Summer begins..........

Despite the cool temperatures it is definitely summer in the birding world............

Blue Monday

An aptly named Blue Rock Thrush at Esashi last Monday.................

A grey Sunday in the port...........

Sunday afternoon was grey and snowy again...............

2017 Best Of #2

Some shots from Jan/Feb this year.............

Another summer gone............

A sure sign autumn is just around the corner is when I notice loads of  Night Herons skulking in the bushes along the local river.........................

More Rock Thrushes and Auklets

A female Blue Rock Thrush out west from a few days ago............

Some Ospreys and other stuff

I checked the Osprey and Peregrine nest sites on Monday...............

A blue thief

A male Blue Rock Thrush in one of the local fishing ports a couple of days ago................

Some nasty weather

A close-up of a Blue Rock Thrush this afternoon.............

Blue Rock Thrushes

A male Blue Rock thrush west of town this afternoon...........................

A grey Sunday afternoon............

A male Blue Rock Thrush................

Black Throated Diver

We headed west to Esashi yesterday afternoon to see if the strong winds had bown anything interesting to our little corner of Hokkaido.

Red and Blue

2 red and blue species that commonly occur on the local coasts...............Harlequin Duck and Blue Rock Thrush.

Spring slowly unrolling #2

A male Blue Rock Thrush in one of the many harbours to the west of Hakodate, we headed out to Kikonai and Shireuchi today in nice bright spring weather.

Lots of stuff on the sea: the usual seaducks plus flocks of Pintail and Wigeon and a few Brent Goose. There were also several Slavonian Grebe and they were coming into full summer plumage.

This individual was close inshore but the beach at Kikonai is steep and narrow and the surf is unpredictable: I got my feet soaked. I though gore-tex boots weer supposed to be waterproof.........they aren't. Also offshore in Kikonai were 2 Black Throated Diver and several Red Necked Grebe.

Ospreys were everywhere, I missed a chance for a great photo as one pitched into the sea and sat in the water for several seconds before emerging with a huge fish............unfortunately it was just a few metres from where I'd been standing earlier and was too far off for a shot.

There was a pair at Kikonai and they were calling to each other as they circled overhead.

Other stuff around today included Great and Little Egret, Gadwall, Common Reed Bunting and Little Ringed Plover. Glaucous Gull and a female Smew were at Kamiiso but not much else.

The day had started up at Akagawa, an upland forest in the northern part of town. It is an area I don't visit often but maybe I should visit more in the future. 4 species of Woodpecker were here including Black Woodpecker, among all the tits and nuthatches there were also several Red Flanked Bluetail and 2 Woodcock (a local tick no less). 2 flocks of Bewicks Swan headed north over the mountains, despite the snow on the ground (it is quite high) theer was a definite air of spring around.

We finished the day at Ono, the Siberian Stonechats were already set up in their summer territory.......

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Another quiet November week......

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

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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Autumn continues

The Harlequin Ducks have returned for the winter, these pics were from near Menagawa, a few km to the east of Hakodate. This is a common winter visitor but is difficult to photograph as they are always just that little bit too far away. I come to this same place every autumn with the usual so-so results.........

There were also several Temincks Cormorant nearby.

Back in Hakodate the bird of the week was one I didn't even see let alone photograph. I took a walk down the local river, along the beach and ended up in the forest at the base of Mt Hakodate. The usual suspects were on the river. 5 species of duck included a female Wigeon and there was also a lone Coot (not a common bird here). Various unidentified stuff was flitting around in the bushes. Oh and the Night Herons of course.

On the beach the resident Slaty Backed and Black Tailed Gulls were joined by lots of individuals with pale backs. When I first came to Japan and had an ancient fieldguide these were known simply as Herring Gulls. A little later those in the know have labelled them Vega Gulls (or sometimes East Siberian Gull). 'Herring' Gulls have been spilt into various species across the world and several of these splits occur in Japan. Vega are by far the commonest. I think this is a typical one in winter plumage.

