Miiscellaneous

An Eastern Crowned Warbler at Onuma earlier in the week.

From April 29th to May 5th I had a lot of time off and it was all pretty hectic birdingwise and I updated my blog a lot, here's some of the other stuff I photographed in that time............

Spring, I think...................

A sunny springlike day in Hakodate, well it is the end of March I suppose.

This afternoon I was in the harbour at Kamiiso.............

Spring

A pair of Slaty Backed Gulls in the harbour at Kamiiso this afternoon. They are paired up and in breeding plumage...............it must be spring.

New Year 2010/11

A Ruff at Martinmere a few days ago. The snow has all melted and now we just have dull grey drizzly weather: at least this means my flight back next week should be unaffected..............

I visited various well known locales in the last 10 days or so. At Fairhaven there was a good selection of waders on the beach but the lake was frozen over and the only thing of interest there was a male Shoveler on the ice. The waders were fairly close but the sun was right behind them meaning no decent photos to speak of. I did take this though, part of a small flock of finches. I thought it was a Twite at first but on second thoughts it may just be a Linnet.

I also managed to limp down to the river in Penwortham. Not much at all here except lots of Redwings and Fieldfare and a lone Merlin. The ice drifting down the river on the incoming tide looked like something you would see in Alaska, I'd never seen this before in Preston................

Lapland Bunting had been reported near here the week before but the only Buntings I could find were Reed Buntings..............

At Marshside there were no birds at all, this drake Gadwall was on the frozen Marine Lake.

Martinmere was better, lots of Whooper Swans plus the usual ducks and geese plus plenty of Ruff..........

At Fleetwood there were lots more waders on the beach but it was so cold and dark photos were out of the question so here's a Robin in Penwortham...............

I have a new respect for bird photographers in the UK. In Japan the birds seem a touch tamer and consistently dark dull days are the exception rather than the norm.

So a bit quiet on the birding front, one thing I've noticed is that Common Buzzards are everywhere and there appear to be at least 3 Nuthatch territories near my parents' house (the latter was a scarce bird when I was last living here and the former was only common in upland areas I recall).

So Happy New Year to all those who follow this blog.................

Black Throated Diver

A Black Throated Diver in one of the local harbours this morning. It came close to the quayside allowing me to fire off hundred or so shots.

Exposure was tricky, a black and white bird on the sea on a very bright day. Most of my keepers were when the light was behind me of course.

There were loads of little tiny fish around so I guess it was feasting on those.............

I think it's a Black Throated Diver and not the very similar Pacific Diver. It appeared to have the diagnostic white patch on its flanks although you can't see it so well in most of these photos.

A nice addition to my photo collection, it'll go alongside the Red Throated Diver from last month.

Also around was a lone scruffy looking Black Necked Grebe, a few Scaup, several flocks of Red Breasted Merganser and half a dozen Red Necked Grebe.

The weather has been great the last week but until today the birding was very very quiet indeed. An Osprey and a Goshawk were nice flyovers on the river and the first Oriental Turtle Dove appeared last Sunday. The female Gadwall has been sticking around, here are 3 photos from 3 separate days.

And here is a very short video of a drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker in Goryokaku Park.

I got up to watch the 2 Champions League games, I wasn't surprised Arsenal lost but quite how Man U could throw it away after leading 3-0 is beyond me.

Liverpool aren't going to finish 4th. Only the Europa Cup then. Should I get up in the middle of the night to watch them against Benfica?

So we may get a car by Saturday, paperwork permitting. I hope the weather holds.

After our car died last month my wife's laptop conked out last Sunday meaning after buying the car we then had to buy her a new PC. Never ever buy a computer made by Sharp.

Please click on this link if you have the time, thanks for your support.

So that was winter then........

An Ancient Murrelet in Hakodate Bay this Tuesday morning. I walked down to see if the Brent Geese were still there (they were) and was surprised to see this alcid so close to the touristy area. Not really close (the pic is a fairly heavy crop) but much closer than usual. A nice find, only the second one I've seen in Hakodate. I've seen several others in various locales, late winter/early spring often sees auks visit the harbours and bays but it's usually Rhinoceros Auklets.

