A windy Monday

Yesterday we were on the west coast.......................

Meet the Locals #1

DAURIAN REDSTART (Phoenicurus auroreus)

This is one the common local birds in Hakodate and is probably not so well known outside east Asia. It breeds across temperate Asia but is only a winter visitor to Japan. I generally see the first individuals in mid October and they hang around until early April with a few passing through after that. We get the eastern auroreus subspecies (the other one winters in India).

In winter there are usually several in the bushes along the river near my apartment. They are almost all males, I don't know why there are so few females. I guess they winter further south as they are common in autumn and spring.

The males set up temporary territories and aggressively defend them, not only against other Daurian Redstarts but also against similar insectivorous species like Red Flanked Bluetail which pass through in late autumn and early spring.

As you can see the male is a beautiful bird.

This is a female.......................

They are a very active and quite vocal with a persistent hard medium pitched call that reveal their presence as they flit around in the undergrowth.

I have to say I have a soft spot for redstarts. Alas I never saw many redstarts of either species in the UK. I saw a few Common Redstarts, once on spring passage in Penwortham and several times in Scotland or the Lake District. I recall seeing lots of Black Redstarts when I lived in Bavaria and 2 or 3 different species in the Himalayas on my visits to Nepal.

These are all old pictures by the way, they were all taken 3 years ago in Jan/Feb 2010.

It's been a bad bad week weather wise hence some recycled photos...........................

Thanks for clicking this link.......
人気ブログランキングへ

So that was winter then........

An Ancient Murrelet in Hakodate Bay this Tuesday morning. I walked down to see if the Brent Geese were still there (they were) and was surprised to see this alcid so close to the touristy area. Not really close (the pic is a fairly heavy crop) but much closer than usual. A nice find, only the second one I've seen in Hakodate. I've seen several others in various locales, late winter/early spring often sees auks visit the harbours and bays but it's usually Rhinoceros Auklets.

There was still some snow and ice around but it was sunny and windy, I'm sure that's the end of winter. A bit of a strange one, this one of 2009/10. More Hoopoes than Crossbill/Waxwings (one versus zero). No Asian Rosy Finch. No influxes of any winter passerines at all actually, not even Brambling or Bullfinch. Not a single Siskin or Redpoll and hardly any Buntings either. Where did they all go? 

It was a good winter for Brent Geese though and today there was a flock of 35 in Irifune Port. They were pretty restless, I'm sure they'll be off in a day or two. They kept flying off and coming back. Nice to get some Brent BIF shots for a change.

Whilst on the ground they were either strutting around squabbling or resting.

I said last week it was the last time to see them this winter but I was wrong.  I'm glad I could get back one more time.

Here's a video of them preening and getting ready to depart. It was windy so the sound was brutal: I replaced it with sound effects.



I tried some Gull sound effects but it didn't sound like the local Gulls at all. See, I have some standards.

Lots of Red Breasted Merganser about, a few Goldeneye and Pintail plus the Harlequin Ducks of course (none of those species came close enough for a photo though). I tried to find the Hoopoe again but couldn't. Apparently there were a few in south Hokkaido the last week or so.

The Coot was still on the river and the usual small birds were still present. Like this Daurian Redstart.

Another heavy crop, it wasn't as tame as it was a few weeks ago........

And this Dusky Thrush was from today.

Today was a bit duller weather-wise. I noticed this duck yesterday but didn't give it a second glance, I assumed it was just a female Mallard. I took a closer look this morning though. It is, I think, a female Gadwall. This isn't so common round here, I only see one or two a year.

There were quite a few Gulls on the river including this individual.

Note the leg colour (yellow). This is one of those 'taimyrensis' type Gulls. Many years ago there were 2 species of Gull. Herring Gulls and Lesser Black Backed Gulls. They were closely related and had lots of different subspecies. Now they have been split into god knows how many different full species and this is an intergrade between 2 of those. Vega Gull and Heuglins Gull to be precise.

It's darker than a regular Vega Gull, such as this one also on the river today.

You can see our bird is clearly lighter than the resident Slaty Backed Gulls (which aren't in a complex that has been split.................yet). the Slaty Backed is the one in the foreground.

So what is it? A Heuglins Gull? A Taimiyr Gull? Soon to ID a Gull you'll need to get a blood sample and sequence its DNA.

