Until just under 2 years ago I had never seen Cackling Goose or Snow Goose in Japan.
Now I just can’t stop seeing them all over the place…………
2021 Late Winter Trip #14
Tag: Snow Goose
2021 Late Winter Trip #10
There were also about 40 Snow Geese in the goose flocks…………..
But as I said before it was 99% Whitefronts………..
Quiet November continues
There was a flock of 9 Snow Goose at Onuma last weekend. There was even a snowy background…………
Otherwise a quiet weekend: Japanese Waxwing and Rook at Onuma and the usual early winter at Yakumo.
Sunset geese
I didn’t get many Snow Goose photos on the ground: I managed a few so-so ones just as the sun was going down.
Autumnal Snow Geese
Shame I didn’t get to see them in some actual snow though……………
Blue skies at last
The weather on the second afternoon was much better and there were even some blue skies.
More Snowies and Cacklers
Snow Geese and Cackling Geese are both pretty scarce down here Hakodate do it was nice to see them together.
Snow Geese are a particularly striking species.
A blizzard of geese
Some more Snow Geese from the second day……………
Geese in the rain #3
Even if the weather was lousy and poor for photography it was still great watching the Snow Geese which were very active……………..
There were several hundred of them: this species breeds on Wrangel Island and that is where most (or all) these birds originate from. The Obihiro area in Hokkaido is a well-known staging post for them. Some will fly south to Honshu and some to Korea for the winter……………
Geese in the rain #2
Snow Goose were the main target but there 3 other species including (Taiga) Bean Goose.
White birds are nice when it’s dark though……………
Geese in the rain #1
We were in Tokachi last week looking for geese. I wanted to photograph Snow Geese. They were easy enough to find but the weather on the first day we arrived was awful: driving torrential rain, high winds and very dark. Terrible conditions for photograhy especially with my old APS-C sensor. Most of these BIF shots were taken from the car window.
A surprise on the beach
I checked one of the local beaches this afternoon to see if there were any interesting gulls, or perhaps a tern. Nothing doing there but I was very surprised to find this adult Snow Goose among the Slaty-backed and Black-tailed Gulls.
A scarce and local passage visitor to Hokkaido (usually in the east): I saw a small flock in Onuma last year and this was only the second time I’d seen this species in Japan.