Ishigaki Island → Kushiro → Tsurui Village — February 20 (Day 1)
I had been planning this 2015 eastern Hokkaido birding trip since around October. I usually travel alone, but this time two of us came from Ishigaki Island and two joined from Ebetsu, Hokkaido, making four in total for a three-night, four-day birding trip — so I got started on the preparations early. Even so, the "Washi no Yado" inn in Rausu (famous for Blakiston's Fish Owl) and the Yoro-ushi Onsen "Fujiya" in Nakashibetsu were already fully booked… Apparently they fill up more than six months in advance. The pulling power of Blakiston's Fish Owl is truly something to fear. The accommodation, tours, and itinerary I used are summarized in a list at the very end of this post — I hope it's useful for others.
The forecast high for Ishigaki Island on the departure date of February 20 was 24°C. The forecast low for our destination, Kushiro, was minus 5°C — a difference of a full 29 degrees. This was my fourth winter birding trip to eastern Hokkaido, and the temperature gap scares me every single time. This winter, a succession of bomb cyclones had been hitting Hokkaido and I had been worried about the weather, but Kushiro looked set for clear skies the following day. What a relief.
I left home at around 9:30 a.m. and arrived at the airport just after 10:00. My flight was at 11:25 (ANA Flight 1766), so I had to kill about an hour and a half at Painushima Ishigaki Airport. ^^;
First things first — I had some soba (in Yaeyama, order soba and you get Yaeyama soba; order zenzai and you get cold shaved-ice zenzai) to fill my stomach, and decided to down two cans of Orion beer (I am, it must be said, a dedicated beer drinker). I stepped out onto the airport terrace and measured the outside temperature with my TANITA thermometer/hygrometer I had brought along — it had already reached the forecast high of 24°C. I was wearing the snow boots I had packed for Hokkaido, and my feet were already sweating. ^^;
The plane departed on time, bound for Tancho Kushiro Airport. Just you wait, birds of the northern land!!
I had reserved the seats in front of the emergency exit (10E and 10F), so there was plenty of legroom — very comfortable. Getting on a plane means beer (known in the trade as "tori-bī"), so I had a can of Premium Malts. The snacks seemed to have been upgraded. Apparently if you made an in-flight purchase you received an AKB48 magnet, and the cabin attendant came over saying "Please, these are non-sale AKB magnets" (not saying "I doubt you want one, but we've been told to hand them out to everyone," though that was clearly the vibe ^^;). I didn't really want one, but I have a colleague at work who's into idols, so I said "Thank you — I've got a colleague who loves AKB…" and accepted it with that excuse. (This exchange happened on every one of the six flight legs I connected through, coming and going, but I'll skip repeating it each time ^^;.)
While all this was going on, my companion was happily working through a Häagen-Dazs Strawberry, looking very satisfied.
We arrived at Naha Airport at 12:30 p.m. and the Haneda-bound flight departed on schedule at 1:15 p.m. From here I laid off the alcohol in preparation for driving the rental car in Hokkaido. I passed the time reading the in-flight magazine and the safety card over and over. We arrived at Haneda at 3:30 p.m. and had a late lunch — each of us had tororo-okra soba. There was still time to spare, so we went to the café next door and ordered café lattes (once again, both ordered the same thing), and waited for the connecting flight, which departed Haneda 15 minutes late at 5:10 p.m. We arrived at Tancho Kushiro Airport at 6:45 p.m. The temperature was around minus 5°C.
At around 7:30 p.m. we finally finished with the rental car paperwork and drove off toward tonight's lodging, "Dosanko Bokujo." The roads were well plowed, and we reached the inn in just under 40 minutes (I'm always impressed by how quickly the locals clear the snow). At the inn, a cheerful, gentle-looking young man greeted us. The place is simple but wonderful, with a sweeping view of a paddock where Hokkaido native horses roam right in front of you.
The sky was perfectly clear with a full canopy of stars. We took the rental car out onto the Kushiro Marsh at night and tried shooting the starry sky. The temperature was around minus 8°C — quite a shock for the TANITA thermometer that had made the journey from Ishigaki Island. We had to be up at 4:00 a.m., so I only shot a few frames. There was a bit of light pollution, but I managed to get some images. Hokkaido's stars are beautiful, but the density of stars in the Ishigaki Island summer night sky is still higher, I think.
