Gasthof Papilio

After taking photos of the swans at the lake, I went back to the guesthouse to have breakfast with the others. After breakfast, we enjoyed our time taking photos of birds and mammals around the feeders in front of the guesthouse. There were so many birds at the feeders. It was pretty hectic and difficult to choose which one to photograph since all of them were flying around everywhere. Tits and nuthatches were the commonest as usual but there were also many woodpeckers and jays.

Eurasian Jay subspecies G. g. brandtii of Hokkaido has strong rufous head.

Another shot of the Eurasian Jay

Marsh Tit without any cropping!

Male Grey-headed Woodpecker subspecies P. c. jessoensis

Eurasian Nuthatch subspecies S. e. clara

Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker subspecies D. k. ijimae

Coal Tit and Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker at the feeder

Coal Tit was the smallest among all tit species found at the feeder.

Some more shots of the Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker

A flock of more than 6 Eurasian Jays were one of the first groups to arrive at the feeders. Even though, they are the biggest among all of the birds at the feeders, they were also the most skittish. I could only get few decent photos of them. What surprised me was the male Grey-headed Woodpecker that visited the feeders twice. It's my first time seeing this subspecies which is restricted to East Asia. It looked much different from the one we get in South-East Asia.

Male Great Spotted Woodpecker

They were more cooperative than the earlier evening.

Here comes the female

Another shot of the Eurasian Jay

The male Grey-headed Woodpecker while visiting the feeder.

One of the few Red Squirrels that visited the feeders.

The abundant Marsh Tit

Even though numerous, Eurasian Nuthatch was never an easy target.

They always moved around just too fast.

There were at least 3 Great Spotted Woodpeckers at the feeders. I saw 2 males and 1 female together at once. Interestingly, the males always chased the female away when they saw her at the feeders. Seemed like male birds were more aggressive. I asked the owner if there's any chance of seeing Black Woodpecker around here. He said that it sometimes showed up around the lodge too, but not at the feeders.

What a lovely creature it is!

Marsh Tit showing off it bib.

Some more shots of the Eurasian Nuthatch

Coal Tit showing its tiny crest

Transforming into a ball

Some more photos of the female Great Spotted Woodpecker

Perching un-woodpecker-like!

Probably the closest I could get to this skittish woodpecker.

Photo of the male taken on the earlier evening

As well as this Eurasian Jay foraging on the ground

We left the wonderful Gasthof Papilio around 11:30AM, then headed to Notsuke Hanto where we searched for some seabirds and ducks before moving on to Rausu where we would spend 3 nights. The weather gradually worsened as we left Lake Kussharo and we could only hope that it would get better.

Lake Kussharo

We had few minutes after checking into the guesthouse before the sun set. I hurried out to take photos of birds around the feeders. There were a pair of Eurasian Jays, lots of Marsh Tits and Eurasian Nuthatches and few Japanese Tits. Then I spotted a woodpecker came flying in. It was a male Great Spotted Woodpecker. I played hide and seek with it for a while before it got too dark to take photos. That night, we had a great dinner with red wine while watching the snowfall.

Male Great Spotted Woodpecker

Lovely pattern and colours

I really like its black, white and red plumage.

Eurasian Nuthatch under the late evening light

Eurasian Nuthatch enjoying the feeder

Marsh Tit-ball!

I was completely trapped by this table inside the kitchen.

Just part of our dinner

The next morning, I decided to go to the lake to photograph the swans. Yann suggested me to go early before the swans arrive so that we can take photos of them while flying in. I arrived at the lake around 7:30AM and there were only few swans there. This lake is special because it has some hot water coming in from the hot springs nearby making parts of the lake ice-free. The swans started to arrive just a little after that and we had a nice time taking photos of them even though they were just too close. It's pretty hard to believe that these are actually wild birds.

Early morning at Lake Kussharo

Hot springs make parts of the lake ice-free.

Whooper Swans started arriving.

My 300mm lens was almost useless.

One of our trip members, Dr. Mong, with the swans.

I actually like the juveniles a lot. They looked kind of funny.

I noticed that the amount of yellow on the bill can be quite varied. Look at the one on the left.

The last shot before I went back to the guesthouse.