Hakodate Birding

Icy

2012-01-24T16:20:00.004+09:00

On Sunday the wind direction changed and it became unexpectedly mild and it even rained. Unfortunately subzero temperatures soon returned and the slush from a couple of days ago has now become glassy ice and it is horrible to walk on even with spikes.

I was watching the above unusually confiding Great Egret near my apartment, it looked like it was just going to do something interesting when it was disturbed by an old man who threw away blocks of ice he'd been chipping away at in front of his house next to the river. I watched in horror as he threw the slabs of ice over the railings at the side of the river, the egret flew off. 'F**king hell" I shouted in English, the old man nodded sheepishly (to be fair he didn't know the egret was there but the silly old bastard must have known I was photographing something).

Not much else around, small groups of Dusky Thrush and Grey Starling (but no Waxwings yet), 6 species of duck including Goosander, a lone male Daurian Redstart, a Grey Heron: that's about it. On Sunday there were 2 adult White Tailed Eagle and some Black Necked Grebe in Kamiiso but the weather was so bad photography was impossible.

I've given up on Liverpool finishing in the top 4 though at least Arsenal and Chelsea are struggling too, you never know.

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An anticlimactic few days

2012-01-21T12:34:00.000+09:00

The drake Smew at Onuma yesterday. It has been joined by a female but they were both very shy and it was very hard to get a good picture, it was dark and misty again and when the sun finally hit the pond they both flew off! I guess they just roost there........

It was very cold waiting in futility for them to swim out in the open but there was at least some other interesting stuff around. Some kind of weasel/marten was hunting, it caught a mouse (thankfully it left the Smew alone). An immature Night Heron was a surprise and there were lots of the common woodland residents including this male Grey Headed Woodpecker, a high ISO shot in the morning gloom.

The tame tits and nuthatches were around as per usual.

We the headed to Esan but the weather was pretty lousy with no photo opps. The Rough Legged Buzzards were around in the same places as last week but too far away to photograph, the Pine Buntings weren't there, just a skittish flock of Skylark instead. Other birds included lots of Glaucous Winged Gull, Brent Geese, all the common ducks including Harlequin, Whooper Swan, White Tailed Eagle, Great Egret, Brambling, Common Buzzard and Peregrine.

Thursday had beautiful clear (even mild) weather, I headed out to Kamiiso. White Tailed Eagle was bird of the day here. I saw one high in the sky and later sitting on one of the frozen rivers (the latter sighting unfortunately being from the train window on the way home). Whooper Swan, Coot, Great Egret, Grey Heron and about 10 common species of duck were also around. I searched teh gull flocks for Thayers Gull, all I discovered were that no 2 Vega Gulls look alike. The harbour was birdless except for ONE Black Necked Grebe and even that didn't come close.

I took a walk this lunchtime near my apartment in the gloomy snowy weather but nothing around except for a flyover Kestrel, a few Teal, the drake Wigeon, a lone Dusky Thrush and half a dozen Grey Starling.

Yet another construction project a few meters away from my apartment begun last week, yup we have noise 6 days a week until the middle of April to look forward to.

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January Brents

2012-01-17T22:16:00.000+09:00

I took a trip down to a good local spot for Brent Geese and managed to catch a flock of them in the midday sunshine. The high contrast plumage always seems to result in blown highlights.........

There were about 20 of them. They're pretty tame...........

Other stuff around included Harlequin Duck, Glaucous and Glaucous Winged Gull. Here's one of the latter.........

And here's a common bird I don't often I photograph, a White Wagtail of the local race.

Stuff in town the last couple of days included Great Egret, 5 species of duck including Wigeon, Peregrine, Grey Starling, Dusky Thrush and Siberian Meadow Bunting........

Just listening to England struggling against Pakistan, I knew World Domination wouldn't last long.

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F*****g freezing

2012-01-15T20:58:00.001+09:00

A young Stellers Sea Eagle at Yakumo today.

It was very cold with an absolutely biting wind. the river downstream was frozen at Yakumo, I endured about 5 minutes on the bridge looking at half a dozen eagles doing nothing in the distance. Upstream were a few more eagles but this individual provided the only worthwhile shots of the day.

We had started the day off at Onuma, the Smew was in the same place but the air was so cold that steam was rising off the pond where It has been stranded, although I could get close all my shots looked like my lens was filthy. This was the best I could manage, I converted it to monochrome.

The snow has been pretty heavy in Yakumo, it was difficult to park in many places so we headed down to Sawara which was even colder. We got another Rough Legged Buzzard here (just a brief glimpse, no photo): there seems to have been a big influx of this species into south Hokkaido this winter (there were apparently 13 at Esan today!). There were various common winter water birds in the harbours, here's some Black Scoter.

I watched Liverpool draw at home again last night. Why do I even bother?

Hopefully we'll see some stuff moving with this cold weather. Waxwings generally arrive here in Hakodate in mid to late January, in most years anyway. Sometimes they arrive several weeks later, occasionally a little earlier and in some years they don't come at all.

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Not one but TWO lifers......

2012-01-13T19:09:00.000+09:00

A male Pine Bunting and a first winter (?) Rough Legged Buzzard, 2 new birds for both my Japan and life lists.

Actually I don't really keep a life list (too many vague sightings and hazy memories) but I recently counted up my Japan list which is now on 267 (and all but half a dozen of those have been in Hokkaido and most in the area where I live).

The day started off in Onuma which was very wintry.

There were some Whooper Swans dozing on the ice..........

I went to a small pond which is kept ice free in the winter (I think it must be near a hot spring or something). Usually there is a Great Egret there and sometimes a Kingfisher. Neither species was there but I was pleased to see this drake Smew...............

It flew off before I could get closer.

The weather then closed in, the Ural Owl was cosy in its hole.

We took the scenic route on the coast down to Esan. Lots of Brent goose and common seaducks and winter gulls as well as a White Tailed Eagle but no bird photos from here, it was too dark and cold. The area is famous for its frozen waterfalls in winter.........

This was below the hanging ice, it looks a little phallic.........

We ended up in Esan around lunchtime to look for the Buntings and Buzzards. I saw several common Buzzards and was ready to give up on the Rough Legged thinking I was jinxed. I looked for the Pine Buntings and found them immediately, 7 of them I think.

A few minutes later I saw my first Rough Legged Buzzard, there were 3 distant BIF sightings, I don't know if it was the same bird or several different individuals (6 were seen here last weekend). I fired off some record shots which I won't bother posting.

We headed back to Hakodate seeing lots more Common Buzzards...........as you can see they are pretty pale..............

................but not as pale as this Rough Legged Buzzard on the outskirts of Hakodate.

I've probably seen and overlooked this species before but today's birds were my first firm ID.

Shame it was against a grey sky late in the afternoon........

So a successful day, thanks once again to Osamu Kimura for finding the Buntings and Buzzards and kindly pointing out where to look for them. The Rough Legged Buzzard in these photos was my own find at least, there seems to be a bit of an influx at the moment.

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A cold slow snowy winter week

2012-01-12T15:45:00.000+09:00

A Varied Tit at Onuma a few days ago. Not much to report, it's suddenly got pretty cold and I haven't been out much..............

After the recent deluge of eagles it was back to the more mundane tits and nuthatches...........

The Ural Owl was still around, there were also lots of woodpeckers in the woods........

Here is a record shot only of the female Black Woodpecker, the biggest species in Japan.

From the biggest to the smallest............a female Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker.

Nothing much at all in Hakodate. One or 2 Dusky Thrush and Hawfinch, Brown Dipper, Grey Starling, Wigeon plus the usual common stuff, that's about it.........

Hope the next weekend is as productive as recent ones.......

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Another winter weekend in Yakumo #2

2012-01-09T17:28:00.001+09:00

Yesterday saw me in Yakumo yet again and I had a great day photographing the eagles.

I started off on the bridge on Route 5 and I had some more nice BIF opportunities, some even had backgrounds other than sky.

The advantage of the bridge is that the birds are at a better angle (and not way up in the sky)............

Here are some young White Tailed Eagles.........

There were several Stellers Sea Eagles sitting in the distant trees, I waited for them to fly past and one by one they did.

Nice weather as you can see......

The eagles were dispersed right the way up the valley and many of them were feeding, often in places impossible to get close to, this is a typical scene.

Sometimes they would fly up into the trees a bit nearer and finish their meal...........

And then it cleaned its bill................

This one was at the end of the day as it got dark and the weather closed in..........

Here is a video I made of the same bird

So a great day in all, I feel so lucky to be bale to see these fantastic birds every winter.

I got an e-mail today saying there were SIX Rough Legged Buzzards east of Hakodate (and more Pine Buntings). Unfortunately I'm busy until Sunday (plus the weather is supposed to get really nasty in a day or 2).......let's hope they (both species) stick around.

