2018 Best Of #4

Some finches and buntings from last winter................

More downtown Waxwings

The Waxwings are still putting on a show in the middle of Hakodate...............

Another snowy day...............

The Waxwings and Bramblings were still around yesterday.................

Some calmer berry-eaters............

A Brambling in town yesterday.................

Some New Year's Eve Bramblings

I had a spare couple of hours so I thought I'd check the local park for Waxwings...................

A week of blizzards.............

It's been snowing all week.....................

Strange days

Strange days. I still have some half baked fears over plumes of radiation drifting up here (the wind will blow from the south some time tomorrow). Irrational fear I know but I've never really been very rational, one of my many faults.

Still no Crossbills around. There have been small flocks of Brambling (heavily cropped male above, almost in summer plumage) and Siskin in the local park. Other stuff included Dusky Thrush, Wren, Daurian Redstart, Long Tailed and Coal Tit, Black Faced Bunting, Hawfinch, Teal and Tufted Duck................but nothing particularly unusual.

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Wintry

A bit of an influx of Waxwings into the region, they're everywhere. I've seen at least 5 separate flocks but none were approachable. Almost all seem to be Japanese Waxwings. I did manage to fire off a few shots today but it was snowing very heavily and the light was just awful.

I couldn't focus at all due to the darkness and the blizzard like conditions so I used my 'BIF' custom settings which resulted in fast shutter speeds but massively underexposed images. I brightened them up (a lot) on the computer and although blurry and grainy I quite like the results...........

The one with the yellow tip to its tail is a Bohemian Waxwing. Usually this is the commoner one but not this winter..........

A lot of snow these last few days and it brought with it a few winter birds...........and a crappy birdscape photo opp.

Part of a very skittish flock of Brambling. Other small birds in town this week have been Hawfinch, Long Tailed Rosefinch, Bullfinch, Brown Dipper as well as the usual winter stuff like Daurian Redstart and Dusky Thrush as well as resident species like Coal, Great and Varied Tit. Teal and Tufted Duck share the mostly frozen river with a couple of Grey Heron and a Peregrine was a nice flyover bird yesterday. Surprise of the week was a pair of Oriental Turtle Dove: usually they're well gone before the snow comes............

I had a very quick look at Kamiso a couple of days ago. Scaup, Goosander, Wigeon, Goldeneye and Whooper Swan were present. At Onuma there wasn't much at all except the Tits and Nuthatches.

This is the Hokkaido race of the common Eurasian Nuthatch, the same species I was seeing back in Penwortham just last week. The ones in Penwortham are a bit more colourful though.

And UK Great Tits are more colourful than the ones out here too..........

I think there were several Marsh and Willow Tits. Both species occur in Hokkaido but I always assumed Marsh were much commoner.  Most of them at Onuma seem to be Marsh Tits but to be honest I don't look too closely at all of them. Unlike Europe call is not a reliable way to ID these 2 species in east Asia. I have noticed some bullying others, I read somewhere that Marsh Tits are dominant over Willow Tits. These 2 don't seem to have such glossy caps............

Sunshine has been a rarity recently but for a few minutes the other day the skies cleared and illuminated the mountain at Onuma..............

All the dark gloomy light recently reminds me of the UK. Here are some shots from last week in Preston of the wintering Iceland Gull. It was very active but it was late in the day and very dark indeed.

A very nice bird to see, don't think I'll ever see one here although we do sometimes get the closely related Thayers Gull.

I got some very dark BIF shots on my last evening in Preston............

I can't work out how to position these small thumbnail photos...............they're not aligned, I know I know.

Hopefully the snow will relent and I can find some more Waxwings tomorrow........

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Winter arrives finally

Well winter finally hit and outside it's f****** freezing and there's loads of snow and ice. The Brambling was a new arrival as was the Glaucous Winged Gull but otherwise it's been a pretty low key week. A Coot, 5 Brent Geese, some Wigeon and Scaup were in the harbour with the Gull. Not much showing so here's some of the common stuff.

Like Tree Sparrows. These are pretty scarce in the UK these days (I can't even remember the last one I saw there) but they are the common urban sparrow of east Asia. I tend to ignore them but there really wasn't much to photograph this week...........

Birds and snow also go well together...........

Plumbing the depths a bit here, here's a Common Teal on the local river.

The Glaucous Winged Gull at least did something entertaining.

This sign states the obvious somewhat.

I'm watching the 1st Test in South Africa on and off, England are struggling a bit. Liverpool's 2nd half showing against Arsenal was as bad as I can remember them playing for a while. Gerard has turned into a petulant brat, Torres doesn't look fit and let's face it half the team aren't actually that good. Still they managed to hang on for a victory against Wigan the other night (can't believe I just typed that!).

February=Finches

A Hawfinch taking a drink in Goryokaku Park.

Every February Hakodate becomes inundated with finches of various kinds, usually 7 -8 species. Last year it was Redpoll, Asian Rosy Finch and Crossbills as well as the commoner visitors such as Hawfinch and Brambling. This year most of the same species are present plus lots and lots of Bullfinches, they are everywhere munching away on the cherry blossom buds. I hope they leave some for the locals to 'view' in early spring..........



The Crossbills are still around, I spent a brief time with them on Monday lunchtime in very good weather. These photos are from the tiny park near my flat. It's behind the public toilet as a matter of fact but luckily the toilets are closed in the winter. Obviously the local cottagers are not a hardy bunch.





I looked for them in the same place for several days afterwards but couldn't relocate them, there are however some in Goryokaku Park which may or may not be the same group. More Crossbill shots from behind the toilet are here.

Speaking of Goryokaku Park I met not one but four foreign birders there on Wednesday. They were in town for a Pacific Seabird meeting (I'm not quite sure what that entails, I guess they were marine biologists or something). This tame Hawfinch kept us entertained for a few minutes.....



