winter in hokkaido

We arrived in Hokkaido a few days ago and have still not seen any falling snow! This morning, however, it was -27°C which is around -17°F. It was really cold, and before dawn, we set out for the Otawa Bashi bridge hoping to see red crowned cranes in a misty river. Our efforts were rewarded and we did see a flock of cranes, we had lots of mist, and all the trees lining the river were covered in hoar frost – beautiful stuff!

temperatures below -20 fahrenheit caused ice to stick to the trees that lined the river

the breath from this calling crane shows up in the frigid atmosphere

During the previous day we spent time photographing the cranes at the International Crane Center at Akan, followed by a short session at the Ito Crane Sanctuary at Tsurui. In the evening Josh and I decided to set up our cameras on the bridge after dark and record the stars. The bright light bottom right is the light coming from the nearby town of Kushiro.

"feeding time" at the international crane center offers photographers opportunities to see and photograph white tailed sea eagles

a flying crane fills the frame of the 600mm lens

sunset at the flight deck of the crane center provides opportunities to photograph motion blurs

a pair of apple trees sits comfortably composed in this winter scene

After packing up and leaving our hotel we headed to the Lake Kussharo area to see whooper swans. On the way we had a brief session with this red fox.

a red fox looks over its shoulder as it heads back into the woods

After a quick visit to the crater lake, Mashuko, we headed to Kussharo to photograph swans at sunset.

a swan acts as a light "foil" for the setting sun, lake kussharo

lying on the shore of the lake, I waited for this swan to flap its wings

Tomorrow we anticipate equally frigid temperatures so we will see what the swans have in store for us. Sometime during the day on Saturday we will head up to Rausu on the Shiretoko Peninsula where we will stay at Washi no Yado, a small lodge which gets frequent visits from a pair of Blankiston’s fish owls.

Finally tonight I checked the sea ice chart and things are lining up quite nicely for our steller’s eagle session later in the week – lots of ice coming down from the Sea of Othosk.

sea ice feb 4, 2010