Garganey, #250

This drake Garganey was a nice find on the small river near my apartment. It was my first one in Japan and brings my Japan list up to 250 (you can see how little I travel around though by the fact my Hakodate list is now at 201, more than 80%).

The river is very unattractive at the moment, lots of trees and vegaetation have been cut back as the city 'improves' the river and my god there is a lot of garbage. Several TVs, 2 or 3 VCRs, lots of tires, countless plastic bottle and cans.

Surprisingly there are quite a lot of fish. Oh and a male Garganey.........

It was hanging around with the local Teals and Spotbills.

It was pretty wary though and spent some time hiding in the grass.......

I've seen a couple in the UK but the last was almost 20 years ago. I think they are a little scarce in Japan, I don't often see them posted on the local blogs anyway.

The Brambling and Siskin were still around today, as were Dusky Thrush, Daurian Redstart and Hawfinch. 2 days ago the 3 Pochard in Goryokaku park were joined by a 4th and the Crossbills were still present but high up in the trees.

The first Asian House Martin was also around on the 11th, spring in south Hokkaido is well underway, I heard the first singing Black Faced Bunting of the season this afternoon too.

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