GET TO KNOW YOUR AREA
Local knowledge is important.
Find out where the best spots for bird photography are in your area. Through experience you will learn which species to photograph in each time of the year, and especially where to photograph them.
This is elementary information, but it’s easy to forget unless you write it down. I plan photo projects in my annual calendar, trying to reserve several days for each species that I am targeting, at the best possible time, based partly on notes I have taken. I write notes on maps for future use, paying special attention to any observations I have made in the field. You can also find good locations for photographing birds by studying maps.
I record the GPS coordinates of most of my photo locations because they help me find my way in the dark and through thick fog. You might want to record GPS coordinates for any raptor nests and boxes because they may help in research and conservation efforts.
Bird guidebooks and the Internet are good sources for information about bird locations. You can find fairly exact maps on the Internet, which help you search for potentially good sites for photographing birds.
Keep in mind, though, that good birding spots are not necessarily the best bird photography sites. Most good birding spots are normally teaming with birders, increasing the risk of conflicting interests between the groups; birders like to study their subjects from afar with telescopes, whereas bird photographers need to get much closer, despite having long telephoto lenses. This can cause some criticism from birders, but photographers also suffer if they scare the birds away because they are left empty handed.
It is fair to say that often a site that is less spectacular and popular than the so-called hot spots suits bird photography better. And as a photographer, you will find that it’s easier to manage a smaller site than a larger area.
Potential Sites for Photography
Black Grouse and Western Capercaillies tend to return to the same lek site every year, and once a good site has been discovered, it can offer great photo opportunities for decades. Old forests have lots of great species, not just owls and Western Capercaillies; look for breeding Northern Goshawks or Eurasian Three-toed Woodpeckers, which often nest in the same areas. These species are loyal to their territories, and they return each year—assuming the forest is still there.
You can also chart your area for small-scale key biotopes. You can find, for example, that a Rustic Bunting claims a patch every year on a swamp by a small stream, where a pair can be photographed in both the singing season and the short breeding season while the parents are busy feeding the young. If you discover a nice bog you may find a crane’s nest, where the birds may come several years in a row. Set up your blind well in advance of the birds’ arrival in spring.
Many manmade environments can be good bird photography locations, such as any wetlands that have been created through dredging, or around wastewater treatment plants or other structures. Landfills draw birds in great numbers, and some species can be easily photographed there. Most waste management sites require permission to enter.
Eurasian Three-toed Woodpeckers often dig their nest holes quite low (Picoides tridactylus)
Canon EOS-1D Mark II, 70–200mm f/2.8, 1/125 second, 70mm, f/5.0, ISO 400, one-shot focus with one focusing point, Gitzo tripod, Manfrotto 501 video head. Kuusamo, Finland, June 2005.
There are ways bird photographers can assist nature in providing good bird sites and thus promote their own bird photography projects. It’s relatively easy to create artificial flood ponds on fields close to shores, which help maintain spring flooding conditions for longer than normal and where you can feed migrating birds. This must, of course, be done in cooperation with the landowner. Scythes and brush cutters are great tools for clearing overgrown photo sites. As an example, I use a Black Grouse lek in a sand quarry, where the birds had been coming for years and where it was easy to photograph from a car. Eventually, though, the brush took over the site and made it difficult for the Black Grouse to perform their courting rituals, and for me to photograph them. A local bird photographer worked some magic with his scythe, and we are now anxiously waiting for next spring to see if the birds come back to their familiar courting grounds!
Find out where the migrating birds’ staging areas are and if it’s okay to set up blinds in the area. If it is, survey the grounds to determine the best location for your blind. In practice this means you need to do your preparatory work at least a year in advance. Wherever ground is first exposed from under the snow and ice is where the birds tend to gather, often on ponds formed by spring floods on the fields or in the mouths of ditches where the streaming water breaks through the melting snow and ice. These are good sites for bird photography.
Bird photographer Harri Taavetti is using a scythe to clear an overgrown Black Grouse lek
Birds on spring and autumn migration often follow so-called main lines, which are land shapes formed by capes and barriers between large bodies of water. Other clear land formations can also become main lines that the birds follow. Birds on migration tend to fly along shores, river valleys, and arable fields. Find out if your area is along any migration flyways.
Mallards against the setting sun on Liminka Bay (Anas platyrhynchos)
Canon EOS-1D Mark III, 500mm f/4.0, 1/1250 second, f/4.0, ISO 800, one-shot focus with one focusing point, ground pod, Manfrotto 501 video head, blind. Liminganlahti, Finland, April 2008.
Weather Matters When Choosing Your Location
When you are deciding where to go, pay attention to the weather. Detailed weather forecasts will help you make the right decisions about where and what to photograph, and it’s especially crucial to know whether the day is going to be sunny or cloudy. Cloud cover has a lot to do with how much light you are going to have. I like to photograph in a forest in the even light of a cloudy day because in full sunshine the intensity of light varies greatly between sunny and shady areas. The direction of light also plays an important role, especially in bright sunshine. When you plan your day or think about where to set up your blind, remember that backlight is at its best just after sunset or just before sunrise. If snowfall is expected, find a place where you can get a nice dark background behind the birds you’re about to photograph. Snowflakes stand out well against a dark background!
Water level determines if, from a bird photographer’s point of view, there is too much, not enough, or just the right amount of shore exposed for the waders to forage. If you photograph on shores with tidal waters, get a tide table so you will know the times and heights for the ebb and flow peaks. The Baltic Sea has very little or no tides, but the direction of the wind can alter the water level significantly, particularly on the low shores of the Gulf of Bothnia. The water level can fluctuate several inches between rapidly receding shorelines, taking the birds too far out from the blind or suddenly raising water that threatens to flood your blind. That’s why it’s good to have a waterproof floor in your tent. Weather websites often provide information about the tides and water levels.
A fledgling photographer should hook up with a more seasoned bird photographer, if possible, to learn new things about photo techniques and locations. But not everybody likes to share hard-earned knowledge and experience.
A Temminck’s Stint onshore with the water at an ideal level (Calidris temminckii)
Nikon D3S, 500mm f/4.0 plus 2x extender, 1/1250 second, f/11.0, ISO 1600, continuous focus with an extended central focusing point, ground pod, Manfrotto 501 video head, blind. Siikajoki, Finland, August 2010.