Overview
Hokkaido is the northernmost of the 4 main islands and coupled with some small adjacent islands makes up a province of Japan. [3]
When speaking of Eastern Hokkaido, a person is referring to an area that falls inside the jurisdiction of Nemuro, Tokachi, Abashiri, and Kushiro.
Hokkaido's eastern part offers many different spots from which to immerse yourself in nature, with those changing with the seasons.
It is said it has a charm of its own that can't be found in other areas of the island. A place with "abundant nature."[2]
Birds
Notable Species
Hokkaido is known as a top winter birding location and is increasingly becoming so year round, according to Nature Guide – Best of Hokkaido. [4] And goes on to say the area is home to resident Red-crowned Crane, Blakiston's Fish Owl.
Winter brings visiting Whooper Swan and Steller's Sea Eagle. Then in summer breeding Spectacled Guillemot and Siberian Rubythroat.
In the Shiretoko National Park 144 species have been reported with 5 globally threatened.[5]
In the Akan National Park, 143 species have been reported with 6 globally threatened. [6]
The Kushiro-shitsugen National Park has recorded 128 species and 7 species globally threatened. [7]
Rarities
Some of the species recorded as rare for the Shiretoko National Park[5] include the Horned Lark and Gray-streaked Flycatcher.
One species, the Mistle Thrush, has been recorded as rare for the Akan National Park.[6] Mistle Thrush.
In the Kushiro-shitsugen National Park the Common Crane has been noted as being rare. .[7]
Check-list
Birds you can see here include:
Mandarin Duck, Hazel Grouse, Little Grebe, Oriental Turtle-Dove, Common Cuckoo, White-throated Needletail, Long-billed Plover, Eurasian Woodcock, Pomarine Jaeger, Common Murre, Black-headed Gull, Red-throated Loon, Northern Fulmar, Pelagic Cormorant, Mountain Hawk-Eagle, Crested Kingfisher, Eurasian Wryneck, Eurasian Hobby, Bull-headed Shrike, Eurasian Jay, Coal Tit, Eurasian Skylark, Sakhalin Grasshopper-Warbler, Barn Swallow, Brown-eared Bulbul, Eastern Crowned Warbler, Asian Stubtail, Long-tailed Tit, Warbling White-eye, Goldcrest, Eurasian Nuthatch, Eurasian Treecreeper, Eurasian Wren, Brown Dipper, White-cheeked Starling, White's Thrush, Gray-streaked Flycatcher, Japanese Accentor, Russet Sparrow, Gray Wagtail, Hawfinch, Chestnut-eared Bunting, Whooper Swan, Red-necked Grebe, White-bellied Green Pigeon, Oriental Cuckoo, Pacific Swift, Red-crowned Crane, Little Ringed Plover, Common Sandpiper, Least Auklet, Glaucous Gull, Arctic Loon, Japanese Cormorant, Gray Heron, Osprey, Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Northern Boobook, White-backed Woodpecker, Peregrine Falcon, Eurasian Nutcracker, Marsh Tit, Asian House-Martin, Kamchatka Leaf Warbler, Japanese Bush Warbler, Japanese Thrush, Blue-and-white Flycatcher, Japanese Waxwing, Eurasian Tree Sparrow, White Wagtail, Japanese Grosbeak, Reed Bunting, Taiga Bean-Goose, Horned Grebe, Eurasian Coot, Common Crane, Latham's Snipe, Herring Gull, Great Egret, Northern Goshawk, Pygmy Woodpecker, Northern Shrike, Oriental Magpie, Varied Tit, Black-browed Reed Warbler, Middendorff's Grasshopper-Warbler, Sakhalin Leaf Warbler, Dusky Thrush, Japanese Wagtail, Masked Bunting.
Other Wildlife
While birds are abundant in Eastern Hokkaido, there exist many other forms of wildlife.
It's reported to have 36 species of land mammals, and 22 species of marine mammals.
