Back off to Alaska for my last shoot of the year. I’m initially going to one of my favourite locations; the Chilkat River, where, rather bizarrely, I’ve been for the the last three winters.
It’s a stunning location – there will be between 1,000 and 2,000 bald eagles there right now, all gathered along a mile long stretch of the river making the most of the last of the last salmon run before freeze-up.
Then on to Anchorage to film a pretty wide range of material; eagles / ravens / wolves / wolverines / coyotes / lynx scavenging on moose carcass, arctic ground squirrels in hibernation (their body temperature drops to around -3C which is truly freaky), and to go systematically repeat all the locked off shots and time lapses that I did in the fall to paint a picture of freeze up.
The moose carcass / scavengers sequence is going to take up most of my time – sitting in a hide at -20C all day, and probably all night too – is going to be somewhat fun. I do really like this kind of work; you never know what animals are going to turn up and you don’t have to talk to anyone – perfect.
We’re taking out a state of the art thermal camera for night-time filming which I’m really excited about assuming my fingers are still working.
I’ve spent many hours, and a huge amount of effort, over the last 10 years trying to film the wolves that live around the fringes of Anchorage, with very limited success. It always feels like unfinished business when I take them on again. Their numbers aren’t what they used to be a few years ago, and of all the creatures lurking out in the woods there are few more challenging than wolves. This pack has been persecuted, is very shy and are supernaturally skilled at giving one the slip. Maybe this year.
The Chilkat River