A rainy morning in Onuma

It was raining heavily on Sunday....................

Migrants galore on a dark dark day

A male Blue and White Flycatcher and a male Narcissus Flycatcher.

I had a day off on the 14th and spent most of it in Goryokaku Park. There were lots of migrants about. I don't know how many but seriously there were f***ing loads.  Birds were buzzing around everywhere, it was like something out of a Disney movie.

The light was very poor and there was the constant threat of drizzle. I suspect the poor weather was the reason so many migrants were grounded..................the chilliness also meant they were pretty lethargic and easy to approach. The nasty weather also meant the park wasn't so busy...............

Blue and White Flycatchers were still very common................

And Narcissus Flycatchers were even more numerous, loads of them, everywhere.

The males were at various stages of moult, some of them hadn't quite acheived the full summer look yet...............

As you can see they were just sitting around on walls....................

The above 2 (and yesterday's post with The Siberian Blue Robin) were the stars of tha day but there were lots of other migrants around too.

Asian Brown Flycatcher for starters.

I couldn't find any Sooty Flycatchers...................there are a bogey species for me..............

There were 5 species of thrush. Japanese and Dusky plus these 3............

First Pale Thrush...........

And Eye Browed Thrush.................

And finally Brown Thrush...........................

Both Eastern Crowned and Sakhalin Leaf Warblers were common................

Other stuff included large restless flocks of Japanese White-eye, Siskin, a few Crossbill, Olive Backed Pipit, Japanese Bush Warbler and this drake Shoveler on the moat..............

Of course once I was busy again at work the weather improved dramatically.

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Grey Bunting

A male Grey Bunting in Goryokaku Park this morning. It was skulking around and difficult to approach and it kept getting disturbed by the hordes of cherry blossom "viewers".

Still it was by far the best photos I've managed of this species................

It was another productive morning: lots of birds in the park again. Common Crossbill, Japanese White-eye, Eastern Crowned, Sakhalin Leaf and Japanese Bush Warblers, Narcissus Flycatcher (only a female) and lots and lots of Asian Brown Flycatchers..........they were everywhere.

As were Blue and White Flycatchers, I don't think I've seen as many in any spring before...........

The Black Winged Stilt was still there and seems to have no problem finding food in such a strange habitat.............

And here's a picture of it among the dandelions.............

I wonder how long it will stay?

Here's a not very good picture of a bird i've never posted before.

A Brown Thrush.............not rare at all but very shy and an inhabitant of dark forests in Hokkaido in summer. There were 4 of them but I couldn't get close enough and there were so many people around anyway.

At 9am it was like someone flipped a switch and the tour groups hit the park................literally hundreds and hundreds of loud Chinese speaking tourists in even louder jackets. I went home for breakfast...............


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A change in my life

A Night Heron the river near my apartment this morning.................

Not much around, a few Asian Brown Flycatcher still passing through.

The only other bird of interest was Varied Tit................

It was a quiet weekend as the tail end of a typhoon hit Hakodate.................so very grey and wet.

So I'm typing this on my new computer.....................this is a big step as I've left the closed world of Mac and am now using a Windows laptop. Cost was the main factor in my choice. I got my imac about 4 1/2 years ago and love it but I got tired of waiting for the latest update (Apple only seem to care about iphones and ipads these days). Mac latops are too expensive so I bought a BTO Windows one with SSD/i7CPU/16GB RAM and have hooked it up to a big external monitor.

It was a tough decision................on reading Mac vs Windows stuff on forums it seems some people take this stuff way too seriously: as if moving from one to the other is  kind of like changing one's political standpoint or religion.....................I'd say it's more like moving house. Lots of minor hassles and a nagging doubt as to whether I did the right thing.

The main reason I got a new PC was processing photos had been a real chore for a while, now I have the juice in the tank to tackle my thousands of mediocre photos and try to sort them out properly and delete lots (do I really need 1500 RAW photos of Red Necked Stints in slightly different poses in slightly different light?

Speaking of  moving house it is exactly 10 years ago that we moved to this apartment. My god, where did those 10 years go?


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A third day in the sakura..........

I went back to Goryokau Park for the 3rd consecutive day on Friday morning and the Narcissus Flycatchers were still around. Unlike Wednesday I had plenty of time and unlike Thursday the light was great...................

I could get a little closer this time..............

There were at least 2 males singing.

There was less variety than the previous day, perhaps the clear weather meant many of the passage visitors had left, I'm sure the Narcissus will leave in a day or 2 as well. There were still quite a few Eastern Crowned Warbler, Japanese White-eye and Asian Brown Flycatcher though.......

And the Red Cheeked Starlings will stay all summer...........

In the afternoon we went to Onuma. Lots of Narcissus Flycatchers here too as well as my first Oriental Cuckoo and Japanese Green Pigeon of the year. Other stuff included Mandarin, Japanese Thrush, Japanese Grosbeak and the usual common summer visitors and residents like this very scruffy Nuthatch.......

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