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