Our Guesthouse in Rausu, Shiretoko Serai’s nature guide, Kaito Imahori, sent us a report from the 2021 season!
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In 2021, I was able to see one chick and a parent bird next to each other at the Rausu’s Fish Owl Observatory for the first time in several years.
Only about 160 owls live in Japan, and it is difficult to find Blakiston’s fish owls in the wild. In Rausu, there is an accommodation called “Washi no Yado” (Fish Owl Observatory) where you can observe the fish owls visit the river through the night, and where bird watchers also gather and can see them every night.
The pair of Blakiston’s fish owls that came here, have failed to breed for many years. From the fall of 2019, a different female started coming around. No one knew where this new female came from, like where she was born or raised and she was much more fearful of people and now they come to the river more rarely.
In June of this year, when we were observing the male, the female suddenly appeared on a dead tree stump with the male, and they stayed for 30 minutes fishing at the river, and then left. After this day, the female started to appear more at the river, and from August, the long-awaited chicks appeared with the parents. The chicks were taught how to feed on the fish swimming in the river by the mother owls.
The number of chicks found in this year’s survey was at a record high of 37 chicks. I hope that many more owlets can be born and live in the forests of Shiretoko.
Photo & text: Kaito Imahori (Shiretoko Serai)
Observation: Summer 2021, Rausu, Shireoko Hokkaido
*Contact us, Saiyu Travel for more information about wildlife and bird watching in Hokkaido. We can make various arrangements for your trip. We have a guesthouse, Shiretoko Serai, in Rausu, Shiretoko Peninsula.
