Early morning in Onuma

A male Narcissus Flycatcher at Onuma this morning, one of many in fact.

I got up at 4.45am (!) in order to catch the earliest local train to the east side of Onuma. The forest was once again full of birds but it was a little overcast and this together with the increasing leaf cover meant photography was a little tricky sometimes. May is definitely the best month for birding but not for bird photography.

This Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker was very photogenic though.

This was one of 4 Woodpecker species I saw today, the best was a briefly seen male Black Woodpecker. 

The Pygmy Woodpecker was very tame.

 

I took a couple of short videos of it. This one was with my compact camera.

And this was with the 7D and 100-400 lens, not ideal for a handheld video at all..........

Lots of summer visitors in the forest. Narcissus, Blue & White and Asian Brown Flycatchers, Japanese and Brown Thrushes, Short Tailed Bush, Japanese Bush, Eastern Crowned and Sakhalin Leaf Warblers,  Japanese Grosbeak, Russet Sparrow, Japanese White-eye, Oriental Cuckoo, Common Kingfisher, Grey Heron, Bullheaded Shrike, Oriental Turtle Dove, lots of Swallows and House Martins, Hawfinch, the usual resident Treecreepers, Tits, Nuthatches and Woodpeckers, Little Grebe, Coot, Red Cheeked Starling, Black Faced and Rustic Buntings.........

Here are some shots of male Russet Sparrows, not a bird I often get to photograph......

There were a lot of Marsh Tits too.

Treecreepers are a bird I struggle with, so fast and difficult to focus on.......

And here are a couple of record shots.

Blue and White Flycatchers are beautiful but I have yet to get a decent shot, only heavily cropped ones like this.

A male Rustic Bunting in summer plumage (not something we often get to see in south Hokkaido), shame it didn't come any close, this is another biggish crop.

Black Faced Buntings must be the commonest small bird in Onuma in the summer, here's a female.

The only waterbirds were Little Grebes and Coots...........

And here's a view of Mt Komagadake to finish with.........

Thanks for clicking on this link.

Guess I can start thinking about the World Cup now, only 4 weeks off. I'm old enough and wise enough not to expect much from England but that wisdom is always put to the test during the heat of a game and after a few beers....................

I may watch the FA Cup final this weekend and the 20-20 too (if it's on at a reasonable time). England might win a World Cup this summer after all................

*EDITED TO ADD*

I just approved some comments and they seem to have disappeared, apologies if you left a comment. They have gone somewhere in internetland, perhaps never to return..................

Winter begins..................

Heavy snow and subzero temperatures hit Hakodate yesterday, a little earlier than normal.

Just before the snow hit I walked down to the area around Hakodate docks to check if the Brent Geese had arrived (they hadn't). Not much around in the harbour area except these Harlequin Ducks......





The day before I'd been in Goryokakau Park, the Coot was still there as well as several Long Tailed Rosefinch which all flew off every time I got near.





The temperature was a bit higher today so I went back to Goryokaku park. 3 Wigeon were poking around on the moat.



The rest of the time I was trudging through the slush and playing hide and seek with some Buntings. 2 species including this superb male Yellow Throated.





Keeping it company were 2 Rustic Buntings.





So my book arrived. The colours were OK (I calibrated my screen) and the pics are sharp enough but about 50% of the photos are too dark. I guess this means my screen is too bright. Luckily I'd saved all the edited photos so could easily brighten them slightly. Now I have to decide if any of my pics from the last 3 weeks (since I ordered my sample copy) are worth putting in the revised edition. Once I'm happy with the revised edition I'll put it on sale. I've sold 13 of my calendars so far, thanks if you've bought one. The website is only in English I'm afraid, I guess that means no-one in Japan will buy it then.

Looking forward to the finale of the Shield next week. Can't wait in fact. I hardly ever watch TV shows these days but this one has had me hooked these last few years.

Lots more winter arrivals

Some Whooper Swans a few days ago on the outskirts of Hakodate. Lots of stuff arriving for the winter now. Around town in the last week the first Scaup, Goldeneye, Wren and Dusky Thrush have all arrived. And so has this individual.



The same Thayers Gull that has been on the local river the last 4 winters. Other Gull species have been arriving too, including this Glaucous Winged Gull on the beach at Kamiso this morning.



11 species of duck at Kamiso now as well as 3 Great Egret a few days ago too. We also went to Onuma twice in the last week and predictably took a lot of pictures of the tame regulars.





I could lie and tell you I didn't tempt them near my camera with sunflower seeds, but I'm too honest for such deceit.







Anyway I couldn't really photoshop those sunflower seeds away.........

A fox was hanging around waiting for some handouts too. Or eyeing the tiny birds that it would never be able to catch........







I was using the lens wide open which meant that although parts of the birds were often out of focus at least the background (bokeh) was nice. Very autumnal.







There were 5 species of Tit at Onuma including the above Varied Tits as well as Great, Coal, Long Tailed and Marsh Tits.



There were a few swans, grebes, ducks and egrets about too and lots and lots of Siskin though of course these weren't so tame.



Lots of small birds in Hakodate last week. Near my place I got Red Flanked Bluetail, Yellow Throated Bunting and lots of Rustic Bunting. This (and the Bluetail too) are one of my bogey species photo-wise. The best I could manage was this.



Here a few seasonal shots to round off.







Bird of the day was this species.





2 Daurian Jackdaw mixed in with the resident Large Billed and Carrion Crow at Onuma. There were also several Rook. Both species are pretty scarce autumn/winter visitors to Hokkaido and someone told us they weer around and we just manged to find them before sunset.

My Calendar finally arrived. You can buy it via the link if you want. A touch pricey for a calendar I agree but I have to say it looks OK. I don't make much profit, if you buy one the net profit will buy me 2 cans of beer. My book should be available soon too and I'll shamelessly plug that when it comes you can rest assured.

Just started watching 'How to lose friends and alienate people' which is pretty funny so far at least.

My other blog is still being experimented on. It'll be updated more often than this one, whether it'll replace this one is yet to be decided...........er I'll think about that later.

A day by a lake

We took our guests out to Onuma to show them the tame Nuthatches and Tits which were bang on form as usual. Later on we even bumped into another expat from Hakodate who goes birding. There were a few Japanese photographers looking for the Black Woodpeckers. I saw this female earlier in the day...........here's a crappy record shot.



There were still no Eagles on the ice though we did see a lone White Tailed Eagle fly over the lake. The lake is still pretty much frozen and the Whooper Swans were still present. As was the lone Coot which at least struck some interesting poses.







Like I said the lake was still frozen, perhaps about 99%.



My wife managed to drop her cellphonne into the other 1%. We bought here a new one later on and my god cellphones have come on a bit since I was last in the NTT Docomo shop. My wife's new one has 5 TV stations , a 5 megapixel camera, full internet capabilities, she can use it abroad and lots of other functions she'll never actually need. I want one. I'll get it when we come back from England......

I got some nice shots of the local Great Tits which are usually much less approachable than its' congeners.





The Varied Tits were also posing nicely.





As were the Marsh Tits.





And the Nuthatches.





A slightly different view of Mt Komagadake to finish off, this one from the southern side with the railway in the foreground. My father's hobby is taking pictures of trains but sorry dad there's no train going past and I was too cold and tired to wait for one.



A busy last few days. Should I get up at 5am and watch the Champion's League and then go out for a day's birding? I'll sleep on it. Still got sh*tloads of movies to get through too.........time for a beer followed by a bath I think.