2018 Best Of #6

Some of the little birds from early summer.............

A Brown Dipper

We just got back from a short trip.....................

A lot of photos to sort through but this was from the start of the trip. A Brown Dipper, the east Asian species of Dipper that is common on almost every local river (upstream at least).

I've seen Dippers in Europe, Nepal, the USA and Japan.3 species in all. I recall the first ones I ever saw: on a stream high up in the hills in the Lake District near a farm where my grandparents kept a caravan. Must have been over 40 years ago............

They appear to be difficult to photograph wherever they are though.

Winter 2013/14 begins...............

A Stellers Sea Eagle at Yakumo today. It was a day of blizzards and the first really cold day of the season: that's it atumn has gone and winter is here.

So that was 2011

A young Stellers Sea Eagle at Yakumo this afternoon. I had a couple of hours with the eagles again but didn't get as much luck as I had yesterday and earlier in the week. There weren't many upstream at all, apparently this wasn't a good year for salmon and they were congregating near the river mouth looking for food.

It's impossible to get close to them down there alas. Occasionaly one of them sits close to the bridge though.

This is a more typical view from downstream.

Not so many BIFs today. My wife said she's got bored of seeing so many anyway.

There were lots of Great Egret around today.

Brown Dipper are very common upstream but a darkish bird that hangs around in the shade is rather hard to photograph.

So it's New Years Eve. Kohaku is on the TV, this is a cheesy Japanese music show that is on every Dec 31st and is something of an institution here. I guess TV in the UK is just as bad at christmas and new year but I have to say J-pop is the blandest most insipid music I've ever heard. Still at least they have the enka on now which is good background music for getting slowly drunk to . Lady Gaga, god help us, is on later.

2011 was a pretty good year birding wise. I got lots of additions to both my local and national lists. It was a bad year for Japan though, the quak/ tsunami/nuclear accident in March seem like a long time ago now but I'll never forget the feelings of dread and unease that dragged on for weeks afterward.

To the handful of regular readers on this blog: I hope you have a good 2012.

Steven Gerard. Legend.

Thanks for clicking this link.

Winter continues

The cold winter continues here in southern Hokkaido. Over the last few days I've been to Onuma, Menagawa and Kamiso, all pretty near Hakodate. Friday had the best weather and ths usual common species were at Onuma.







There were also Redpoll, the usual Woodpeckers and several Jay........



The mountain looked great against a blue sky with the frozen lake in the foreground.



Over at Kamiso I got 1 local tick. 2 Mute Swan were in the fishing harbour. They are a feral species in Japan but a tick is a tick. Also around were several Yellow Throated Bunting, 2 Common Buzzard mewing to each other in a duet, 2 Great White Egret, the usual Ducks and grebes on the sea, an adult White tailed Eagle, a female Merlin and this Brown Dipper.



Today we went east to Menagawa and it was cold. We actually found a new spot neither of us had been to before. Instead of going through a long tunnel we took a side road, parked the car and walked round the coast. There were cliffs and a quarry that would make a great set for a low budget BBC post appocalyptic TV drama. There was 1 adult Stellers Sea Eagle,1 White tailed Eagle and lots of Rustic Buntings as well as various Ducks offshore including several groups of Harlequin Duck.



There were also some pretty cool icicles.



This is a female Blue Rock Thrush, lots of these on the coast.



Whilst I take photos of birds my wife prefers to take pictures of clouds. Here's one of hers from today. Like I said it was cold.



Cold and dark. I could get pretty close to these Brent Goose but shutter speeds were so low most of the shots were pretty crappy.





And to finish off here's a very cold looking Glaucous Winged Gull.



The footie was pretty dull last night. I know it's PC to drool over Arsenal but I find them so sterile to watch. Chelsea are as boring as Liverpool. Whilst I'm dutibound to watch Liverpool I have no such obligation to Chelsea thank god. Mau Utd. Pah. Good but annoying.

Can't believe the Keegan thing........are Newcastle insane?

Can I be arsed to stay up and watch tonight's game? Man City v West Ham. Probably not.............but I may change my mind.

Still no Waxwings in Hakodate, hopefully that'll change in the next few days.

I feel like sh*t

Very very cold gloomy weather the last 4 or 5 days................plus I caught a cold and feel like crap.

