On this day (June 1).................

June 1st 2013

2 Black Footed Albatross off Tomakomai 2 years ago today. Although we saw a lot of birds that day the weather was very foggy, this was one of the few 'keepers' from the day.............

This was the last time I was able to get up there for a pelgic trip...................work has gotten busier since then.

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

August 14th 2010.

A Black Footed Albatross off Tomakomai 3 years ago today. This was my first pelagic trip and it was a very successful one.....................6 additions to my Japan list and 5 lifers. This was my first ever albatross (we also saw Laysan) and it was pretty exciting, they were even tame and approached the boat for some squid handouts..................

Thanks for clicking this link.......
人気ブログランキングへ

The F Word

2 Black Footed Albatross off Tomakomai yesterday morning...............

F as in FOG.

It has been bright and sumnny the last few days but during the 4 hours or so we were on the boat it was foggy..................making it difficult to a) spot birds and b) photograph them.

Luckily the albatross were up close so the poor visibility didn't matter so much.

Some people on the boat were hoping for more albatross species but for me one is enough..............

Despite the foggy weather it was a good trip. There were lots and lots of birds on the sea................shame about the visibility. Lots of Ancient Murrelet and Rhinoceros Auklet but the commonest auk was Brunnichs Guillemot................

There were also Short Tailed and Sooty Shearwater (not sure if I can distinguish these by myself). Lots of Pacific Diver too but they were very skittish.

Both species of pharalope were around but in small numbers..............some heavy cropping going on here.

I see other peoples blogs/galleries and I can't believe how good some of their pelagic shots are. OK we had fog yesterday and good light may have helped some of thse shots but I find focusing very hard on a moving boat and missed numerous BIF chances and even birds just bobbing around on the water presented a great challenge that I didn't really rise to.

Another challenge that I failed to rise to was putting on the lifejacket by myself. I know it should be easy and a 5 year old could do it but for some reason (and this was my 5th boat trip) whenever I pick it up I look at it blankly and just cannot work out how it goes on. Someone always patiently helps me but my god they must think I'm retarded or something....................

Other birds on the trip included my first Grays Grasshopper Warbler, Sand Martin, Pacific Swift and Black Browed Reed Warbler of the year as well as Japanese Green Pigeon, Osprey, Eastern Marsh Harrier, Siberian Blue Robin and lots and lots of Lathams Snipe................
Thanks for clicking this link.......
人気ブログランキングへ

Tomakomai Pelagic

A Black Footed Albatross off Tomakomai yesterday, one of around 20 or so offshore...........

I joined Tomoyuki and friends for a 4 hour pelagic trip. It was a warm overcast day but the sea was fairly calm (a good job as the boat was pretty small) and the birding was great, I got 6 new birds for my Japanese list and 5 of those were lifers.

Bird of the day (for me at least) was the Black Footed Albatross.

Some were quite tame and approached the boat looking for scraps........

Looks at that huge bill...........

I fired off lots of shots but I kind of forgot to get any close ups (some of these shots were under 200mm).............

Still there's always next time..............

My first ever Albatross species.........

  

I tried some action shots but these weren't so successful, I need to pay more attention to my technique/settings here........

The Albatosses were very confiding but most of the seabirds weren't so approachable. WE also saw a more distant Laysan Albatross but it was on the way back and we didn't have time to stop and take a good look.

Tomoyuki and friends were very good with IDs. The most common birds were Sooty and Streaked Shearwaters. the latter were easy to identify.

Wheres the former looked very like Short Tailed Shearwater, not sure if I'd be able to tell the difference to be honest.

There were big flocks of Sootys but none of my pics from yesterday are worth posting, as I said, next time next time......

It was difficult to photograph birds from a small boat, I'm a total landlubber and I was aware that I could slip and be tipped off any time and found it tricky to move around. Most of today's shots (except the Albatross ones) were pretty poor, not helped by the fact I'd decided to put a protective filter on my lens. My last trip on a boat had resulted in my lens front element getting soaked with sea spray and unuseable until I could get home and clean it properly. There was no spray this time and I took it off towards the end and the IQ improved noticeably.

Plus the fact I need to experiment and practise a bit more with some of the 7D's AF capabilties........

The species of the day for most on the trip was this. A crappy record shot of a Fork Tailed Storm Petrel.

There was even a flock of them around.............

There were also lots of Red Necked Pharalope, these have a knack of always flying just out of photo range............

A few Skua were also seen, Arctic and Pomarine..........here's a record shot of an Arctic resting on some flotsam.

Other birds included Rhinoceros Auklet, Common Tern, Great Crested Grebe and a flock of Japanese Green Pigeon flying around the harbour. On the drive up we got a surprisingly large number of Grays Grasshopper Warbler calling from various roadside locales and Tomakomai's famous resident Magpies.

We saw some Dolphins and for a few minutes what we thought was a pair of Minke Whales. On closer inspection it turned out to be a tree.........

Thanks to Tomoyuki for organising the trip, it was great and I hope to go back at least one more time this year. And thanks to my wife for getting up at 2am to drive us up there..........

We were lucky with the weather on the day of the boat trip, for 3 days before there was a typhoon with very heavy rain and the rain returned today too. On driving back we had a real south Hokkaido rarity: a traffic jam. Heading back south wasn't so bad but the northbound lane was tailed back for many miles. This weekend is one of Japan's three big holiday periods and we usually avoid travel at those times.

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

Liverpool's first game of the season tonight. 2010 has been a footballing nightmare so far, will this be when things begin to look up?

Albatross

Some Black Footed Albatross shot from my cellphone today.