
There were lots of swans with the geese…

The weather was nasty on the second and thirds days: rain and fog.

I only saw 1 Bean Goose (Taiga I think) amongst the main flocks in Mukawa. There was a flock of them a few miles east but they were impossible to get close enough to photograph.
There were also quite a few swans. Not photogenic in the harsh spring sunshine. Mainly Whoopers but I found at least 1 Bewick’s.
The nearest I could get to a comparison shot:
On Monday morning we went back to Onuma to check the huge geese/swan flocks.
But it was foggy……………
Some of them were resting on the lake.
Also around were lots of ducks including large numbers of Pintail, 2 Steller’s Sea Eagle, 1 White-tailed Eagle, several Great Egret and a pair of Japanese Wagtail.
There were huge numbers of Bewick’s Swans near Onuma, in addition to the huger numbers of White-fronted Geese.
This is only a passage visitor to Hokkaido. Whooper Swans are common here in winter (and there were plenty of those around too ) but Bewick7s are always worth a second look in Hokkaido.
Oops. I thought I’d found a real rarity today at Onuma. This black-billed Swan was one of many Swans at Onuma today. I thought, wow……………….it’s a Trumpeter Swan. I even told some people there about it. And then I came home and double-checked the ID.
Oh no. It’s the North American race of Bewick’s Swan, sometimes called Whistling Swan. Cygnus columbianus columbianus. In my defence, I have no experience of this subspecies.
So if you are one of those Japanese birders I talked to today about the ナキハクチョウ all I can say is sorry I made a mistake. It is a アメリカコハクチョウ. Still interesting but not as interesting as I’d thought.
Oh the shame.
ナキハクチョウ じゃないです!!!
アメリカコハクチョウです