In May and June 2022 Royle Safaris ran two near back to back specialist Wolverine Photography Tours to Finland, this is a short summary of the trips. They were both for 4 people each, the first ran with Charles Hood, Bonnie Shirley, Clive Freemantle and Mark Sugden; the second with Debbie & Peter Ibbotson and Spencer & Manda Simmons. Both tours followed the same itinerary which was 4 nights with 3 nights in the wolverine hides and 1 night on arrival in the guest house of our excellent local guide Jarkko. Due to the nature of the way the wolverine hides operate and the activity schedule of the wolverines you have to be in the hide for around 2-3pm and overnight in the hide. With so many hours of daylight in the Arctic during this time of year this can lead to late nights and little time to sleep. So whilst we offer some wildlife watching in the mornings of these days, it is not always taken up and it can be truncated. So the general pattern of the days collected from the hide in the morning and taken to the guest house to freshen up, breakfast and rest if you wish. You can then do some wildlife watching with Jarkko before lunch and going back to the hide in the mid-afternoon. It is a short trip and heavily focused on spending the most time in the hide as possible to maximise time for wolverine observation. Also at this time of year you stand a chance of seeing brown bears too, but this increases as the summer wares on into autumn. But as the name of the tour (Just Wolverine Photography Tour) suggests this is a wolverine focused trip and so we don’t het a great diversity of species. However for anyone interested in visiting the most reliable place for this amazing species in the world and having great chances to photograph a wolverine please contact us now and we can provide information about our 2023 small group tour or we can set up a private tailored itinerary for you (info@royle-safaris.co.uk)).
Group 1
This group had wolverine sightings (at least 3 wolverines / sightings) as well as Canadian beaver, Eurasian red squirrel, western roe deer, mountain hare and a possible root vole. Their notable bird sightings included short-eared owl, Eurasian pygmy owl, hazel grouse, western capercaille, black grouse, common cranes, spotted redshank, hen harrier, common greenshank, northern lapwing and nice ural owl.
Group 2
This group were particularly lucky, they had wolverines (numerous), brown bears (including cubs) and even 2 wolves visit the wolverine hide whilst they were there. They managed to get great wolverine pictures and a couple of bear pictures (the bears stayed a little further off – probably not surprising as the female bear had young cubs with her and she was being wary) and the wolves only passed through too quickly for pictures in the low light.
Whilst not mammals they also had nice views of photography opportunities for great grey owls, ural owls and Eurasian pygmy owl.
Below is a short summary table of the mammals seen across these two trips, it is also worth noting that spring was very late this year and in the couple of weeks in between the two trips the weather fluctuated hugely, one week it being –10C at night with lots of snow on the ground and most of the lakes & ponds being frozen. The area was still waiting for more migrating birds and many places where not even accessible because snowy or icy road conditions and then the next week it all changed dramatically, we had +17C for a few days, most migratory birds arrived, some even continued further north. Consequently, there was a lot of scouting to do (for our guide) since situation was changing, that continued in the evenings and nights when the guests were in the hides.
All of the pictures below are from Charles Hood, Peter Ibbotson and Manda Simmons with their permissions.
Species List Just Wolverines Photography Tour May & Jun 2022
Mammals
| Common Name | Binominal Name | |
| 1 | Root vole | Alexandromys oeconomus |
| 2 | Eurasian wolf | Canis lupus |
| 3 | Western roe deer | Capreolus capreolus |
| 4 | Canadian beaver | Castor canadensis |
| 5 | Wolverine | Glutton glutton |
| 6 | Mountain hare | Lepus timidus |
| 7 | Eurasian red squirrel | Sciurus vulgaris |
| 8 | Brown bear | Ursus arctos |
| 9 | Red fox | Vulpes vulpes |
Birds (* = heard or signs only)
| Common Name | Binominal Name | |
| 1 | Northern goshawk | Accipiter gentilis |
| 2 | Eurasian sparrowhawk | Accipiter nisus |
| 3 | Common sandpiper | Actitis hypoleucos |
| 4 | Eurasian teal | Anas crecca |
| 5 | Eurasian wigeon | Anas penelope |
| 6 | Mallard | Anas platyrhynchos |
| 7 | Tiaga bean goose | Anser fabalis |
| 8 | Red-throated pipit | Anthus cervinus |
| 9 | Meadow pipit | Anthus pratensis |
| 10 | Golden eagle | Aquila chrysaetos |
| 11 | Short-eared owl | Asio flammeus |
| 12 | Tufted duck | Aythya fuligula |
| 13 | Bohemian waxwing | Bombycilla garrulus |
| 14 | Barnacle goose | Branta leucopsis |
| 15 | Common goldeneye | Bucephala clangula |
| 16 | European greenfinch | Carduelis chloris |
| 17 | Common redpoll | Carduelis flammea |
| 18 | Eurasian siskin | Carduelis spinus |
| 19 | Black-headed gull | Chroicocephalus ridibundus |
| 20 | Hen harrier | Circus cyaneus |
| 21 | Common raven | Corvus corax |
| 22 | Hooded crow | Corvus cornix |
| 23 | Eurasian cuckoo | Cuculus canorus |
| 24 | Blue tit | Cyanistes caeruleus |
| 25 | Whooper swan | Cygnus cygnus |
| 26 | Greater spotted woodpecker | Dendrocopos major |
| 27 | European robin | Erithacus rubecula |
| 28 | Common kestrel | Falco tinnunculus |
| 29 | European pied flycatcher | Ficedula hypoleuca |
| 30 | Chaffinch | Fringilla coelebs |
| 31 | Brambling | Fringilla montifingilla |
| 32 | Eurasian jay | Garrulus glandarius |
| 33 | Black-throated diver | Gavia arctica |
| 34 | Eurasian pygmy owl | Glaucidium passerinum |
| 35 | Common crane | Grus grus |
| 36 | European herring gull | Larus argentatus |
| 37 | Common gull | Larus canus |
| 38 | Lesser black-backed gull | Larus fuscus |
| 39 | Smew | Mergellus albellus |
| 40 | Common goosander | Mergus merganser |
| 41 | Pied wagtail | Motacilla alba |
| 42 | Eurasian curlew | Numenius arquata |
| 43 | Osprey | Pandion haliaetus |
| 44 | Great tit | Parus major |
| 45 | Common magpie | Pica pica |
| 46 | Willow tit | Poecile montanus |
| 47 | Eurasian bullfinch | Pyrrhula pyrrhula |
| 48 | Great grey owl | Strix nebulosa |
| 49 | Ural owl | Strix uralensis |
| 50 | Northern hawk owl | Surnia ulula |
| 51 | Black grouse | Tetrao tetrix |
| 52 | Western capercaille | Tetrao urogallus |
| 53 | Hazel grouse | Tetrastes bonasia |
| 54 | Spotted redshank | Tringa erythropus |
| 55 | Common greenshank | Tringa nebularia |
| 56 | Common redshank | Tringa totanus |
| 57 | Song thrush | Turdus philomelos |
| 58 | Fieldfare | Turdus pilaris |
| 59 | Mistle thrush | Turdus viscivorus |
| 60 | Northern lapwing | Vanellus vanellus |
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