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.

Exploring the coast of Rausu

After and eventful morning on the frozen sea and traditional Japanese breakfast. We explore the coastal area around Rausu to try and spot some ducks.

The very first bird that I saw is this Japanese wagtail running on the ice surface.

Spotted a flock of very shy Harlequin Duck. They are consider one of the most beautiful duck.

Among the Harlequin Ducks, saw some Goldeneye  too.

Nearer to the shore, spotted some Lesser Scaup.

Is my first time seeing Red-breasted Merganser. Male on top follow by female.

Also at the same area, spotted this Goosander, also known as Common Merganser.

Another first for me is this Black Scoter. Not a bad morning so far before we make our way to another part of the Hokkaido later...

Search for the rarest owl of Japan

Another must do activity when in Rausu is to try your luck to meet the rarest owl of Japan - Blakiston's Fish Owl.

We have an early dinner so that we have enough time to set-up our gears before dark. There is no guarantee that we will get to see the owl. We can only wait at the place the owl will likely hunt for their favorite fish. Some times the owl will only appear again after 3 or 4 nights. We were told that the owl did appear at her favorite spot, we are just hoping for the best.

It was our lucky day, after about one and a half hour of waiting, the owl suddenly appear on the river bank very near to the water edge. Since fish can't hear what is above water, the hour get really near the edge and patiently wait for fish to swim nearer.

When one unlucky fish swim to the pool, the owl strike.

The hunt is successful.

By now my finger is already numb under the sub-zero temperature. Time to go back to our warm bed.

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!