This season the FA Cup isn't on the Japanese sports channels I subscribe to so I found an online feed of the Man City/Utd game, pretty enjoyable except every 2 or 3 minutes the picture would freeze for a few seconds, luckily I didn't miss any goals. No way was that a red card.

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Another Winter weekend in Yakumo

2012-01-08T19:18:00.003+09:00

A Glaucous Winged Gull in Oshanambe this afternoon. I was looking for Long Tailed Ducks and Pine Buntings but despite checking several locations could find neither. Black Necked Grebe, Red Throated and Black Throated Divers were offshore and there were lots of Scaup, Goldeneye and Black Scoter in the ports.

Glaucous Winged Gulls are common winter visitors.

Here is one with the resident Slaty Backed Gulls........

2 days ago a Japanese friend very kindly took me to Yakumo. She wanted to see the eagles and see them we did.

Mariko was excited to see the eagles, indeed an adult Stellers Sea Eagle flew right over our heads as we waited on the bridge.

I even managed a non BIF one........

This Goosander was from the bridge in Yakumo today.

I had a pretty good day at Yakumo today, I have lots of photos to sort through. I'll update it tomorrow or the day after, here's a little taster........

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End of the holidays.......

2012-01-03T21:42:00.001+09:00

So today was the end of the New Year break and I was up in Yakumo one last time. The usual suspects were present.........

The bridge was a freezing place today, a bitingly cold wind blowing in from Siberia. Not as many eagles about today, they seem to have dispersed as the salmon run out (this apparently being a bad year for the salmon run).

As you can see, the Stellers are a common sight to people living in Yakumo.

White Tailed Eagles appear to be slightly more numerous.........

This is a Common Buzzard, the ones over here in East Asia tend to look very pale.

Still some Great Egrets around.........

Though cold the weather wasn't too bad at Yakumo. We decided to head north to Oshamanbe to look for Long Tailed Duck and Pine Bunting but by the time we got there (only 20 minutes away) there was a raging blizzard and we couldn't even get out of the car (or see the road). We gave up and headed back to Yakumo and the sunshine. On the way we checked a place for Short Eared Owl, nothing doing there but there were several eagles including this Stellers perching just by the place we parked our car.

Other stuff around included the usual common ducks and gulls, Japanese Wagtail, Brown Dipper, Black Necked Grebe etc. We stopped at the Snow Bunting beach but after some serious floundering in snowdrifts I gave up. Let them have the beach..........it's theirs.

Back at Onuma the Ural Owl was still in its hole and a Black Woodpecker showed briefly. I was at Onuma yesterday too, here is a pic of the aforementioned Owl which I've seen the last 4 times I've been to Onuma I think........

At Kamiiso yesterday there were only 10 or so Black Necked Grebes left in the port.

Other stuff here included Merlin, White Tailed Eagle, 7 species of Gull and the usual common wildfowl.

So back to the grindstone tomorrow (not that I'm particularly busy until next week anyway), I think I'll get up and watch the Liverpool v Man City game, 3 points here would put us back into contention for a Champions League spot. Mind you we do have to beat the current leaders away from home, perhaps a draw would be good enough.

Here's a wintry view to finish with. The 100-400L does landscape........

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2012 begins........

2012-01-01T21:25:00.000+09:00

A quiet lazy start to 2012 saw us in Kamiiso first up. I couldn't find the Shorelark, maybe it's gone. There were a few birds in the port though, not as many Black Necked Grebes as last time.

This Black Scoter caught something tasty looking..........

Not much else around so we headed to Onuma, the Ural Owl was showing nicely if a little sleepily.

The Nuthatches now have a snowy background instead of an autumnal one........

Not a vintage New Years Day for photos. It was a dark grey day as you can see. On the way back home in the late afternoon we stopped to check out a large flock of Rooks in Ono. Growing up in England it's difficult to get excited about Rooks but over here they are a little rare. I've never really tried to photograph crows before, I had no idea it was so hard. Black birds on a dark day are not a great idea and this species os unbelievably shy here too. This was the best I could manage and it isn't very good. Soft and blurry but at least it was striking a nice pose.

In the flock there were 3 Daurian Jackdaw, another bird I find difficult to photograph. I never see them on the ground, always against grey skies and I only ever shoot them through the car window on busy roads on freezing cold days.

This is the fifth anniversary of this blog, I started on January 1st 2007. I also went to Onuma that day...........

Before that I had another blog on surfirds which ran all the way through 2006.

5 years, the time has flashed by........

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So that was 2011

2011-12-31T20:44:00.001+09:00

A young Stellers Sea Eagle at Yakumo this afternoon. I had a couple of hours with the eagles again but didn't get as much luck as I had yesterday and earlier in the week. There weren't many upstream at all, apparently this wasn't a good year for salmon and they were congregating near the river mouth looking for food.

It's impossible to get close to them down there alas. Occasionaly one of them sits close to the bridge though.

This is a more typical view from downstream.

Not so many BIFs today. My wife said she's got bored of seeing so many anyway.

There were lots of Great Egret around today.

Brown Dipper are very common upstream but a darkish bird that hangs around in the shade is rather hard to photograph.

So it's New Years Eve. Kohaku is on the TV, this is a cheesy Japanese music show that is on every Dec 31st and is something of an institution here. I guess TV in the UK is just as bad at christmas and new year but I have to say J-pop is the blandest most insipid music I've ever heard. Still at least they have the enka on now which is good background music for getting slowly drunk to . Lady Gaga, god help us, is on later.

2011 was a pretty good year birding wise. I got lots of additions to both my local and national lists. It was a bad year for Japan though, the quak/ tsunami/nuclear accident in March seem like a long time ago now but I'll never forget the feelings of dread and unease that dragged on for weeks afterward.

To the handful of regular readers on this blog: I hope you have a good 2012.

Steven Gerard. Legend.

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Year end raptors

2011-12-30T16:41:00.000+09:00

Another early visit up to Yakumo today. It was very cold and clear, beautiful in fact. Weird ice crystals were shimmering in the air and mist was rising from the mountain river...........here's the best mood shot I could manage with a 100-400L on an APS-C camera.

Of course we were there for the eagles.

I'm still awaiting a decent eagle feeding in the river shot. Not all today's shots were BIFs however. Notice there are no branches in the way for a nice change..........

This adult White Tailed Eagle flew right over the bridge on the busy road north.......

The Stellers Sea Eagles didn't fly quite as close........

Or if they did fly close it was against the sun.........

This Sparrowhawk was a nice surprise, not a bird I often get to photograph.

We stopped off at Onuma and the Ural Owl was in one of its winter holes.

It even woke up momentarily.

It was at this pont the snow returned and the days photography was curtailed.

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Shorelark

2011-12-29T16:56:00.000+09:00

A Shorelark in Kamiiso today, a lifer and addition to my local/Japanese list. It was rather wary, this heavy crop was the best of a dodgy bunch of photos.

The Black Necked Grebes were still in the harbour as were Goldeneye, Scaup, Red Breasted Merganser and Great Crested Grebe. I didn't stay there too long, I went looking for some Pine Bunting in Menagawa. Unfortunately I couldn't find any. There were a few interesting birds around: Long Billed Plover, Long Tailed Rosefinch, Whooper Swan, Great Egret..............still expecting 2 lifers in a day would have been just plain greedy.

Christ, when will Liverpool stop drawing after dominating games?

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On this day (December 27th)...........

2011-12-27T23:30:00.000+09:00

27th December 2009.

A Short Eared Owl on a cold dark afternoon at Mukawa..............

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Eagles and a Solitary Snipe

2011-12-26T19:00:00.000+09:00

Thanks to the kind offer of a ride up to Yakumo with Tomohiro I was able to get 2 or 3 hours with the eagles early this morning. There were lots around and the weather was surprisingly clear.

Of course we were concentrating on the eagles but bird of the day turned out to be this inconspicuous little fellow. Unfortunately my camera was on BIF settings when I took this, by the time I'd managed to change (only 1 or so seconds) the bird had flown off.

A Solitary Snipe, a rare and shy winter visitor that skulks around icy mountain streams. It was a lifer for me and a very nice surprise.............

The eagles were sitting around in the trees mainly..........

There must have been a lot of snow yesterday in Yakumo as several of the places we usually stop were impassable.

I wanted to get some close up photos of eagles in the water but they fly off so quickly. I need quicker reflexes. Or an invisibility cloak. So trees it is..........

This one was very heavily backlit, I could barely see it looking into the sun and my camera could hardly focus on it either.

There were lots of adult Stellers today.........

There were also quite a lot of first year birds, hopefully the species had a successful summer in 2011.

Most of the photos today were of Stellers, here's an adult White Tailed Eagle.

Not much BIF action today, this was the best one.

I did however manage not one but TWO pictures of crapping Stellers Sea Eagles. Enjoy.

This effort was quite spectacular........

Several times we could get close to the eagles but branches and twigs conspired to spoil the shot..........

