p.2 #1 · Steller's Sea Eagles and White Tailed Eagles of Japan! (Picture Heavy)
OwlsEyes wrote:
These are absolutely stunning Alphonsus... picture 23 is a stunner.
A wildlife trip to Hokkaido is on my bucket list, as I have always wanted the "trifecta"... snow monkeys, red-crowed cranes, and Stellar sea eagles.
It looks like you had an amazing trip with all of that new gear.
regards,
bruce
I did a trip for the three a few years ago. Snow monkey is near Nagano so it is away from the other two.
I think I took a train from Tokyo to Nozawa to meet up with my friends and we drove to snow monkey then took a train from Nagano back to Tokyo. We then flew to Kushiro in Hokkaido then it is a short drive to Tsurui for the crane then may be 4-5 hours
drive to Rausu for sea eagle. There is also Blakiston's fishowl there that came to a small stream to eat fish that was baited
by a small inn there everynight. Also looked out for Hokkaido red fox. I did not see any when I was there but some friends told me that they are not hard to find. He even saw one as he stepped outside of 7-11
Also there is long tailed tit that drinks water droplet from icicle that is becoming quite popular and pictures are popping up frequently now but I have not figure out exactly where in Hokkaido yet.
p.2 #7 · Steller's Sea Eagles and White Tailed Eagles of Japan! (Picture Heavy)
Beautiful. Brings back memories from when I was there myself, while Covid broke out. Love the morning cruises from Rausu. Good to see it open again, hope to go back someday myself.
p.2 #16 · Steller's Sea Eagles and White Tailed Eagles of Japan! (Picture Heavy)
suteetat wrote:
I did a trip for the three a few years ago. Snow monkey is near Nagano so it is away from the other two.
I think I took a train from Tokyo to Nozawa to meet up with my friends and we drove to snow monkey then took a train from Nagano back to Tokyo. We then flew to Kushiro in Hokkaido then it is a short drive to Tsurui for the crane then may be 4-5 hours
drive to Rausu for sea eagle. There is also Blakiston's fishowl there that came to a small stream to eat fish that was baited
by a small inn there everynight. Also looked out for Hokkaido red fox. I did not see any when I was there but some friends told me that they are not hard to find. He even saw one as he stepped outside of 7-11
Also there is long tailed tit that drinks water droplet from icicle that is becoming quite popular and pictures are popping up frequently now but I have not figure out exactly where in Hokkaido yet.
I'll definitely have to return for the other two. Only had 5 days this time, and the Snow Monkeys are quite a distance from the Eagles, and it was my first time driving internationally so I wanted to make things as simple as possible!
p.2 #17 · Steller's Sea Eagles and White Tailed Eagles of Japan! (Picture Heavy)
Nikon1960 wrote:
I'll definitely have to return for the other two. Only had 5 days this time, and the Snow Monkeys are quite a distance from the Eagles, and it was my first time driving internationally so I wanted to make things as simple as possible!
Definitely well worth the trip. Actually Tsurui and Rausu is not that far from each other. If I remember correctly, Hokkaido speed limit on the road outside the city is something like 60 km/hr but police usually won't bother you as long as you drive
no more than 20 km/hr above speed limit or something like that. The road is well cleared, may be not quite as well as in the US but the drive was easy. When we rented a car, we asked for a 4WD with English langauge GPS system. Not sure if you can do this anywhere else (certainly not in Thailand), you only need to enter phone number of the hotel or restaurant or whatever and GPS will know where that is.
