Another fail

An Eastern Marsh Harrier today near Yakumo. Before today I had never taken a decent shot of one.

For once, one flew near the road and alongside the car. I wasn't quick enough to focus on it and get the camera settings right. I've still never taken a decent shot of one.

If I'd had my wits about me I could have gotten some killer shots of it. If.......................

Spring arrives in full

A crap heavily cropped pic of an Eastern Marsh Harrier, I saw them in several places today.

After some pretty prolific posting in 2017 (100 posts by mid-April, it's true I have no life) the bird photos and hence the posts dried up this week. I saw some pretty good birds today but nothing posed for the camera despite me walking for 12km with my big lens (I know how far because my iphone tells me).

At Yakumo there were Bar-tailed Godwit, Terek Sandpiper, Long-tailed Rosefinch, Osprey, Goshawk, a flock of White-fronted Goose, Little Egret, Great Egret, Black Scoter, huge numbers of Pintail and Teal, a few Shoveler and Wryneck.

Siberian Stonechat, Red-cheeked Starling, Black-faced Bunting and Asian House Martin are everywhere...........spring is in full swing at least.

Rainy season

Well it poured down with rain all today and it's been raining on and off all week..................

Summer in the grasslands

An Eastern Marsh Harrier near Oshamanbe on Sunday.

After Yakumo we were on the grasslands near Oshamanbe. All the common species were singing and there were also flocks of Sand Martin above.

Black Browed Reed Warblers are absolutely abundant in this place.................

I took a short video on a rickety old tripod..............



This was another individual which seems to have lost most of  its tail

Back at Yakumo I tried again for the Ospreys. One of them was sitting on some driftwood on the opposite bank..................too far away for a pic though.

Wish it had been as close as this Black Kite..............

On the way home we stopped at Onuma where I got my first mosquito bite of 2013.

There was a lone Whooper Swan sitting in the shade next to the lake. I guess this is an old or injured bird that couldn't make the spring trip back up north.

Or maybe it was just lazy.................

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A very quiet period

Some Goosander at Kamiiso last week. I've just had a very quiet last 2 weeks, not much happening birdwise at all. Osprey, Kingfisher and Sand Martin were also at Kamiiso last weekend, nothing in Hakodate worth mentioning.

Last Sunday we went up to Yakumo and Oshamanbe, I wanted to see if any waders has arrived yet. They hadn't. More Sand Martin were here as well as Pacific Swift, White Throated Needletail, Japanese Green Pigeon, Scaup, Osprey, Peregrine, Long Tailed Rosefinch and several Eastern Marsh Harrier, nothing posing for photos at all, here's a big crop of a distant Harrier.

I haven't taken a decent photo for over 3 weeks..............

No riots or looting over here but there was a murder in Yakumo last week, a high school student set fire to his own house because his parents wanted him to go to college instead of letting him pursue his dream of being a voice actor. His sister died in the fire.

Having worked in the s**thole called Hackney as a social worker in the early 90's and witnessing the impotence of social services in helping anyone I'm not surprised that we now have an hopeless, amoral, lazy, welfare dependent and criminally minded underclass that thinks it's fine to go out rioting and looting in their own communities. I'll stop there before I get all Daily Mail on you.......

Stinking hot here, 32 or 33 degrees the last 2 or 3 days. Hope some waders turn up soon.

How crap are India? I was hoping for an awesome series like the 2005 Ashes, can't believe India have been #1 the last couple of years. The footy season begins tomorrow but to be honest these days I prefer following the cricket, football's soul died a few years ago.

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Another weekend away in May

Despite cold, foggy weather I think we can say summer is almost here. The grasslands at Yakumo and Oshamanbe are full of birds and Siberian Stonechat are probably the commonest, these shots were at Yakumo on te way back from a night at Lake Toya.

The most dramatic bird is Lathams Snipe, which has an amazing display flight, they are everywhere in this area in early summer.

The Black Browed Reed Warblers have arrived, they get bolder as June progresses and sing from exposed perches, for now they are skulking. Other birds around were Oriental and Common Cuckoo, Long Tailed Rosefinch, Black Faced and Chestnut Eared Bunting, Japanese Bush Warbler, Oriental Reed Warbler, Skylark, Brown Thrush, Wryneck, Bullheaded Shrike and several of these.........

A crappy record shot of an Eastern Marsh Harrier in the early morning gloom on Sunday.

We stayed Sunday night in Lake Toya.

We often stay here, it's about 100 miles from Hakodate and is a well known hot spring resort. It is suffering a bit now though, not many visitors (other east Asians are understandably chickening out of coming to Japan after the quakes/tsunamis/nuclear meltdown) and the hotel we stayed at was basically half price and only about 10% full.

