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If you don’t like eagles look away now.  This post is very edited highlights of our boat trip from Rausu to see the Steller’s and White-tailed Eagles being fed.

Large-billed Crows are always after a scrap, but are also very deferential

White-tailed Eagle

Smaller, faster and smarter, the White-tailed Eagles win most races for a fish.

Steller’s Sea Eagle

The Steller’s Sea Eagle may be slower, but it’sfar more powerful in an arm wrestle.

Victory!

Sliding tackle

One of the few benefits of the lockdown is that I have more time to spend on my photos.  I need it: there’s not that many species on Hokkaido, but they are superb, so I shot more than half my of photos in the few days we spent there.  Here’s a sample from the first few days, starting in Tsurui for the cranes, moving on to Nemuro for some seabirds and then to our night in Rausu.

We start before sunrise with the temperature at -14°C for some atmospheric shots of Red-crowned Crane

Eurasian Bullfinch – the asian subspecies have grey breasts

Ural Owl

There are plenty of volcanoes on Hokkaido

Red-crowned Crane

Red-crowned Crane

Cape Kiritappu

A Steller’s Sea Eagle and Sea Otter

Another day, another banquet

Karen gets crabby

Cape Nosappu

Black Scoter

Glauous-winged Gull

Black Scoter

Yorkshire birders don’t let a bit of snow stop them.

Ancient Murrelet

Sika Deer

Slaty-backed Gull

Harlequin Duck

Long-tailed Duck

Who can think of Hokkaido without thinking of an acorn riding a cow with a salmon under its arm?

Glaucous Gull

Notsuke is a sand spit, a bit like Spurn Point. On the seaward side the sea ice blows in from the Sea of Okhotsk.

On the sheltered side, the sea just freezes in place.

I’ve never seen Snow Buntings perching on grass before.

Our minshuku at Rausu. There are at least 30 Steller’s Sea Eagles roosting in the valley.

By midnight on our Owl vigil, the only thing we had seen was a Sika Deer.

At 0410 in the morning the Blakiston’s Fish Owl arrived.

Brown Dipper

Down south this time, where spring is springing, with two nights at the cranes in Arasaki and two nights near Miike.

Mudskippers and crabs

Daurian Redstart

Hooded Cranes at dawn

The rising sun

Hooded Crane

A White-naped Crane squares up to a Common Crane in the crowd of Hooded Cranes

There are about 15000 Hooded Cranes in the area

Hooded Crane

The sole Demoiselle Crane is smaller and daintier than the others, and easily bullied

Eastern Buzzard

Black-faced Spoonbill

Eurasian Spoonbill

Japanese (or Warbling) White-eye

Good grub

Indian Red Admiral

Indian Red Admiral

Common Grass Yellow

One of these leaves is a Dark Evening Brown butterfly

Meadow Bunting

Asian Comma

Miike crater lake

Our accommodation near Miike

Another day, another banquet

Beware of the giant rabbit

Beware of the Raccoon Dog

Great and Japanese Cormorants

Japanese Murrelet

What a dump: we even had to cook our own breakfast

Our only moth of the trip

As we headed to Kagoshima airport, the local volcano, Sakurajima, is erupting

Here’s the first batch of pictures from Japan, covering the first section of the trip on Honshu, starting in Tokyo, spending three nights in Karuizawa and a couple of nights in Kaga.

Falcated Duck in the moat of the imperial palace

Mt Fuji sunset from our bedroom window

Bohemian Waxwing, much more cooperative than the Japanese Waxwings

Mt Asama

Daurian Redstart

White-backed Woodpecker

Japanese Serow

Not a Dunnock: Japanese Accentor

Japanese Squirrel

Japanese Wagtail

Beware of the flying Squirrels

Varied Tit

Rustic Bunting

Smew

Dusky Thrush

Grey-capped Greenfinch

Japanese Grosbeak

Japanese Serow

Willow Tit

Pallas’s Rosefinch

Varied Tit

The Willow Tits are friendly

Pallas’s Rosefinch

Pallas’s Rosefinch

Pallas’s Rosefinch

Pallas’s Rosefinch

Shiotsubo Onsen Hotel

Turning up for dinner in our dressing gowns

Naumann’s Trush

Green Pheasant

The Snow Monkey Park near Nakano. For the first time in 90 years there is hardly any snow.

There is a bit of snow, though.

Japanese Macaque

Good handwashing technique

Between Karuizawa and Kaga there were over 50 road tunnels

Our biggest flock of Japanese Waxwings, there’s over 50 here.

Japanese Waxwing

Katano Kamoike bird sanctuary. There are Tundra and Taiga Bean Goose and Bewick’s Swans on the lake

Time for a wild goose chase: there are a couple of Lesser White-fronted Geese in with the Greater White-fronted Geese

Lesser and Greater White-fronted Goose

Eurasian Wigeon

Falcated Duck

Seawatching’s hard looking into the face of a gale on Katanomachi beach

Kasano Misaki Point

Japanese Cormorant

Black-tailed Gull

Grey-headed Lapwing

Foxes on Hokkaido are great.  Not only do they look fantastic in their fluffy winter coats, but they’re also very friendly, actively seeking out humans in case there’s a sandwich or fish going spare.  This one had gone for a more traditional route, though, having caught a shrew and taken it off to eat in peace.  Things didn’t quite go to plan though…

Lunch.

Where’s it going?

There you are!

I’ll get you.

Pounce for the cameras.

D’Oh!

Gotcha!

It’s under your nose.

After much more pouncing and digging, the fox gave up and looked sad at us until it was thrown some food.

Our trip to Japan is over, we’re now at the boarding gate.

Yesterday’s pelagic trip to see some albatrosses was amazing, with over 100 seen.  A great trip to a great country: we had a whale of a time!

“It’s been coming between half past five and half past six the last few days.”  Excellent – a great bird and an early night.   By nine o’clock the advice was “probably between three and five tomorrow morning, but it could come in the next five minutes.”  Time to take three-hour shifts so we got at least some sleep.  Both awake for three, still nothing doing, and four went past too.

Finally after just short of eleven hours watching it came in.  Blakiston’s Fish Owl: what a bird!

An hour of standing by an open window and no Blakiston’s Fish Owl yet.

A slightly more challenging day today, with a boat trip cancelled and the weather deteriorating meaning that the afternoon was done in snow, making photography a challenge. Still, we had some cracking birds and an encounter with a very friendly fox. The forecast is better for tomorrow!

After a day dominated by travel, today was a day dominated by sheer quality. It started off before dawn with the temperature around -14C with a trip to see some Red-crowned Cranes in a very atmospheric setting. After breakfast a visit to a Ural Owl site gave fantastic views and then on to much closer views of cranes in the snow. Add in a supporting cast of White-tailed and Steller’s Sea Eagles, Sea Otters and auks, it doesn’t get much better. My laptop is struggling under the weight of the 1800 photos I took today, so here are a few I can upload onto the phone from Karen’s camera.