Wednesday, February 15, 2012

White Beppu

I haven't been to Mt. Tsurumi since last year's February. Exactly one year has passed and I finally went up there again with two of my friends to take photos of the snowy Beppu on last Thursday. The night before that we saw a minor blizzard hitting the city, so we planned to go up on the mountain on the next morning in hope of seeing some spectacular wintery landscape, and so we did. The scenery at the top of the mountain was just mind blowing. Everything was white. I kept telling my friends how it reminded me of Hokkaido. There were many other groups of photographers as well. Most of them were old people with some really nice cameras. I saw exactly 0 bird but it didn't matter since I was too busy taking photos of the gorgeous landscape. Here I share some of the shots that I took and hope that all of you will enjoy!

A view from the top of Mt. Tsurumi


The clouds moved really fast and the light would change almost every minute.


Some photos of the shrine near the cable car station

It almost looked as if the flowers are blooming!


Below is a panoramic view of the area behind the cable car station
The only bird that I could photograph on that day was surprisingly a female White-backed Woodpecker (Dendrocopos leucotos namiyei) that was found feeding in the park near the lower cable car station after I came down from the mountain top. I first heard its call coming from a distance. I later accidentally flushed the bird and it flew out to a nearby tree, but it was too difficult to get a decent shot as it was extremely shy. The only acceptable shot that I got is the one below. You can't even see its whole body. Hope I can get a better shot in the future.
Female White-backed Woodpecker (Dendrocopos leucotos namiyei)

7 comments:

Phil Slade said...

I just love those photographs but I'm pleased I wasn't there, it looks far too cold. Good photographs don't always need a bird in them.

Unknown said...

จ๊ะเอ๋สวัสดีค่ะ N' Ton,

Wow, looks bitterly cold! You haven't mentioned but I suppose it must be something under 0 defree C? I love winter, someway I just hate it equally.

Thanks for sharing all this that we get a chance to see wonderful shots of stuff other than birds :-D

ps. I tried leaving a comment in an old post and it needed to be approved by you

Russell Jenkins said...

Ooh, beautiful landscapes. We've had so much snow here in Niigata too but I haven't seen the beauty you have in these photographs. I posted some snow shots from Nagaoka a week ago on my blog but there is even more now with snow levels up to the second floors of most shops. Today it is raining and it is knee-deep brown and grey sludge.

Ayuwat Jearwattanakanok said...

Thanks a lot Phil, P' Prune, Russell!
Second floors of most shops!? If that's the case, then I wouldn't have any motivation to go out taking photos of them snow. It's been raining down here for several days now too. Good thing about Kyushu, at least we don't have to deal with the sludge.

เห็นคอมเมนท์แล้วคร้าบพี่พรุน ต้น approve ไปแล้วเรียบร้อย คือตั้งค่าเอาไว้ว่าถ้ามีคอมเมนท์ในบล๊อกเก่าจะต้องให้ approve ก่อน จะได้รู้ว่ามีใครมาทิ้งคอมเมนท์อะไรไว้รึเปล่า วันที่ขึ้นไปถ่ายรูปนี้อุณหภูมิบนนั้น -10 องศาเซลเซียสครับ แต่เตรียมตัวไปดีเลยไม่หนาวทรมานสักเท่าไหร่

Stephen Henry said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Stephen Henry said...

What a beautiful place and photography.

Stephen,
www.photoflowgallery.blogspot.com

Friend of HK said...

The scenery is so beautiful. We don't see anything like that in HK at all. Lovely images.