An assortment of these could include sea lions, sperm whales, brown bear, deer, red foxes as well as many species of reptiles, fish, and insects. [8]
Site Information
History and Use
The Japanese island of Hokkaido was, in the beginning, the home of a group of aboriginal people called the Ainu. When a stronger effort at settlement was begun in the mid-1800s by the Japanese, what had been called Yezo was renamed to what it is today. The Ainu ultimately were grouped into the newer culture, but there are still pockets of those who have kept up their ancestry. [3]
Areas of Interest
While there are many interesting places within what is referred to as Eastern Hokkaido, a few of the representative ones are: [8]
Shiretoko National Park
Shiretoko's name is derived from the Ainu language term Siri Etoku, which translates to "the end of the earth." It's situated at the extreme northeastern tip and is an area of significant landscape coupled with rich wildlife. This area, like a lot of modern-era places, is subject to pressures that could erode its richness. In July of 2005, it was designated as a World Natural Heritage Site.[8]
Akan Mashu National Park
The Akan Mashu National Park is another on the eastern side of Hokkaido. It's an older park when it comes to age and remains covered, in large part, by natural, coniferous forests. It has been described as looking primitive. There is significant waterways and habitat to support it contingent of birds and wildlife.[8]
Kushiro-shitsugen National Park
Kushiro-shitsugen, or Kushiro Marsh, National Park, is an area consisting of the Kushiro River and Marsh. It's rich in habitat for a range of natural features and was the first registered wetland, in 1980, pursuant to the Ramsar Convention. It was considered a new direction in National Parks in Japan in that it encompassed what had before considered a barren area.
Access and Facilities
There are three significant commercial airports on Hokkaido. The New Chitose (CTS), Hakodate (HKD), and Asahikawa (AKJ) are situated on the western side of the island. The best choice will likely depend on which part of the eastern side you want to travel to.
Consult a trusted travel professional for specific, up-to-date information.
References
- Hokkaido Guide (Tourism) - https://hokkaidoguide.com/areas/eastern-hokkaido/
- Hokkaido Labo (Travel Guide) - https://hokkaido-labo.com/en/doto-sightseeing-13209
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Hokkaido, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc, September 11, 2019 -https://www.britannica.com/place/Hokkaido , Accessed September 03, 2020
- Nature Guide - Best of Hokkaido - https://best.visit-hokkaido.jp/nature/
- Lepage D. (2020) Shiretoko National Park Bird Checklist - Avibase - Bird Checklists of the World. Retrieved 4 September 2020
- Lepage D. (2020) Akan National Park Bird Checklist - Avibase - Bird Checklists of the World. Retrieved 4 September 2020
- Lepage D. (2020) Kushiro-shitsugen National Park Bird Checklist - Avibase - Bird Checklists of the World. Retrieved 4 September 2020
- National Parks of Japan / Ministry of the Environment - https://www.env.go.jp/park/index.html
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Eastern Hokkaido. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 19 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Eastern_Hokkaido
External Links
Maps
A Brief Southeast Hokkaido Trip, June 27-29, 2004
This was a Blakiston's Fish-Owl trip. We flew into Nakashibetsu Airport on Sunday the 27th. By the time we got the rental car, it was 1:00 pm, so I decided that, morning birding being lost, we might as well go on down to Ochiisi Cape. This was a two-and-a-half hour drive through slightly rolling, very open hay and dairy country. There is an extreme urge to far exceed the speed limit, but my 20,000-yen speeding ticket from a previous trip put the governor on, and I never drove faster than 80 kph, which seems very slow when you're trying to get anywhere on Hokkaido's straight, open, unpeopled road system. It is beautiful countryside, but the only birds to watch along the way are on the wires: big birds were either Black Kite or Carrion Crow; medium-sized birds were inevitably Oriental Turtle Dove; and small birds were 80% Amur Stonechat, with an admixture of Eurasian Tree Sparrow and Russet Sparrow, and Black-backed (White) Wagtail. Oh yes, and the dumb Latham's Snipe on top of the power poles, lots of them. We were to drive back and forth through this kind of countryside several times during the three days, and that's just about the species list; we also saw a fox, a dozen Hokkaido deer, and hundreds of Holsteins.