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Christmas in Onuma

2011-12-25T20:51:00.000+09:00

A female Black Woodpecker at Onuma late this afternoon. It was another cold day, lots of snow on Christmas Eve but this afternoon te sun came out.

The Woodpecker was pretty tame and kept on feeding whilst I took lots of photos, most of which looked very similar. It was quite hard, it was usually against the light, at a bad angle and constantly moving. This was the most interesting pose.

But the other shots are very samey.

Somebody had left out lots of food for the tits and nuthatches so they weren't especially tame and I couldn't get any decent shots of them in the snow.

2 Bean Geese had joined the small flock of Whooper Swans..........

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2011 best of

2011-12-25T00:30:00.000+09:00

A random selection of my fave shots from the last year.........

Thanks to all the regular readers of this blog. Festive greetings whatever your religion and I hope you all have a good 2012.....

More blizzards

2011-12-23T21:47:00.000+09:00

More blizzards today and this morning saw an aborted trip to Yakumo, we eventually made it as far as Onuma. the tame Tits and Nuthatches were around but it was too dark for any photos.

Are those birds above Marsh or Willow Tits? I suspect the former but I may be wrong. I read somewhere that Marsh are dominant over Willow and some individuals seemed to be bullying others............are both species present? I've always assumed I'd been watching Marsh Tits at Onuma, one of many resolutions for 2012 will be to sort that one out. the Marsh and Willow Tits here are slightly different races from the ones in the UK and are harder to tell apart (their voices are much mor similar for example).

Not much else in the gloom........Black Woodpecker and White Tailed Eagle were both around but no photos.

At Ono there were lots of Rooks feeding in the snowy fields and in the harbour at Kamiiso there were several species sheltering from the weather. The most interesting was a flock of 80 or so Black Necked Grebes.

Also present were 3 Great Crested Grebe, several Goldeneye, Red Breasted Merganser and Scaup.

In town last week there were Grey Starling, Brown Dipper, Dusky Thrush, Great Egret and Daurian Redstart.............the usual winter species.

Looks like the long weekend here will be buried in snow, I'm itching to get back up to Yakumo but not in this weather. We saw the aftermath of another road accident today (I make that 6 on our last 3 outings). This one didn't look serious but the nasty one we saw earlier in the week we later found out had been a fatal one...........

Oh well, it gives me an excuse to get heavily drunk and have a few lie-ins.

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A brief interlude of nice weather

2011-12-20T22:06:00.000+09:00

Another trip up to Yakumo today, lots of eagles and OMG some sunshine at last. Well, sometimes it stopped snowing.

The snow was pretty deep, twice I floundered in snow drifts and my wife had to rescue the camera (I needed 2 hands to pull myself out).

Lots of eagles feeding on salmon but very hard to get a good shot, they just fly away as soon as they catch your eye. Some were in the trees but were obscured by branches.

There were lots of birds like this.........

But they see me and do this...............

So lots of BIFs again, and some even in a blue sky.

This one is uncropped, the immature White tailed Eagles always seem to be the least shy......

This immature Stellers flew right over my head.........

I really wanted some close up shots of birds in the river, I guess for this you need a lot of time and patience and unfortunately we had not enough of the former today. There were some in the trees at least...........

The weather close in again later and some of the BIF shots suffered........

Whilst waiting in vain for some eagles to come back to the salmon carcass I got a crappy record shot of this bird.

A Crested Kingfisher, a bit of a Yakumo specialty and one I often see but this is the first photo i've ever posted of one..........

Other stuff around at Yakumo included Peregrine, Goshawk, Brown Dipper, Japanese Wagtail, Whooper Swan and various common ducks.

At Onuma in the morning not much around bird-wise, here's Red Fox on the frozen lake.

On the way back we got stuck in a traffic jam caused by an accident, I saw three smashed up cars today in various places. The last one didn't look good, a head on collision with a truck, I hope the driver(s) survived. I didn't see the impact but it was only 100 or so metres ahead of us. The roads were pretty nasty today.

Hope North Korea doesn't let off the nukes, that would be a bad end to the year.

Kim Jong-il, Bin Laden and Gadaffi dead. 2011-the year of the dead power crazed dictator. Oh I forgot to add Steve Jobs to that list.

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Sunday blizzards

2011-12-18T20:13:00.001+09:00

An adult Stellers Sea Eagle at Yakumo today. The weather was quite awful, blizzards all day with very poor visibility. This was a big shame as there were lots of eagles...........they were flying low through the gloom or perching next to the road in places where it was impossible (or unsafe) to stop and take a photo.

We saw one car which had come off the road (the driver was unhurt).

As I said the weather was a big pity, I could have got some awesome BIFs if the sky had been blue (or even just cloudy). Only some slight cropping going on here.

There were many individuals standing in the river eating salmon but in inaccessible spots. Even in the trees they were obscured by twigs and branches.............

A frustrating day for eagle photos but it's always nice to see them so close, hopefully next time will be in better weather.........

We got back to Onuma just before sunset. This Ural Owl was in one its winter holes, it was almost dark when I took this, very high ISO and low s/s.........

A feast of football on TV tonight, the beer is in the fridge, the bath is hot and ready..............if only it wasn't a Monday tomorrow.

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Grey week in December

2011-12-16T16:23:00.000+09:00

One of many Black Necked Grebes in the harbour at Kamiiso today during a gap in the snow. It's been a cold grey snowy week, not much birding and not many birds.

There were about 50 or so Black Necked Grebes.

Other stuff in around included the common seaducks (including Harlequin), Whooper Swana dn Glaucous Gull. Nearer town I could find only 1 Great Egret.........

The moat has frozen in Goryokaku park and the park itself was birdless. Sparrowhawk, Buzzard, Scaup were around a few days ago but not much else.

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A Snowy Sunday in December

2011-12-11T21:05:00.001+09:00

Some adult Stellers Sea Eagles at Yakumo this afternoon. These (and most of the eagle BIF shots below) were taken in a 5 minute period when the blizzards stopped and the skies cleared briefly.

The day started off on a very cold windswept beach looking for Snow Buntings in a blizzard. This has been one of my bogey species in Japan, everyone else seems loads of 'em but until today not me (though I've seen them in the UK before).

There were 6 of them. They were difficult to approach and like I say the weather was just atrocious.

In amongst them were 4 Lapland Buntings, they were even shyer..........this was the best I could manage.

The eagles were up in the trees sitting out the blizzard.............this one was during a very temporary lull in the snow.

When the sun did break through several of the eagles took off..........this is an adult White Tailed Eagle.

Most of the birds my camera was chasing were Stellers though.........

The weather soon closed in again..............

And finally an immature of both species as the skies grew gloomier and gloomier.......

It was the first real heavy snow of the winter, it was just about possible to walk off road in Yakumo today but that'll probably be the last time until spring.

Not much else around, we had a look at the port in Oshamanbe, there were only Scaup, Black Necked Grebe and Goldeneye. Lots of Great Egrets everywhere too.

Liverpool won, now up to #6, will they get any higher?

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On this day (December 10th)...........

2011-12-10T23:30:00.000+09:00

December 10th 2008.

A Winter Wren in Goryokaku Park 3 years ago, not a bird I often get to photograph. As you can see it is very different looking subspecies to the one in the UK...........

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10 Great Egrets

2011-12-09T21:04:00.001+09:00

This morning was sunny so I took a walk down the river to see if the egrets were still around. They most certainly were, TEN of them to be precise, 10 Great Egret on the pokey little 'river' in Hakodate!

One of them seemed to be quite a bit smaller than the others (a different subspecies perhaps?) but they were all Great Egrets, the Little Egret must have left in the 2-3 weeks since I was last here.

They were catching little tiddlers in the shallow river........

Hardly seems worth the effort, unless the small fish are especially tasty to an egret.......

These typical BIF shots show the egrets were in the middle of town.........

There was one Grey Heron in with the egrets and other stuff around included 7 species of duck on the river (15 or so Tufted Duck, 2 Pochard, 5 Scaup, 1 female Goldeneye, several Mallard, lots of Teal and Spotbilled Ducks), Kingfisher, Grey Wagtail, Dusky Thrush, Sparrowhawk and Daurian Redstart. In Goryokaku Park there were 5 Coot and 5 drake Pochard on the moat (which still hasn't frozen).

Otherwise a very quiet week, the weather was pretty lousy most of the time and I was also quite busy with work. I've heard both Snow Bunting and Rough Legged Buzzard have arrived in south Hokkaido, these 2 are my top 2 targets this winter, they've both proved to be bogey species for me, hopefully I can see them soon..........

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A windy Sunday

2011-12-04T21:45:00.001+09:00

It has been very windy the last couple of days and strong easterlies brought large flocks of Black Legged Kittiwakes to the coast. In among the flock were 3 very rare Red Legged Kittiwake, one of the birds I most want to see. Osamu found them yesterday and e-mailed me.

