Izunuma and Uchinuma

Izunuma and Uchinuma are shallow lowland marshes covering about four square kilometres on the Semboku plain, and because there is little snow here and the water does not freeze, tens of thousands of greater white-fronted geese winter on them. They were listed under the Ramsar Convention in 1985, among the first sites in Japan.

The thing to see is the departure at dawn. The geese roost on the water overnight and leave in waves at first light to feed in the surrounding paddies, and the noise and the density of birds going up is not comparable to anything else in Honshu. In the evening they come back. In summer the same water is covered in lotus. The Sanctuary Centre on the shore has displays and runs observation events.