A Hazel Grouse in Shiretoko last week. This is a species that is fairly common in Hokkaido but one that had eluded me in all my time here. We were lucky as 2 walked across the road in front of our car…………
Hazel Grouse
Category: East Hokkaido
East Hokkaido 2019 #10
We headed up to Shiretoko to try for Pine Grosbeaks at the top of the pass there. The weather was pretty nasty on the way…….here are 2 oft seen roadside birds on the way up there……….
And on the way north we came across some White-throated Needletails………..
East Hokkaido 2019 #9
Kiritappu is well-known for summer fog but the first 2 days we were there the weather wasn’t too bad…………….and on the second afternoon the sun even came out.
East Hokkaido 2019 #8
Not all the birds make it……………..
East Hokkaido 2019 #7
Japanese Cranes are easy to see in east Hokkaido and we saw several pairs/families. These were from Lake Furen…………
The juvenile will get better looking with age…………….
East Hokkaido 2019 #6
Not a great photo but this was my second lifer on the Ochiishi boat trip: an immature (?) Red-faced Cormorant. This is a north Pacific species and east Hokkaido must be its’ southermost limit……….
East Hokkaido 2019 #5
I did the boat trip from Ochisihi last week. It was a grey cold windy day: not ideal for photographs. My target species was Tufted Puffin, a would-be lifer. One adult did fly over briefly but no photo alas………….
There were plenty of Spectacled Guillemots that did pose for the camera at least.
Other species seen included Rhinoceros Auket and White-tailed Eagle………….
East Hokkaido 2019 #4
Some more Siberian Rubythroats from Kiritappu…….
East Hokkaido 2019 #3
Some other commn birds from Kiritappu. Common Reed Buntings were singing all over the place and up above Pacific Swifts were hawking……….
Offshore were Specatcled Guiilemot and Rhinoceros Auklet, several White-tailed Eagles were in the area and the usual common Hokkaido summer birds like Siberian Stonechat were present.
Latham’s Snipe were displaying above our campsite and at night you could hear the strange calls of Laech’s Petrels coming ashore……………
East Hokkaido 2019 #2
Another common bird on the capes and grasslands in east Hokkaido is Middendorff’s Warbler. They usually skulk in the grass and occasionally energe for a short soong flight. This one at Kiritappu obviously didn’t get the memo…….
East Hokkaido 2019 #1
Last week was spent in the east of Hokkaido. The first stop was at Cape Kiritappu. On cue when we arrived was the first of many Siberian Rubythroats……….
We don’t see this species much near Hakodate (a few pass through in spring/autumn) but once you head northeast they seem to be on every cape and headland.