This one seems to have slightly yellowish legs. Individuals with yellow legs are sometimes known as 'taimyrensis' types which are either a) a subspecies of another split species known as Heuglins Gull or b) a hybrid of Heuglins and Vega. WTF is all I can say. I don't even know if this is one of those 'taimyrensis' types or not.

And this one has a completely different head shape.

I know Gulls are highly variable even within species. There were several other odd looking individuals scattered around. They obviously can't all be vagrants, perhaps all of 'em are just Vega Gulls. I give up. For now.

This Blue Rock Thrush was easy to ID at least.

The forest at the foot of Mt Hakodate was full of birds. Japanese Bush Warblers and White-eyes were abundant. The resident Tits and Nuthatches were everywhere and some of the more interesting stuff included Grey Bunting. A female White Backed Woodpecker was a nice find and i was very surprised to hear a Black Woodpecker calling. I am deeply familiar with this sound after chasing them around the woods in Onuma the last 3 years.

This one was in an area of the forest that I always thought looked perfect for Black Woodpecker. The other 4 local species are there (although I haven't seen a Grey Headed in Hakodate for several years). Unfortunately I couldn't find the Black Woodpecker, it was very close but it just didn't want to be found (the forest is still overgrown enough for birds to hide in). I climbed up the hill off the trail to try and find it but got nothing except mosquito bites on my face (what are they still doing here in mid October? Global warming eh?).

I hope I can find that Black Woodpecker in the next few weeks before the snow comes and closes the trails in the forest. It took me ages to see my first one at Onuma and then I started seeing loads of them. I wonder if they've been on Mt Hakodate all along? Surely not, I'm sure I would have seen or heard them, I've been birding there on and off for 9 or so years and I can't be that incompetent. Can I?

They do occur on the outskirts of town though. And because I count 'heards only' on my local list it's a new addition to my Hakodate list which must be around 188 or 189 now, can't remember exactly to be honest.

Here's one of the local turtles.

I have 'In the Loop' primed and ready to watch.

So Liverpool's title challenge is over before the clocks change. I didn't see last night's loss to Sunderland but god almighty to lose a game with a deflection from a balloon................... how annoying is that?

Under the weather.....

A male Crossbill a couple of days ago near my flat. Just when I think they've finally left, a few individuals pop up to surprise me. They ignored the pine trees (I think all the seeds have been eaten anyway) and looked a bit unsure tackling whatever blossoms these were..........



As you can see it was beautiful weather. Unfortunately for most of the week I had a cold and was stuck in bed or trying to work. On Monday we headed over to Esan, not much about except for a few lingering winter birds. Here are 2 common residents, a Japanese Wagtail and Blue Rock Thrush.





We went up Mt Hakodate at dawn on Tuesday just as my cold was kicking in. It was a bit quiet to be honest, not many birds around at all. I think the clear weather has meant migrants just passing straight through. On the river near my place I saw Eastern Crowned Warbler and Asian Brown Flycatcher. The first Oriental Reed Warblers appeared today and the numbers of Red Cheeked Starlings has been increasing every day........





We went to Onuma this afternoon very briefly. Lots of stuff around, plenty of singing Narcissus Flycatcher, Japanese Thrush and Eastern Crowned Warbler but nothing posung for the camera.

A very slow week for pictures, here's a crappy one of Mt Esan to the east of Hakodate....



Man U have just gone 2-0 up against City as I type this, looking like it'll all be over before Liverpool even play again. Man City look especially toothless, can't believe they're the richest club in the world. The commentator on Sky's international feed is an annoyingly biased fawning pro Man U moron too. I just switched it off.

I taped the Champions League semi-finals, on Tuesday I just left the tape running before I went to bed but unfortunately I miscalculated the point at which the game started and when I pressed 'play' Man U were already 2-0 up against Arsenal. The Chelsea game was more entertaining, I wish Ballack had actually punched the ref at the end. Not that Chelsea especially deserved to go through or anything. It would just have been funny to see.

Another busy week coming up, looks like the prime birding month of the year (May) is going to pass me by slightly.