North Hokkaido 2018 #12

Some birds from the way and way back.....................

Some early summer birds

The weather has been very warm and sunny the last few days...............

Summertime lull

It's the summertime lull................

A night away in late spring............

We spent Sunday night camping near Oshamanbe................

A wild Stork chase

We just got back from a weekend camping trip..................and on the way we stopped to find an Oriental White Stork which had been seen by someone north of Yakumo.

A lull

It's a busy holiday week in Japan..................

Golden Week 2012 #1

Asian House Martins at Kikonai yesterday.

A cluster of national holidays known as Golden Week kicked off yesterday and spring well and truly arrived, it has been warm and sunny, indeed I got sunburned today and consumed not 1 but 2 ice creams...............

Yesterday morning started at Akagawa, lots of activity in the forest before the dirt bikers showed up to scare everything off. Lots of Narcissus Flycatcher and Eastern Crowned Warbler were singing, other stuff included Japanese Thrush, Whites Thrush and Long Tailed Rosefinch. In Kikonai and Shireuchi there wasn't so much around.............a lone Bewicks Swan, a couple of Great Egret, a Greenshank, several Little Ringed Plover, Lathams Snipe, Osprey and a few Brent Geese, Wigeon and Red Breasted Merganser offshore.

Lots of Asian House Martin everywhere now...........

At Kamiiso yesterday there were no waders but lots of summer plumage Black Headed Gulls...........these look very exotic here (we usually only see them in winter plumage and there are no other common hooded gulls in Japan). Shame I grew up in England where they are so common birders probably don't even look at them..............

Today I walked the long walk down the beach in Kamiiso to look for waders: all I could find was 1 very flighty Whimbrel. We headed over to Asabu, there were some good birds here but nothing posing for the camera. Pacific Swift, Wryneck, more Osprey and lots of Siberian Stonechat and Chestnut Eared Bunting were singing...........here's one of the latter, a shy bird that flies off as soon as eye contact is established even through a car window.

Back at Kamiiso I waited in vain for the Ospreys to come close and eventually gave up and concentrated on the local Black Tailed Gulls which were courting. Like the Black Headed Gull this is a beautiful bird I maybe take for granted.............the second one here is a Slaty Backed Gull, the common resident large gull.

I don't know if I'm being paranoid but I'm sure I used to take better quality photos of more interesting species than I have been doing lately.

Roy Hodgson? I'm underwhelmed to say the least but he's done well using scant playing resources with mid ranking teams..........maybe he won't be a total disaster with England then.

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Siberian Stonechats

A male Siberian Stonechat blissfully unaware of the fact England's goalie dropped the ball in the back of the net a few hours before.

We spent the day in the ricefields just outside town, I was too tired after boozing rather heavily and staying up late to watch the footy.

Lots of common birds in the padis, Siberian Stonechats being the second commonest (after Skylarks). The young must have just left the nests and were down in the grass as the adults stayed put watching over them.

The males are particularly striking.

But the females are tamer...............

Also around were lots and lots of Chestnut Eared Buntings.

And quite a few Night Herons too...........

My fave summer visitor is the Black Browed Reed Warbler but all the singing ones we found weren't in convenient places to photograph. This was the best I could manage.

Other interesting stuff around included a couple of Kestrels, a Wryneck and an immature Kittiwake at the river mouth in Kamiso.

So I didn't think England played that badly. The doom and gloom on some of the broadsheet blogs (and gloating by ABE's) is so over the top hysterical I got tired of looking at them. So we learned that England aren't that fantastic as a team, several of the players aren't that great either and they don't have much chance of winning the tournament. Well duh...............

At least they didn't lose and if the ref had been looking for a bit of glory Carragher could easily have conceded a penalty and got sent off.

More torture lays ahead on Friday, watching England is never fun but not watching them in a World Cup would be even worse. TWO early goals this time please...............

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Black Browed Reed Warblers

A Black Browed Reed Warbler, one of many at Shizukari Wetlands yesterday afternoon.

