The final leg of my Wild Japan winter trip in Hokkaido. You can read about the experiences and see the photos in the last two parts of my live blog series: Part 1 #1 & Part 2 #2.

The Last Destination: Rausu

The last destination was Rausu, with a focus on Steller's sea eagles, EZO foxes, and Blakiston's fish owls in record low temperatures.

Feel free to join me on this adventure 😀 Enjoy! Markus

February 3, 2023 - The Journey Home

Today our trip ends, and we are heading to the airport with our rental car. Then we will return the car, check-in, and fly back to Tokyo. From there, we will fly back to Germany tomorrow. It will take us a total of 2 days to get back to Nuremberg, but the long journey is definitely worth it.

The normal 2.5-hour drive from Rausu to Memanbetsu turned into 4 hours because some roads were not cleared, and we had to take detours. When I say the roads were not cleared, you have to imagine that there was at least 1.5 meters of snow on the uncleared roads.

All in all, it was a great adventure with many wonderful encounters, both with animals and people. I will absolutely do another tour in Hokkaido. There are still a few things left to do, such as photographing the eagles on the pack ice in the winter. Which we didn't manage to do this time, or take tours through Shiretoko National Park in the warmer months.

After this incredible time, I am also concluding this live blog, full of anticipation for the new adventures in Wild Nature 2023.

See you soon, Markus

February 2, 2023 - The Snowstorm

As the weather service had already announced, there was a severe snowstorm last night, which was referred to as a snow typhoon on Japanese television. I can only say that it certainly felt like that during the night; the accommodation vibrated with the impact of the wind on the building. The sound of the wind was very loud, and so I got up around 5 AM to look out the window, but I couldn't really see anything because the snowstorm outside was so intense. I tried to take a video with my phone, but it was impossible to focus on anything. But see for yourself, I have attached the video below this paragraph. In the second video, you can see how strong the wind must have been to blow such masses of snow into a tunnel. This video was taken at noon today, when the storm had subsided and only the aftereffects could be felt. I believe the excavator industry has a large market here, as everyone seems to have an excavator to clear the unimaginable amounts of snow from their property. This is no exaggeration.

February 1, 2023 - Steller's Sea Eagles, Round Two

Today, we are heading out on a small boat, giving me the chance to photograph closer to the water. The weather is perfect today, with a clear sky promising a perfect sunrise. The weather service has announced another snowstorm for the afternoon, but there is no sign of it yet.

The tour turned out differently than expected. We were alone on the boat, which was initially good. However, the captain didn't have any fish to bait the eagles, so we had to hope they would stay around us. It quickly became clear that I wouldn't get the shots I had hoped for. This was confirmed as I watched the competition, who had plenty of fish on board, attracting the eagles' full attention. I did manage to get one or two shots, but to be honest, I could have taken similar ones in the Upper Palatinate. So, no real success!

We did spot a few seals, some interesting ducks, and a unique type of cormorant, but they were more like proof photos rather than great captures. Overall, a rather disappointing tour.

The hope of getting the desired photos at sunrise during the additional tour booked for tomorrow also vanished when the provider called to cancel the tour due to the upcoming snowstorm. So, today was our last tour and chance to photograph the Steller's sea eagles and white-tailed eagles. What a shame!

January 31, 2023 - Steller's Sea Eagles in Action

Yesterday, we made a last-minute decision to move our boat tour to see the Steller's sea eagles to today. The reason was that we had already booked a sunrise tour for tomorrow with a small boat and wanted to add a third tour to cover all our options. Since we found another provider offering a sunrise tour on February 2, 2023, we rescheduled the originally planned tour for that day to today. So, three tours in a row, perfect. Ideally, I would like one of the tours to be during snowfall and at least one to have a clear sky sunrise. We'll see.

At 12:30 PM, after spending a good two and a half hours on the sea with the boat and taking almost 4,000 photos, we returned to the harbor. I am very excited about the results. Filming was not easy, so I didn't get much, but I believe I captured some good photos. At the beginning, I used my Sony 400 mm F2.8 with the 1.4 TC because the captain mentioned that the animals wouldn't come too close to the boat. Here, I learned once again that the understanding of distances can vary greatly depending on the context. On the boat, I realized that 560 mm was simply too much, so I removed the TC and shot the whole tour with the 400 mm, which was perfectly sufficient.

During the session, I used the Sony A1 and the Sony a7R IV cameras, along with the Sony GM 400 mm F2.8 OSS and the Sony GM 100-400 mm GM OSS lenses.

As always, I've already developed a few pictures.

Enjoy them!

January 30, 2023 - The Blakiston's Fish Owl

After the long drive yesterday, we took it easy today. We slept in a bit, then went grocery shopping and drove along the coast. In the evening, we headed to the hide for the Blakiston's Fish Owl (Ketupa blakistoni or Bubo blakistoni). I was curious to see how many photographers would be there. During our last visit in the fall, we were lucky to find only two other photographers there. Now it’s the peak season, so there would likely be a few more people.

5:30 PM: We arrived at the hide for the Blakiston's Fish Owl. There were seven other photographers there when we arrived—three Japanese and four Danes. That was okay because the hide is made up of three shipping containers and has enough space for at least 20 people. You can read more about it in my article about my last photo experience with the Blakiston's Fish Owl.

We spent a total of about four hours there and were able to photograph four owls—the adult pair and the two young ones. A fox also showed up again, and I managed to get some nice shots of it as well. I wanted to take the opportunity to test my new Sony 400 mm F2.8 lens. I had to experiment a bit with the settings to find the optimal ones for me. But once I did, the advantages of this fast lens were clear compared to a 400 mm F5.6. I will write a separate review about it.

January 29, 2023 — Stormy Journey to Hokkaido's Predators

Beautiful days are now behind us, with wonderful encounters with both animals and people. Today, however, the journey continues north to Shiretoko National Park in Rausu. The weather in the past days has varied between sunny, snowy, and snowstorms. Today’s drive was accompanied by a storm, despite the day offering plenty of sunshine. At times, visibility was so limited that we couldn't see our hands in front of our faces. Instead of the expected 2 hours, the 119 km journey took us 4 hours. But we finally reached our destination with great anticipation for the coming days. Due to the weather, we also had to reorganize one of our tours. An eagle tour in Rausu was planned for Thursday, February 2, 2023, at 5:30 AM. The organizer called us while we were on our way to Rausu and canceled the early tour at 5:30 AM. Instead, they offered us January 31, 2023, at 9 AM or still February 2, 2023, but also at 9 AM. We decided to keep the original day and take the tour at 9 AM.

Overall, we had booked two tours on the sea for the week in advance, hoping that the pack ice from the north had already made its way to Rausu. Between January and February, an interesting natural phenomenon occurs where pack ice is driven to the northern coast of Hokkaido by ocean currents. Generally, this creates a fantastic photographic setting. But for photographers traveling to Hokkaido at this time of year, there is a special scene: Steller's sea eagles sitting on the ice floes, ideally in the light of the sunrise.

Additionally, we decided to photograph the Blakiston's fish owl again, which we had already captured last fall. This time with snow. We planned this for Monday after the photo hide leaders recommended coming the day after our arrival due to the ongoing storm and the low likelihood of seeing the animals today.

So, let’s see how the last days of our Wild Japan trip turn out :-)

I have attached some photos showing the winter landscape and the stormy conditions.

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