Gone. Forever.

These photos, spread over the last 3 or 4 years, they all have something in common.





They were all taken in the trees and bushes along the riverside near my apartment.





Those trees are sadly now no longer there, Hakodate City has seen fit to chop almost all of them down. Why? I can't see any valid reason except perhaps to use up some of this year's budget. Ironically Hakodate is heavily in debt to the extent that even a Greek finance minister would hang his head in shame. What a waste of time. What a waste of money.





The riverside looks terrible now, the workers who destroyed the trees and bushes were evidently told to ignore the festering mounds of garbage everywhere. Tyres, videos, rice cookers, TVs, guitars, bicycles, beer cans, rubber boots..........

The birds in these photos won't have many places to feed, shelter or rest in from now on. Not round here at least.





It's all so utterly pointless. No wonder many Japanese cities are so ugly to look at and so heavily in debt. They pay folk to destroy what little pockets of nature cling on.





It won't impact much on the bird population of Hokkaido, the birds will hopefully find somewhere else but it looks like the core of my local patch from the last 10 years has been spoiled beyond hope.





There are a few trees left, I pray they don't come back next year to finish them off too.

End of rant and I apologise for that.

The last week was dull and grey, not much birding. There was a flock of Rustic Bunting and Hawfinch in Goryokaku Park (I wonder if the trees there are safe?) as well as Sparrowhawk, Coot and Dusky Thrush. On the river were Brown Dipper, Kingfisher, Bullheaded Shrike, Grey Heron and a few smaller birds like Daurian Redstart looking confused and wondering where all the trees had gone. A Great Spotted Woodpecker was pecking around the stumps........

At Kamiiso last week there were hundreds of Black Headed Gulls feasting on salmon roe, several Black Necked Grebe in the harbour, various ducks including Goldeneye, Harlequin and Smew, a flyover Peregrine and 7 species of Gull on the beach. Too dark for photos though........

Liverpool should have won again.

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