Here's a video of one singing.

Unfortunately f**kwit here forgot to switch the IS back on after taking the video and some of the pics suffered as a result...............

Cuter and perkier than the large and noisy Oriental Reed Warblers this species is my fave bird of summer.

Lots of Cuckoos around today, 3 species in all. Little Cuckoo, Common Cuckoo and Oriental Cuckoo. This crappy record shot is of the latter, they all look the same but their songs are totally different. I ID'ed it by call obviously.

This species apparently favours the nests of phylloscopus warblers. the Common Cuckoo prefers Reed Warblers and the Little Cuckoo goes for Bush warblers........

The wetlands (which actually seem to be bone dry) near Oshamanbe and the ricefields outside Hakoadte were full of summer birds. Aforementioned Cuckoos and Reed Warblers, Black faced and Reed Buntings, Lathams Snipe, Siberian Stonchat, Long Tailed Rosefinch, Bulheaded Shrike and Grays Grasshopper Warbler were everywhere.

One especially common one in summer is Chestnut Eared Bunting.

It's gotten pretty warm now and I got my first sunburn of the year yesterday...............I reckon this sumer will be a hot one, something we haven't had in south Hokkaido for a while.

Only 4 days to go to the World Cup.........I'm ashamed to see that'll blot out everything for the next 4 or so weeks. I wish it could blot out the sound of the construction outside my window though............

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Not happening

A roadside Skylark from yesterday. 

After a whole week of rain and mist the weather has suddenly improved.

Yesterday we went to Yakumo and Oshamanbe. There were lots of birds around but nothing, just nothing was posing for the camera. It just wasn't happening at all photo-wise. Don't know why but it was just one of those days.

The scrub and wetland areas had all the usual birds including the first singing Grays Grasshopper Warblers of the year, lots of Oriental and Common Cuckoos, Long Tailed Rosefinch, Reed and Chestnut Eared Buntings, Wryneck, Lathams Snipe etc......

Not so many Black Browed Reed Warblers yet. This is one of my favourite summer visitors but near Hakodate their usual haunts have all suffered from the curse of the grass-cutters (Hakodate City's usual waste of tax revenues by throwing money at unnecessary projects to keep unemployable men occupied). None at Yakumo either but there were a few singing at Oshamanbe, this poor shot being the best of a bad bunch.

I have managed some OK shots of this species before but not of Chestnut Eared Buntings which seem to hate me and my camera.

Lots of waders around today: Bar Tailed Godwit, Whimbrel, Grey Tailed Tattler, sumer plumage Red Necked Stints, Mongolian Plovers and Sanderling. None close enough for a photo though. At Yakumo we watched the Heronry from the bridge. I took some video but the quality wasn't so hot due to the traffic noise, obstructed views and distance. I was using a 1.4 teleconverter which at least turned out handy for this shot, a pair of Falcated Duck.

I saw a very late Dusky Thrush today and another late Daurian Redstart last week and several Asian Brown Flycatcher, otherwise the flow of migrants has dried up in town.

Here are a couple of views from Onuma. One taken with a 100-400 and the other with my crappy old 18-55 kit lens. Guess which one is which.

I watched England triumph over Japan 2-1 last night. 2 very well taken goals, bodes well for South Africa. I can relax now in the certainty that our talented boys are in great form and the quality will just flow and flow.

Why is Walcott so bad? Why does Heskey always miss? Why will both probably not only be on the plane to South Africa but also possibly in our starting X1 in the first game? Why? Why?

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Hope the weather stays fine this week...........

A long day...........

 

 

 

 

Some of the common birds around this afternoon in the ricefields on the edge of town. Barn Swallow, Night Heron and Skylark........

All the usual stuff is still present, the most difficult one to photograph yesterday afternoon was this Chestnut Eared Bunting......





I stayed up until 3am to watch England somehow cling on for the draw in the 1st test. Now I'm exhausted and lounging around the apartment listening to the rain outside (at least the rain means a temporary lull in the construction noise).........