Tree in Hokkaido

Red Crowned Cranes, Foxes, Whooper Swans and More!!

We have one more day before we return home, but what a "Winter in Japan" it has been.  We could not have had a better group of fellow photographers and our leaders Denise Ippolito and Paul McKenzie were beyond the beyond.  Here are a few more of my favorites from the last few days.

Red Crowned Cranes

Steller Eagles

Whooper Swans

Snow Monkey

Long Tailed Tit

The Fox

Another Fox

Red Crowned Cranes

Very Old Snow Monkey

Stop Pulling My Hair

The Laying on of Hands

The Ural Owl

The White Tailed Eagle

Yumiko's Back Lit Snow Monkey in the Snow

Snow Monkeys!!

Yumiko and I are here in Japan for a photographic adventure.  Our first stop after visiting family and friends in Tokyo is here in Yudanaka where the snow monkeys live.  We were lucky that just before we got here it snowed, however today it is 65 degrees outside.  Ugh...  In fact it is so warm the monkeys are not going into the hot spring.  The temperature outside is warmer than the hot spring.   But that has not deterred my passion for photographing these beautiful creatures.  Here are a few of my favorites so far.

Too Soon

For Christmas this year I gave each of Tom's three grandchildren a little praying mantis egg sack.  This morning we got a call that one of the sacks had come alive and a whole lot of babies had emerged.  It is only February 2!!  Way too early.  I rushed around and found a little glass container for the babies and some live crickets just in case they needed some food.  When Tom and I got to Tom's son's house and found the babies, they were not doing well.  Sometimes it is just too early....  In the meantime here is wonderful Jack Cobb and one of the little babies on a cold cold day in February.