Season; June 10th - June 20th
Cost; 250 Euro pr person pr session. Minimum two persons per night - max 4 persons per night
Booking; email here
You are
about to experience the amazing theater of lekking Great snipes. The following
details can help you to prepare and to make sure that you get the most out of
your night – AND to make sure that the birds are not disturbed by your
presence.
MEETING
POINT AND TIME is
at the YX gas station at Gråmyra just south of Levanger at 18:00. The address
to be found here. From there we drive for about 30
minutes up to the mountains where you park your car for the night. Please
inform us in front of your arrival if you do not intend to bring your own car.
If so, we will gladly transport you and pick you up the next morning for an
additional cost of 100 Euro. Unless you have prepaid for your stay in the hide,
please make sure to bring payment here.
WALKING
TO THE HIDE will
take about 45 minutes. The distance is a little bit less than 3 km. Most of the
way we will follow a well marked track. The last part is pretty steep, but no
worry – we will take it slow. The bog will be wet, so water proof shoes are
absolutely necessary. We recommend to dress light for the walk, but to bring
more cloths to wear when settled in the hide.
THE HIDE is a DOG-HOUSE pop-up-blind with a
ground square of 170x170 cm. It is equipped with a camping chair, a plastic
floor and a sleeping pad. The hide is not heated, so the temperature inside
will be equal to the one outside, which in June can be anything from 0 to 10
degrees C. It is an absolutely must to bring a sleeping bag to keep warm. We`re
glad to provide a warm sleeping bag for an additional cost of 50 Euro on
request. The hide has no toilet facilities, so please bring your prefered
facility or prepare the way that suit you most. It is not possible to leave the
hide during night, so prepare for 10 hours. There is marginal cell phone
connection on the site (with Telenor), but calls and sms is possible.
WHAT
GEAR TO BRING is
always a matter of your taste. Even if it is a pretty hard walk, we recommend
to bring both your short and your longest lenses. A tripod is essential since
the light will be limited and fast lenses (f-stop 2,8 - 4) are always to be
prefered. Some of the birds can be as close as 1 meter away from the hide, so
even wide angels can be useful. The birds are not sensitive to fast movements
and sounds, so you can switch lenses and use all the windows in the hide
during the night.
The light
at the site is for some reason challenging for the automatic white-balance
adjustments of any camera model, that consequently adjust too cool. We
strongly recommend you to shoot raw-files, to make the correct adjustments
later on.
WHAT
CLOTHINGS TO WEAR
is again a matter of taste and your personal preference, but water proof boots
and anything that keeps you warm through the night is necessary. If you prefer
to photograph on a low level you have to lay down on the wet floor and water
proof trousers and a water proof jacket is needed to keep you dry.
THE
GREAT SNIPE ROUTINE
is predictable and normally goes like this;
Depending
on their mood, they start the lekking anytime between 20 and 23 o`clock. They
WILL show up in any type of weather – even snow and wind. Their entrance can be
as good as invisible – they are just suddenly there! The first hour the birds
can be heard singing from a hidden position in the gras or in the willow in the
outskirts of the arena. The darker it gets, the more active the birds gets and
at midnight they go crazy. The birds are not shy, so you are welcome to have
all windows and doors open, without disturbing the birds.
Once in a
while the birds pauses their lekking. This is normal behavour and they will
soon take up the activity again.
The females
are watching the show from the outskirt of the arena and are very, very rarely
seen from the hides.
The lekking
will fade out anytime between 04 and 08 in the morning. When the last bird has
left the scene you are welcome to leave the hide, but never earlier than 07 o`clock to prevent disturbance to the lek. Please put the hide together
and leave it where your guide showed you.
The walk
back to your car is easy and will take about 30 minutes.
Please
bring everything you brought into the hide back with you when you leave. And we
always appreciate a phone call or a sms confirming that everything went fine
and that the lekking experience was beyond all expectations :)
THANKS
FOR VISITING AND WELCOME BACK :-)