Normally I wouldn't care about this scientific waffle but this may be important to me soon. My Hakodate local list is on 195 and I'm eyeing the 200. Stuff like this Gull (and the dodgy Crossbill from last year that I reposted recently) will test my ticking integrity in 3 or 4 species time....

I almost got a nice Long Tailed Rosefinch picture today. A male near my apartment.

F***ing twigs and branches.

I got up to watch Bayern v Man U very early this morning. Whilst I smirked a little at the result I'm now thinking oh god Rooney is injured before a World Cup again. I hope it isn't too serious. Actually it doesn't bear thinking about. It would be a crying shame if the only mark he ever made in a World Cup was on Carvalho's groin. It might also mean England's World Cup hopes rely on someone like Carlton Cole or Darren Bent. Oh dear.

Still, let's be positive. It may only be something like 4-6 weeks out which would mean Man U's season may implode (which would be nice) and he'd be fresh and raring to go in South Africa (which would be even better).

So this weekend it'll be 3 whole weeks without a car, hopefully we'll get our hands on a nice used one next month. God I hope so.......

I noticed the first fuki shoots near my flat, a sure sigh spring has sprung.

By the way I've changed my blog name from 'S.C.E' to 'Stu'. The original stood for 'Stella C Eagle' (oh how witty) but I got tired of that so I'll just use my real name. I've changed the photo too, it's only a few months old. But by god I look cool don't I?

Click on this link if you have the time. Thanks, I appreciate your support.

Some common winter birds

Another quiet week in Hakodate, where are all the birds this winter? No Crossbills or Waxwings, no winter finches..............luckily I found this very co-operative Daurian Redstart. Several individuals set up winter territories on the river near my flat and this one is on a stretch with a concrete pathway and doesn't seem so bothered by passersby..............

Not much else in town. I went to Yunokawa on Friday, not much there either. A lot of habitat has been destroyed near the river. Some remains however but as seems to be the case with most places in south Hokkaido this winter it was pretty birdless. 3 Long Tailed Rosefinch and a flock of 20 or so Hawfinch and that was about it.

6 species of duck were on the river including Goldeneye.

And this Little Grebe too, not a bird I often get to photograph..........

Crossbills and Waxwings are unreliable, like many things in life. But that might mean they surprise me soon.......

Hope Liverpool can do Man City tomorrow. Just watched Everton beat Man U so you never know....................

Waiting.................for the 17th.

We had a brief visit to see the eagles at Yakumo on Sunday. Still quite a few about but no great photo opps, this flyover immature Stellers was the best of a rather poor bunch.

I first saw the eagles at Yakumo exactly 10 years ago, mid February 2000. The person who showed me parked next to the river and they were feeding very very close in a heavy blizzard. No camera in those days of course. I didn't go back much until we got a car ourselves and I haven't found that place by the river (and trust me I've looked).

A quick look at Onuma provided the usual close ups.

This Gull was at Onuma too. Is it just a Vega Gull? Strange that it was on its own (I almost never see Gulls on the lake).

I had a walk around Hakodate today, here are some shots of the common winter species........

Dusky Thrush, Daurian Redstart and Hawfinch.

The Waxwings haven't shown yet. Actually it's been a pretty poor winter for passerines. The last 2 winters saw influxes of Redpoll, Asian Rosy Finch, Brambling and Siskin as well as the aforementioned Waxwings. This winter I've seen just 1 Brambling in town plus a few Buntings (and a Pallas Rosefinch which was a lifer so I shouldn't gripe too much). Now I'm waiting for the Crossbills to appear. Like Waxwings  they don't come annually but they come most years...........

I just looked back at some old photos and noticed the date Crossbills appeared in the park near my flat in 2008 and 2009. February 17th. Both years. Tomorrow's date is February 17th.

If I was a betting man I probably wouldn't put money on there being any Crossbills there. But I'm going to check..................

A bright red bird in a dull grey week......

Not much happening in Hakodate the last few days, the snow melted a bit on a mildish day and then refroze meaning it's a pain to walk outside again. Not many birds about either, this male Daurian Redstart was the only thing I've photographed so far this week.......

And, er, that's about it.

The Waxwings didn't show. I suppose I could have missed them when I had a cold and was housebound last week but I haven't heard anyone else seeing any either.  On the watched-kettle-never-boils principle I'll stop looking for them..........

If Liverpool can get results in the next 2 games the 2009/10 season looks a lot lot better...............