We arrived at Ochiisi at 3:30 p.m. to a dense coastal fog. There is a long boardwalk through an alpine-like miniature forest and out to the lighthouse (1.7 km from the closed gate). When I got to the lighthouse, there was a Eurasian Wryneck on the power line. The foghorn was blasting away and the fog was too thick to see the rocks. I spent half an hour there, saw perhaps a dozen each of Pelagic Cormorant and Great Cormorant flit in and out of the fog, then gave up on the possible appearance of anything more interesting (Red-faced Cormorant, Long-billed Murrelet, Spectacled Guillemot), and retreated.
We turned around and headed back along the same route to Fujiya Ryokan (Inn) in Nakashibetsu. Going and coming I also got Gray's Warbler, Lanceolated Warbler and Middendorf's Warbler, the three [i]Locustella[/i], and watched the Latham's Snipe's phenomenal aerial displays.
A word about directions and distances: I have no idea how I got where I went in Hokkaido. With my wife along, she was able to program the GPS by simply inputting the telephone number of the ryokan, or the name of wherever we wanted to go, and a complete route map appeared-- I just followed it blindly, never looking at road signs or the position of the sun, until the electronic green line terminated and we had arrived wherever. Amazing; I was an automaton driver.
Fujiya ( http://kashikiri-onsen.com/hokkaidou/doutou/yoroushi/fujiya.html )(phone 01537-8-2341) is a ryokan (inn), not a minshuku (pension), so the price is higher and the food is better (featuring shrimp, a local specialty-- and the second night we actually had a lovely tender Hokkaido beefsteak). 10,000 yen each per night got us a minimal room with a toilet (one-seater) down the hall. For 16,000 yen, we could have gotten a private toilet and an owl-view out our room window. It is a grandly-rustically-decorated place with a very hot indoor/outdoor hotspring.
But on to the owls. The trout pool they come to is ridiculous, no more than a small backyard koi pond. They birds come sometime after dark, and Channel One on all the room TV sets is tuned to the backyard camera, so you can sit in your room and watch the pool till they arrive. The previous night, they had arrived about 9 p.m. After dinner we went back to the room and switched back and forth between Ch 1 and the Giants-Tigers baseball game. At 8 p.m., there was suddenly a motionless owl standing by the pond. We scampered to the dining room, where we could view it through the window. Breath-taking, of course. A parent and one of the two juveniles stood around for perhaps 20 minutes before grabbing a fish apiece and taking off.
I went to bed at 9:30, with the alarm set for 4:30. Monday the 28th, I awoke without the clock at 3:30 a.m. and it was full daylight, with the sun appearing over the horizon at 4 a.m. The ryokan is at the end of the paved road, and there is a gravel logging road from there on through mixed wood and planted fir forest. I walked along it and back from 3:45 until 8:00, while wife and son got their beauty sleep, rose and had their breakfasts. The two mornings I did this, I heard lots of Siberian Blue Robin, Brown Thrush, Eastern Crowned Warbler (a strange experience to be mobbed by 3 or 4 of the latter), Oriental Cuckoo, Japanese Green Pigeon, a few White's Thrush and Narcissus Flycatcher, and saw 2 birds I wanted for the year-- Marsh Tit and Eurasian Treecreeper, and a surprise Ural Owl. I saw other more common woodland birds here, and of course I heard a few mystery skulkers. Mosquitos were bad-- thankfully they were low fliers, and stayed mostly around my pantlegs; kept me busy swatting, though.
After their breakfast, it took us two hours to drive to Shunkunitai, the southern peninsula embracing Furen-ko (Furen Lake), arriving at 10:30, where my wife dropped me off. It was cool and overcast, and I had a lonely walk of the place until 2 p.m. Very disappointing-- no woodpeckers, no Redshanks, almost no nothing. Two White-tailed Eagle. Several Middendorf's Warbler appeared nicely. It's a great-looking place-- a boardwalk through bog and among alpine-like firs, a long sandbar and the sea. You cannot drive in anymore, but must park at the bridge and hoof it. I did not wade across the marsh and try to get into the woods at the farther end-- if you are willing to do that, it might be more productive.
