Boat trip and try for an owl.0
A nice leisurely start with time to use the Onsen before getting down to the harbour by 8.00. The Evergreen was going out at 9.00 and despite showing no availability on the Shiretoko Web site were taking turn up passengers as was our which I think was Gorijaiwa Sightseeing on the search and trip advisor.
Things started promisingly there was nice young lady who spoke English who took our fee and issued our ticket, fee was ¥7000 each with no surcharge for DSLR users on this trip, some charge extra ¥2000. The boat would tie up when the Evergreen moved on. In the harbour were some close up Harlequin Ducks but in poor light and snow the shots were not great. There was also Slaty-backed and Glaucous Gulls, with Tufted Duck and Scaup.
Sarah need not have worried about sea sickness for this trip as for our 2 plus hours we were within 10 minutes of the harbour or in the harbour itself, still goal was close up views of Eagles and we certainly got that. First when we left the harbour they through a crate of fish to the birds, it didn't take long before we had our first interested Steller's Sea Eagle then about 10 more joined with around 20 White-tailed, including those waiting on the wall I counted 73 Eagles after attracting some more birds and by this time the Evergreen was also feeding about 400m away after the photographers among us had there fill we headed towards far harbour wall where with a bit of training the Eagles had learned that they should now gather for second helpings. We were all encouraged to get on the upper deck of the boat, we wondered why we should leave the shelter of the cover but in the falling snow we found our selves at eye level with nearly a hundred eagles. The crew through fish onto the wall and into the sea nearby and we had great scenes of Eagles fighting over fish our territory and with the wall covered with over a foot of snow and ice it actually looked like they were on ice if you ignored the 20 foot wall beneath them. Anyway in summary a very good experience and would advocate it as a good alternative to trying to get many miles out to the sea ice which is still a bit away.
After warming up with a coffee we decided to head up into Shiretoko as far as we could go, it wasn't further than our hotel or the information / visitor centre where a little stream crossed (more on that later). So looking at a map we decided with the bad weather we should head south checking the various harbours including Shibetsu* which was good yesterday and the head out onto spit which looked ideal in the prevailing wind. Nothing much in the harbours just some Common Scoter, Gooseander and Golden-eye before peninsula which ends up in Todawara. We found this pretty good with lots of Long-tailed Duck, rafts of Harlequin Ducks, a couple of White-winged Scoter a pair of Spectacled Guillemot (lifer), while on the iced up side lots of Steller's Eagles. There were also quite a few Dusky Thrush, a finch that got a way unidentified by us and then a number of Glaucous and Glaucous-winged Gulls of various ages to compare including some almost pure white birds. We decided this place definitely warranted a second look on the way down to Furen.
We then headed back to Rausu and beyond, only an Eastern Buzzard to add. It was 16.00 when we got to Wada No Yada and we had to decide whether to be greedy and try again for the Fish Owl, they could fit us in tonight but Binoculars only, there was no room for additional tripod and big cameras as there were a couple of big parties in. That sort of made my mind up for me I would go out and try to find my own Blakiston's Fishing Owl, after dinner at spot on the Shiretoko road near the closed visitors centre.
A guy we met a couple of times and who saw the Owls at Yoroushi with us said that the Owl didn't turn up until 23.22 and by that time the groups had all left.
It would have been great to say I got the bird but not quite. I set off at 20.00 with Sarah choosing not to come out in the snow after a tumble earlier, instead she soaked in the Spa.
I wasn't sure if the bird responded to calls but set up the speaker at the bridge and tried a few calls, at the third time of asking I got a response so with camera on tripod and spotlight scanning the likely trees I tried again the bird sounded pretty close but with no set-up feeding area and only one pair of eyes I had no idea where it might show,whether up stream or down stream, lots of scanning was just producing snow covered branches, my vision of some super photos unique to me was now looking a bit suspect but I thought let's give it another blast, the owl called back but distantly and didn't respond again. As i walked back in the snow I didn't regret not sitting up waiting for the owl at the usual site especially as I already had good shots of the two owls at Yoroushi
A nice leisurely start with time to use the Onsen before getting down to the harbour by 8.00. The Evergreen was going out at 9.00 and despite showing no availability on the Shiretoko Web site were taking turn up passengers as was our which I think was Gorijaiwa Sightseeing on the search and trip advisor.
