BIRDING JAPAN: Hokkaido Day Two

Early in the morning, we left the Hickory Wind lodge on a guided bear-spotting tour. Along the 2-hour drive to the site were many distant gulls and Temminck's cormorants, as well as a single white-tailed eagle. Once there, we stood at the edge of a road overlooking a salmon-filled river and patiently waited for a bear to appear. While waiting, a few Eurasian nuthatches and Eastern great tits flew past. A black woodpecker was heard calling in the forest directly below the road, but wasn't seen. A single slaty-backed gull stood at the mouth of the river.

EASTERN GREAT TIT Parus minor

We waited for a while, until we headed to a nearby town for lunch. Here, we stopped to get some close looks at a flock of cormorants and gulls. We got good views of 2 species we would soon get sick of, slaty-backed and black-tailed gulls. The cormorant flock mostly consisted of Temminck's cormorants, but a few pelagic cormorants were among them. A distant dock was being used as a perch by many more pelagic cormorants, but they were too far to be photographed.

SLATY-BACKED GULL Larus schistisagus

BLACK-TAILED GULL Larus crassirostris

TEMMINCK'S CORMORANT Phalacrocorax capillatus

We drove back to the site and waited for another hour, before heading off to Shiretoko Pass. We returned back to the site for one last sweep of the river, driving down the road and across the river itself. As we drove back up the road, we were informed that a brown bear had been spotted. On return, we watched the brown bear fish for salmon and successfully catch one, before heading out of the water and enjoying its prize.

BROWN BEAR Ursus arctos lasiotus