My wife picked me up and we made another run to Ochiisi (one hour return from Shunkuitai). Same damn thing again: as we approached the coast it got foggier and foggier-- I had a quick look at the point next to the cape, above the Ochiisi fisherman's wharf, but again could see nothing for the fog. So in disgust I gave up on seabirds. We drove back to Furen-ko again, around to the northern peninsula this time, birding that by car from 3:30 to 4:30 pm. It is a long narrow uninteresting grassland/bog. By this time the weather was getting really nasty-- cold and blowing. I got no Lanceolated Warblers or Redshanks here, either; I didn't get out and walk much. Some large rafts of Common Scoters were out on the ocean. There were a couple of Japanese Cranes here. On the entire trip, we saw eight cranes in four groups, in various accidental places en route.
Time and energy was expended, and we headed back to the ryokan. At a little river bridge, I pished up a gorgeous Siberian Rubythroat who perched and sang his little heart out for us. And a small raft of Goosander.
After dinner, same routine: back to the room to watch and wait for the owls on TV. This time I was quite relaxed, however. (My wife was a little disappointed that we had seen them the first night, and wished that we could cancel the second night and move to a cheaper place-- not cricket, though. Actually, the fishpond is visible from the road, and if one wanted to rent a cheaper mishuku nearby, it would be possible to drive over, park discreetly, and wait in the dark. The view would be a much more distant one, though, and hard to see satisfactorily in the gloom. And not cricket either, really.)
Again at 8 p.m. two birds silently appeared on the screen, and we went down to the dining area again to watch them. They are magnificent, but boring. They just stood immobile, staring into the pond. After 10 minutes this time, however, a fox came bounding out of the shrubbery and flushed them up into a tree. Fox soon left, owls returned... and stood. Finally, I went back to the room where my sake bottle was, and watched them on TV. They stood for an hour, never making a grab at a fish, and I got nicely drunk waiting and watching. I finally stumbled back down to the side door to take a last good look, but they took off (not my fault), one soaring right above my head as it cleared the porch roof. There is road construction and deforestation going on right up the ryokan road, so who knows how long the birds will continue to come here. Meanwhile, it had started to drizzle.
It rained all night, and continued drizzling the next day. Tuesday the 29th, I took the same morning walk up the logging road but didn't start until 6 a.m. because of the rain and an owl-related hangover. With the rain still drizzling, and a plane to catch at 1 p.m., I gave up on a planned mad dash to Notsuke Peninsula, the third site I'd chosen (only real hope there now was the year-list Common Redshank anyway), and I finally let my wife have a bit of a choice on this trip. We headed west from Nakashibetsu for an hour, to Lake Mashuko, a crater lake famed for its mists. I had not scheduled any mountain birding, so it sounded interesting. Not so: fog also increased with the increasing elevation, and the lake itself was totally invisible, the busload of tourists at the visitors' centre milling about taking pictures of each other next to the Big Soft Cream Cone at the concession stand. Another Siberian Rubythroat perched and sang on an invisible bush; I heard two Grey-headed Woodpeckers calling each to each.
And that is the grit and gristle of this experience. I would suggest: that one complete day and two half days is way, way too short to try to do this prime birding area of Japan. There is a lot of travel time to consider, there is a lot of ground to cover to get to the good spots, and not much in the way of interesting stops in between (I did spend a lot of time along the way looking for Brown Shrike; I saw no shrike of any species). I just did not have enough time to do justice to any of the modest three areas I had chosen (although the weather can also be blamed to some extent). One should also anticipate fog ruining the coastal birding-- evidently it is a common weather pattern there in June.
Other (non-)sightings of possible interest: a single Red-rumped Swallow and many Sand Martins; only a single White-rumped Swift (no White-throated Needletail); several Black-browed Reed Warbler; only Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker, Grey-headed Woodpecker and Great Spotted Woodpecker (no Black, White-backed or Lesser Spotted); all the tits except Varied Tit; no flycatchers except Narcissus Flycatcher; [i]brandtii[/i] Jay; no Yellow-breasted Buntings anymore, of course.
Content and images originally posted by Charles Harper
