Hokkaido 3 Mar 2018 (Day 9)

The storm finally stopped in Day 9, we planned to try again the swan in Lake Kussharo in better weather before breakfast, especially the lake is close to our Inn. Sadly we got a little traffic accident, and we needed to go there by foot. But we could not expect we did find a lifer on the way!

our room, a Great Spotted Woodpecker

beautiful road in Hokkaido

Black Woodpecker, our lifer!

peck mark by the Black Woodpecker, sometimes these marks can help identifying the woodpecker species.

Eurasian Treecreeper, we saw this in Japan before

Lake Kussharo

Crested Ibis with the lake

Swanprint

bigger than the ibis

Mallard in the lake with steam, I love the scene!

a pair of flying Mallard

adult male Mallard

Whooper Swan

Swan in flight

more swan

totally different scene compared to Day 8!

I love Lake Kussharo and I believe we will return!

the greyish one is immature

Whooper landing

we returned to the Inn for breakfast, same as this squirrel

this is definitely a Woodpecker Inn, the feeders attracted different woodpecker species, like the Great Spotted Woodpecker and this White-backed Woodpecker!

a tiny one, Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker

and the only Grey-headed Woodpecker in our trip, the 5th woodpecker of the day!

We then went to Abashiri for some hours to see any Rock Sandpiper but none found before we headed back to Kushiro. We should explore Abashiri more next time!

lunch

snack

desert

ferry to watch drifted ice in Abashiri

Final spot of Day 9 was Tsurui, a place close to Kushiro and well-known for the Red-crowned Crane as the Chinese/Japanese name suggesting, 鶴居村. 

this is one of the two feeding center for the Red-crowned Crane

besides Red-crowned Crane, there was one rarity in Hokkaido - the Common Crane, which have not been recorded for more than 30 years there and also our lifer

Red-crowned Crane

Red-crowned Crane taking flight

this is not our lifer but we wished to take better photos of the Red-crowned Crane

crane in love

then we also headed to a Otowa Bridge (音羽橋) nearby, the river is a roosting site for the cranes

view from the bridge

and also a roosting site for our lifer nearby

we were taking the lifer!

iphone with noctivid

the star here is the roosting Ural Owl

Ural Owl, a sleepy owl

we left as getting dark

evening with two Red-crowned Crane

time to dinner

bird topography

and we chose to have a BBQ dinner to celebrate the the end of Day 9

food was great and so the ice cream

beer and cup, must try some different tastes in Japan