We were about halfway back when my companion suddenly realized he had left the thermometer on the roof of the rental car. We got out and checked — of course it wasn't there — and retraced our route to look for it. We found the thermometer right in the middle of the Kushiro Marsh and picked it up, at which point my companion's eyes welled up with tears. Apparently he was overjoyed to be reunited with the thermometer that had been with us all the way from Ishigaki Island. (You're the one who left it on the roof!!)
After all that, we finally got back to the inn, ate the dinner we had bought at Seicomart (a local Hokkaido convenience store) — suji-ko onigiri, zangi, tonkatsu sandwiches and the like (my companion said he was too embarrassed to order zangi because he wasn't sure how to pronounce it) — knocked back about three bottles of my beloved Sapporo Classic, and turned in to be ready for Otowa Bridge the next morning.
Tsurui Village → Otowa Bridge → Notsuke Peninsula → Rausu — February 21 (Day 2)
Up at 4:00 a.m. Arrived at Otowa Bridge around 4:30. There was one full-size tour bus and one minibus, license plates from Kushiro, Sapporo, Obihiro and elsewhere on Hokkaido, plus about two from the mainland. Already 30 to 40 tripods lined up in a row. ^^; When we had passed here around 9:00 p.m. the previous evening, two large four-wheel-drive vehicles were already waiting, so slow-off-the-mark me got the last spot at the end of the tripod line, on the left bank. The pair of older gentlemen next to me looked startled when they saw the height of my tripod.
I had forgotten my thermometer in the rental car, so on my way to the car park to fetch it, I passed two old blokes having a verbal spat about someone shifting a tripod and pushing in. ^^; The owner of the tripod next to mine never appeared — perhaps asleep in their car — and a woman who turned up later asked the person on the other side of me whether she could squeeze in next to them. That person told her flatly that arriving late and expecting to push in was out of the question. Boy, was I glad she didn't ask me. ^^;
Clear skies as forecast, and colder than forecast — the frost flowers (jūsō) and frost smoke (kearashi) glittering in the morning sun raised our expectations still further. Current temperature: minus 16°C. For my companion, this was a first winter in Hokkaido, and after about two hours he gave up and retreated to the car to wait. ^^;
The sun rose at 6:12 a.m., and by around 6:30 it was cresting the ridge of the mountains. Just as we had hoped, the frost flowers shone and the frost smoke drifted. Wonderful. A group of Americans who had come on a tour were also moved. Because they use Fahrenheit rather than Celsius, when I told them that Ishigaki Island, where we'd departed from the day before, was 24 degrees, it didn't register — but when I said it had been 40 degrees warmer than here, that seemed to get the point across. (One member of the American group slipped and fell and appeared to have suffered a concussion, which looked serious.)
This time I also tried shooting video, but the Red-crowned Cranes were far away and there were so many other photographers around that the audio didn't come out well. Next time I'll try recording sound separately with a field recorder.
We went back to the inn for breakfast. Breakfast was being made, as it happened, by the same young man who had greeted us the evening before — now with a bandana tied around his head. There was a helper from the neighborhood as well, but cooking breakfast for all ten guests including the four of us looked like hard work. The menu was toast, scrambled eggs, sausages, salad, yogurt, milk, coffee and so on. My companion declared the milk was excellent.
We wolfed down breakfast and set off for a nearby Ural Owl spot. Following the lead of locals, we parked the rental car about 100 meters from the entrance and walked along the snowy path for a while — and there, incredibly, was a pair sitting at the entrance to their nest hole!! I wept. This time I truly wept. Four years of trying, and at last I had seen a pair of Ural Owls side by side at their nest hole!! On Ishigaki Island I spend my nights wandering around (haunting, you might say ^^;) in search of Japanese Scops Owls and Ryukyu Scops Owls, last year found a record seven nest trees, and have earned the nickname "the earthbound spirit of Yaeyama" — but that pair of Ural Owls nearly sent me to the next world on the spot. ^^;
Time, however, was short. We had to pick up the other two members of our birding party at Kushiro Station. We were already behind schedule, so I hurried to a spot where my phone had signal, called ahead to say we'd be late due to a near-death experience (not really), and headed for Kushiro Station. We picked the two up without incident and, since they had moved to Hokkaido the previous year but had still never seen a Ural Owl, we turned back to Tsurui Village for another look.
The owl was still there. ^^ Nearby, Great Spotted Woodpeckers and Marsh Tits were moving around. The four of us enjoyed the owl, the cloudless sky, the quiet valley, and the tiny animal tracks in the snow to our hearts' content, then headed for our next destination. The Ural Owl near Kushiro Airport was not at home.
