2018 Best Of #8

Some waders from spring/autumn 2018...................

On this day (August 24th)..................

August 24th 2014.

Black-tailed Godwits near Tomakomai 4 years ago today................

Waders in the rain............

I had a spare couple of hours on Friday afternoon and we checked the recently irrigated local padis to see if any waders had appeared.................

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

May 5th 2011.

A Black-tailed Godwit in Hakodate 7 years ago today. This is reasonably regular in autumn but seems much scarcer in spring so it was nice to see one coming into breeding plumage for a change...............

On this day (September 16th).................

September 16th 2011.

2 Black-tailed Godwits in town six years ago today.

This species is scarcer than Bar-tailed Godwit in Hokkaido and I don't see them every year.............

2104 Best of #5

 

Some of my fave shots from autumn until the end of 2014.................

Wader season at last #2

We stayed near Tomakomai one night last weekend..................

A hard rain fell.

An Eastern Curlew at Yakumo this afternoon. It seems to have a rather short bill which got me thinking it might be one of the rarer types (Bristle Thighed) until I saw a flock of 6 of them in the same place later. And then I checked the fieldguide...............

It was a grey drizzly day. The weather has been just awful in the second half of August. Very heavy and frequent rain has filled the rivers and they have dumped all sorts onto the local beaches.............sediment and trees mainly.

The Curlew was a nice close one at least.........

Not so many waders around this year, so far at least. Today was the end of a 4 day break for me and theere have been almost no waders around at all near Hakodate. At Yakumo there were 2 Bar Tailed Godwit, 1 Terek Sandpiper and 2 Common Sandpiper. Last week saw another Curlew, some Grey Tailed Tattler, Red Necked Stint and this Black Tailed Godwit.

At Oshamanbe theer were more Red Necked Stint today and 1 Great Knot.

This was a grisly find on the beach at Oshamanbe.

Some kind of albatross I think. Laysan? Short Tailed? It was partially buried in the sand and I let it be (maybe I could have looked to see if it had been ringed or tagged).

This Kingfisher was at Yakumo.

So a pretty quiet last couple of weeks photo wise at least. There have been a few birds around. Returning Black Headed and Glaucous Winged Gulls from the north, Great Egret, lots of Japanese Green Pigeon at many locations on the coast, a Sand Martin colony at Oshamanbe (a bit late but I hope it is still there in 2014). various raptors including Peregrine, Goshawk, Eastern Marsh Harrier and the inevitable Ospreys. The Black Faced Spoonbill hung around for a week or so but I couldn't get close to it again.

So not a great end to my short holiday. To top it off I trod in some dogs**t and lost a lens cap.

After England retaining the Ashes and everything rosy in the world of cricket  let's hope my footy teams pull their fingers out. Let's start with Liverpool beating Man U today and England not f***ing it up against Ukraine next week.
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September.........the second half begins

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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Some more spring waders

Yesterday afternoon at Kamiiso saw several species of wader present on the beach. From the top: Kentish Plover, Black Tailed Godwit, Red Necked Stint and Grey Tailed Tattler.

The Godwit was presumably the same one I'd seen a couple of days earlier.

This species is somewhat scarcer than the Bar Tailed Godwit, at least here in south Hokkaido. I've seen it a few times at Yakumo but this individual was the first one in Hakodate.

It was hanging around with the Tattler. Grey Tailed Tattlers are the commonest spring wader.......

Indeed it seemed to be stalking it............

This Kentish Plover was looking pretty cute..........

It was paired up with the Red Necked Stint.

Red Necked Stints are abundant in autumn but I only ever see a few in spring. They look much better at this time of year............

Other waders around included 1 Whimbrel, 2 Turnstone and a Greenshank. Not exactly Mai Po but still nice to see..............

Let's hope Chelsea make the end of the season a little more interesting for the neutrals, a big gaffe by Howard Webb leading to a controversial last minute goal would be very nice indeed.

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On this day (April 4th)........................

April 4th 2008.

Black Tailed Godwit at Marshside, Lancs UK.

I see these in Hokkaido only occasionally, Bar Tailed Godwits are much commoner. This was one of many at Marshside which was a former haunt of mine back in the early 80's, it had changed a lot since then: the Godwits were sharing the pools with Avocets and Little Egrets, 2 species that were wildly exotic in Lancashire in the early 80's.

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