MY Hokkaido Wildlife Birding Photography Tours offer participants hundreds of incredible, up-close encounters with rare bird species, such as the Steller's Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus pelagicus). When photographing raptors on pack ice, I ensure our group gears up and heads out well before sunrise. 

One morning last year, late in the season, the weather conditions were perfect for photographing raptors on pack ice, and the ice was remarkably close to shore. The ocean was like glass, and the pack ice was stable. On this particular day, I decided to shoot from Zodiac boats due to the tranquillity of the Pacific Ocean. While we often spot and photograph from the deck of a sizeable chartered vessel, the proximity of the pack ice to the shore made the Zodiacs the ideal choice. 

One significant advantage of photographing from a Zodiac boat is the angle of view; you are either below the raptors or at eye level, which is perfect for capturing wildlife. The calm waters, combined with the golden hour light, created perfectly balanced conditions, turning the glassy shimmer of the ocean into a photographer's dream come true. In my 25 years of leading Hokkaido photo tours, I had only encountered such ideal conditions a handful of times.

The group and I spotted a Steller's Sea Eagle in mid-hunt that morning. Having just caught a sizable fish from the exposed crevices of the Pacific Ocean among the pack ice, the eagle perched on one of the more stable floes. The flesh and scales of the fish offered no resistance to the eagle's sharp beak and talons. My Zodiac was about 10 meters (approximately 30 feet) from the eagle and its prey, and at the moment I clicked the shutter, the raptor's eyes locked onto mine. Just after witnessing this moment of pure instinct, the eagle squawked and gulped down the first part of its meal. 

Thanks to my extensive experience in birding and having the right equipment during my Hokkaido Photo Tour, this moment will forever be immortalized in my gallery. I captured the raptor photo using a Nikon Z9 and a Nikon 120-300mm AF-S NIKKOR f/2.8E FL ED SR VR lens. My camera settings were 1/2500 sec at f/11.