A day with the Cranes

We can only afford to stay at Yuku No Sato Tsuruga one night so we pack up and head to Kawayu Onsen. Still in the Akan National Park but on another lake, Lake Kussharo. First though we make a side trip to the Akan International Japanese Crane Center. No, this isn't a centre for industrial machines. These are birdies. Japanese cranes. Stork like thingies. Big beautiful and graceful. Their wings can span 2.5 metres. We spend about 4 hours watching and videoing these birds. They're not doing much though until feeding time when a bloke comes out with buckets of live fish which causes a bit of a frenzy. Eagles and foxes come out of the woodwork which already adds to the cacophony of honking from the snow geese which share the field with the cranes.
You'll have to wait for some decent pictures of the cranes from Michelle's slides. My pissy little camera doesn't have the zoom.