There were already some eagles at Yakumo yesterday: about 10-15 of both species. None close enough for a decent photo as is always the case in early November.
Worryingly there are very few salmon in the river. We barely saw any. I’d head there was a mass die off in east Hokkaido last month due to ‘red tide’ plankton blocking oxygen in seawater. I don’t know if this reached down here but maybe combined with warming sea temperatures it could have a devastating impact on the eagles’ primary winter food source.
If that is the case they may not be around long this winter.
Hope there’s at least a few fish for the SSEs – I’d miss seeing them on winter Hakodate Birding blog posts !
They’ll probably stick around for a while yet but they will disperse very early this winter I think.