So we finally got some snow! Earlier in the week it looked like there wouldn’t be any snow at all so I had made some plans to check a few more spots along the river. When it started snowing, I thought those spots would be even nicer with some open water surrounded by snow. Until I realised that all the small roads leading to the best riverside spots are not plowed in the winter, which makes the river more or less inaccessible now. Plan B: Järvzoo.

I have always preferred the zoo in the winter. Snow makes the dark enclosures a bit lighter and it reduces the overall clutter, and this makes a big difference in some of the aviaries. Sure enough, when I got to the golden eagles, the background net was finally hidden by the snow covered branches and the icing on the cake was the spotty lighting which sometimes hit the bird.

There are only two wolves in the upper wolf enclosure and although it was quite amusing to look at them run with leaps to cope with the deep powder snow, there wasn’t any photo ops as such. Wolverines are also tricky, but then again wolverines are always tricky in the winter. Black fur, white snow. Doesn’t quite work.

But then I got to the lynx. I’m really yearning to get a good lynx picture so that will be my goal for the winter. Now that there’s three of them and the cub is still quite playful, the odds are better of getting some keepers.  The best spot in this enclosure for eye level pictures doesn’t seem to be favoured by the animals, the snow was untouched. So I tried to make use of a spotlight here as well and had to shoot quite a few frames to catch the light in the face. Mission accomplished. Although even here I’m bothered by the downward angle, as usual with the lynx.

And then finally I got a picture of the snowy owl. Quite unbelievably, this turned out to be first snowy owl picture I have. All things considered, a lot better visit than the last one!