East Hokkaido Trip II

Despite the weather forecast saying it will continue to be cloudy and some period of snow, the next morning I woke up and jaw dropped because of the beautiful sunshine and clear sky. However, it has gotten more and more cloudy very fast in the city of Kushiro as I got on the bus heading out to Tsurui. Along the way it seemed like the weather was getting better and better as the bus was heading to Tsurui. Finally when I arrived at Tsurumidai, what I saw was a clear blue sky contrasting to a clean white sheet of snow field!

A panoramic view at Tsurumidai (鶴見台)

However, I didn't find Tsurumidai a very good place to photograph the crane, the background was too messy and there were still very few cranes in the feeding area, so I went on to the Tsurui-Itho Sanctuary once again. As expected, lots of photographers were crowding there. The clear weather opened up a panoramic view of snow covered mountains behind the feeding ground that were being covered with snowfall yesterday. I wished I had a good lens for landscape photography. The cranes were very photogenic as usual but I actually find it more difficult to get beautiful shots in sunny weather since the backdrop and colours can be very distracting.

And here's at Tsurui-Itoh (鶴居・伊藤)

The weather was great for BIF.

And a juvenile Red-crowned Crane or Tancho (タンチョウ)

I stayed there at Tsurui-Itoh photographing cranes and all until about 4pm then took the 4:25 bus back to the hotel. Apart from the cranes, there were lots of Mallards, crows and pigeons there at the feeding ground. I got my first Great Spotted Woodpecker flying from nowhere to nowhere there too. The Marsh Tit also made a brief appearance but gave me no opportunity to photograph it, as well as the Eurasian Nuthtach. It's the last day for me here in Kushiro before taking a bus to Rausu on the next morning in search for the eagles!