A morning in Onuma

We spent the morning in Onuma today and as you can see we finally got some nice light for taking pictures. It was rather cold and there was snow in the air at first but the sun relented and came out for the first time in what feels like ages...........

There wasn't much around bird-wise so we hung out with the tame Nuthatches and Tits.

This group has been around for several years now, we think 1 Nuthatch and 1 Varied Tit of the original group remain (the tamest 2 individuals who readily come to the hand) with several of their relatives/youngsters tagging along and slowly becoming bolder.

Forgive my indulgence of posting so many photos of these birds but I do enjoy feeding them in the winter.........

The Varied Tit is my personal fave. There used to be 2 tame individuals but one of them today was very shy, presumably he/she is a new face in town..........

The dominant species is the Nuthatch, it chases all the others away. There are 2 tame ones of this species and 1 or 2 who hang around the edges........

Believe it or not I took these 3 pictures with my wife's 100mm macro lens..........and they are all only very slightly cropped.

The Marsh/Willow Tits come close but not to the hand. This is a Marsh Tit. I think.

The Great Tits are very shy and the Coal Tits live in a different part of the forest entirely.........

Only common winter stuff around today. Jay, Whooper Swan, Rook, Smew, Goldeneye, Coot, Buzzard, Sparrowhawk. White Tailed Eagle, Grey Heron and lots of Great Egret.........

Back in Kamiiso there were 15 or so Black Necked Grebes in the harbour........

Also in the harbour were 2 Great Crested Grebe, 2 Harlequin Duck, several Scaup and a Red Breasted Merganser. On one of the nearby rivers the salmon are still spawning and the Black Headed Gulls are enjoying a feeding frenzy, here's one I took last weekend with a salmon egg in its bill......

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