I have discoverred a new place for birds though, a little river tucked away in the countryside just outside Hakodate. It's basically where I was looking for the Rough Legged Buzzard (which I never did get to see). Lots of raptors...........Merlin, White Tailed Eagle, Peregrine, Goshawk, Sparrowhawk, Common Buzzard and the ubiquitous Black Kite. But no Roughlegged. Lots of snow the past week, I've been wading through deep snow a lot and the countryside looks like that movie 'Fargo'.

Today there was a flock of paridae which included a bird I've been trying to get a shot of a lot recently but they are so fidgety. Long Tailed Tit. Lots of photos of birds with branches in the way today.



Also in the flock were Varied Tit, Coal Tit, Great Tit, Treecreeper, Goldcrest and Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker, which looked a bit odd climbing around in the reeds. This was taken in a one hour break in the snow.




The small river held Brown Dipper, Black Backed and Japanese Wagtail and 3 Great White Egrets flew overhead presumably flying south as quickly as possible. We went there on Sunday too (just as my cold was kicking in) and saw Eurasian Jay and Yellow Throated Bunting amongst other stuff.







Didn't really look on the sea at all today..............last week most of the usual stuff was around including thousands and thousands of Red Breasted Merganser offshore. We had a quick look at the fishing harbour in Kamiso today, lots of retirement age Japanese men fishing for chika, a kind of small fish. This attracted quite a few Gulls and lots of Scaup.





One of the annoying things about Japan is medicne, especially simple stuff to relieve the symptoms of a cold. Basically, over the counter stuff isn't strong enough to medicate a newborn white mouse in a western lab. To get stuff that might actually work you have to go to a doctor and pay through the teeth (and pay for all the extra crap like blood tests) if you don't have local health insurance. You can't just pop down to Boots and get some flu strength decongestant, oh no. That would mean the doctors make less money wouldn't it?

Here's a couple of crappy record shots of Brown Dipper and a Black Woodpecker just before sunset at Onuma a few days ago (co-incidentally when I noticed I had a cold).





Black Woodpecker is a target bird photo-wise this year, I've located a hole where I think a female roosts. Oh great........more standing around in the snow.

A quiet week for sport, I watched Ipswich v Portsmouth in the FA Cup on my ancient PC via sopcast at the weekend. I can't believe David James is still playing. I saw Spurs play Liverpool at White Hart Lane in the early 90's and saw him walking down the Seven Sisters Road, sports bag over his shoulder after the game, with 2 or 3 friends presumably off for a night out in London. I think he must have been a sub that day. Maybe.

I hope the weather and my cold improve soon.

Lots and lots of Eagles

I took lots of shots of this Stellers Sea Eagle in Yakumo today. A nice unobstructed view and a not so shy adult to boot. Very mild weather today (with some rain mixed in with the snow-unusual in winter here). The place where we parked the car was thawing slush about 4 cm deep. I actually took over 200 shots. They were difficult to sort through as basically they were all fairly similar quality-wise. This was probably the best. Maybe.




The bird stayed on its perch over an hour before it flew down to the river to scavenge a dead Salmon. It chased away the local Crows but somewhat surprisingly was chased off by a White Tailed Eagle. Are White Taileds dominant?



Sorry if you're bored with alll the Eagle pics. Here's the last one. I have 200 on my computer.



I concentrated on the Eagles today. A quick look on the sea when we were driving up revealed the usual Ducks and stuff on the sea (the most interesting looking flocks being in places where we couldn't park). At the Eagle location I took this pic of a Brown Dipper. It seems a bit pathetic compared to the Eagles (the pic, not the bird).



I took a brief walk near my appartment yesterday and was rewarded with a flock of Bullfinch. 6 or 7 individuals. A handful of Waxwing were still about too. On Monday we drove east to Menagawa to check the Cormorants. 2 species here-Temincks and Pelagic. The Temincks is very similar to the bog-standard Great Cormorant (the same one as in the UK) but is supposed to have a greenish tinge instead of a bronze tinge (if you're close enough to see this of course). Doesn't really help with the bird in the middle the pic below does it?



Great Cormorants are supposed to favour rivers/lakes and Temincks the coast. I see Cormorants on lake Onuma sometimes. Which ones are those? Just to confuse matters Great is supposed to be absent from Hokkaido anyway. Pelagics are much easier to identify.



Other birds around near Menagawa included Japanese Wagtail, lots of Brent Goose, the usual Ducks and grebes and lots and lots of Gulls. Here's an adult Glaucous Winged Gull.



After the laughfest of Threads last weekend I now have Saw 3 and Children of Men on my hard drive to cheer me up. It's not as depressing as listening to the cricket though. Ouch.