A drake Harlequin Duck in Hakodate this morning, there were about 10 of them in their regular spot. This spot being a very quiet little fishing harbour at Irifune. They rarely come close, the above shot (cropped) was the best I could muster today.
The first Brent Geese have arrived too..........
They were rather wary though............
Not much else around. A Goshawk was a nice flyover, there were a couple of Pelagic Cormorants offshore, that's about it.
The weather has been extremely mild this week, warm even. The egrets are still on the local river, by Friday (today) there were 4 Great Egrets and 1 Little Egret. The latter isn't so common in Hokkaido, this last couple of weeks has given me a good chance to photograph the species.
It's a shame all these shots are looking down from the top of the concrete embankment: it's impossible to get down to eye level...........and lighting/exposure is a problem (for me) wherever they are anyway.
The Little Egret had an interesting method of fishing, it seemed to be stirring up the river bed with its feet. It looked bizzarre but it seemed to work: it flushed several fish which were gobbled up quickly.
And here's one of the Great Egrets........
Other stuff in Hakodate this week included Rustic Bunting, Coal and Varied Tit, Brown Dipper, Red Flanked Bluetail, Daurian Redstart, Jay, Little Grebe, Coot, Wigeon...........typical autimn stuff really. At Kamiiso there were more Great Egret and Coot as well as lots of common ducks including Goosander, Pintail, Wigeon and Pochard, Glaucous Winged Gull and Long Tailed Rosefinch.
At Onuma yesterday I tried to get better photos of the Black Woodpeckers in nice light but they weren't co-operating at all and stayed well out of range of the camera. A shame as the light at Onuma was stunning........
Hopefully the first icy blasts will hit south Hokkaido soon and bring some winter birds with it..........
Thanks for clicking this link........
I like the light and dark qualities of the egret photos. I understand they're challenging but you did a super job. Those harlequin ducks and brent geese are more striking than the brown jobs of Niigata. It's a shame the birds stay away from the best photographic days as far as light is concerned. Hopefully we'll get bleak and miserable days for unending months to come..
ReplyDeleteInteresting shots of the Little Egret in the dark Stu. The situations are reversed here with Little Egret exremely common and Great Egret rather rare, especiaslly north of the Ribble (unless its Leighton Moss)
ReplyDeleteNice to see that the Brent Geese have arrived!
ReplyDeleteSadly, I still see no sign of the Bean Geese here. Great landscape shot to end the post!
Thanks for the comments.........now the Brent Geese are here let's hope the eagles are next.........
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