Webmaster visited the wintering place of cranes in Izumi of Kagoshima Prefecture.
Access:
Itami AP, Osaka (plane 1:10) Kagoshima AP (bus 1:30) Izumi (taxi 0:20) Observation Center @
Shin-osaka (shinkansen 4:15) Izumi (taxi 0:20) Observation Center @
The starting point of the visit is Izumi Station. There are statues of crane in front of the station.
You had better go to the place by rent-a-car or taxi as I did. Public transport is inconvenient.
This is Crane Observation center. It takes about 20 minutes by car.
The center is located in the west part of the wintering place which is a huge rice paddy land.
There is an observatory and expositions on the ecology of cranes in details in the upper floor of the center.
According to the census held on 30th November 2024, it was counted 12,992 cranes of five species in this wintering place.
The majority are Nabezuru (Grus monacha) (left) and Manazuru (Grus vipio) (right). Both of them in each photo are families, two parents and a juvenile.
There is a rooftop observatory, too.
Many bird watchers are observing and taking photos of the cranes also on the ground.
The center provides electric vehicles for visiting to another observatory in the east part of the wintering place. I borrowed it and visited there.
Now I show some photos of the cranes.
Sometimes we can see a flight of cranes moving to the other feeding grounds.
I wanted to take nice photos of flying cranes, but it was very difficult to catch them in a finder into focus.
The cranes come to winter here from November to March. Please visit Izumi.
End.