Late winter eagles and gulls in South Hokkaido, Japan

Hello everyone and welcome to the channel. Slight change of scene for this video. We're in the coastal grasslands to the southeast of Sapporo. This is a spot we come to every March to photograph geese mainly, but it's also a really good place for raptors and some winters it's good for winter buntings and other small birds. But spoiler alert this winter there aren't any. So anyway I'll show you some of the birds we saw on this year's trip. We visit the Mukawa area two or three times a year. It's about a five hour drive from Hakodate. There are decent numbers of eagles here in winter including a few Steller's sea eagles. These videos were taken handheld with my big lens so they're a little bit wobbly. White-tailed eagles are resident in these parts and they greatly outnumber the Steller's. Last year in one of the ports there was an eagle feeding frenzy as the port workers tossed out species around including hen harrier, merlin, this Eurasian kestrel and lots of eastern buzzard. This isn't a particularly scenic part of Hokkaido. Here are some of the local winter gulls. The pale glaucus, the dark slatey-backed and the one at the end is a glaucus winged gull. This is a glaucus gull. Always nice to see a bird in its pristine natural habitat. And this is a glaucus winged gull. Sea ducks seem less common up here than near Hakodate. a semi-rarity in Japan, a drake American widgeon which was among the many Eurasian widgeons in the area. Last year's trip to the same spot was much better for photos but I got a few nice ones this time. Here's a selection of them. Thanks for watching.