Almost-Winter Photography in Lerum

16 October 2026 — Jacob Garby
#photography

I’ve been wondering why I find it difficult to find a sufficient quantity of birds to take photos of, when I try. Sometimes I find loads, but not “on-demand”. So, I was looking into it, and it turns out that I should be going out at dawn to catch them when they’re waking up and feeding. It seems like maybe this is something I should’ve already known.

Pigeons forming an 'S'-shape, early in the morning

In addition to this, I found an amazing website – artportalen.se – which has reports from all over Sweden when people see birds. Not only birds, in fact, also mushrooms? And some mammals. So I was looking around my area, and it seemed like Lerum would be a nice place to go for some photography. I found a decent looking woodland area on Google maps’ satellite view, which I thought would have lots of open areas too (therefore easier to see birds, and more light).

I then, this morning, woke up at 5, and took the train (which was actually a bus) to Lerum! In the end I didn’t photograph too many birds, but got some really atmospheric autumnal landscape shots instead. And I saw lots of birds! The most interesting of those that I saw or heard were a buzzard, several ravens, and I even definitely heard a heron, but didn’t see it! There were also, as always everywhere, quite a few pigeons flying overhead (pictured left).

Early Morning

Anyway, for the photos, first some woody and foggy ones:

The fog dispersing light through the trees

Fog and Clouds

I arrived at the forest just before 7am, at which point the sun hadn’t even begun to rise. I kept wondering whether bears exist this far down in Sweden…

The fog was really low down, and little particles of water kept getting on my lens!

Last night the forecast predicted clear skies, which… Well, when I arrived in Lerum I could see stars, but strangely the fog seemed to lift from the ground until it filled the sky. After a little while, a bit of blue did appear. Only for a moment, though.

This is basically the only time the sky was at all clear.

The mist in the distance was so thick, it almost looked like a fire.

Lerum

In addition to the forest being nice, Lerum in general seemed pleasant, though I didn’t spend much time aside from walking between the woods and the station.

Stereotypically Swedish-looking red hut by a big lake.

I’ll definitely go back at some point. The fog ended up giving the photos some nice atmosphere, but next time I’m hoping for a clear and bright morning.