2018 late Summer trip #3

 The second day of our short trip was windy but sunny...................

2017 Best of #9

A final batch of photos from this year.................

Another Weekend Away #1

An Eastern Curlew near Yakumo a couple of days ago..................

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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Back in circulation

Some Sanderling up at Oshamanbe this afternoon. The wader season is underway, this was one of 6 species around today. My gout is receding (I'm still limping though) so I was back out with the camera........

It has been so hot recently, hovering around the low 30's and humid as hell. Others living elsewhere in Japan may scoff at this news but let me tell you in Hokkaido we generally don't have aircon. Except in the car...............

There were 5 Sanderling on the beach, I think they were adults. The light was a tad harsh...........

I got sunburned on the beach and soaked too as I wasn't paying attention to the surf.............

On a nearby beach there were 5 Red Necked Stint, these were still showing a lot of summer plumage...................

A single Grey Tailed Tattler was sharing the beach with the Stints........

At Yakumo there was a single Curlew (Eastern I think, the hill seems a bit short, I didn't see the rump) and a couple of what I think were Marsh Sandpiper, here are a couple of BIF record shots.

A couple of summer plumaged Grey Plover were also around.

Last week there was a Black Faced Spoonbill ( a very rare bird) at Yakumo. I looked for it for a couple of hours but to no avail. There were lots of Great Egret, Grays Grasshopper Warbler were still singing, Sand Martin were flocking ahead of migration, Black Browed Reed Warbler families were everywhere...............but no Spoonbill..............

I was kept entertained by the Ospreys, shame they didn't come close enough for a decent shot.......

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Hope this hot spell ends soon, it is rare when we can't get to sleep at night because of the heat...........

The footy season kicks off next week (the Premier League that is) but I'll be away Saturday I think, after the World Cup my appetite for football has lessened somewhat. J Sports (the TV channel that usually show it) are still negotiating the contract anyway so they may not even show the first round of matches (this happened 2 or 3 years ago)....................I'll be home for the Liverpool/Arsenal game though which I'm sure can be watched on multiple internet feeds of varying qualities. The England v Pakistan cricket feeds have been of pretty poor quality so I'm currently listening to TMS with a cold beer in my hand, one of life's little pleasures.......

  

Things moving..........

An immature/female falcon at Yakumo a couple of days ago. At first glance I thought it was a Hobby (Merlins are winter visitors only). Whatever it was, it was a bit of a surprise..........

Doh! A female Kestrel perhaps? Thanks to Unravel for that one. I've seen thousands of them over the years back in Europe but they're pretty scarce in north Japan and it completely slipped my mind............



We were looking for waders and on the local beaches and rivers there were 6 species present. Nothing too exciting,this Eastern Curlew was at Kamiso.

And these skittish Red Necked Stints were near Oshamanbe.






These are adults, the juveniles pass through later and are generally tamer.

In town a few migrants are passing through. Asian Brown Flycatcher and Stonechat mainly. I haven't managed to locate any young Night Herons yet.................

It's been overcast and humid, not great weather for photos. On Sunday there were fishing Ospreys everywhere as well as fishing Kingfishers but no decent shots of either alas. here's the best of a bad bunch.........



This Whooper Swan must have stayed all summer at Kikonai, 1 or 2 seem to do that every year.......



I did find this big horrible spider. the 100-400L is not a great lens for macro type stuff. I don't know the name of this species but they are very common in summer.



And here's an old fisherman looking for kelp..............



The 11 hours a day/7 days a week construction next door and opposite my flat continues and I'm beyond sick of it.

England reverted to type in the cricket but early on the 5th day of the 1st Test I'd have settled for 1-1 with 1 game to play.

I fell asleep watching the Charity Shield even though it wasn't on especially late, being woken at 7.30am every morning by the aforementioned construction is starting to take its toll.