Along the way we stopped at Jingisukan SORA — we forced our way in right at closing time and had kaisendon (sea urchin and salmon roe) for 2,800 yen. The Ural Owl nesting in SORA's car park was also absent. Undeterred, we drove on toward Notsuke Peninsula, Hokkaido-style — locals drive fast, and though I've been hardened by Nagoya-style driving, Hokkaido-style is still something else, though with no snow on the roads this time it was fine. ^^
Arriving at Notsuke Peninsula, we drove slowly scanning for Short-eared Owls and Snow Buntings — neither showed up. What we did find: Common Scoter, Common Goldeneye, large gulls of various species, Dusky Thrush, White-tailed Eagle, Red Fox, Hokkaido Sika Deer. In front of the Notsuke Nature Center, a Hokkaido Prefectural Police officer was photographing drift ice with his smartphone. Notsuke Peninsula is the home of Hokkaido shrimp (kita-kuruma-ebi), and the peninsula curves in a beautiful arc as if cradling the shrimp from the rough seas of the Sea of Okhotsk.
Inside the Nature Center, baby Hokkaido shrimp had just hatched. They looked like miniature Baltan Seijin.
The "community-built Notsuke MAP" at the Nature Center showed Snow Buntings on February 13 and 14, but we couldn't find any. Nothing for it but to buy a bear magnet at the gift shop (a souvenir for the owner of Banana Cafe — the "Kumago" of Ishigaki Island). We left Notsuke Peninsula and headed for tonight's lodging, "Minshuku Marumi" in Rausu. On the way we stopped at Matsunori Port, but drift ice was packed in solid with no seabirds to be seen and not another soul around. Hopes pinned on the following morning. The fuel gauge was getting low, so we filled up at Rausu Sekiyu Co., Ltd. Azabu SS — 132 yen per liter, 26.59 liters. Gasoline is cheaper on Ishigaki Island — probably thanks to the Okinawa Promotion Special Measures Act.
When we arrived at Minshuku Marumi, there was no one at the front desk, only a Chinese couple who looked rather disgruntled. After a while the woman at reception appeared. When I told her we had also reserved the drift-ice cruise boat for the following morning, she said, "No tripods — a monopod is fine." I had told them at the time of booking that I'd be bringing a tripod and they'd agreed!! I was about to complain, but figured I'd just bring it on the day and it'd be fine, so I said "Is that right, okay then." ^^ I arranged dinner for 7:00 p.m. and headed to our room. There was a smell of kerosene, though, and on investigation it turned out the bottom of the window was snagged on something, leaving a gap through which the heater exhaust was entering. I gave it a firm push and it closed completely.
At dinner time we went to the dining room to find a king crab and two hair crabs laid out on the table. The rest was buffet-style, with a menu that seemed better suited to drinking snacks than to a family meal. The crab was probably frozen.
After dinner we headed across the road to Seicomart to buy tonight's drinks. There I picked up a local sake called "Kita no Katsu" from Nemuro. It was surprisingly good, and I knocked back about two go in no time, then added about three bottles of Sapporo Classic from the vending machine inside the inn. While I was at it, I signed the petition to return the Northern Territories. My companion was eating an ice cream called "Hokkaido Ice Cream" — a wonderfully blunt name — from Seicomart. With a straight face, my companion said: "The balance of price and flavor is exquisite."
Rausu → Hashirikotан → Nemuro → Kiritappu → Kushiro — February 22 (Day 3)
Up at 4:00 a.m., assembled in the lobby forty minutes later. The four of us piled into the rental car and headed for Rausu Port. At the sightseeing boat check-in, as expected, yesterday's tripod business was not an issue. The captain, who looked like Ken Takakura, couldn't have cared less. Rausu and Ishigaki Island share something in that way. As for the drift ice — it was packed in too thick. ^^; And the sky was overcast, as forecast. The sunrise was visible for just a moment through a gap in the clouds. Photography-wise, the solid ice pack meant we could only get a few dozen meters out of the harbor, limiting compositional options, and I came away unsatisfied. The captain was doing his best, ramming the boat into the ice again and again trying to find a good position. I usually use Godzilla-Iwa Kanko, and I'd recommend that for anyone with heavy long-lens rigs. The sightseeing boat Arland III here is a bit tight for serious photographers. Also the cabin heating wasn't on and it was cold. ^^; I've done the eagle-in-drift-ice shooting for four years running now, so I'm calling it done with this.
