Hokkaido Wildlife Photography Tours always include birding photography. On every photography adventure clients have hundreds of amazing up close and personal encounters with rare bird species. On one of the last winter wonderland Hokkaido tours, our veteran Japan Photo Tour leader geared up the group to start well before sunrise, about 4am to be sure to be in position well before sunrise. Weather conditions on the day were perfect for photographing on the pack ice or even walking on it; this day he choose to shot from zodiac boats because of the calm Pacific Ocean. Usually, clients enjoy the photo tour from the deck of a large chartered vessel, but this day the pack ice was only a few kilometers from shore, so zodiacs were the ideal choice. The best angle of view is being at eye level when photographing wildlife. The number of clients that can ride in a zodiac is naturally limited by available space, so when they ventured out in three boats, everyone had the opportunity for an amazing photo op.
The calm Pacific Ocean pack ice and the golden hour exhibited the perfectly balanced light, the glassy shimmer was perfect. The contrast meant conditions were ideal; everyone could not have been more lucky, and in over 20 years leading photo tours in Hokkaido, the Hokkaido Photo Tour leader had only seen these conditions a handful of times. The Steller’s Sea Eagle and White-Tailed Eagle are both well-known inhabitants of Hokkaido during the winter time and are the main attraction in terms of raptors. The White-Tailed Eagle raptor is smaller than the Steller’s Sea Eagle but hold its own against the fierce and larger raptor the Steller’s Sea Eagle.
On this morning, the JDS photography workshop leader caught sight of this White-Tailed Eagle in mid-hunt. Having just plucked a large mackerel from the exposed crevices in the Pacific Ocean among the pack ice, the eagle was perched among some of the more stable floes, everyone heard and saw this magnificent white tail eagle rip the head off the fish and the photo workshop leader and clients could clearly hear the crunching of the bones and the ripping of the flesh. The flesh and scales of the mackerel put up no resistance to the White-tailed Eagle’s razor sharp beak and talons. Many of the uninitiated to Hokkaido birding have the conception that the eagles are relatively small, but the talons alone are on par with the size of human hand if not larger. The Zodiac was so close to the eagle, about 10 meters (~30 feet), that at the moment the Japan Photo Tour Leader took the photo, the raptors eyes met with his. Immediately after the visceral instant, the eagle squawked and gulped down the first part of its meal. It was a moment that will always be remembered, due to his years of experience in birding and having the right equipment during my Hokkaido Photo Tour, he was able to immortalized it in a digital record. For this white tail eagle I used a Nikon D850, with a Nikon 600m VR2. The settings were: 1/2500sec f11, ISO 1000.
These are precisely the type of photo adventures and unforgettable moments that you can enjoy on a JDS Hokkaido Photo Tour.