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Message: <blockquote data-quote="birdboybowley" data-source="post: 3409310" data-attributes="member: 60953">26th Feb – Another glorious morning greeted us as we swept back the curtains; another glorious breakfast awaited us in the dining room. The feeders were busy with the usual species and the Steller's was back in its tree again. Today was goodbye time for us and it was with a tinge of sadness that we bade Take-san and the lovely Masako farewell, promising that we will return in the summertime. We drove back down the Tobai minor road in search of bullfinches but again drew a blank. A nice white-headed Long-tailed Tit was seen but disappeared quickly and the other birds were the same as yesterday. We had one last look from the main road at the eagles being fed then it was time to head northwards towards Rausu, c125kms away. We turned off Hwy44 onto a minor road that eventually led us to the small fishing village of Yarimukashi on the northwestern side of Lake Furen. On the way in we had great views of a pair of our first stately Red-crowned Cranes in the most unpicturesque setting of a muddy farm entrance! Somewhat disappointing but stunning nonetheless. As we entered the village itself we had many White-tailed Eagles and Black-eared Kites in the trees. Out on the lake we had several groups of Steller's on the ice near to where we saw some guys actually ice-fishing....the eagles keeping a watchful eye for any scraps. Also present were c40 Whoopers, a few Goldeneye and Long-tailed Ducks and c30 Slaty-backed Gulls, one of which had a mussel in its bill and kept dropping it on the ice then chasing it around looking for all the world like it was playing a bit of ice hockey!We headed back through the snowbound countryside seeing a Rough-leg and Japanese and Oriental Crows together for a good comparison and a couple of nice-looking Red Foxes foraging though the snow. We rejoined Hwy243, turned right and then veered off onto Hwy244 and followed the coast northwards until we reached the 950 turn-off onto Cape Notsuke and followed the narrow road to the last carpark, c9kms down the cape. There were plenty of Sika Deer loitering-with-intent by the roadside and more Steller's and White-tailed Eagles and Black-eared Kites also.We parked up and wandered through the thigh-deep snow towards the pebbled beach in search of our target, recently seen here by Micky and Paul. As I approached the buildings I saw a small bird fly into some bare ground and there it was: a stunning male Asian Rosy-Finch!! How easy was that?! It was soon joined by a female and they showed brilliantly all the time we were there. We checked the beach up and down in search of the Snow Bunts that had been seen a couple of days earlier but no joy, only a couple of Dusky Thrushes grabbed our attention. Having had our fill of this delightful passerine we headed back off the Cape, stopping by some more buildings where we had another gorgeous Dusky Thrush bathing in a puddle and an amazingly tame and healthy-looking Red Fox in the sea defences. Offshore we surprisingly had only a single male Black Scoter but hundreds of gulls, mostly Slaty-backs with c20 Glaucs, c10 Glauc-wings and best of all, 2ad Vega Gulls. We also saw one other Asian Rosy-Finch take off from the roadside and disappear over onto the beach. The snowy coastal scenery was quite spectacular and as we rejoined the 244 we headed north again until we reached Shibetsu where we had a quick food stop in the trusty 7-11 and then continued on the 335 out onto the Shiretoko Peninsula towards Rausu. It's amazing how close the disputed Russian island of Kunashir is to the coast here.We reached the small town and dropped down towards the first part of the harbour. The surrounding area was covered in deep snow so I wandered round on foot and had some awesome views of Harlequin Duck. Also here were Goosander, Goldeneye and many gulls. Returning to the main road we turned right and headed through the tunnel and then turned immediately left onto the icy minor road just past the river and carefully drove up to our destination for the night – Washi-no-yado. We were met by the lady owner who speaks about as much English as I do Japanese, but with a bit of pointing and mentioning Take-san's name we were ushered upstairs to our room overlooking the stream opposite where a nice Brown Dipper was busy dipping. We were quite bemused by the roll-out bed affair but at least the heater worked! We dumped our gear and then headed back to the main fishing port where, in typical Japanese style, we were able to drive right round it with no problems. Inside the walls, sea-ice had formed but there was none on the open ocean. It was for this reason that we hadn't bothered booking the 'eagle boat' as all they did this year was throw fish out onto the seawalls to the waiting throngs of eagles which, although were giving great views and photographic opportunities, just weren't sitting out on the sea-ice as I'd hoped. And as the price is somewhere north of £50pp it was one saving I didn't mind making. We had good views of Goosander and Red-breasted Mergs here, with 4 Ancient Murrelets amongst the ice a nice surprise. A Pacific Harbour Seal also appeared and on the seaward side of the walls were some rocks covered in c500 Pelagic Cormorants and many gulls, comprising the 3 usual suspects.We returned to our digs where we made our way into the dining area where our meal of mostly fish (urgh!) appeared but with a good selection of non-fishy side dishes that filled us up no problems. The first bus-loads of photographers began to arrive and as they took their positions up along the front and the windows were taken out we decided that was our cue to leave! As the light began to fade we watched Steller's Eagles streaming overhead up the valley to roost for the night. The owner went over to the stream and stocked the little pool with some live fish, the floodlights were turned on and the wait began. We'd been informed by Micky & Paul (and the other guests at Lodge Furen) that the stars of the show here have been quite erratic of late...which was unnerving to say the least! We watched as more people arrived, some foolhardy ones heading for the bus....We sat by our window with the heater turned up full (the temp dropped to -19 that night), only wrapping the blanket around us whenever we opened the double-glazed window up. Annoyingly, people were stomping up and down the stairs, walking from the dining area into the room block....contrary to everything we'd been told about being quiet after dark. People were continually slamming the downstairs doors...so much so that as it apporached 2100 I went looking for an argument...but bumped into an English-speaking tour leader and stood on the stairs as he explained that the owls weren't in the valley at this time of the evening...they went out and their territorial loop didn't bring them back in again til nearly midnight, and beacuse they weren't feeding young and the winter hadn't been that harsh (by Hokkaido standards!) they didn't need to feed as much.Just as he finished saying this I looked out of the window above the door just as a huge shape swooped in and landed on the floodlit tree opposite: Blakiston's Fish-Owl!! What a stonking bird! The leader stood there open-mouthed, caught between grabbing his camera or alerting his clients!! I ran back upstairs to Dawn, grabbed my camera and watched in awe as this amazing bird fished in the little pool for the next 10mins. Three fish were caught and devoured and then with a smooth flex of the wings, she was gone! I know this place is expensive but after that....sod it, it was worth it!!We stayed up and could hear the pair begin duetting on opposite sides of the valley. At one stage, the male was in the tree right behind our room but no amount of contortion would allow me to see him. The male appeared at 2240-47, caught and devoured a fish and was off up the valley side again. The pair duetted all night, their haunting calls echoing through the valley. I went to sleep a very happy boy that night!! <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />[ATTACH]587350[/ATTACH][ATTACH]587351[/ATTACH][ATTACH]587352[/ATTACH][ATTACH]587353[/ATTACH][ATTACH]587354[/ATTACH]</blockquote>

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