Back at the harbor around 8:00 a.m., returned to the inn for breakfast — nothing in particular to report. After eating I was about to head back to the room when a woman called out to me: "Did you come from Ishigaki Island?" "Yes, that's right." "I'm going diving on Ishigaki next month." What a coincidence — the dive shop was Relax Dive BANANA, run by someone I know. Japan really is a small place. We didn't make firm plans to meet again on Ishigaki Island, but checked out of the inn just after 9:00 and went to Matsunori Port — again packed solid with drift ice, no good. The river flowing into Rausu Port wasn't frozen, so we moved there. We observed various gulls, Common Scoter, Harlequin Duck, Common Goldeneye, Steller's Sea Eagle and White-tailed Eagle.
Leaving Rausu, we headed straight for Nemuro. Passed through the Notsuke Peninsula without stopping. Along the way we stopped at Hashirikotан and observed Common Redpolls, Dusky Thrushes, Hokkaido Sika Deer and Red Foxes. Hashirikotан fishing port had no ice, and with no ice fishermen there were no Steller's Sea Eagles or White-tailed Eagles either. We continued to Nemuro Nature Center, where we enjoyed Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Siberian Jays (the Ebetsu pair had apparently never seen one before and were very excited), Marsh Tits, and Japanese Tits (so much more striking than the Ishigaki subspecies). The woman at reception proudly showed us photos of a Hokkaido vole coming to eat seeds that had fallen from the feeder set up by the center. Incredibly cute — a perfect decisive moment. After leaving the center we went to Hanasaki Port, where we found Common Scoter, Common Merganser, Long-tailed Duck and Greater Scaup, but the Brant we were after was absent. Short-eared Owl, Snow Bunting, not at home — everything seems to be out! Among others we did see Common Rosefinch, Eurasian Bullfinch, Common Redpoll and a flock of Eurasian Tree Sparrows.
It was already 2:00 p.m. by the time I noticed, so we decided to eat lunch. We searched for a ramen shop at random on the car nav and ended up at "Sapporo Ramen Ekimae-ten." We were not in Sapporo, and it was not in front of a station, but the look of the place was exactly right for an unassuming hidden gem. The tori-miso ramen was delicious!! Really good. The gyoza, though, were average.
With full stomachs, we headed next for Kiritappu. Ki-ri-tap-pu. Nice ring to it. Light rain had started falling, though, and the only wildlife was Sika Deer. Nothing for it (that's not a pun, by the way), we stopped at the Kiritappu Nature Center. The woodcraft items for sale there had a nice sense of style. They were a bit expensive and nothing matched my taste this time, so I didn't buy anything, but the craftsmanship is good. I had wanted to stop at a Short-eared Owl spot on the way back to Kushiro, but ran out of time. We went straight to tonight's lodging, "Lodge Shirarutoro." We arrived at the lodge on schedule, just after 6:00 p.m. Apparently the sign had been buried under snow from the plowing and we got slightly lost, but we found it. We pushed our bags into the room and went to the common room for a briefing about tomorrow's Kushiro River canoe trip. The morning forecast looked rainy, so departure would apparently be around 6:30 a.m.
The briefing had barely finished when I asked the owner, somewhat bashfully: "By the way, I'd very much like to meet Ko-Saji, the lodge's mascot…" The owner replied: "Ko-Saji died." What — she died? That's a shame. I grieved inwardly. The owner seemed to sense this. "But O-Saji is here." "What! Why didn't you say so sooner!" I said. The owner called to his son: "Bring O-Saji."
And there was O-Saji. An ordinary Japanese Quail. An ordinary Japanese Quail apparently bought at some home improvement center last September. But oh, how adorable. Apparently a male, he would spot anything reflective and charge it headlong, scatter the tea bags on the table, do an air sand-bath, then spread his wings in a dreamy air sunbath, and finally burst into loud singing practice. Too cute — I completely forgot to take photos. ^^;
After playing with O-Saji at length, it was time for dinner. Here dinner is served in your room, there was plenty of it, and the flavor was very good — fully satisfying. Even in this season, grapes and kiwi fruit came with the meal. And after dinner, a bath of course — so we went to the outdoor hot spring. Small as it is, the water quality is excellent, and I was fully satisfied here too. After the bath, beer — so again, about three bottles of Sapporo Classic. Perfect. What a great last night. As a side note, my companion had apparently assumed the "family bath" was a time slot reserved for the lodge owner's family to bathe… ^^; That made me laugh hard. Ah — by Day 3 in Hokkaido, the Hokkaido dialect was coming naturally.
