Japanese Crane – Hakodate Birding

Tokachi Trip 2024

October 29, 2024October 30, 2024 by Stuart Price, posted in Geese, Raptors, Tokachi

Some photos from last week…

I’m winding down this blog; it’ll close in mid December and disappear forever from this address…I got a bit tired of doing it to be honest and not many people visited so it seemed daft to continue paying for a web hosting service. I’ve decided to concentrate on the challenge of trying to grow my YouTube channel from the winter.

I did manage to migrate all previous posts and comments from this blog to a free wordpress.com site; you can access it here.

I’ll still update that site (probably with embedded photos from my flickr site) and you can still add comments (all 2 or 3 of you!) but it’s a more basic version of this one.

Thanks to all who took the time to visit over the last 5 or 6 years.

Tokachi Autumn 2022 #12

November 3, 2022 by Stuart Price, posted in Mammals, Raptors, Tokachi

A rare melanistic Red Fox from last week…

Apart from geese there were lots of Japanese Crane and flocks of Buff-bellied Pipit in the fields.

Raptors included distant Merlin and Hen Harrier as well as several White-tailed Eagles (the latter are probably resident in the area).

Tokachi Autumn 2022 #3

October 31, 2022October 31, 2022 by Stuart Price, posted in Tokachi, Wildfowl

We were focusing on the geese but the same area is also home to a large number of cranes…

And in addition to the geese there were lots of Whooper Swans…

A late autumn trip #3

November 2, 2021October 31, 2022 by Stuart Price, posted in Tokachi, Wildfowl

We were there for the geese but there were other birds around.

Very quiet out east

September 26, 2021October 31, 2022 by Stuart Price, posted in Geese, Tokachi, Wildfowl

We went to east Hokkaido last week but the birding was very very quiet. In Urahoro the first geese had arrived: small groups of (Taiga?) Bean and Cackling Geese mainly…………..with a few Pacific Golden Plover, a lone Ruff and several Japanese Crane keeping them company.

We were a tad early I guess. Lake Furen/Nemuro/Kiritappu were as pleasant as always but there really weren’t many birds around. Summer stuff gone, winter stuff barely arrived yet. Most interesting thing was a family of Sea Otters but they were too far away in the gloom for any decent photos.

2021 Late Winter Trip #8

March 12, 2021March 12, 2021 by Stuart Price, posted in Mukawa, Wildfowl

It wasn’t only geese in Mukawa…………….

Japanese Cranes have recently appeared in the area too and have been breeding for a while.

Too big

October 28, 2020October 31, 2022 by Stuart Price, posted in Tokachi

Whilst chasing the geese around the fields we saw lots of Japanese Cranes.

The 500 f4 is not really a good choice for this species…………….

East Hokkaido September Trip #20

October 5, 2020October 31, 2022 by Stuart Price, posted in Tokachi

In the same fields as the geese were several Japanese Crane.

This must have been near the western limit of their range in Hokkaido.

East Hokkaido September Trip #14

October 2, 2020October 31, 2022 by Stuart Price, posted in Geese, Tokachi, Wildfowl

On our way back from east Hokkaido we went through Urahoro and turned off the main road onto a quiet road for a ‘short cut’…………….

We noticed some Japanese Cranes in a field so we stopped to take a look.

Then we noticed lots of geese at the back of the field with more arriving all the time. Just White-fronts and Beans I thought. But no…………………

East Hokkaido September Trip #2

September 30, 2020November 7, 2022 by Stuart Price, posted in East Hokkaido, Shiretoko

Shiretoko was not very birdy this trip: we saw a few common species such as Brown Dipper, Grey Wagtail, Black and Grey-headed Woodpecker, Japanese Green Pigeon, Eurasian Jay, White-tailed Eagle and Long-tailed Rosefinch.

On the way east we passed numerous Japanese Cranes feeding in the farmland. Harsh light is never good for white birds and these were feeding on a huge pile of manure to boot.