There were a few birds around, this Grey Headed Woodpecker and Nuthatch were in the trees at one of the lakeside campsites.

Other birds included Eastern CrownedWarbler, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Great Egret, Mandarin Duck, Oriental Cuckoo, Russet Sparrow, Goosander, Tufted Duck, Common Sandpiper, Red Cheeked Starling, Narcissus Flycatcher and yet more Lathams Snipe. I checked out the coast a little too, the only wader was 1 Grey Tailed Tattler at Oshamanbe. There were a few Brent Geese offshore at Yakumo (the latest I've ever seen), a couple of Pintail too and a few Scaup remained at Oshamanbe.

I watched the Champions League final, a bit of an anticlimax, I didn't expect it to be so one-sided...............

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Owl in a hole

A Ural Owl at Ouma this afternoon. It was also in the same place in the morning too.

There were 2 or 3 people taking pictures of it in the morning but when we returned in the afternoon there was one very large car inside of which sat a grumpy looking oldish man with a big lens. He was parked right in front of the Owl (which was about 10 metres or so off the road). The Owl is tolerant of people as long as they stay on the road. Knowing this I got out of the car and took a couple of photos, the light was good. The old man then shouted at me, telling me I had to get back in our car to take pictures. I was somewhat taken aback (surely the shouting was more intrusive to the Owl than my quietly taking a few pictures but anyway). 

There are times like this when I really wish I could speak more fluent Japanese. I would have loved to have been able to say 'who the f**k are you, the f**king Owl police?' but I was restricted to 'anato no fukueo desuka?' which means 'is it your Owl?'. Sarcasm loses everything in translation. Actually I should have walked in front of his car and stood in front of his camera. Or maybe I should have said 'sshhhhhhhhhh. don't shout, there's an Owl in that tree over there'.

I tried experimenting a bit with auto ISO today, here are some of the results from ISO 100 to ISO 3200.........

The Glaucous Gull was near Oshamanbe, the Tits and Nuthatches were at Onuma.

It was a bit of a frustrating day, some nice birds but not many nice shots. There were several Eastern Marsh Harriers near Oshamanbe but I could only get this crappy record shot.

Back at Onuma the Black Woodpeckers and Mandarin Ducks were around but again no chance for a keeper.

It was sunny but very windy today, and the wind was cold. Here are some sheltering Dunlin at one of the ports near Oshamanbe.

On Friday I got up early to check if the Crossbills were still in the park, they were but only high up in the trees. The Siskin and Brambling were still there too. I then did the long walk down the river, along the beach and into the forest at the foot of Mt Hakodate. The first singing Japanese Bush Warbler of the spring were there as were the common resident Woodpeckers, Tits and Nuthatches. There were some Red Necked Grebes on the sea and a group of 30 or so Common Buzzard on their way north. No decent photos of any of them though.

So do I hope Liverpool lose tonight meaning Arsenal can close the gap on Man Utd? Hmmmmmmmm.

Here's a view from Onuma at the end of the day. Nice and peaceful but I was still fuming about being shouted at by some stupid old oyaji.

I hope the Owl flew at him and scratched the front of his lens.

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A spring Sunday in Hokkaido

A pair of Red Cheeked Starlings near Yakumo this afternoon, the background is a mishmash of old fishing nets and stinky port stuff.

We got up very early and took lots of pics of this species near my apartment in amongst the cherry blossoms, I'll post those pics tomorrow................

It was warm today and there was an odd mix of winter and summer birds.

These were part of a flock of a hundred or so White Fronted Geese that briefly landed in the soon to be flooded ricefields in Ono. When they flew off I turned the dial on my 7D to 'B' instead of 'C1' (my BIF setting). 'B' is for long exposures, I messed up there.

Cuckoo, Oriental and Black Browed Reed Warbler, Siberian Stonechat, Skylark and Chestnut Eared Bunting were in the same area.

At Yakumo there were still Scaup, Black Scoter and Red Breasted Merganser offshore and elsewhere today we also saw Pintail, Shoveler and Pochard. A few Glaucous Gull were at Yakumo but the most interesting bird of the day was this, an Eastern Marsh Harrier. Here's a record shot.

Not a vintage BIF day at all. Ospreys continue to resist all attempts to get a decent pic...........

At least Black Kites fly closer.

I was hoping for some waders at Yakumo but we only saw Little Ringed Plover, the first Lathams Snipe of the year and Grey Tailed Tattler. The Red Cheeked Starlings were common here too though........

We ended up at Onuma, lots of stuff in the forest as per usual but nothing posing for the camera.

Like Ospreys, Mandarin Ducks avoid my camera........

I'm knackered and am hitting the sack, I'll sort through my Starlings in the cherry blossom shots tomorrow........

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