Golden Eagle Hide

Golden Eagle Hide

By Svein Wik | 20. April 2017 |

A story about the Golden Eagle hide.

Back in 1998 I started photographing Golden Eagles at this place in the mountains near my home town Stjørdal, 460 meter above the sea level, not far from the Trondheim Værnes Airport in central parts of Norway. I started out with a small and primitive Golden Eagle hide, some mornings was freezing cold in the uninsulated HIDE. Lately we have built bigger and more comfortable Golden Eagle Hide.

The task was not so easy when using fuji velvia and provia. We was glad that the eagles showed up and that we could photograph them. I slowly started to learn about these big raptors that you rarely see when wandering around in the Norway nature. They are shy after being haunted for centuries by humans. I learned that they are beautiful creatures, living in pairs as adult individuals in life long relationships. I also learned that they tolerate a lot of different photography when they are used to the place.

golden eagle hide

It started in 1998. Fuji Velvia 50 iso gave limited possibilities.

Close to the eagles for the first time in 1998. This was not common back the.

During some years I started to know these to individuals living in the area. I understood that they were territorial and that they chased away all other eagles and raptors. After a short break there I started again 2008-2009. The digital era had started and I could do more out of the situations. New hides and better comfortability made it easier to spend long days there. The Golden Eagle hide is built near a old hunters cabin and this was a good place to stay during nights and in the morning it was only 200 meter walking distance to get into the hides.

Five years ago we started to rent out the hides and the Red cabin. The Red cabin went from a hunters cabin where hunters used to stay, back in the beginning of 1900 all raptors was shot here in Norway, to a eagle photography accommodation cabin. We have gad customers from most parts of Europe. Japan and even South Africa have had representants from their country in this cabin.

golden eagle hide

I discovered very early that Red Foxes killed in the traffic was a good bate for the eagles.

golden eagle hide

Golden Eagle - in ancient times holy creatures to humans.

golden eagle hide

Golden Eagle juvenile coming for the bate.

I will tell more about how we do things when using the Golden Eagle hide in a post here within a few weeks. What kind of equipment and how we use it will be secrets we will reveal for you. Everything is about spending time with the eagles. They tolerate a lot of different types of photography, from use of huge tele lenses to wide angel remote controlled cameras.

-Svein

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