Hokkaido part 4

So many foxes! Every day around 8 or 10 crossed our path. The highlight was a cub, or kit as the young ones are called, that watched is intensely from the middle of a gravel road, while waiting for a parent with food. It might just have left the den. I read they are born deaf and blind. Maybe we were the first humans it saw!

Red Fox, エゾキツネ

Mama has arrived with lunch. (Merganser chick)

Of the many (Leaf) Warblers I heard, and the others saw, one stopped in front of my lens.

I think Sakhalin, Leaf Warbler, エゾムシクイ

Several White-tailed Eagles, オジロワシ were seen along the coast, especially around Rausu

All taken from the back of T's car, whose windows would not roll down all the way....

Hokkaido part 3

I don't know what I expected, but not the absence of butterflies. I did not see one! Was it too cold? We found a cicada that didn't move, or couldn't? The temperature was way below 20C. Flowers, yes! Many and different from Kyushu. These below, what are they? In yellow and red, near the boardwalk of the Po River.

 Japanese Oxtongue? コウゾリナ?

Orange Hawkweed? コウリンタンポポ?

On to that board walk:

Long-tailed Rosefinch, ベニマシコ

Siberian Rubythroat, ノゴマ

Stonechat, ノビタキ  male

female

Common Reed Bunting, オオジュリン

All in summer feathers

Hokkaido, part 2

The second item on my wish list was the big Crane. I fully expected to see some in the fields at a distance. What we got was a family with one chick on the side of the road! They didn't seem much perturbed by the big noisy trucks that raced back and forth, but us stopping on the verge of the road made them a bit anxious.

Red-crowned Crane, タンチョウ

Parents showing the baby how to find food

Such long legs!

At a pond nearby, several common ducks were gathered. I was mainly interested in the families of Mergansers on the opposite bank. A bit far for my lens in any situation.

Common merganser, カワアイサ

A raptor flew by, and all hell broke loose

The Latham's Snipes, オオジシギ sure like those poles!

Despite the often-perfect circumstances, I wasn't able to take sharp photos. My fingers trembled, my arms were shaking, I could not concentrate. Such pain!