I went to the port where he'd seen the birds (in a flock of 4000 Black Legged Kittiwakes).

I found the grand total of ONE Black Legged Kittiwake and not a red leg in sight anywhere...........although it was still windy the wind had changed direction and it seemed all the kittiwakes had upped and left. Well, all except one that is. There were 8 species of Gull but nothing especially interesting. I don't often go 'twitching' but I still felt the twinge of disappointment. They do appear to be fairly regular, I just need to be ready next year when the easterlies hit I guess.......

There was a small group of Harlequin Duck in the port at least.

I always seem to mess up the exposure on these and when I try and process them on the computer afterwards (using shadow/highlights and tweaking the WB) they always look a little unnatural like these shots............

This harbour isn't the most pleasant place to hang around. It's always cold and windy and it's covered in bird s**t. Indeed my wife calls it 'the s**tty harbour'.

The Harlequins were bobbing around on the rough waves in one corner..........

A Black Necked Grebe popped up unexpectedly........

Other stuff around included Brent Goose, White Tailed Eagle and Goldeneye.

We then gave up on the Kittiwakes and headed back to Onuma when the sun came out and we fed the tame Tits and Nuthatches again, they were striking some nice poses.

It was raining a lot the last couple of days, there was no snow at Onuma and the lake isn't anywhere near frozen yet. These shots still have a very autumnal feel to them.

I'm sure by next weekend everything will be all white..........

All Liverpool's rivals won yesterday. That's not good.

Hopefully the (imminent?) snow and ice will bring a few new species to photograph............and you never know if the wind blows in the right direction and I can persuade my wife to drive me to the s**tty harbour there may be a small cute Gull with short red legs there.

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Sunshine in the harbour

2011-12-03T13:15:00.001+09:00

Yesterday saw me hanging around the harbour in Kamiiso most of the day. The weather was mild and the light was very good for taking photos of the various common winter birds in the harbour.

My main target was Black Necked Grebe, there were about a dozen of them. They were in the small port chasing small fish.........

A couple of the grebes didn't look so healthy, they seemed yo have some nasty growths/tumours around their beaks and eyes, I won't put you off your food by uploading those photos.

They whizzed around the port making their whistling calls..........

And the water was so calm I got some nice reflections.........

Sorry, a little repetitive I know. Here's the most interesting grebe shot of the day........

Other stuff in and near the harbour included Great Crested Grebe, Black Scoter, Goldeneye, Red Breasted Merganser and lots of Scaup.

The pair of Harlequin Duck were still present, I finally get close to these in nice light but all I get is a female and immature male................life just isn't fair sometimes...........

There were several Glaucous Gull around, they tend to be much shyer than the resident Slatybacks, this BIF of a young one was the best I could manage today.........

On one of the 2 nearby rivers there were loads of salmon still spawning and lots of Black Headed Gulls feasting on the roe. Other stuff on the rivers included Wigeon, Pintail, Goosander, over 20 (!) Great Egret, Grey Heron, Coot and Pochard...........

The rain came back last night, it keeps getting cold then getting mild and wet again. C'mon winter, get your act together.

The Euro 2012 draw looks interesting, we've got one host nation, one bogey team and France. Could have been worse, could have been better. If we just get out of the group I'll be happy.

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A morning in Onuma

2011-12-01T22:04:00.001+09:00

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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Gone. Forever.

2011-11-30T21:28:00.001+09:00

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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On this day (November 27th)..........

2011-11-27T00:30:00.000+09:00

November 27th 2009.

A Red Breasted Flycatcher in the bushes alongside the river near my apartment. Or is it a Taiga Flycatcher? These recently split species look very similar, at least to me. One reader of this blog suggested it was the former and long time after the event I put an ID request on birdforum and the general consensus seemed to be that it was indeed a Red Breasted.

A pretty crappy heavily cropped and noisy photo it's true but I was glad to at least get a record shot of what is either a scarce or extremely scarce bird in Hokkaido.........whichever one it is!

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Footprints in the snow........

2011-11-23T20:17:00.001+09:00

A Red Fox at Onuma, this morning, as you can see we had our first real snow of the winter.

The weather improved and we headed up to Yakumo. There were more eagles around than our last visit and there were some in the river eating salmon, in exactly the same place as 2 years ago today.

It was impossible to get a clear shot, the best I could manage were some not so great BIFs.

I got my first Stellers Sea Eagle shots of the winter.......

Here's a typical view of one high up in the trees next to the icy road......

Whilst I was waiting in vain for some more eagles to fly over my wife gave me a shout, she'd found some tracks in the field next to the road......these are 2 of her photos.

It was from a Brown Bear and the tracks looked pretty fresh too, it must have walked across the field ealier in the morning. I noticed lots of crows quarreling over various blood stains on the snow next to the river, could a bear have caught and skinned some salmon? The eagles tend to scavenge mangy old rotten salmon carcasses, not living ones..........

Also around upstream were Japanese Wagtail, Pochard, Goosander, Goldeneye, Brown Dipper, Varied Tit, White Backed and Grey Headed Woodpecker, Common Buzzard and lots of Jay.

At the river mouth were the usual common gulls and wildfowl, Dunlin, Whooper Swan etc. There were several Black Legged Kittiwake in amongst the commoner Gull species.....

We got back to Hakodate just as it was getting dark, there was a big flock of Rooks (with a few Daurian Jackdaw) in the snowy ricefields in Ono.......

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On this day (November 21st)

2011-11-21T23:30:00.000+09:00

November 21st 2008.

A male Yellow Throated Bunting and a female (?) Rustic Bunting on a very autumnal day 3 years ago in Goryokaku Park.

The latter is a very shy species, this is probably the only half decent shot I've ever managed of one.........

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Varied Tits

2011-11-20T18:48:00.001+09:00

Some Varied Tits at Onuma this morning before the weather closed in. This individual was very tame, the shot below was taken with my wife's 100mm macro lens......

As you can see it's still very autumnal, it snowed a little last week but it didn't settle.

All the common species were around.

Other species of note included Whooper Swan, Great Egret, Coot, Little Grebe, Goosander, Treecreeper, Long Tailed Tit, the commoner tits and woodpeckers and 2 immature White Tailed Eagles in the sky above Onuma village.

A very slow week has just come to an end, the common water birds remained on the moat in Goryokaku Park, a flock of 8-10 Hawfinch were also in the park, a Brown Dipper was on the river but the main thing that happened was more tree cutting, the City Hall has cut down at least 50% of the trees alongside the river, I have no idea why but I suspect it's just to use up this year's budget funds by creating artificial 'employment'.

It looks terrible (of course they didn't remove any of the garbage that blights Hakodate waterways) and I hope they at least leave some trees standing so the migrants next spring have some places to feed in.

At Kamiiso this afternoon there were more egrets and several Wigeon in the rain.........

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Winter just round the corner

2011-11-13T19:56:00.001+09:00

One of the tame Nuthatches at Onuma, when they come close looking for food you know winter is coming soon...........

We started off the day in Yakumo. The eagles have arrived since we last visited 2 weeks ago. There were about 25 or so, about 60-70% of them seemed to be White Tailed Eagles with the rest being Stellers Sea Eagles, hopefully lots more will arrive presently.

I rarely get good shots of them until the winter really kicks in. These were the best I could manage today..........

Also upstream were Goldeneye, Great Egret, Brown Dipper, Japanese Wagtail, Goosander, Buzzard and lots ands lots of Jay, these were everywhere today.......

At the river mouth were 7 species of Gull, Goshawk, lots of wildfowl including 30 or so Whooper Swan and a flock of Dunlin. I tried to get some duck BIF shots, here's a pair of Wigeon.....

We stopped at Onuma to feed the Nuthatches. 4 species of Woodpecker were around including Grey Headed and Black. In the forest there were flocks of Brambling and Dusky Thrush on the move. Other stuff here included Whooper Swan and huge flocks of Mallard...............the first snow is forecast in a couple of days, winter will come soon I think..........

I got a new 32 inch TV and an ipod touch a couple of days ago. The TV was only slightly more expensive (about ¥7000 difference). WTF?!?!

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Another quiet November week......

2011-11-12T09:00:00.001+09:00

A male Blue Rock Thrush at Irifune yesterday. Another very quiet week in Hakodate..........the 2 Brent Geese were still there (but in the middle of the marina) and there was only 1 Harlequin Duck (which was too far away for a photo).

Shame the light was right behind the thrush.........

The egrets were still around most of the week although yesterday there only seemed to be one Great Egret left..........and that flew off straight away too.

In Goryokaku Park a couple of days ago there were a few birds on the moat, 2 Scaup (there was also one of these on the river too), 1 Tufted Duck, 3 Wigeon, 1 Little Grebe, 3 Coot and this male Pochard.

