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Message: <blockquote data-quote="birdboybowley" data-source="post: 3405781" data-attributes="member: 60953">24th Feb – We awoke to lovely blue skies and a equally lovely breakfast. We nipped just up round the corner from the lodge for a quick look at the little wooded area of Furen-ko Nature Centre where we had a Great Spot, a Jap Pygmy-Wood and best of all, a gorgeous asiatica Nuthatch – a real stunner in ghostly grey and white. We then headed just back past the lodge to where the eagles are fed. You can't miss it – first building on the lakeside when coming from Kushiro direction, just look for the big domed roof! It costs ¥500pp and the food is taken out at 0900, so get there early as it does get very busy and the carpark is small! There is a cafe with big glass windows so you can come in and get warm and still see the action, but it is officially closed on a Wednesday (thankfully for Dawn they let us in but no food/drink was served <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />).Over the carpark the Black-eared Kites were already circling and several Steller's and White-tailed Eagles were perched up in the surrounding trees. Jap Crows were also very numerous, all awaiting feeding time! I lined up round the back of the cafe with about 70 other photographers overlooking the snow- & ice-covered lake as the sled full of fish was taken out. The crows were the first to react, followed by the kites and soon after the big boys turned up.The Steller's weren't that fussed to start with but as the fish dwindled, the scrapping started! The size difference between the two eagle species was amazing, especially when a female Steller's was next to a presumed male White-tail! In fact, when an imm fem Steller's stood next to an adult male it was impressive! Steller's fought Steller's, White-tails got out the way, Jap Crows dived in and flew away quickly with anything they could grab. The kites steered clear, having gotten their bits early on. The weather was gorgeous and clear but absolutely freezing. I had to go into the cafe to warm my frozen fingers – even though I had thermal liners and 2 pairs of gloves on!! Haven't felt that cold since I was a little kid....The eagles out on a good show for about an hour; in total there must've been c40adimm Steller's and c80adimm White-tails with over 80 kites and 100 crows easy at the peak time. Out on the unfrozen sections of the lake were 6ad Whoopers and a pair of Goosander. As things quietened down we decided to make a move before any of the three bus loads of photographers (!) tried to manoeuvre in the tight parking area.We headed eastwards and hit the southern coastline of the Nemuro Peninsula and checked out the harbours en route as we encountered them before finally ending up at Cape Nosappu. We found out first 4 female Harlequins in Futaoki Harbour and at Habomai Harbour we found a stunning male Stejneger's Scoter with a small flock of Scaup. As per usual, good numbers of Black Scoter, Goldeneye, Long-tailed Ducks, Wigeon, RB Mergs and Goosander were ever-present with a few Pochard and Mallard and we also had a couple of Black-necked Grebes and a single Coot (!) in Habomai too. Gulls consisted of Slaty-backs, Glaucs and Glauc-winged.We reached Cape Nosappu and drove up to the amusement park area just past the lighthouse. Here there is favoured rock offshore favoured by roosting cormorants and a quick scan soon produced 3imm Red-faced Cormorants amongst the commoner Pelagics, smart!! A nice Sea-Otter was also seen rounding the Cape, close inshore. We then backtracked slightly and made our way to the lighthouse and found the little seawatching hide on the back of it which gave a little respite from the wind. Here I finally bumped into Micky and Paul, great to meet them face-to-face, and we had a little seawatch before they headed back to the lodge. Offshore we had several auk species: c10 Spectacled, 1 Common and 2 Brünnich's Guillemots and c10 Ancient Murrelets. There were many stunning male Harlequins here too, aswell as flyby Pacific and Red-throated Divers. On the mammal front we also had a Pacific Harbour and a Spotted (or Largha) Seal. Again, due to tlack of sea-ice there just weren't the numbers of birds present.We drove up the coast a bit to the next small village of Onnemoto where we pulled off onto the minor road just past the harbour and then down a small track to the coast and looked out at the three rocks offshore and soon found a couple of roosting Rock Sandpipers here along with c30o+ Harlequins and a couple more Steller's perched up on the headland. On the passerine front around the peninsula we saw c20 Oriental Crows, Tree Sparrows and single Black-backed Wag and Dusky Thrush. Back at the lodge we had a lovely non-seafood dinner (!) and spent the evening chatting away with Micky and Paul and two new American guests Sean and Bryan, getting as much info as possible from them...which they were only too pleased to pass on. Annoyingly there hadn't been any mention of the Siberian Crane & Scaly-sided Merg on Honshu for a couple of days now...and Paul's great photos were just painful to look at!! <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />[ATTACH]586525[/ATTACH][ATTACH]586526[/ATTACH][ATTACH]586527[/ATTACH][ATTACH]586528[/ATTACH][ATTACH]586529[/ATTACH]</blockquote>

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