Currently, I am on Japan's most northern Island leading a Hokkaido Photo tour. And the Autumn leaves are in full bloom, this year Orange and Reds are especially brilliant in the Niseko and Hakodate region. One spot I used to visit every season in Hokkaido, is the Hokkaido’s blue pond (Shirogane Blue Pond.) I still visit once or twice a year, I especially enjoy to visit in autumn and try and catch the first snowfall of the year with open waters. During winter months the blue pond is frozen over, and the ice and trees stuck in the ice used to make for a nice golden hour shot. But it’s become so famous, that they now have blue lights shinning on the frozen pond in winter, which is a little too cheesy for my taste. And they have set up a cafe next to the pond which I really dislike, but it’s still worth the trip, the colors of the pond with the trees in it are brilliant, and that is the only reason I still visit. But my advice is to arrive early, if you think you are going to enjoy a lunch time visit and do some forest bathing (shinrin yoku,) forget it, you better off staying at your lodgings and enjoy the healing milky white onsen (hot springs.)
Hokkaido is best known International for birding, and the three species most International photographers are interested in spotting and photographing are the Steller’s sea eagle (Haliaeetus pelagicus,) the Red-crowned cranes Grus japonensis,) and the Hokkaido Fox also known as the Ezo red fox (Vulpes vulpes schrencki.) I love wildlife-birding photograph so much, that I publish articles and newsletter about wildlife all year round, and I spend several months a year dedicated just to birding. To date I have photographed over half of the world bird species, for a couple of years I slowed down on birding, but I am back, and I am pushing full steam ahead, and I will be visiting other continents to fill my bird watching log book. Just the other day in Hokkaido we spotted a flock of Shima Enaga which are mainly spotted in Hokkaido, Japan. But they inhabit the entire Paleatrictic realm. The long-tailed tit is sometimes referred to as the silver-throated tit or silver-throated dasher. The long-tailed tit was first classified as a tit of the Parus group. The Parus has been split from the Aegithalidae and becoming a distinct family containing three sub-group families. Aegithalos (long-tailed tits) are five species birds with a tail. Psaltriparus (North America Buishtit), monotypic. Psaltriparus (pygmy bushtit), monotypic. The long-tailed tit is insectivorous throughout the year. The Shima Enaga eat predominantly arthropods and prefer the eggs and astronomical huge moths and butterflies, and sometimes they eat vegetable matter. Currently, the shima-enaga are especially active feeding, getting ready for winter, and are a none migratory species.
My personal favorite times of year in Hokkaido are first summer for camping in Shiretoko National Park UNESCO. But my favorite season in Hokkaido is winter and I am excited, it’s been almost three years since I lead my last Hokkaido photo tour group workshop in winter. I was overbooked this coming February due to COVID and a two year delay but three couples moved their spots over to 2024, and currently JDS has two spots open for 2023.
0 Comments