Not much else around town (although I haven't been looking terribly hard).

I'll go to Yakumo tomorrow, hopefully I'll have some eagle pictures to post soon...........

My ancient now broken analogue TV will be replaced next week, hopefully my ancient (non HD) satellite tuner will work with the new one. Good job there's no footy on this weekend. Unless you count England getting spanked by Spain tonight. Luckily that's on too late for me to watch and endure..........

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Another grey autumnal weekend

2011-11-06T20:28:00.000+09:00

After several fine clear days the grey skies and rain returned: another typical late autumn weekend. We headed out east to Esan, I tried to get some Harlequin Duck shots.

It was too dark and the birds were too skittish, the only time I got to this spot and found co-operative birds and nice weather was almost exactly four years ago. This shot from that day was taken with my old $120 Sigma zoom at just 214mm.

I need to go there and be patient, unfortunately it's not really accessible by public transport so I have to rely on the wife giving me a lift and hanging around so time is never on my side. Next year, next year.....

This Pelagic Cormorant was one of many at Esan........

Another common coastal bird around these here parts is Blue Rock Thrush, another blue skittish bird. This is a female.

A few recent annoyances have left me a little grumpy, even grumpier than usual. My computer seems to be having wi-fi problems with the new router and last night my ancient analogue TV finally packed in (just before the footy kicked off). The analogue signal was switched off this summer, the only thing I watched was footy through the old Sky digital tuner (which still worked). So now I have to buy new TV and new tuner and maybe a new satellite dish too. Before my computer picked up various internet problems I could easily watch illegal feeds of the Premier League but none of the high quality ones seem to work anymore................

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On this day (November 5th)...........

2011-11-05T23:30:00.000+09:00

November 5th 2008.

Varied Tit at Onuma 3 years ago, I kind of like this picture. It isn't so sharp (lens wide open and slow shutter speed: it was rather dark) but it has a nice autumnal feel to it..........

So far this autumn the tame Nuthatches and Varied Tits have yet to appear, I hope they're OK.

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Mellow autumn continues......

2011-11-04T16:20:00.001+09:00

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..........

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Late autumn in south Hokkaido

2011-10-30T20:17:00.001+09:00

A Black Necked Grebe at Toya a couple of days ago: there gather on the lake in late autumn although they are usually too far out for photos unless they're in a flock like this........

On the way we stopped at Yakumo: the eagles hadn't arrived yet although we did see 3 Crested Kingfisher. At the river mouth were a flock of Great Egret and a small group of Whooper Swan too. Great Egret were everywhere; Onuma, Yakumo and Oshamanbe (and the Ribble too I hear).

Toya isn't so great for birding to be honest. There were the usual common ducks. a few feral Mute Swan and small flocks of Goosander......

We stayed in one of the large hot spring hotels on the lakeside, we could see the Grebes from our 9th room floor. The hotel was a bit tacky and noisy but it didn't stop me doing my usual trick of eating and drinking way too much before passing out about 9pm.

Before the eating and drinking we visited the small island in the middle of the lake, it looked potentially good for birding but at this time of the year there were only the usual common tits, nuthatches and woodpeckers.

On the way back there were flocks of Brown and Eye Browed Thrush in Kuromatsunai and at Yakumo there were the first Black Scoter of the winter as well as several Great Crested Grebe and 8 species of gull including 30 or so Black Legged Kittiwake.

Today we briefly checked Ono.........a Merlin was chasing some kind of Snipe, 2 Whooper Swan and 1 Bewicks Swan flew over too. Near Sawara there were lots more Black Legged Kittiwake......

As you can see it was very dark today. At Onuma the forest was full of birds. Lots of Jay, more Whooper Swan and Great Egrets, Great Cormorant, Little Grebe, lots of Tits, Nuthatches and Woodpeckers here too. Most interesting was a pair of very active Black Woodpeckers. It was very very dark and also very hard to get a clear view. This was the best image I could manage.......

This autumn has seen many many Brown Bear sitings in Hokkaido. Apparently the bears are very hungry (their normal autumn food supply is rather scarce this year) and have been seen much closer to human habitation than normal. Some have been seen at Onuma, hence this rather alarming sign......

It's easy to snigger at the overcautiousness of the Japanese but bears can and do regularly kill folk in the mountains and forests of Hokkaido. One person who I teach had an uncle who was killed and partially eaten by one...................

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Toya Again

2011-10-28T14:23:00.001+09:00

Taken with my cellphone

As you were..........again

2011-10-27T16:50:00.000+09:00

A nice autumnal day after several rainy ones saw me take a walk down the river. The egrets were still there, indeed there were more than last time. 3 Great Egret, 1 Little Egret and 2 Grey Heron.

I missed the Little Egret catching a reasonable sized fish (it was behind a bushy area). Not much else around town. 5 or 6 Daurian Redstart in the bushes along the river (including several females: usually we only get males here), a couple of flyover Hawfinch, some Rustic or Black Faced Buntings hiding in the grass, Bullheaded Shrike, Coal Tit, small flocks of flyover Jay...........

I've had my 7D just over 2 years now and it sure is easy to take BIF shots..........

The top one is a Great Egret, the bottom one Little Egret.

6-1!!!!! I didn't see that coming...........

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A dark Sunday in October

2011-10-23T21:13:00.000+09:00

A drake Harlequin Duck on the coast to the east of Hakodate. This is a spot I visit every autumn to see the Harlequins, one day they'll sit still striking nice poses on a sunny day. Today was not that day.

It was a dark dreary sort of day, not so good for photos. We stopped off in one of the larger city parks on the way to the ducks. There were lots of common autumn birds including Jay, Nuthatch and these 3 species of Tit. Eastern Great Tit, Coal Tit and Varied Tit. It was very very dark and the ISO was bumped up for these shots, they do look very very grainy......

God, watching Liverpool was frustrating last night. Another 2 points dropped. I make that 9 points already dropped this season in games when they missed LOTS of chances.

Hope the Manc derby is good tonight, it kicks off in about 20 minutes. Rooney to get another red card? Tevez and Gary Neville to come to blows in the stands?

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As you were

2011-10-21T20:48:00.000+09:00

A pretty quiet week, with pretty much the same birds around as last time I posted........

The Taiga Flycatcher was around until Wednesday, not a great picture but you can see its' diagnostic tail pattern very clearly. It was very very active and always seemed to stay in the shady areas.

Not much else passing through, a few Rustic and Black Faced Buntings, several Daurian Redstarts too. The vegetation is thinning meaning all the garbage people dump next to the river is visible again.........

There were 7 species of duck in town, 3 Pochard had joined the Scaup in Goryokaku Park (7 of them now) and there was a female Pintail on the river today as well.

The egrets were still around. 2 Great and 1 Little Egret, the latter is a bird I don't often photograph so I tried to get a good shot of it today. It was very jumpy and all I could manage were BIF shots.

Last Sunday we went to Yakumo. On the way I saw the season's first eagles, 2 young White Tailed I think but we couldn't stop. At Yakumo there were Great Crested Grebe, large numbers of Scaup and Wigeon and 7 species of Gull including the first Glaucous and Glaucous Winged of the winter, here's a shot a of the latter.

In previous Octobers I'd seen lots of Kittiwakes and Terns fishing at the river mouth, this day there were only Black Headed Gulls.......

I enjoyed the Liverpool/Man U game last week. Liverpool should have won, why was Henderson on as a sub up front trying to knock in headers at the end when Carroll was still on the bench?

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Steady on Taiga

2011-10-14T22:26:00.000+09:00

A heavily cropped shot of a Taiga Flycatcher near my apartment this morning. I'd first seen it yesterday, it was very difficult to photograph and this was the best I could manage. 2 years ago I saw the closely related Red Breasted Flycatcher just downstream from this place. I think this is a Taiga Flycatcher though, the call was a rapid buzzing trill, which seems to match the descriptions in my fieldguides anyway.

Other migrants around included Rustic Bunting, a lone female Narcissus Flycatcher, Japanese Bush Warbler and the first Daurian Redstart (a male) of the autumn.

Ducks are building up: Teal, Tufted Duck, Mallard and Wigeon were around today and yesterday there were 5 Scaup in Goryokaku Park. A bit of a surprise, normally they usually arrive later and I've never seen them inland before.......

I've been going back and manually resizing old photos to fit my new resized blog template. One thing that struck me was that, in the last 4 years, in mid October almost all my photos were of Night Herons. This year there don't seem to be many at all, I saw a few several weeks ago but since then.........nothing. Where are they? Are this years' birds better at hiding? Was it a poor breeding season? Do they know something we don't and have already fled south in anticipation of an ultra cold winter? Who knows.......

There were 3 species of Heron on the river today. Grey Heron of course. Plus a Little Egret...........a bird I've yet to get a decent photo of.

All BIF shots..........

They were sharing the stretch of river with 2 Great Egret.

