Photographing Gray Geese in Little Finland
The elbows of my jacket begin to bleed through from the wet soil. I can smell a mixture of mud and mosses. To me, it’s a reminder that I am right where I should be.
It’s cold and wet. My sight is occasionally blurred from the mist of my breath. There is a constant shift between silence, interrupted by sudden splashes and goose honks. And then silence again for a little while. The fighting amongst the geese is intense and continous even before daylight get lets me see who is chasing who. Every few minutes, each couple needs to defend its territory from others seeking the best spot to nest.
I recall moving to Sorø, Denmark, a few years ago, where I began searching for suitable wildlife spots.
The locals kept referring to this place, but used another name for it than what you can find on a map. I knew I had to find this place, but I was confused about the exact location. I began mapping out each corner of the forest of beech, pine, and oak trees.
Once you find this place, you understand why they call it Little Finland. An oasis of birch trees, mosses, lichen, and fallen tree trunks sends the thoughts on a trip way further North than Denmark.
I can hear the sound of feathers being pushed through the air, and then a few water splashes. This is the main reason I’m here. They take a break in their fighting and start to clean their feathers, which usually ends with a goose flapping its wings, letting the clean feathers settle into the correct place, ready for a needed take off.
The geese are wary of me, though. Even though I tried to be as quiet and calm as possible, they saw me arrive, and when I found a good spot to lie down.
They keep their distance despite being focused on their own territory. Even though the place can be a little difficult to find, unless you’re local, I’m not comfortable using camouflage here, as I might scare the occasional dog walker who comes by.
Even though I have my preferred low angle, I would still like to get closer so I can fill the frame with one of the gray geese basking its wings in beautiful backlight.
I consider putting on a 1.4x teleconverter to get some extra reach for my 400mm lens. The light is still below the threshold of meaningful photography. I struggle to keep the ISO below 6400 while still having a fast enough shutter speed for the action that is going on. So I let the teleconverter stay in the bag, so my next issue won’t become an extra loss of light of being forced to use an aperture of f/6.3 instead of f/4.5, which I currently use.
As the geese begin to forget my presence, they move closer to the middle of the bog, instead of floating near the shore at the furthest side of the dark brown water.
The sun is getting high enough above the horizon for a few pubbles of golden light to reach the geese, and I can begin to capture the shots I’m here for.
Geese dominate the small bog, but only for a few months each year during spring while they nest and raise their chicks. When the chicks can walk, they leave their nest.
The water is calm, and you can hear the other sounds of the forest again.
