Seven

All the regular 7 winter gull species were at Kamiiso today.....................

Kingfisher and other stuff

A Kingfisher near Yakumo this afternoon.................

Some nasty weather

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

A different day, a different Stilt

In between a couple of spells with the Crossbills at Kamiiso 2 days ago I checked the beaches for waders.

There was yet another Black Winged Stilt, this one was actually in the harbour just where the fishermen bring their boats up..................

It was very nervous.

There were some cats eyeing it hungrily so I didn't mind making it skittish..............I may have saved its life as it eventually flew off in the direction of the river.

I could get some more natural looking Stilt shots than the tame one in Goryokaku Park (that one seems to have left now).

As I said before there must have been a big influx of this species into south Hokkaido this year, this is the 5th individual I found this spring. Forgive the deluge, I probably won't see another one for 3 or 4 years.............

There were a few other waders around including 2 Ruddy Turnstone, one of rhich was coming into summer plumage.

The commonest spring wader is always Grey Tailed tattler and there were 7 or 8 of them around.............

One of them was tagged................I suppose I should report this somewhere. A green tag with 'ABD'? I wonder where that could be?

***EDITED TO ADD: according to this link it was banded in Queensland Australia. Ironically I saw my first ever Grey Tailed Tattler in Cooktown QLD in November 1994......maybe this is one of its descendants.......

Still not sure what "ABD" means though.......

I saw a colour tagged Red Necked Stint 2 or 3 years ago but was disappointed to discover it had been tagged somewhere else in Hokkaido!

I saw 2 Red Neked Stint in summer plumage at the end of the day but the light was fading and I had to catch the train home..........................

Most of the gulls/ducks have left but there were still Black Headed and Common Gulls around, all in summer plumage. Here's the latter.............

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Bewicks Swan

A Bewicks Swan in Kamiiso today. This is somewhat scarce in Hokkaido and I usually only see them flying over. They were part of a flock of 10 tired looking swans obviously taking a break oneir northward migration.

There were 8 Bewicks and 2 Whoopers. Here are the 2 species together with the Whooper in the foreground.

Bewicks is a species I don't really have any photos of................

Not much else around. The common ducks of course, Great Crested Grebe, a couple of flyover Osprey and 5 Great Egret. There were 6 species of gull including this raggedy looking young Glaucous Gull.

The Black Tailed Gulls are a very common species which I usually don't bother photographing but it has to be said they are a very attractive gull...........

There were lots of Black Headed and Common Gulls too. This individual looked a little odd, I think it's a Common Gull but it looks rather dark and I've never noticed that eye/gape colour before.

Not much in town this last week. I walked to Cape Tachimachi on Monday and saw Brent Goose (just 1) and Glaucous Winged Gull on the way. Red Necked Grebe, a few common ducks and a lone Rhinoceros Auklet were bobbing around ofshore. In the forest there were Treecreeper, Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Varied and Long Tailed Tits, Jay and Bullfinch but it was too dark for any photos. Just as I left the forest I saw my first Bullheaded Shrike of the year.

Nearer home has been extremely quiet. Grey Wagtail on the river, a couple of Pochard in Goryokaku Park. That's about it except for this high in the sky Osprey which was a flyover bird in the same park.............

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Grey January continues.........

The crappy weather continues. After the blizzards came rain which then froze everywhere, not much birding done. The above White Wagtail was on the coast, I'd walked down there this morning looking for Asian Rosy Finches (no luck). A Buff Bellied Pipit was around but not much else.

This immature Glaucous Winged Gull was amongst the predominately Slaty Backeds.......

Several of the local subspecies of Common Gull were present too.........

I was hoping to find the Thayers Gull which had visited the previous 4 winters but this winter it hasn't appeared..........

A few raptors flew over this week (and always before I could get my camera out), these included Merlin, White Tailed Eagle and Peregrine. Otherwise, not much to report, still no Waxwings in town.

Hakodate City is 'improving' the river near my flat. They're digging up stuff and cutting down yet more trees. It appears to be a 100 meter or so walkway that starts nowhere and ends nowhere. Hakodate is very very heavily in debt. They are using money they don't have to build something they don't need (actually this pretty much sums up postwar government spending here). 

The trees and bushes they've cut down recently used to look nice, they included a beautiful old weeping willow. Now we will have a concrete pathway that doesn't go anywhere. I got my first Siberian Rubythroat in those trees and bushes as well as Wrynecks and all kinds of migrants. Oriental Reed Warblers nested there, Night Herons roosted there. What a waste of time and money for something that makes the area worse not better.

Some Japanese, especially those in positions of power,  appear to love concrete. It's everywhere and is winning the battle with grass and trees for ground space. I'm sure there is a big government office in Tokyo with a map of Japan slowly turning from green to grey with a lots of old men in grey suits from the concrete ministry sagely nodding their heads and saying 'one day one day there won't be any green on that map and our work will have been completed'.