Thank god the Premier League is back tomorrow, England's international footy and rugby teams were hard to watch last weekend. I'm listening to the ODI against India now on BBC's websites. Only available to the UK eh? Someone at the beeb forgot to switch the international feed off. Shhhhhhhh................don't tell anyone.

Just about over my cold, it prevented any trips to Mt Hakodate for the peak migration, lots of Mugimaki Flycatcher and accipter species apparently......

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On this day (October 11th)...........

2011-10-11T00:30:00.000+09:00

October 11th 2009.

A Black Legged Kittiwake at Yakumo 2 years ago. There were big flocks of them making landfall in the area during October /November 2009 and some of the flocks contained the rare Red Legged Kittiwake (not seen by me alas).

A very quiet month so far this year..............nothing around my apartment and I caught a nasty cold and couldn't get out much at the weekend (apparently lots of migrants on Mt Hakodate on Sunday, I was at home sneezing so hard I now have backache).

On a brief foray out I did see a Kittiwake at Shikabe on Sunday as well as an Oriental Honey Buzzard but no photos worth posting............hence this old one. Last week I was at Shikabe as well, on both occasions the Japanese Green Pigeons were present but not posing for photos. Nowt much at Onuma either, some migrating White-eye, thrushes and the common resident species...........I got my last mozzie bite of 2011 (I hope) there on Sunday.

A few ducks around, my wife saw 5 Scaup on the moat in Goryokaku Park (I've never seen them there) and Teal and Tufted Duck numbers are slowly building. No Night Herons, or maybe they are still hiding.

I redesigned the blog, it's wider and the pics are bigger. I had to go back manually and change the last 2 years' posts (so that the photos weren't tiny thumbnails floating in sea of blackness), such a boring task it felt like I was at work or something. I gave up around May 2009.............

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On this day (October 5th)..........

2011-10-05T00:30:00.000+09:00

October 5th 2008

This is my most popular photo on flickr, a Red Fox giving me the stare at Onuma 3 years ago today.................

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A walk to the beach

2011-09-29T16:10:00.001+09:00

I had a day off today and this morning the weather was still warm and clear, I decided to walk down the river to the beach instead of taking the train to Kamiiso to catch the last few waders. Actually I thought that there probably wouldn't be any waders around but I was surprised to find this Mongolian Plover on a stretch of beach where I have never seen any shorebirds before. What did I miss today in Kamiiso I wonder?

Not as many migrants as I'd been hoping, here's a Siberian Stonechat from today.

Not much else around the last couple of days. Arctic Warbler, Mallard, Teal, Grey Heron and Kingfisher on the river and several Black Crowned Night Heron, here's a typical view of one from yesterday.

I've been trying to change the look of this blog a little, I want to make it wider and to make the photos larger. If I do that however the pictures and text from previous posts will be too small or out of alignment. Hmmmmm.......maybe I'll just leave it as it is for now.

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Autumnal

2011-09-26T22:56:00.002+09:00

A flock of Pacific Golden Plover in the ricefields at Ono yesterday. I was looking for Sharp Tailed Sandpiper, several had been seen with the Plover flock.

There was one small wader in with them but as you can see it was just a Dunlin.

There were several Common Snipe around too but the bird of the day was Yellow Wagtail, a scarce bird in Japan. There were 2 of them but they were very shy and I couldn't get any photo. I saw a few other brief glimpses of other waders but nothing conclusive except for 1 Common Sandpiper..

The Plovers were nice to see though and as you can tell we're finally getting some decent weather, the last 3 days have been warm, sunny and very clear.

Not much in town the last few days. No migrants near my apartment, just a Kingfisher and a flyover Night Heron.

At Yakumo there were more Kingfisher, Common Buzzard, Sparrowhawk, Common Sandpiper, Osprey, Goosander, Teal, Pintail, Wigeon, Tufted Duck, 2 Great Crested Grebe, Great Egret and lots of Black Headed Gull, here's BIF of one I took whilst waiting in vain for something more interesting to come nearer.

So autumn is here, nights are getting cooler and soon the leaves will be turning.........

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OMG Sunshine

2011-09-23T19:26:00.002+09:00

Well well well, we finally got some sunshine this morning and early afternoon (followed by a really heavy thunderstorm though).

We were at Shikabe and I was trying to get some Japanese Green Pigeon shots. BIF shots are tough for such fast flying birds and the 100-400 perhaps isn't the best BIF lens anyway (and of course I'm no expert either). When they fly against the sea it was often impossible to AF but luckily there was a patch of blue sky with the light behind me.

One problem with setting the camera up for BIF shots is when you're suddenly confronted with a bird doing something else your settings are all wrong, I can change them in slightly more than a split second but often that's not enough.

The white background was the surf, there was a big swell after yet another typhoon. The birds had to deal with big waves.......

Next year I'll approach this more seriously and sit near the rocks hidden and camouflaged. Today it was mainly BIF shots...........

Not much else around here, a few Common Sandpiper and Grey Tailed Tattler on the rocks, nothing else.

The day started early in Kamiiso with the last waders of the season (probably).

A Bar Tailed Godwit and a Grey Plover. Other waders included 1 Dunlin, 4 Red Necked Stint and several Common Sandpiper. Lots of Black Headed Gulls around now as well as the first Pintail and Teal of the autumn. There were 3 Heron species; Grey Heron, Black Crowned Night Heron and Little Egret. Actually 1 of the egrets had me thinking of Swinhoes again (bill seemed shorter and yellowish) but it probably wasn't. Here's a lousy heavy crop of 2 egrets, the one on the left seems to have a shorter lighter bill and shorter legs...........or is it just my imagination?

When I went back in the evening there were 3 egrets and they all were clear Little Egrets.

I put an ID request on birdforum anyway, you never know.......

In the ricefields there were lts of Stonechats and hirundines moving south as well as a small flyover flock of Pacific Golden Plover. I was looking for waders here, I flushed a couple of Common Snipe (I could ID them by the white edge to their wings), yet another new bird for my Hakodate list.

Not much in town last week, the weather was terrible most of the time. I did see a few migrants however.

A female Blue and White Flycatcher I think.

The commonest migrant was Asian Brown Flycatcher, they were everywhere. Other stuff included Arctic Warbler, Siberian Stonechat, Grey Wagtail as well as several unidentified thrush type things. Large flocks of Grey Starlings are around as well as the last few Red Cheeked Strarling, here's a male near my apartment.

So it's autumn now, time to get used to wearing socks and jackets again.

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Grey Skies and grey seas

2011-09-19T23:16:00.001+09:00

3 species from the latest Tomakomai pelagic trip. Sooty Shearwater, Streaked Shearwater and Common Tern (the east Asian subspecies).

As you can see it was very dark, a really grey wet day which wasn't so good for photographs. I struggle getting the birds in focus on a moving boat anyway and the terrible light made it even worse.

This Sooty Shearwater was nice to see up close and provided the day's nicest photos.

Streaked Shearwaters were very common.........

And there were also several flocks of Common Tern.

The terns were being harried by several Arctic Skua but they were too fast for me to capture any shots. Bird of the day was an Aleutian Tern which appeared momentarily in the gloom. Other folk saw some Japanese Murrelet but I missed them. There were also Red Necked Pharalope, a distant Laysan Albatross and a few migrating passerines on their way south (warblers and flycatchers mainly).

Back onshore Tomakomai's Magpies were everywhere (even seen from our hotel window). A Little Stint (rare over here) was reported from the harbour where the boat had departed from but we couldn't locate it, only Red Necked Stints (hell they look identical anyway). We spent a pleasant afternoon at Mukawa with some of the birders from Hokkaido University. Wood Sandpiper, Long Toed Stint, Spotted Redshank and Common Snipe were around (the latter being new to my Japanese list).

On Saturday morning I'd tried the ricefields in Ono looking for waders but the rain defeated me. I did disturb a couple of Snipe which may well have Common Snipe but it was nice for better birders than me to confirm the ID.

On the way back home we stopped briefly at Yakumo. the first Wigeon of the autumn, a lone drake, was calling from the middle of the river and I disturbed a Japanese Green Pigeon on the beach but there wasn't much else except for a lot of crows.......

I think that's a Giant Sea Turtle? At first I thought it was a cow(!), the pecked out eyes I'd mistaken for nostrils.........

Anyway, yuk.

I hooked up the wife's laptop to the internet at the hotel and watched the Tottenham v Liverpool game. I went to bed after the second red card/3rd Spurs goal. Oh dear.

September 2011...............wow what awful awful weather.........

By the way Blogger seems to be having some problems with the images, if you click on the images they may appear in a 'light box' style, this is beyond my control. On older posts it may be impossible to click on the photos to enlarge them. Hopefully this bug will be sorted out soon.

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September.........the second half begins

2011-09-16T18:55:00.000+09:00

A Bar Tailed Godwit on the beach at Kamiiso today.

