Last shots from the pool

The last batch of shots from the pool near Shikotsuko............

A Late Spring Trip #7

A final batch of photos from last week...........

Yellow Throated Bunting and other stuff............

A male Yellow Throated Bunting in one of the local parks yesterday morning..............

A tame one................

A tame Hawfinch in one of the local parks yesterday................

Miiscellaneous

An Eastern Crowned Warbler at Onuma earlier in the week.

From April 29th to May 5th I had a lot of time off and it was all pretty hectic birdingwise and I updated my blog a lot, here's some of the other stuff I photographed in that time............

Small birds on a rainy day

Siskin and Coal Tit from yesterday................

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM

A friend very kindly lent me his new 100-400 MK2 this morning....................

Spring, I think...................

A sunny springlike day in Hakodate, well it is the end of March I suppose.

This afternoon I was in the harbour at Kamiiso.............

Icy roads in town too.........

I had an afternoon off yesterday and headed down the river to look for the big flock of Common Crossbill I'd seen a couple of weeks ago. There were only about 7 or 8 birds this time but I could get fairly close.

Still in limbo

A Grey Headed Woodpecker, a few days ago in a park in the east of Hakodate.

It was a grey grey morning, these shots were at ISO 1600, usually a no no on the 7D.

Lots of tame common birds in the parks at this time of year.

No autumn colours yet, it has been too mild and wet recently.

Out at Menagawa I spotted this bird offshore.

A Pacific Diver?

I ordered my lens on 15 September and they said it would take 'about a month to arrive'. It could/should arrive this weekend......................the wait is torture.

I hope England don't f**k up against the might of Montenegro tonight. Should I get up and put myself through yet more torture?

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A morning in the park

A Coal Tit, Varied Tit and Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker in Goryokaku Park this morning. There was a mixed species flock containing the above 3 plus Great Tit and Nuthatch. Not much else although a passing Sparrowhawk flushed a few small birds including several Crossbill that quickly disappeared again.

There were also Coal tit and Nuthatches in the park near my flat.....................this shot was taken low down and my knees are still hurting.

This Great Egret was also on the river.

Yesterday I was in Kamiiso but no photos survived the cull. There were the usual common ducks and the regular wintering flock of 20 or so Whooper Swans has arrived. There were large numbers of Common Gull on the sea and 1 Great Crested Grebe and 3 Black Necked Grebe in the harbour.


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A dark Sunday in October

A drake Harlequin Duck on the coast to the east of Hakodate. This is a spot I visit every autumn to see the Harlequins, one day they'll sit still striking nice poses on a sunny day. Today was not that day.

It was a dark dreary sort of day, not so good for photos. We stopped off in one of the larger city parks on the way to the ducks. There were lots of common autumn birds including Jay, Nuthatch and these 3 species of Tit. Eastern Great Tit, Coal Tit and Varied Tit. It was very very dark and the ISO was bumped up for these shots, they do look very very grainy......

God, watching Liverpool was frustrating last night. Another 2 points dropped. I make that 9 points already dropped this season in games when they missed LOTS of chances.

Hope the Manc derby is good tonight, it kicks off in about 20 minutes. Rooney to get another red card? Tevez and Gary Neville to come to blows in the stands?

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42

A selection of waders from the last few days. I'm 42 today, time marches on..............

I got up early today (my 42nd birthday) and went to Kamiiso. There were 7 species of wader. Most interesting was this Grey Plover.

3 Mongolian Plover, 1 Bar Tailed Godwit, 1 Sanderling, several Common Sandpiper, 1 Whimbrel and lots of Red Necked Stints were the other shorebirds around.

I met Kim a few times recently, he saw a Marsh Sandpiper yesterday to add to Temincks Stint and Curlew Sandpiper, all these would have been local ticks for me. My local list is on 196 now and I'm eyeing the big 200 so three new birds would be nice......

In the afternoon we headed out to Shikabe. Several years ago on this date I saw lots of Common Terns close inshore at a particular spot and have gone back every year in the hope of photographing them. They've never been back needless to say. I did find this tame Grey Tailed Tattler though.

And here's a short handheld video...............

There were also a few Japanese Green pigeon here too..........

We headed to Shikabe to the well known spot for this species but they only came close when I went back to the car for something................I had to be content with dodgy flight shots only.

At Onuma the forest is still dark and full of mosquitoes, I got bitten on the only part of my body not covered with repellent (my index finger joints). Here are a couple of high ISO shots from deep in the greenery..........

Last week there wasn't much around except the inevitable Red Necked Stints.

How cute is this?

And here's a BIF shot.

This may be the last batch of Stint shots of 2010...........

Yesterday was annoying as hell. Liverpool using to Man Utd was bad (oh and f**k right off Fergie, O'Shea should have got sent off). I also tried booking a flight back to the UK using mileage I've accumulated over the years. Without boring you with details suffice to say the airline in question (Delta) make it as tricky as possible to do this, I can't even do it online. That was bad too.

So 42, wasn't that the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything? Wisdom awaits perhaps.

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