Spring migration moving slowly still..........

We headed north yesterday.............

A walk through the snowdrifts..........

I took a walk up the river yesterday...............

In the bleak midwinter..............

I can't believe how much snow has fallen this winter..............

Almost over...............

It was sunny yesterday...................

A short Waxwing window between blizzards..........

There was a heavy snowstorm in Hakodate on Thursday night/Friday morning and again on Friday afternoon..................

Mayday

We were out west in beautiful spring weather yesterday...............

The interim

It's the interim period, not winter anymore but not really spring yet either...................

A bit slow.............

Despite a lot of driving around in great weather last weekend the birds were a bit thin on the ground...............

2015 ending slowly............

The weather relented a bit and we ended up at Onuma in brilliant winter sunshine.............

Early spring Parklife

I took a short walk in Goryokaku Park this afternoon.................

Some crappy shots of some interesting migrants..................

Well we had a fairly eventful day. Sleet and an earhquake this morning and some interesting migrants this afternoon.

In Goryokaku Park there were several Dusky Thrush (above), Hawfinch and Swallow but no more bluetails.

On the river there were lots of birds passing through. My first Asian House Martin, Chestnut Eared Bunting and Siberian Stonechat of the year. Several Daurian Redstart, Coal and Varied Tit, a female Red Flanked Bluetail and yet another Osprey. A Woodcock flushed by crows was a surprise. This is the first photo of this species I've ever posted.

A male Pale Thrush. A crap photo and it isn't even  rare but like I say this is its first appearance on this blog.

Here's another even crapper photo.

A Hoopoe near my flat, the second one I've seen locally now and my 4th in south Hokkaido. It was very skittish and the above heavily cropped record shot was all I could manage....................

So some interesting things appearing. I hope it isn't f***ing sleeting again on Sunday/Monday (my days off).
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Crappy April weather

A Dusky Thrush near my flat this afternoon.

Not much to report except the weather the last couple of days has been just awful. Wet and windy, the rivers are full with rain and snowmelt.

I did see tmy first Mandarin Duck of the year yesterday at Onuma. Lots of common stuff about but it was too dark for any photographs. The tame Nuthatches had to endure my flash.

I saw the first Swallows of the year and a flock of 20 or so Crossbill in the sky over Ono as well as a couple of unidentified grey geese heading north.

Just this lone Dusky Thrush in Hakodate though..............

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The merest hint of spring

A Temincks Cormorant and Glaucous Winged Gull at Menagawa this afternoon, note that they are both in breeding plumage, it must be spring.

Well it has got above freezing this last week but there was another heavy snowfall yesterday.

There were lots of Glaucous Winged Gull on the coast.

I wanted to show Franck (a French birder who used to live in south Hokkaido) the Pine Bunting and Rough Legged Buzzards but we couldn't find either, maybe the snow drove them south. We did however see a couple of Mountain Hawk Eagles high in the sky.........

Here is one with a Black Kite..........

Other stuff included Peregrine, Common Buzzard, White Tailed Eagle, Brent Goose, Harlequin Duck, Whooper Swan and the usual common winter species. At Onuma we tried to find a Naumanns Thrush which Franck had photographed yesterday, no luck there. The Pintail was still present as were the Smew (11 now) as well as Goosander and Goldeneye but no chance of decent photos, the Smew were too far away and the Pintail was too close.............

The Ural Owl was dozing in its hole.

Not much in town last week, there were individual Grey Heron and Great Egret on the river.

And lots of Dusky Thrush still...........

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Dusky Thrushes

I could take my first bird photos for almost 2 weeks today, a large flock of 100 or so Dusky Thrush was feeding on the berries in the trees on a street in the middle of town.

This is a common winter visitor but they didn't arrive in any numbers until a couple of weeks ago when the weather turned nasty. I was hoping to see some vagrants with them, a Naumanns Thrush of Fieldfare perhaps but nothing doing there.

I hope they leave some food for any late Waxwings...........

A Sparrowhawk was around and spooked the thrushes several times. I was spooked too by the arrival of 2 burly men in suits. They flashed their police badges (the thrushes were across from the main Police HQ in Hakodate) and told me I had to move for 'security' reasons (I was standing in a car park used by the police apparently). I wish I could say 'oh go and catch some real criminals you corrupt incompetent idiots' but I don't know the Japanese for that so I just tutted under my breath and moved like they asked. In retrospect I'm glad my Japanese is limited sometimes...........

Nothing much else around, here's some kind of weasel a couple of days ago down the river........

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Snowy

Well there's been a lot of snow in Hakodate this last week. I haven't been out much but today the snow relented and the sun came out...........

There have been 2 Great Egrets on the river this week. This is one of them......

And this is another. I think.

It's difficult to see white birds on a bright day against snow, there was another egret right next to this one that I didn't even notice until it flew up.

Other birds this week in Hakodate have included Brown Dipper, Kingfisher, Sparrowhawk, Grey Heron, Daurian Redstart.........the usual winter stuff but still no Waxwings.

Lots of Dusky Thrush though, these were very thin on the ground until the last week or so, hundreds of them about today though it is a shy wary species that I don't often bother trying to photograph as it's so common. 3 years ago I found a Fieldfare in the Dusky Thrush flocks, no such luck today.

The Rough Legged Buzzards are still around east of Hakodate apparently, I may get a chance to see them again tomorrow or Sunday, some other local birders have been getting some nice shots of them..........

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A grey Wednesday

It's been a grey cold week so far in south Hokkaido. There are a still a few Crossbill around, this male was one of a group of  half a dozen in Goryokaku park this afternoon.

There were 40 or so Brambling and a few Hawfinch but they were very shy.

Dusky Thrush are always very common at this time of year, there were lots in the park this afternoon.

A few White Wagtail remain in winter but generally it is an abundant summer visitor, they are everywhere at the moment.

The first Swallows of spring were skimming over the moat with a few Asian House Martin. The last couple of days has seen a few Bullheaded Shrike, Daurian Redstart and Japanese Bush Warbler pass through and today I saw the first Siberian Stonechat of the year too.

Why are all the decent footy games on at inconvenient times this season? Spurs v Arsenal tonight looks like it'll be a very interesting game but I'm not getting up at 3.45am to watch it, the only game I could catch last Saturday was West Brom v Chelsea for christs sake.

The city elections are at the weekend, like I said in a previous post electioneering here consists of candidates driving slowly around town hysterically bellowing slogans with their 'supporters' (usually the local equivalent of dumb blondes) waving and smiling out of the windows.

At least I don't have to put up with a Royal Wedding (although you'll at least get a day off work).

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