Aomori—Hokkaido

Sep. 16-17, 2017 Aomori – Hokkaido

We on boarded the Silver Ferry (Kawasaki Kinkai Kisen Kaisya,LTD.).

DAY 1 :We departed Aomori (Hachinohe port) at 8:45 am and arrived at Hokkaido (Tomakomai port) at 16:00 pm.
Weather : cloudy, sunny and sometimes rainy
Temperature : around 15℃
Wind speed : around 3 m/s

DAY 2 :We departed Hokkaido (Tomakomai port) at 9:30 am and arrived at Aomori (Hachinohe port) at 18:00 pm.
Weather : cloudy
Temperature : around 17℃
Wind speed : around 7 m/s
Typhoon No.18 had formed in the southwest of Japan.

There was a strong swell, and a southeasterly strong wind.There were more Providence Petrels than we had expected.And fortunately, we were able to observe several Storm-petrels (many of them were Leach’s Storm-petrel).These good fortune seems to be the result of good weather condition (strong swell and strong wind) and timing (migration of Providence Petrels and fledging of Leach’s Storm-petrels)

Bird List

  • Black-footed Albatross (10)
  • Laysan Albatross (29)
  • Short-tailed Albatross (1)
  • Providence Petrel (183+)
  • Streaked Shearwater ++
  • Sooty Shearwater (4)
  • Flesh-footed Shearwater (4)
  • Leach’s Storm-petrel (8)
  • Storm-petrel sp. (White rump) (9)
  • Japanese Cormorant
  • Cormorant sp.
  • Red-necked Phalarope 
  • Red Phalarope
  • Black-tailed Gull
  • Slaty-backed Gull
  • Common Tern
  • Tern sp.
  • Pomarine Skua
  • Carrion Crow
  • Japanese White-eye