in my opinion there is no finer place for European Brown Bears than our base which acts as our main location for our Brown Bear trip which we have ran now for 5 years. Edwin Kats had already run a very successful trip in June with some stunning images coming from that trip. I was disappointed though because there appeared to be no females with very young cubs visiting the feeding stations. So it was a real bonus when Marku our host told me that three females had now started to appear with their cubs in tow.

The reason the females were late arriving was because of the wet weather of May and June which had put the mating season back a couple of weeks. The last time I had photographed young cubs was back in 2008 so it was great to get another opportunity. They are so cute and photogenic. I photographed them in all sorts of ways but my own favourites are these ones play fighting.

It was also great to capture them watching Mom and they seemed fascinated by her scratching techniques.

Play time usually came to an abrupt end though because of a large male making his way from the forest interior into open swamp. The female would then quickly move the cubs back to the forest so they could climb to safety.

So there you go, after eight days travelling over a thousand kilometres and visiting three different locations it was possible to get a decent portfolio on three of the most endangered and elusive predators of northern Europe. If you are excited by the possibility of spending fourteen hours in a small hide in a mosquito infested swamp, using a small plastic tub to go to the toilet, for eight nights with very little sleep then please drop me an email as I am planning on running another trip in 2014. You won’t regret it because it has got be one of the best experiences in the natural world. I am a sucker for punishment though and after the trip had finished I went back to the Wolf hides to spend another three nights. I am so glad I did though because we also got to photograph the Alpha female. The last shot is of her howling to communicate with the rest of the pack which was amazing to hear and witness.

My lasting memory though will be of seeing the whole pack on the last night as they made their way across no man’s land, 9 wolves in total and something for me to cherish for the rest of my life.

Danny