So spring is kicking in here and with it came an opportunity to see the mating display of a very cool forest bird called a Capercallie or Tiur in Norwegian. They are a large bird, slightly smaller than a turkey I guess and very shy so actually seeing them is a thrill, let alone when they are in full strutting glory. They display in the same areas of the forests each year and the locations are fairly closely guarded secrets so I was lucky to be invited to see them. We walked into the area (the forest is about 400hectares and they display in an area about 2 hectares deep in the centre) late at night, around 9pm when its still light enough to be stealthy, but starting to get dark. The birds are roosting by this stage and you have to be in absolute stealth mode so as not to disturb them, which we didn’t do that well as I counted 8 heading out the area as we sneaked in. I think most returned in the early morning though. We set a small three man tent up as a hide, guessing roughly where we think the birds will do the main display and then settled down on the forest floor in sleeping bags. Talking to a minimum. At around 4am I heard the first male fly in and it took me a good 30 minutes before I saw a bird through the trees. Bare in mind we are in a small tent, looking through little tears around the size of a R5 coin at ground level, so any low vegetation gets in the way. The first time I saw a male in plain sight was a true ‘gulp, wow look at that fella’ as they are so stuffed with self importance and so beautiful strutting around that it takes one by surprise the first time.
The Capercallie display with a combination of calls and short flights, almost straight up and very noisy to get the females attention, whom are perched in the beginning in trees above the arena. While they call (a surprisingly soft call) the head goes back and the eye closes so the birds are actually rather vulnerable at this 3-4 second period but ridiculously vigilant at all other times. I was lucky to borrow a decent camera and good lens so that I could photograph and once the light improved we had some incredible viewing of birds around 5m from the tent and a fox which wondered through. Here a few pics I got. It really was like hide hunting using a lens and a great experience. Next week im off to do a similar experience with black grouse that are just starting to display J Thought you guys might like to see some wildlife from across the waters.
The Capercallie display with a combination of calls and short flights, almost straight up and very noisy to get the females attention, whom are perched in the beginning in trees above the arena. While they call (a surprisingly soft call) the head goes back and the eye closes so the birds are actually rather vulnerable at this 3-4 second period but ridiculously vigilant at all other times. I was lucky to borrow a decent camera and good lens so that I could photograph and once the light improved we had some incredible viewing of birds around 5m from the tent and a fox which wondered through. Here a few pics I got. It really was like hide hunting using a lens and a great experience. Next week im off to do a similar experience with black grouse that are just starting to display J Thought you guys might like to see some wildlife from across the waters.