Face to face with largest bird of prey in Rausu

We have an early rest after the trip to Notsuke Peninsula . We need to set-off very early the next day before sun-rise.

We leave our home-stay very early and arrived at the pier around 4.30am. It was already buzzing with  activities.

After about an hour, our boat slowing down for us to catch the sun rise. It was dark and at times it was very slow navigating through the cracked iced sea surface.

I actually watch sun rise in The Land of the Rising Sun!

When the lighting is good enough for fast action birds photograph, we pull our attention back from the horizon to the ice surface in front of us. 

This trip really test my sea birds id skill to the max. Sea gull is one of the most difficult to id as they are just too many variations. Be it age, sex or even sub-species, is just too much for me. So, I will just call them the most common sea gull that can be found here.

Since Slaty-backed Gull is the most common gull here, I will just call them that. 

Oh... first time having a real good look at this largest raptor. When food is scarce in the winter, only the fittest survive. Will we be seeing a lot of fighting among eagles?

Fighting is almost certain during winter. The White-tailed sea eagle trying to snatch the food from Steller's sea eagle on the right.

It did not take long to witness another fight. This time round is the Steller's sea eagle trying to steal the food from White-tailed sea eagle.

The fight is not limited to just on the surface. The fight happens in the mid air too.

It was an action packed 2 hours of intense camera shutter clicks!

When we are back on land after few hours in the sub-zero temperature, my bottled water had became ice.

Is time to head back to our home stay for our breakfast!