Kushiro → Ishigaki Island — February 23 (Day 4)
In the morning, we gathered in the common room at around 6:00 a.m. As forecast the previous day, the rain looked set to stop by 6:30. The Japan Meteorological Agency's predictions have been noticeably more accurate since they replaced their supercomputer (SR16000) in 2012. (But why is there still such faith in the U.S. military forecast on Ishigaki Island?)
We loaded two Canadian canoes and nine people into an old van (25 years old, apparently) and headed for the Kushiro River. The temperature this morning was 0°C — supposedly late-March warmth — and there were absolutely no frost flowers. A shame. On arrival we linked the two Canadian canoes into a double canoe and set off. The other guests besides ourselves were an elderly couple from the Kanto region. The wife talked a lot and was great fun — a different kind of entertainment from the classic Osaka aunty type. And so a roughly 2-hour, 10-kilometer float down the river began with this lady. That said, a canoe is not well suited to birdwatching. If there are small birds on the bank, you can't stop because the current keeps carrying you, and the waterbirds get startled by the canoe and fly off. I'd like to use the lodge again next time, but from this year on they're only taking guests who do the canoe trip, which is a pity. Maybe I'll leave it a few years and go back for the canoeing again. Birds observed on the Kushiro River: Red-crowned Crane, Common Merganser, Mallard, Common Rosefinch, Marsh Tit, Japanese Tit, crow, Black Kite, White-tailed Eagle, Steller's Sea Eagle, White-tailed Eagle nest, Hokkaido Sika Deer, Red Fox. My companion went quiet partway through, and I realized he had soaked his glove and was nearly dying of cold. I lent him mine and he managed to survive.
The two-hour canoe tour finished and my companion tried to use the station toilets, but they were out of service due to frozen drainage pipes, apparently. He had to hold on until we got back to the lodge. On arriving at the lodge: first, the hot spring. Soaking in the outdoor bath surrounded by pure white snow was wonderful. The one regret was that I had to drive afterward and couldn't drink beer. Straight out of the hot spring and into breakfast. Breakfast was also excellent.
The Ebetsu pair were getting a lift to the station from the owner, so we left the lodge at 11:30 a.m. to make the 1:35 p.m. flight in time. As we pulled out, I remembered one more Ural Owl spot and decided to stop by. This spot had also come up empty four years running, so I wasn't expecting much, but when we arrived — there was the man we had met at the Tsurui Village Ural Owl spot on the first day!! After a quick greeting I looked toward the nest tree and… there it was!! Four years in the making, and finally!! Was this man the (bearded) goddess of owls? Thinking along those lines, I yanked the suitcase out of the rental car, hauled out the tripod I had just packed away, and started shooting. My companion was apparently on edge about both me spreading mud all over the suitcase and the time left before the flight. There are plenty of similar photos out there online, but shooting it yourself feels altogether different. Even knowing the location in advance, the Ural Owl still has this power. We repacked the tripod and everything into the suitcase and drove hard for Tancho Kushiro Airport. Total distance driven this trip: 820 kilometers. Slightly more than usual, but with no snow on the roads it was easy going. That said, I was hit by drowsiness twice and handed driving to my companion — only to find his driving so alarming that I couldn't sleep anyway. ^^;
On the flights home I moved from beer to wine, and by the end I had accumulated nine AKB48 magnets. My colleagues are going to be pleased.
My fourth eastern Hokkaido trip. The one regret is not seeing a Blakiston's Fish Owl, but it was a wonderful birding holiday. I'll put winter eastern Hokkaido on pause for now and next time aim for early-summer Hokkaido and the summer migrants.
Gear
- Canon EOS-1D X
- Canon EF600mm F4L IS II USM
- Canon EF70-200mm F2.8L IS USM
- Canon EF24-70mm F2.8L II USM
- Canon EF17-40mm F4L USM
- Canon EXTENDER EF1.4×III
- Canon EXTENDER EF2×III
- GITZO 5541LS
- Manfrotto 519
- Apple MacBook Air 11inch
- SONY PCM-D50
- TANITA thermometer/hygrometer 5415
- OLYMPUS XZ-1
Expenses
- Flights, first night's accommodation and rental car: 120,000 yen (for two people)
- Other accommodation and meals etc.: 100,000 yen + credit card + what my companion paid = around 130,000 yen?
- Airport parking: 2,000 yen
Accommodation
- Dosanko Bokujo
- Minshuku Marumi
- Lodge Shirarutoro