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).
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…
We were there for the geese but there were other birds around.
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.
It wasn’t only geese in Mukawa…………….
Japanese Cranes have recently appeared in the area too and have been breeding for a while.
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…………….
In the same fields as the geese were several Japanese Crane.
This must have been near the western limit of their range in Hokkaido.
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…………………
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.
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…………….