There was still some snow and ice around but it was sunny and windy, I'm sure that's the end of winter. A bit of a strange one, this one of 2009/10. More Hoopoes than Crossbill/Waxwings (one versus zero). No Asian Rosy Finch. No influxes of any winter passerines at all actually, not even Brambling or Bullfinch. Not a single Siskin or Redpoll and hardly any Buntings either. Where did they all go? 

It was a good winter for Brent Geese though and today there was a flock of 35 in Irifune Port. They were pretty restless, I'm sure they'll be off in a day or two. They kept flying off and coming back. Nice to get some Brent BIF shots for a change.

Whilst on the ground they were either strutting around squabbling or resting.

I said last week it was the last time to see them this winter but I was wrong.  I'm glad I could get back one more time.

Here's a video of them preening and getting ready to depart. It was windy so the sound was brutal: I replaced it with sound effects.



I tried some Gull sound effects but it didn't sound like the local Gulls at all. See, I have some standards.

Lots of Red Breasted Merganser about, a few Goldeneye and Pintail plus the Harlequin Ducks of course (none of those species came close enough for a photo though). I tried to find the Hoopoe again but couldn't. Apparently there were a few in south Hokkaido the last week or so.

The Coot was still on the river and the usual small birds were still present. Like this Daurian Redstart.

Another heavy crop, it wasn't as tame as it was a few weeks ago........

And this Dusky Thrush was from today.

Today was a bit duller weather-wise. I noticed this duck yesterday but didn't give it a second glance, I assumed it was just a female Mallard. I took a closer look this morning though. It is, I think, a female Gadwall. This isn't so common round here, I only see one or two a year.

There were quite a few Gulls on the river including this individual.

Note the leg colour (yellow). This is one of those 'taimyrensis' type Gulls. Many years ago there were 2 species of Gull. Herring Gulls and Lesser Black Backed Gulls. They were closely related and had lots of different subspecies. Now they have been split into god knows how many different full species and this is an intergrade between 2 of those. Vega Gull and Heuglins Gull to be precise.

It's darker than a regular Vega Gull, such as this one also on the river today.

You can see our bird is clearly lighter than the resident Slaty Backed Gulls (which aren't in a complex that has been split.................yet). the Slaty Backed is the one in the foreground.

So what is it? A Heuglins Gull? A Taimiyr Gull? Soon to ID a Gull you'll need to get a blood sample and sequence its DNA.

Normally I wouldn't care about this scientific waffle but this may be important to me soon. My Hakodate local list is on 195 and I'm eyeing the 200. Stuff like this Gull (and the dodgy Crossbill from last year that I reposted recently) will test my ticking integrity in 3 or 4 species time....

I almost got a nice Long Tailed Rosefinch picture today. A male near my apartment.

F***ing twigs and branches.

I got up to watch Bayern v Man U very early this morning. Whilst I smirked a little at the result I'm now thinking oh god Rooney is injured before a World Cup again. I hope it isn't too serious. Actually it doesn't bear thinking about. It would be a crying shame if the only mark he ever made in a World Cup was on Carvalho's groin. It might also mean England's World Cup hopes rely on someone like Carlton Cole or Darren Bent. Oh dear.

Still, let's be positive. It may only be something like 4-6 weeks out which would mean Man U's season may implode (which would be nice) and he'd be fresh and raring to go in South Africa (which would be even better).

So this weekend it'll be 3 whole weeks without a car, hopefully we'll get our hands on a nice used one next month. God I hope so.......

I noticed the first fuki shoots near my flat, a sure sigh spring has sprung.

By the way I've changed my blog name from 'S.C.E' to 'Stu'. The original stood for 'Stella C Eagle' (oh how witty) but I got tired of that so I'll just use my real name. I've changed the photo too, it's only a few months old. But by god I look cool don't I?

Click on this link if you have the time. Thanks, I appreciate your support.