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