Frozen Sea

Rishiri Island: Snowy Seascape It's a long, cold winter in Hokkaido. The birds are covered in fluffy winter fur. The seals are dozing off in the warm sunlight, even though it's cold. Ducks can be seen in the sea at this time of year. When you think of ducks, you might think of them in lakes, rivers, and ponds, but the Harlequin Duck lives in the sea. Ducks can be broadly categorized into two types. ●Diving ducks that dive to eat bottom-of-water foods and crustaceans ●Ducks that feed on the surface Harlequin Ducks are classified as diving ducks. The way they dive to get food makes you wonder if they're ducks. And the males' winter fur is beautiful. By the way, drift ice doesn't come very often. Even if it does, it's just small pieces, and the huge ones like the ones in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk melt before they reach the island. The winter scenery of Rishiri is the ice on the rocks. It seems that seawater starts to freeze at about -1.8℃ because it contains salt. However, only the fresh water actually freezes, and the salty portion (concentrated seawater) is expelled into the unfrozen seawater. By the way, on days when the sea is calm, there may be snow on top of the ice on the rocks, so if you climb up, you will slip and fall into the cold sea, so please be careful. When it gets cold, the familiar seals and sea lions come to the island. They will peek out their cute faces. #Snowscape #RishiriIsland #Freezing