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Kushiro Shitsugen NP, Hokkaido
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At the marsh wildlife center, a ranger followed a mouse’s tracks to a raptor’s wing-and-tail imprint and blood spots—the clues of a likely kite’s successful pounce.
Red-crowned cranes were thought extinct around 1890, then rediscovered at Kirakotan Cape in 1924. Local winter feeding began in 1952, when the first count found just 33 birds.
Even when Lake Shirarutoro freezes, a hot-spring inflow keeps a patch of water open—a refuge where swans, ducks and herons gather.
Before the Senmo railway, frozen Lake Toro and nearby waterways served as winter freight routes. Horse-sled teams carried charcoal toward Kushiro, using special spiked “ice horseshoes” for grip.
In January 2024, park volunteers held a mochi-pounding gathering behind Onnenai Visitor Center. Many participants were first-timers, after the rice, mortar, pestle and wood stove were prepared.
A park ranger has photographed ice bubbles, frost flowers and ice-coated trees at Kushiro Marsh. These delicate winter displays are special partly because they don’t appear every day.
In the exceptionally cold winter of 2021, the Kushiro River froze farther upstream than usual. Deer walked onto the ice to browse tree buds; after heavy snow, others moved toward sheltered hills.
The SL Fuyu-no-Shitsugen’s C11-171 was built in 1940, retired in 1975 and displayed in a Shibecha park. Restored after 24 years, it returned to run through the wetland in 2000.
Kushiro’s winter is cold and relatively low-snow, but fallen snow can linger. Around Onnenai, tracks build up on the undisturbed surface until fresh snow covers them.
From a snowy hill above Onnenai, differences in snow cover help reveal changes in the plants below—a reminder that the white marsh is not one uniform habitat.
In deep winter around Onnenai, flocks of siskins and redpolls pick seeds from alder and hairy alder trees. Steller’s sea eagles also occasionally pass overhead.
A Ural owl recorded in Kushiro Marsh spends daylight in a tree hollow, almost motionless. That quiet daytime habit makes this winter resident particularly hard to spot.
