A lull

 A really really slow week. Still snowing and the snow lies deep everywhere. There was a flock of Crossbills in one of the local parks but they were a bit flighty and anyway it was impossible to get close due to the knee/thigh/waist deep snow......................

I hoped they would come close enough for a shot but they didn't. The only other birds in the park were a few Coal and Great Tits and they didn't come close either. The Tree Sparrows (one above) did.

More birds in the blossoms...........

A male Red Cheeked Starling in the cherry blossoms this morning..............

A beautiful spring morning in Hakodate, lots of activity in the cherry blossoms.

These Tree Sparrows certainly weren't shy. There were lots of Russet Sparrows around too and a flock of 10 or so Siskin...........

And the inevitable Japanese White-eye. It was a little windy in the afternoon, it was difficult to track them up in the swaying branches..........

So Man Utd will get #19 then, no exciting end to the season after all (well not at the top anyway).

Thanks for clicking this link.......

On this day (June 19th)....................

June 19th 2009.


A Bullheaded Shrike doing in a Tree Sparrow on the river near my apartment last year.


It was nice to capture such a dramatic moment, I managed to fire off half a dozen shots. A few minutes later I saw the Shrike with a the bloodied head of the Sparrow in its beak, weird to think how such a small bird can be such a killer. There are always 2 or 3 pairs of Shrike nesting in town alongside the local river, I guess they have mouths to feed and Tree Sparrow is on the menu.

Wryneck

A Wryneck in Goryokaku Park this morning. It was calling loudly (the call is very similar to a Grey Headed Woodpecker which I thought it was at first). Not a great shot but a nice find and the only migrant of the day.................summer must be coming as it was rather warm and humid too.

I got up early to take a Red Cheeked Starling video and this time I remembered to bring my tripod and the results were much better. If you double click on 'vimeo' you can check the HD version.

In the same tree was this Tree Sparrow. The HD version is quite good, click in the right.

It was a bit foggy/hazy and I aborted plans to catch a ferry to Oma to check out the offshore Pharalope migration. Mt Hakodate was also very misty in the morning so I went to Yunokawa. I could see flocks flying west about 500 meters out, record shots confirmed they were all Red Necked Pharalopes (I couldn't find any Red Pharalopes which would have been a local tick).

Winter arrives finally

Well winter finally hit and outside it's f****** freezing and there's loads of snow and ice. The Brambling was a new arrival as was the Glaucous Winged Gull but otherwise it's been a pretty low key week. A Coot, 5 Brent Geese, some Wigeon and Scaup were in the harbour with the Gull. Not much showing so here's some of the common stuff.

Like Tree Sparrows. These are pretty scarce in the UK these days (I can't even remember the last one I saw there) but they are the common urban sparrow of east Asia. I tend to ignore them but there really wasn't much to photograph this week...........

Birds and snow also go well together...........

Plumbing the depths a bit here, here's a Common Teal on the local river.

The Glaucous Winged Gull at least did something entertaining.

This sign states the obvious somewhat.

I'm watching the 1st Test in South Africa on and off, England are struggling a bit. Liverpool's 2nd half showing against Arsenal was as bad as I can remember them playing for a while. Gerard has turned into a petulant brat, Torres doesn't look fit and let's face it half the team aren't actually that good. Still they managed to hang on for a victory against Wigan the other night (can't believe I just typed that!).