And there were also Redpoll, Long tailed Rosefinch, the aforementioned Bullfinch and Crossbill as well as several Brambling....



More shots from the park are here.

The fact that the park used to be a military fort means some of the ramparts are good for getting almost eye level shots of birds that make it look like I've been lying down in the snow, mud and slush........

Monday was the only really clear weather of the whole week and we managed a couple of hours out at Onuma with the Varied Tits and Nuthatches looking great in the bright winter sunshine.....





This a view from a section of the forest where the 'Onuma International Seminar House' is located.



This is a site with several buildings tucked away in the forest. There is a sign in badly translated English prattling on about how the buildings 'empahsize the harmonious relationship between man and nature' or some such crap. You can also 'cleanse your mind and feel relaxation' there too if you want. However some moron has decided that it was a good idea to attach loudspeakers to the outside of one of the buildings and blast out awful 'jazz' style piano background muzak that completely destroys the peace and quiet. You know the type of music. Endless bland insipid noodlings and repeated refrains that make you want to kill someone if you have to listen to it for any length of time. Actually the type of music is irrelelevant. Whoever decided to blast out any form of music in the middle of a forest should be striped naked and have their private parts basted in honey and sunflower seeds and fed to the Nuthatches and Woodpeckers.

The sun showed briefly again on Thursday, here's a distant Kingfisher on the local river.



Today (Friday) I went to Goryokaku Park, more of the same including a bigger flock of Crossbills, about 40 or so birds. I got some OK shots but this blog entry doesn't need any more Crossbill shots I think.........more photos are here for perusal at your leisure.

So Liverpool did Real Madrid away from home and without Gerard too. I didn't expect that. I got up to watch the second half live and couldn't believe how poor Real Madrid were. Ironic that Liverpool appeared to have more Spaniards in their team than the establishment club of Spain but anyway. So we're not going to win the Premier League but are looking good in the Champions League. Again. So how exactly they can beat Real Madrid but not Stoke City is beyond me. I'll miss their next 2 domestic games. Will Sunderland or Boro be able to do what the mighty Madrid couldn't and hold or beat Liverpool? Yup, probably......

Instead of muttering and cursing at Liverpool on TV I'll be in east Hokkaido this weekend to see (hopefully) Eagles, Cranes and Fish Owls. This will be my 3rd visit to the area and my first in winter. The Kushiro/Nemuro/Shiretoko area is a staple for birding tour groups in winter and is pretty well known across the whole birding world. I often get hits on this blog for people doing searches such as 'birding hokkaido winter'. You'll see my site is at the top on yahoo and # 5 on google. Of course people quickly realise the places I talk about and they've never even heard of are miles away from the famous sites in east Hokkaido and move on thinking 'who's that loser down there in the middle of nowhere?' Anyway I'm off there myself on Saturday for 4 nights. On Monday we have a 5am boat trip out to the sea ice booked, my god it will be cold. Expect a deluge of photos next week both here and on my other blog.

We fly to Kushiro tomorrow afternoon and pick up a car at the airport and drive to Furen-ko (it'll be dark by the time we start driving unfortunately) where we'll stay at Matsuo's Minshuku (I've stayed there twice before, it's a great place for birds). Sunday will be spent around Nemuro/Notsuke and Sunday evening to Tuesday lunchtime will be in Rausu at Washi No Yado with the freezing boat trip on Monday morning and hopefully Blakistons Fish Owl both nights. Back to Kushiro Tuesday afternoon, hopefully to see the Cranes on Wednesday morning before we fly back to Hakodate. I'll be skint for the next few months as a result of this trip but I know it will be worth it.

I may try to update this blog from my cellphone. Perhaps. If the photos are the wrong size/orientation it's because I'm a f**kwit.

Spring

Warm weather hit Hakodate this last few days. The temperature climbed to a dizzying 11.1 degrees celsius today. Thermal underwear and warm hats have been dispensed with, Oriental Greenfinches and Great Tits have been singing eveywhere, the slow is melting rapidly and has turned to mud and the birds have stayed largely the same. This was one of 2 Asian Rosy Finches in someone's front garden just round the corner from my flat.






New arrivals included a couple of Bullfinch and a female Pintail on the neighbourhood river. The Thayers Gull was still present and one of 5 species of Gull on the same tiny river. Crossbills are still aplenty in Goryokaku Park and Redpoll are still everywhere and some flew in front of my flat giving me a balcony tick. A Great White Egret also flapped over a couple of days ago andf this afternoon I watched a group of 15 or so Bohemian Waxwing flycatching at the top of some tall poplars (I guess they can't eat berries all year). Here's what may or may not be a Thayers Gull including a flight shot.......it looks different from the individual around Hakodate earlier in the winter. It looks a bit odd for a Vega Gull too mind.....





It's been a pretty lame few days for photos so here's some of the best of a poor bunch. It really has been a good winter for Finches.







These are a couple of sunset shots from my balcony on 2 recent separate days. Only slightly photoshopped.







So I hope Liverpool go through against Inter Milan tomorrow. Can't believe how inept the England cricket team have become over the last 2 years (well actually I can seeing as they've been like that most of my life). I watched Alien v Predator 2 yesterday..........what a stinking turd of a movie that was.

I got a new cellphone at the weekend. It has a decent 5MP Sony camera (though I need to buy a Micro SD card and card reader to transfer it to my computer), ok internet access (the full coverage isn't worth it as I, er, have a computer for that and I work from home), international coverage and lots of stuff I'll never use (for example a music player-I have to download stuff from NTT-no way, I mean I'd have to pay). It's pretty nice, I can upload photos to this blog which I may well do on summer road trips. It has an absolutely crap battery though.