We enter the second half of September today and my god the first half was dire, rain almost every day and not much chance to go outside let alone take bird photos.

Today was pretty good though, hot and humid, a little dark but mercifully dry.

There were 5 Godwits together on the beach at Kunnebtsu. 2 Blackwits and 3 Barwits.

The former are common autumn migrants but the latter seem much scarcer, this was the only the second time I'd seen them in the Hakodate area.

Also on the same stretch of beach were 2 Red Necked Stint and 2 Mongolian Plover.

Further along the coast were large numbers of Red Necked Stints (over 100).

Not much mixed in with the Stints, just one Dunlin and another Bar Tailed Godwit.

Not much else around. 1 Great Egret, a few Black Headed Gulls, 10 or so Goosander.

Nearer my apartment there were a few Asian Brown Flycatcher and other unidentifiable small birds flitting about, flocks of Red Cheeked Starlings getting ready to fly south to the tropics for winter and a couple of Night Herons, 1 adult and 1 immature. The latter was easier to photograph.

I'll be in Tomakomai this weekend so I'll probably miss the big footy games on Sunday night (but I'll take a knackered old laptop and try and watch them online). If the weather is good i'll be on another pelagic trip, hopefully to see some Skuas and other stuff.

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Nice end to a slow slow week

2011-09-11T20:33:00.003+09:00

It's been a grey grey rainy week and not much to report except the above Ringed Plover. A lousy week for photos but I got a nice bird at the end at least.......

I got an e-mail yesterday telling me there was a Ringed Plover on one of the local beaches, this is rather a rare bird in Japan and one I had yet to see here. I got up early today to try and see it and walked along the beach under the grey drizzly skies and saw nothing except the usual Red Necked Stints and Grey Tailed Tattlers.

On Thursday I has also been on the same beach, the birds that day included 2 Lesser Sandplover and a Sanderling in amongst the stints and tattlers. The Sanderling is the one below.

On Friday I had a quick walk along the river, a few Asian Brown Flycatchers flitting around in the bushes were the only migrants around. Today we headed over to Shikabe, I tried in vain to get some Japanese Green Pigeon shots but the dark grey skies defeated me. The only shot worth looking at was the flyover Peregrine.

We returned to a different part of the beach at Kamiiso and in amongst all the Red Necked Stints I noticed a Little Ringed Plover on the opposite side of the river, 5 minutes later I was on the other side comparing Little Ringed and Ringed Plovers, the 2 were together on the beach. #210 on my local list and #259 on my Japan list. Not a lifer of course as it is a common UK bird but as I said before it is a little scarce over on this side of the Eurasian landmass.

I watched England grind out victories in the footy and rugby, I watched Liverpool being wasteful and losing 3 points at Stoke..............when was the last time I enjoyed watching one of my teams?

Well, the cricket I guess..............

Hope the weather improves, the first 11 days of September have been awful.

Offensive though it was I had a genuine LOL moment whilst watching 'Shameless' a few days ago.

Someone had the name 'Bobby Sands' taped to their forehead as part of a game. "Who am I?" they said, "give us a hint".

Frank said "you're a sh*t interior decorator".

I spilled my beer I was laughing so much.

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Typhoon hits Hakodate, sort of

2011-09-06T09:22:00.001+09:00

Well the weather has been lousy for a while, very hot and humid followed by very windy and rainy (but still hot) as the fizzling out typhoon hit Hakodate. It was a big one further south a couple of days previously, 20 dead and 55 missing I saw on the news..........

Not much birding except on Sunday when we went out to Kikonai.

This Little Ringed Plover was at Kamiiso.

Also here was a flock of 15 or so Red Necked Stint but not much else. At Kikonai there were more Red Necked Stint as well as 2 Lesser Sandplover and 2 Sanderling. It was very windy (but still hot and even sunny, no rain yet), impossible to hold the camera steady by this point.

Here are some Red Necked Stint running into the wind.

Ospreys were everywhere, this one was diving pretty close but was facing away from me when it emerged with a fish.

I got up in the small hours to watch the second half of the Bulgaria v England game, bit silly as all the action was in the first 45 minutes, hopefully I'll get up early tomorrow to find them 3-0 up against Wales and I can stay in bed.

My next day off isn't until Friday, hope the weather is better then and there are some new waders on the beach, only 10-14 days more of the wader season left and I don't have so many free days to find 'em.

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A lazy end to the month

2011-08-31T20:47:00.001+09:00

After spending 4 of the last 5 days trudging along beaches in the summer heat I took it easy today, just a short walk near my apartment. There were flocks of Red Cheeked Starlings everywhere but not much else. A briefly glimpsed Kingfisher, a few Grey Wagtails............

Yesterday I was on the beach at Kamiiso. Waders included 3 Terek Sandpiper, 1 Great Knot, 3 Mongolian Plover, and 70 or more Red Necked Stint. Here's a photo of the latter.

The Long Toed Stint was still present and I tried taking more action shots of it feeding.

It was eating lots of little insects on the sand (rather than the worms in the mud favoured by the Red Necked Stints).

I imagine this was the last time I'll be able to see it. I have days off on Friday/Sunday but it looks like Hakodate will receive the last dregs of a typhoon (meaning rain) so I don't know if I'll be doing any birding for a few days and next week I don't have much free time either.

By the time I get to Kamiiso again it'll be the end of next week when the waders will have changed.

It was great to have such a tame one, every wader season throws up such individuals from many different species.........and this August it was Long Toed Stint season.

I'm quite enjoying the start of the footy season, hopefully England won't spoil it too much this weekend. I'm sure they'll qualify (albeit unconvincingly) but don't hold out much hope for the finals. Mind you there do seem to be a few young players emerging, maybe the future isn't all doom and gloom.

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Another day on the beach.............again.

2011-08-30T18:04:00.000+09:00

I spent a couple of hours on the beaches at Kamiiso again yesterday, as you can see the Long Toed Stint was still around..........

Other stuff around included a couple of Terek Sandpiper, a shy species that always disappears before I can get close enough for a decent shot, this was the best I could manage today.

Also around were a lone Common Sandpiper, a couple of Grey Tailed Tattler and loads and loads of Red Necked Stints.

But the Long Toed Stint was star of the day again.

I'll probably never get this close to this species again so forgive the deluge................

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Long Toed Stint up close

2011-08-28T22:58:00.002+09:00

A Long Toed Stint at Kamiiso this afternoon. Thanks to Osamu for telling me about this one. The beach was packed with people (it was a beautiful sunny day) and I wouldn't have bothered checking it out had I not known about the Stint.

It was feeding in some drain that emptied out onto the beach (not sewage but whatever it was it wasn't nice) and it was very very tame indeed. The day today had started with 4 very shy Long Tailed Stints skulking in the ricefields and not wanting to be photographed at all. Why was this one so fearless?

It scampered around coming as close as 1 meter or so.

There were 3 Red Necked Stint further up the beach, on the next beach down there were more Red Neckeds and a few Common Sandpiper. Osprey, Black Headed Gull, Goosander were the other noteworthy species in Kamiiso.

Here's a jerky handheld video of the Long Toed Stint.

Earlier in the day we were at Sawara, there were over a 100 Red Necked Stints here as well as 2 or 3 Sanderling.

Also at Sawara a few Japanese Green Pigeon came down to the tetrapods...........

At Shikabe the usual Japanese Green Pigeon spot was overrun with fishermen so nothing doing there..................

Man City have just scored their 4th against Spurs, are we looking at this season's champions?

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Knots landing

2011-08-26T22:01:00.002+09:00

I took a long walk down the beach at Kamiiso today and got another local tick (that takes me up to 209 now).

Can you spot the odd one out?

A Red Knot (the smaller one on the left) with 2 Great Knot. The latter is a fairly common east Asian species but the former is somewhat scarcer over here, it's only the 2nd one I've seen in Hokkaido and the first time in Hakodate.

You can clearly see the different jizz and structure.

These photos were taken in the harsh midday sun.

You can see the last remnants of sumer plumage in the Red Knot, well you can if you look really hard.

At this time of year the plumages do look very similar. The Great Knot doesn't have the same scaly pattern on its back though.

Here's a short jerky handheld video of the Knots plus some Red Necked Stints from a couple of days ago.

Not too much else around, 30 or so very skittish Red Necked Stint, a lone Osprey, Black Headed Gull, Grey Heron.............

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Stints on the beach

2011-08-24T21:50:00.001+09:00

One of 3 Red Necked Stints on the beach at Kamiiso this afternoon. I had a free afternoon so I spent a couple of hours looking for waders on a short stretch of coast.

Red Necked Stints are the most numerous local wader in autumn, local birders don't seem so interested in them but I have to say I rather like this species.............

Not much else around. 2 Terek Sandpiper, 5 or 6 Common Sandpiper, a lone Sand Martin.

