A full day with the snow monkeys is never a bad day! The busy little monkeys kept the cameras clicking all day, which produced some lovely images and memories.
Major sightings of the day:
- Snow monkeys
Japan: Winter Wildlife Safari 2013: Day 5
After a (very) quick trip on the famous bullet train, we made our way to photograph some of the smartest monkeys cold weather has seen. This famous troop of monkeys have worked out the easy way to see out the cold of winter – by taking a hot bath! There is a natural hot spring that runs through the reserve, and every morning, these monkeys make their way up to the spring, and climb in for a bit of rest and relaxation. The spin of of this behaviour, is some very cool photographic opportunities!
Major sightings of the day:
- Snow monkeys
Japan: Winter Wildlife Safari 2013: Day 4
The day kicked off with us boarding an ice-breaker boat en route to see some very cool eagles. We had an incredible two and a half hours with the magnificent stellar sea eagles, white-tailed eagles and hundreds of gulls that had pretty much surrounded the boat. It was an amazing photographic experience having so much choice, with so much action happening almost constantly. Disembarking, we had a relaxed day, and caught up on some rest and quick image processing, before heading out for a real treat. We tried our luck attempting to photograph a very rare bird, the Blackiston’s fish owl. We were rewarded for our (rather chilly) efforts with two visits by the magnificent bird, and even better, we managed to get some images!
Major sightings of the day:
- Stellar sea eagles
- White-tailed eagles
- Various kinds of sea gulls
- Baird’s beaked whale
- Blackiston’s fish owl
Japan: Winter Wildlife Safari 2013: Day 3
Before travelling up to our next stop, we spent the morning back at the river where the red crowned cranes sleep and, with the conditions being even better than before, made for a brilliant morning of photography! Things got even better when a pair of red foxes ran out right in front of the birds, and started mating, much to the amusement of one of the cranes which came up to the bank to have a look at all the commotion. After the action from the river came to an end, we spent a very productive hour back at the crane sanctuary, where some smaller birds found their way into the cameras viewfinders, adding to our species list, as well as the prized cranes.
Major sightings of the day:
- Red foxes mating
- Japanese red crowned cranes
- Whooper swan
Japan: Winter Wildlife Safari 2013: Day 2
There was as much clicking of the cameras on the second day as there was on the first! We started off with the very elegant whooper swans set against a spectacular backdrop, followed by a quick stop off at a smaller crane sanctuary, where the owner, an elderly lady has (now famously) been feeding the cranes for over fifty years! That is a great personal effort, and one which has certainly helped this rare species bounce back from the brink of extinction. We moved on through the marsh lands, and spent some time looking for and photographing Sika deer. Ending off another great day, was another crane sunset shoot, which delivered big time.
Major sightings of the day:
- Many whooper swans
- Many Japanese red crowned cranes
- Sika deer
- Red foxes
- White-tailed eagle
