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

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

Swallows in the Sakura

A very nice spring afternoon saw me in Goryokaku Park..............

A windy Sunday

An Osprey struggling in the wind at Kikonai this morning. There was a very strong (and cold) easterly wind (not so good for migrants though this side of Eurasia).

The first passage waders have appeared liker this Greenshank.

I also disturbed a Snipe species but couldn't ID it. The common breeding waders, Little Ringed Plover and Common Sandpiper, had already arrived. Here's one of the latter.

Still lots of Brent Geese, Wigeon, Pintail and Red Breasted Merganser offshore but the sea was too rough to check properly. A Glaucous Gull was at Kamiiso but not much else. Ospreys were everywhere again and the ones at Kikonai were the easiest to photograph.

We started off at Onuma but it was cold and windy here too............and foggy. The 4 species of woodpecker were all very active again, here's a male Japanese Pygmy.

 Other stuff at Onuma included Japanese Grosbeak, Whooper Swan, Goosander, Treecreeper and Goldcrest. Brown Thrush and Lathams Snipe were new arrivals, the tame tits and nuthatches were still begging for food.

May is generally the best birding month in Hakodate, hopefully I'll have a few new birds to see and photograph next week.........

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Spring stuff

A Red Necked Grebe coming into summer plumage. A very dark and cloudy day when I took these.

It's been a little chilly the last few days in Hakodate but the spring birds are starting to arrive.................

In the same place as the grebe I saw my first Swallow of spring and also my first wader.........

The first time I've ever photographed a Common Sandpiper (!).

Migrants were also present on the river near my flat.

This was one of a pair of Red Flanked Bluetails. They didn't come any closer (even the above shot is a crop). This is one of my target species this spring, I have to get a good shot of it. Well, not have to as such but it's a really attractive bird that is common in spring but until now it has been beyond me to get a decent shot of it.

Other migrants included several Japanese Bush Warbler, a male Japanese Thrush, Common Buzzard, Bullheaded Shrike, Grey Wagtail, Siberian Stonechat and Black Faced Bunting. Whilst I was waiting in vain for the Bluetails to come closer a small flock of Coal Tit (presumably migrants too) kept me entertained.

I watched 'Surrogates' the other night. Normally I avoid Bruce Willis movies like the plague but this one wasn't so bad.

I've just been working out the permutations that would see Liverpool finishing 4th. Basically Spurs and City need to lose this weekend (they both have very hard games). City then have to draw against Spurs and Villa. Villa need to draw or (better) lose to B'ham. Bolton need to get a draw at Spurs. Liverpool need to win their 3 remaining games (which includes beating Chelsea). It would help if West Ham and Burnley have something to play for on the last day and Hull don't.

There need to be a lot of results coming together for that to happen.