Things started promisingly there was nice young lady who spoke English who took our fee and issued our ticket, fee was ¥7000 each with no surcharge for DSLR users on this trip, some charge extra ¥2000. The boat would tie up when the Evergreen moved on. In the harbour were some close up Harlequin Ducks but in poor light and snow the shots were not great. There was also Slaty-backed and Glaucous Gulls, with Tufted Duck and Scaup.
Sarah need not have worried about sea sickness for this trip as for our 2 plus hours we were within 10 minutes of the harbour or in the harbour itself, still goal was close up views of Eagles and we certainly got that. First when we left the harbour they through a crate of fish to the birds, it didn't take long before we had our first interested Steller's Sea Eagle then about 10 more joined with around 20 White-tailed, including those waiting on the wall I counted 73 Eagles after attracting some more birds and by this time the Evergreen was also feeding about 400m away after the photographers among us had there fill we headed towards far harbour wall where with a bit of training the Eagles had learned that they should now gather for second helpings. We were all encouraged to get on the upper deck of the boat, we wondered why we should leave the shelter of the cover but in the falling snow we found our selves at eye level with nearly a hundred eagles. The crew through fish onto the wall and into the sea nearby and we had great scenes of Eagles fighting over fish our territory and with the wall covered with over a foot of snow and ice it actually looked like they were on ice if you ignored the 20 foot wall beneath them. Anyway in summary a very good experience and would advocate it as a good alternative to trying to get many miles out to the sea ice which is still a bit away.
After warming up with a coffee we decided to head up into Shiretoko as far as we could go, it wasn't further than our hotel or the information / visitor centre where a little stream crossed (more on that later). So looking at a map we decided with the bad weather we should head south checking the various harbours including Shibetsu* which was good yesterday and the head out onto spit which looked ideal in the prevailing wind. Nothing much in the harbours just some Common Scoter, Gooseander and Golden-eye before peninsula which ends up in Todawara. We found this pretty good with lots of Long-tailed Duck, rafts of Harlequin Ducks, a couple of White-winged Scoter a pair of Spectacled Guillemot (lifer), while on the iced up side lots of Steller's Eagles. There were also quite a few Dusky Thrush, a finch that got a way unidentified by us and then a number of Glaucous and Glaucous-winged Gulls of various ages to compare including some almost pure white birds. We decided this place definitely warranted a second look on the way down to Furen.
We then headed back to Rausu and beyond, only an Eastern Buzzard to add. It was 16.00 when we got to Wada No Yada and we had to decide whether to be greedy and try again for the Fish Owl, they could fit us in tonight but Binoculars only, there was no room for additional tripod and big cameras as there were a couple of big parties in. That sort of made my mind up for me I would go out and try to find my own Blakiston's Fishing Owl, after dinner at spot on the Shiretoko road near the closed visitors centre.
A guy we met a couple of times and who saw the Owls at Yoroushi with us said that the Owl didn't turn up until 23.22 and by that time the groups had all left.
It would have been great to say I got the bird but not quite. I set off at 20.00 with Sarah choosing not to come out in the snow after a tumble earlier, instead she soaked in the Spa.
I wasn't sure if the bird responded to calls but set up the speaker at the bridge and tried a few calls, at the third time of asking I got a response so with camera on tripod and spotlight scanning the likely trees I tried again the bird sounded pretty close but with no set-up feeding area and only one pair of eyes I had no idea where it might show,whether up stream or down stream, lots of scanning was just producing snow covered branches, my vision of some super photos unique to me was now looking a bit suspect but I thought let's give it another blast, the owl called back but distantly and didn't respond again. As i walked back in the snow I didn't regret not sitting up waiting for the owl at the usual site especially as I already had good shots of the two owls at Yoroushi