Japanese Crane

The sea was flat and we quietly slid into Kushiro Harbour (the Island of Hokkaido in Northern Japan,) this morning having an early start in order to go on a tour to visit the Japanese Cranes in their natural habitat of marshlands. Unfortunately didn’t see any and had a board -walk of 3km and 100 steps to negotiate so felt rather tired at the end! We did see Cranes in the Reserve so was able to get this shot. I've just noticed that the baby crane of about 1 week old is there in the grass!

Also a visit to the Museum where we learnt about the Ainu people who lived thousands of years ago. They made clothes out of woven bark and of salmon skin.
Three good things:
1. Ran out of grapes (John eats them all every day) in our fruit bowl but have a rare kiwi fruit now.
2. The crabs are huge here - as big as a dinner tray!
3. Saw a real fox on the side of the road but sadly it was injured in one paw so hope it survives. It was so cute.

[Nick]

Hope he managed to scratch his itch. I expect it was nice to be on dry land for a few hours.

[Maggiemae]

@nickspicsnz Well, its interesting - they obviously can't fly because of the high fences but they need to get their feathers in flight mode!

[ShirleyB]

Lovely timing and capture

[Beryl Lloyd]

Preening himself in readiness for your visit Maggiemae -- love the red in his head ! Nice capture !

[Maggiemae]

@beryl The red in the head is os interesting, Beryl! They have no feathers in the head and the red is the blood you see in the topknot! They would be very vulnerable doing head-on confrontations!

[richard saffold]

they look the same as ours, but i hate to think of them not able to fly, they love it.

[Bep]

Nicely captured.

[gloria jones]

Great capture

[Paula]

Lovely capture!

[Mike Gifford]

This on looks pretty tall. What do you think its the height of this one.

[Lady Magpie (Heather)]

Lovely capture.

[katy]

What an amazing clear image. FAscinating colors on him

[Elisabeth Sæter]

Great capture

[Ann Williams]

Well you're certainly seeing lots of different things on your travels. Cranes are usually so elegant so catching this one having a tidy up is rather special.

[summerfield]

very nice capture, maggiemae.

[Julie F]

Aww, is that a baby crane in the grass? Mummy crane is busy preening.

[Tony]

Lovely capture of the magnificent bird.

[Maggiemae]

@jaffacakes Yes, it is Julie - never realised I had it in this photo!

[Joyce]

Love that baby Maggie! great shot. What an interesting time you're having

[Sylvia du Toit]

Thanks for sharing!

[Diana Moss]

A marvellous picture ,well spotted seeing the baby it is tiny a fav

[Darlene]

How nice to get a tray of fruit. Sounds like John loves grapes and you found something you liked as well. I love crab so a large one would be a big meal I guess. Sounds like so much wonderful food. Love your photo. You sure are an animal person too. I love them as well.