Happiness Tree

Chance upon a fruiting tree while having my cycling trip. After checking with my friend, was told this is a Happiness Tree.

The fruit is in green colour when it is not ripe.

This fruit started to turn orange in colour.

From far this fruit really looks like oranges.

The shape looks like a persimmon too.

After searching online and I am still not sure why this tree is called Happiness Tree.

When cut opened the fruit, is really look like persimmon.

There is only one seed in this fruit. 

This tree also known as Fuguki tree (Garcinia subelliptica). There are a lot of heritage trees in Ryukyu Islands of  Japan planted some 300 years ago. This species has gained popularity as an ornamental tree for landscaping roadsides and gardens. It must also be an important food source for mammals and insects.

Winter Garden Bird of Hokkaido

Took me longer time than usual to record my this Hokkaido trip... was told that snow has started in Hokkaido last night. I better finish of my last post on Hokkaido.

I place all the common birds that I seen in the garden around Tomakomai in this post. I visited several garden over 3 days and these are the most common birds there in the garden.

I will start with the big bird! I was lucky enough to see this large Black Woodpecker in winter.

Slightly smaller than the Black woodpecker, I was equally thrilled by this Great Spotted Woodpecker.

The first time I seen this Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker was more than a decade ago when I first visited Japan. Is good to see a familiar one.

We don't get to see all the cute flying squirrel during winter except this Eurasian red squirrel.

Japanese Tit aka Eastern Great Tit that usually flew in flock together with Willow & Marsh Tit.

I prefer Varied Tit more may be due to the more colourful appearance.

Not difficult to spot an Eurasian Treecreeper.

Another bird that you will not missed is this Eurasian Nuthatch.

I seen this Eurasian Wren before during my trip to Netherlands. Same bird but now with snow as background.

Dusky Thrush foraging for food in the snow.

Another Grey Heron that has adapted to stay during winter here in Hokkaido.

Common Goldeneye can be seen swimming in the lake.

A pair of Greater Scaup swimming side by side.

The most common duck in the garden is Mallard.

Winter is coming again soon and have no idea when we are able to travel again. Hope to be able to travel again soon.

Goosing around in Hokkaido

From Rausu to our next destination Tomakomai is few hours drive. I'm always excited whenever travel to new location. Very high chance that whatever we see, it will be my first time seeing it.

We stop our car when we saw some goose flying at a distance in-front of us. It looks like a White fronted goose.

Among them, I saw some familiar yet seem different. I am sure there are more than one species of goose in this flock. We try to follow them by following their flight direction and stop about 10km away at an open field.

First spotted this Taiga Bean-Goose.

There is a mixture of greater & lesser White-fronted Goose!

That's not all... another new bird species for me. Is a Lesser Canada Goose! They are consider very rare in Hokkaido and we are lucky enough to see them. 

The snow start to fall down from the sky, what a beautiful scene! Another happy day at Hokkaido!

Red Fox of Hokkaido

 One of the item on the checklist for most nature visitors to Hokkaido must be the Red fox.  

After meeting my very first red fox in Notsuke Peninsula , I am more than happy to see them again in the coming days of my stay in Hokkaido.

Red fox of Hokkaido or Ezo red fox are slightly larger than Japanese red fox that can be found in other part of Japan. Beside larger in size, another difference is their outer part of the ear and the limbs are  black.

Of my one week in Hokkaido, I am lucky enough to see them in the garden.

I also spotted one at the sea side.

I saw them in the forest too.

Several occasions, I saw them in the open field when we were traveling on the highway. I never get enough to watch and photograph them in action. Do you?

Roadside Bird Watching in Hokkaido

After spending 2 days in Rausu, is time we move back to West of Hokkaido. Since it will be a few hours of driving to Tomakomai, our next destination. We made few stop along the way whenever we see some movement on the trees. 

Eurasian Nuthatch is one of the very common bird we encounter in Hokkaido.

Willow Tit that looks almost identical with Marsh Tit with only subtle difference.

One of my target in Hokkaido is this Long Tailed Tit.

The trip is not complete without this not so common Snow Bunting!

Another surprise is this Asian Rosy Finch! Is been great so far for our trip to Hokkaido so far. Good weather and good sightings almost everywhere we went. Hope for more excitement for the remaining destination in Hokkaido.

Take a dip during winter in Hokkaido

Before I left Rausu for my next part of my trip, I still have one more item in my  'wanted list' not checked. We stop by a half frozen river for landscape shots and to my surprise, spotted some brown bird jump into the river and disappear. After few seconds, it re-emerge from the water. Yes! Is one of the item on my list - a Brown Dipper!

The feather is totally water repellent. No sign of any water after emerged from the water.

These are series of photos how the brown dipper hunt for their food.

Completely submerged in the icy water.

Yes. Is a successful hunt. The brown dipper emerge with the food in the mouth.

Managed to also took a shot of the brown dipper having a relief and private moment😂. Not sure if it turn to ice as it was on the other side of the river.