North Hokkaido 2018 #12

Some birds from the way and way back.....................

2 Bush Warblers

Some more birds from the pool near Shikotsuko last week.............

A Late Spring Trip #6

There were several warbler species at the forest pool.................

Some common forest birds............

The forest pool is a good place for some of the commoner forest species, some of which are usually difficult to photograph....................

More visitors to the pool

 About a dozen species visted the small pool in the forest...............

On this day (April 28th)

April 28th 2009.

Actually a day early but this week has been so uneventful I have literally nothing to post.........

The above pic shows a Japanese White-eye in the cherry blossoms near my flat 2 years ago. It must have been a warmer spring 2 years ago as the cherry blossoms are nowhere near open yet in 2011.

This has been a very quiet last week or so: cold wet weather, a busy schedule and ongoing nerve pains as a result of my slipped disk has meant very little action. I've had a couple of brief excursions but only Dusky Thrush, Hawfinch and Bullheaded Shrike are around. There were some Brambling around a few days ago and I had a brief fleeting glimpse of an odd looking bird from my window last weekend, it could have been a Woodcock. Or perhaps just a pigeon being weird.

2 years ago on this day there were lots of stuff around right near my flat, not only the White-eyes but also this Short Tailed Bush Warbler, not a bird I often get to photograph.



And this female Red Flanked Bluetail too.........



Unfortunately a lot of the trees and bushes along the river where I took the above 2 shots have gone as Hakodate City Hall have 'improved' the river (I wish they had picked up all the festering garbage at the same time). There really haven't been any migrants so far this spring in the handful of trees and bushes that have escaped the chainsaws.

On the same day 2 years ago there were a couple of very tame Crossbills in the park.



This one is uncropped.



Lots of stuff around 2 years ago but SFA around now, at least near my apartment.

I hope the weather improves soon, I have several days off coming up........

Thanks for clicking this link........

A somewhat busy week......

After last week's dearth of pictures I have loads this week, including the above Coal Tit at Onuma a couple of days ago.

Spring migration is well underway. Near my flat in the bushes by the river were more Red Flanked Bluetail, several Japanese Bush Warbler and this species, a Short Tailed Bush Warbler.



Japanese Bush Warblers must qualify as one of the most boring looking birds on the planet.



But they do have a rather startling song......



Eastern Crowned Warblers have been everywhere too, near my flat, on Mt Hakodate and also at Onuma where I took this photo.



This is one of 3 phylloscopus (sp?) Warblers in spring and by far the commonest........

The Red Flanked Bluetails really remind me of Robins back home...



The cherry blossoms are out. This is a bit of a Japanese cliche.





I've been here for ten springs now and don't really get excited by these anymore but boy do the locals love them.......

Japanese White-eyes are locals I suppose.......





Other spring migrants in the last few days have included Blue and White Flycatcher, Grey Bunting, lots of Japanese Robin (these were singing on Mt Hakodate a couple of days ago) and several species of wader. Today at Shiriuchi and Kikonai we saw Greenshank, Bar Tailed Godwit, Little Ringed Plover, Common Sandpiper and one of the 4 impossible to ID species of Snipe. This bird was the most interesting, an adult Striated Heron which is pretty scarce up here.....



Some wader shots are here.

The weather has been pretty warm the last few days and I can't believe last week it was snowing. The snow was still around at Onuma on Thursday though....



Onuma is a beautiful place.



It's a shame the forest is full of litter though. And this is the view I got when I walked out of the small station at Choshiguchi.



Looks like some kind of post-apocalyptic movie set. It also smelt strongly of natto. This is a foul smelling food not well known outside of Japan. It smells like very old socks dipped in ammonia. Either they were making natto or fixing the septic tanks, dunno which one.

The resident species were all present and correct....





The Black Woodpeckers were still at their nesthole but I left them well alone. This Grey Headed Woodpecker was a nice find nearby.......



And the turtles have reappeared at Omuma.......



More Onuma shots are here.

And in Hakodate a couple of Crossbills made a surprise appearance in the park near my flat......






So the 2 Champions League semi-finals were rather dull. Barcelona were particularly disappointing, I actually want them to win as I'm tired of the Premier Leagues's domination (unless Liverpool win it of course) but they looked a tad overhyped. God help us if it's Man U/Chelsea again...........

What else is going on? Not much, I'm in the middle of a few days off. Early May is a big holiday period in Japan (and it co-incides with the cherry blossoms opening here in Hakodate so you can imagine the hordes).

I'm off drinking tonight........let's hope Boro can pull of a shock against Man U before I leave the flat. Of course I hope Liverpool beat Newcastle tomorrow but I'll be sad if (or rather when) Newcastle go down. I went to university in Newcastle and in fact lived very near St James Park. I only saw 1 game when I was there, a 2-2 draw against Liverpool (1988 or 1989?). How times have changed. Much was made about one of Newcatle's line-up that day. They had (gasp in amazement) a Brazilian player!!! Who'd have thought it eh? Mirandinha or whatever his name was. Another thing which shows how the game has changed was that sections of the crowd made monkey noises when John Barnes got the ball. I'm not 100% sure but I think Newcastle got relegated that season too........

I'm going to open a galleries page on smugmug. I've already started actually.

This week's episode of 'Shameless' made me laugh out loud, Frank Gallagher at the funeral............