Last weekend there were also 2 Terek Sandpiper on the same beach as well as a couple of Little Ringed Plovers. The Long Toed Stints (5 or 6 of them) were still skulking around in the ricefields but I couldn't find any Green/Marsh Sandpipers to add to my local list. I did get a new bird for Hakodate though...........a Moorhen. Though they are common in summer in Onuma this was the first one I'd ever seen locally. #208 on the list..........

Not much around locally, some Great Egret in the padis, a few Stonechat and Chestnut Eared Bunting too.

At Yakumo there wasn't much at all, some distant Osprey that's all. At Oshamanbe there were some Red Necked Stint, Terek Sandpiper, Grey Tailed Tattler and a lone Great Knot, nothing posing for photos though.

4-0? I had no inkling that'd happen.

I think Liverpool will finish 3rd or 4th this season, Arsenal look finished and I have my doubts about both Spurs and maybe even Chelsea. God, looks like a 2 horse race already between the 2 Manc sides, what a nightmare.

By the way I've joined Twitter, if you want to follow me please click the link to the right. After I've been out birding I'll probably upload 1 standout photo immediately to Twitter before I process all the better ones from the batch to post on here, which may take several days depending on how lazy I am feeling.

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Long Billed Dowitcher

2011-08-20T13:10:00.001+09:00

A Long Biled Dowitcher and Great Knot on the beach at Kamiiso yesterday. The Dowitcher was a lifer.........

The wader season on the local beaches has begun, the Dowitcher had company.

From left to right: Long Biled Dowitcher, Ruff, Grey Tailed Tattler and Great Knot. There was also another Great Knot on another section of the beach, a couple of Red Necked Stint and a Common Sandpiper.

Amazingly this was the 3rd occasion I've seen Great Knot on this beach and it has been the same date (August 19th) every time...............

Ruff are reasonably regular but never numerous..........

It was nice to get shots of different species together..........

I even took a short jerky handheld video........

Not much else around, no Ospreys or Night Heron. There were a few Goosander and a lone Sand Martin. Not much in town last week either, the first southbound Stonechat on Thursday, that's all............

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Another grey August week......

2011-08-16T09:34:00.002+09:00

2 of many Pacific Swifts near Sawara yesterday, there were huge flocks of them heading south.

In amongst them were a few White Throated Needletails.

On the beach at Sawara I was hoping to see a few waders but all I could find were 3 distant Red Necked stints and one very large smelly dolphin corpse. It has been rather hot the last week or so, hot and humid punctuated by some very heavy rain.

We finished off at Shikabe. A late Grays Grasshopper Warbler was still singing. The Japanese Green Pigeons were as skittish as ever, I couldn't get close and anyway even I'd been able to get close it was probably too dark for a decent photo.

On Sunday I went to Ono to look for waders in the ricefields. Osamu has been finding lots of interesting waders again including several species not on my Hakodate list. He also saw the rare Pectoral Sandpiper and Swinhoes Rail.

With the location kindly e-mailed to me I went and saw Little Ringed Plover, several unidentified Snipe and up to 10 Long Toed Stint, a new bird on my local list. They were very shy and it was hard to even get a record shot, this was the best I could manage.

I couldn't find any Green or Marsh Sandpipers (both yet to make my local list), out of the corner of my eye I did briefly see a small wader with white on its rump/tail but couldn't relocate it. Hopefully there will be some waders there next weekend.........

Not much in town, a Glaucous Winged Gull was an early returnee on the beach at Kamiiso on Sunday, a Peregrine near Mt Hakodate, a few Kingfishers here and there, nothing of much interest near my apartment last week.

So England won the series very easily and are now ranked #1.................wonder how long that'll last? Can't believe how abject India have been, Sehwag arriving as the big saviour and then bagging a golden pair just about sums it up.

Liverpool looked good in the first half at least but on the second half showing it is going to be a tough fight to get in the top 4 though Arsenal and Chelsea didn't look so hot either. Mau U were as lucky as ever, may be Moneybags City can pip them this year........

Hope it cools down and the skies clear soon, I haven't taken any decent photos for ages.

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On this day (August 14th)....................

2011-08-14T00:02:00.001+09:00

August 14th 2008.

3 years ago this Glaucous Gull was a surprise find on the beach at Kamiiso. It looks cold but it wasn't, it was an overcast but hot humid day, this is a bird I associate with snow, ice and bitterly cold winds.........

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A very quiet period

2011-08-12T16:47:00.001+09:00

Some Goosander at Kamiiso last week. I've just had a very quiet last 2 weeks, not much happening birdwise at all. Osprey, Kingfisher and Sand Martin were also at Kamiiso last weekend, nothing in Hakodate worth mentioning.

Last Sunday we went up to Yakumo and Oshamanbe, I wanted to see if any waders has arrived yet. They hadn't. More Sand Martin were here as well as Pacific Swift, White Throated Needletail, Japanese Green Pigeon, Scaup, Osprey, Peregrine, Long Tailed Rosefinch and several Eastern Marsh Harrier, nothing posing for photos at all, here's a big crop of a distant Harrier.

I haven't taken a decent photo for over 3 weeks..............

No riots or looting over here but there was a murder in Yakumo last week, a high school student set fire to his own house because his parents wanted him to go to college instead of letting him pursue his dream of being a voice actor. His sister died in the fire.

Having worked in the s**thole called Hackney as a social worker in the early 90's and witnessing the impotence of social services in helping anyone I'm not surprised that we now have an hopeless, amoral, lazy, welfare dependent and criminally minded underclass that thinks it's fine to go out rioting and looting in their own communities. I'll stop there before I get all Daily Mail on you.......

Stinking hot here, 32 or 33 degrees the last 2 or 3 days. Hope some waders turn up soon.

How crap are India? I was hoping for an awesome series like the 2005 Ashes, can't believe India have been #1 the last couple of years. The footy season begins tomorrow but to be honest these days I prefer following the cricket, football's soul died a few years ago.

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Things moving............

2011-07-31T21:43:00.001+09:00

Usually the end of July is stinking hot but this year it hasn't been so bad. The end of July is generally the worst time for birding on south Hokkaido but at least things are starting to move. This Sand Martin was one of many on the grasslands near Oshamanbe, they must be a post breeding flock on its way south. It is my first photo of one, very tricky for a cack handed individual like me. The above was the best I could manage.

No waders around but whilst I was watching the Ospreys fishing at the river mouth in Yakumo I was surprised to see a Great Crested Grebe offshore in full breeding plumage, this species doesn't breed in Hokkaido. A lone Sooty Shearwater was blown quite close to shore too, it was pretty windy today.

Last week in Hakodate was a bit of a non event. Lots of young birds around, families of Oriental Reed Warbler being the most noticeable. Japanese Bush Warbler, more Grey Wagtail and Barn Swallow are starting to pass through. The last Chestnut Eared Bunting and Black Browed Reed Warbler were singing half heartedly too..........

I'll get back to the 3rd day of the rather engrossing topsy turvy second test..............

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On this day (July 27th).........

2011-07-27T23:55:00.000+09:00

July 27th 2007.

A young Ruddy Kingfisher just about to leave its nest 4 years ago in Onuma. In 2007 and 2008 this same tree played host to a family of this scarce visitor to Hokkaido, the tree was right next to the road and there was a scrum of photographers watching them all summer.

Put off by the aforementioned crowds I only went twice and on this day was lucky enough to see the young leave the nest for the first time. This was with my ancient digiscoping rig, most of the time it really wasn't up to the job for anything but record shots like this.

I haven't seen any since 2008, they must have relocated to a quieter nesthole.

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More summer staples.........

2011-07-24T21:48:00.001+09:00

An Osprey at Yakumo this afternoon, a nice end to a very very quiet week. There were at least 5 Ospreys around, presumably the parents and this year's fledgelings.

This one was nice and close and I was happy with these shots........

Usually my Osprey shots look like this, a tad boring.........

Not much else around here, a male Scaup, a few Goosander, a few Pacific Swift. At Shikabe later in the day it had gotten dark and cloudy, not ideal weather to take pic of the Green Pigeons.

Back in Hakodate I tried to find the Wrynecks from last week but nothing doing there. The odd Little Cuckoo, Common Cuckoo, Black Browed Reed Warbler and Chestnut Eared Bunting were still singing but I suspect next weekend will see not much singing at all.

Last week was birdless except for a Kingfisher on the river and the first young Grey Wagtail of the summer (they breed further upstream).

I'm listening to the cricket, England are doing their best to throw away the 1st test, I knew Strauss should have allowed Pietersen to continue batting until close of play on Day 2, another 40 or 50 runs would have probably seen India following on and staring defeat in the face. Now England are 5 down with a lead of only 250 or so and I'm thinking India are as likely to win the game as us. Maybe Broad will get a 100 to go with his 4 wicket haul, you never know...........

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