2018 Best Of #9

A final batch of photos from the last year.................

A morning surprise

I had my best wildlife experience for a long long time today. Not the Common Kingfisher above............

We got up early to try and find some Brown Bears. Several had been seen on a mountain road to the north of town and we headed up there just after sunrise. It was a wet dark day and at first it seemed like we had wasted our time. No birds even: just a couple of distant Crested Kingfisher.

We were on a narrow side road in the middle of nowhere and were getting ready to go back to the main road when I noticed a huge adult Brown Bear standing about 5 meters away! My wife missed it as she was looking straight ahead and it took her a few seconds to work out what was going on (I was swearing and making even less sense than normal). By the time we had reversed it had sadly disappeared. No chance for a photo of course (it was very dark) even if it had stuck around: no way would I have gotten out of the car either.

A bit quiet birdwise. In addition to the Kingfishers we got single Red-necked Stint and Common Greenshank, 2 Eastern Curlew, 2 White-winged Scoter, Great-crested Grebe, various common ducks including Pintail, Teal. Shoveler and Pochard, Osprey, Goshawk, 3 species of wagtail and Great Egret.

More sunny days

I just had 3 days off and though the weather was very good I didn't come away with many pics...........

A sunny Saturday

A beautiful late summer/early autumn day saw us north of town............

The snow just keeps falling................

Another big dump of snow last night................

2017 Best of #8

Some more photos from earlier in the year................

Some Kingfishers

Some Kingfisher pics from near Yakumo the other day.................

A night away

We went camping a few days ago.................

Kingfisher in the gloom

It is very dark under the trees in Onuma in summer.................

Kingfisher and other stuff

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

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A Pacific Diver near Yakumo this afternoon..............

The seasons are changing.

Kingfishers in the morning

There is a local spot to photograph Kingfishers.....................

The Rescuers

I did my good deed of the week on a mountain road last Monday............

Another waderless weekend

A very slow weekend again.....................

In Limbo

A Kingfisher at Yakumo this morning.

I'm in limbo, waiting for my new lens to come. I was thinking how much better these shots would have been.

Slightly pathetic I know.

But 700mm at f5.6 would mean a lot less cropping, or 500mm at f4 would mean a lower ISO. I have to use my 100-400L at f8 to get acceptable images most of the time.

Let's hope they stick around then.

There were loads of skuas offshore, no doubt blown in on the strong easterly wind. Most of them were Pomarine Skua (I think, any comments appreciated re the ID). Here are a few to give you an idea, still too far for a decent shot with my current lerns (c'mon Kojima and Canon, hurry up, hurry up!).

I think there may have been some Arctic and Long tailed Skuas among them but I am terrible at skua ID. Is this one an Arctic?

I put some (even worse) photos on birdforum for help with ID.

Lots of other stuff on the move. In Onuma this morning there were thrushes, buntings and Japanese Grosbeaks aplenty. A Greenshank was a surprise (I don't see many waders there).

 At Yakumo there were the first swnas of the winter, 5 Bewicks Swan. Here are 4 of them...............

There were also Scaup, Wigeon and Black Necked Grebe. And growing numbers of Black Legged Kittiwake both at Yakumo and Sawara.

Other stuff around included Japanese Green Pigeon, Peregrine, Osprey and Great Egret.

Rather quiet in Hakodate. This young Goshawk was in Ono yesterday.

Not much passing through except large numbers of Skylark.

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Another Sunday in September

One of many Red Necked Stints around this last week. This one was at Oshamanbe this afternoon, there have also been quite a few in Kamiiso too.

Also around in the same place were a few Grey Tailed Tattler, a lone Greenshank, a couple of Mongolian Plover and a Sanderling in one of the stint flocks.

Yakumo was rather quiet. 1 Black Tailed Godwit, 9 Greenshank and 6 Eastern Curlew.............

Here is an adultof the latter species looking rather raggedy.

This is an immature with a much shorter bill.

Bit of a quiet 2013 for waders, still a couple of weeks to find something intersting though.

The Kingfisher spot was productive again.

These pics are cropped 50% or so. It is possible to get closer but I'd need camoflage. Perhaps next year................

A Black Browed Reed Warbler was singing nearby...............a bit odd considering the time of year.

Should I get up to follow the torture that will be the Ukraine v England game? It's just that if I don't watch it I think we'll nick a win.
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A hard rain fell.

An Eastern Curlew at Yakumo this afternoon. It seems to have a rather short bill which got me thinking it might be one of the rarer types (Bristle Thighed) until I saw a flock of 6 of them in the same place later. And then I checked the fieldguide...............

It was a grey drizzly day. The weather has been just awful in the second half of August. Very heavy and frequent rain has filled the rivers and they have dumped all sorts onto the local beaches.............sediment and trees mainly.

The Curlew was a nice close one at least.........

Not so many waders around this year, so far at least. Today was the end of a 4 day break for me and theere have been almost no waders around at all near Hakodate. At Yakumo there were 2 Bar Tailed Godwit, 1 Terek Sandpiper and 2 Common Sandpiper. Last week saw another Curlew, some Grey Tailed Tattler, Red Necked Stint and this Black Tailed Godwit.

At Oshamanbe theer were more Red Necked Stint today and 1 Great Knot.

This was a grisly find on the beach at Oshamanbe.

Some kind of albatross I think. Laysan? Short Tailed? It was partially buried in the sand and I let it be (maybe I could have looked to see if it had been ringed or tagged).

This Kingfisher was at Yakumo.

So a pretty quiet last couple of weeks photo wise at least. There have been a few birds around. Returning Black Headed and Glaucous Winged Gulls from the north, Great Egret, lots of Japanese Green Pigeon at many locations on the coast, a Sand Martin colony at Oshamanbe (a bit late but I hope it is still there in 2014). various raptors including Peregrine, Goshawk, Eastern Marsh Harrier and the inevitable Ospreys. The Black Faced Spoonbill hung around for a week or so but I couldn't get close to it again.

So not a great end to my short holiday. To top it off I trod in some dogs**t and lost a lens cap.

After England retaining the Ashes and everything rosy in the world of cricket  let's hope my footy teams pull their fingers out. Let's start with Liverpool beating Man U today and England not f***ing it up against Ukraine next week.
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