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Autumn Leaves Hokkaido - Hokkaido Photo Tour

Tuesday, October 11, 2022 | By: Blain Harasymiw Photography

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Currently, I am on Japans 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 autumn colors now in full bloom

This autumn is a couple few days early due to a cold snap, but then it warned up, and the autumn leaves are holding on in brilliant colors.

Hokkaido’s blue pond (Shirogane Blue Pond)

This year we were a little early for the first snowfall, I took this shot a couple years back, and is one of my personal favorites of the blue pond.

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.

Shima Enaga or Long - tailed tit (Aegithalidae)

The Shima Enaga are getting ready for winter, this shot I took last winter while leading a Hokkaido private photo tour. The other day the Shima Enaga were too fast for us to change lenses, we had landscape lenses, a 14mm is not great for birding.

Milky White Onsen (Hot Springs)

Japan is a land with countless healing Onsen's and a high percentage are in natural settings, which is perfect for forest bathing (shinrin yoku.) Even Samauri Williams found out how nice the healing hot springs can be. You should try them sometime.

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 I have two spots open for 2023.

Steller’s sea eagle (Haliaeetus pelagicus) on pack ice Hokkaido, Japan.

The Steller's sea eagles use pace ice as a platform for fishing and sleeping during winter, durning foul weather they come inland. I took this shot in 2020 on my last group Hokkaido photo tour.

BOOK NOW YOUR SNOW MONKEY HOKKAIDO 2023 WILDLIFE ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME
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