Some more KPs

The Kentish Plovers were still watching over their young on Monday....................

Quiet in town..............

The last few days have been very quiet in town. Not much around: a few common ducks like Goosander (above) but not much else. No Bullfinch or Crossbills near my apartment, only a couple of Dusky Thrush and lots of Oriental Greenfinch.

The snow has almost all gone though and hopefully soon the spring birds will appear............

More snow.....................

A male Goosander, one of 5 on the local river yesterday...................

Still snowing. Other stuff around included Peregrine, Brown Dipper, Dusky Thrush and Kingfisher.

I hope the snow doesn't ruin my 8 days off coming soon................

Another summer gone............

A sure sign autumn is just around the corner is when I notice loads of  Night Herons skulking in the bushes along the local river.........................

Another hot humid Sunday

The weather is still hot and humid.........................

Moulting

A family of scruffy moulting Goosander are on the river at Kamiiso every summer. They can't fly at the moment and if they need to move quickly they thrash and paddle away in a flurry of stubby wings and splashes........it seems to be effective in a desperate kind of way and they just about get the job done. Probably some metaphor in there somewhere.

The heat/humidity seems to have receded slightly...........hopefully not just a temporary respite.

Autumn 2015 begins............

The season and the birds are both changing..............

A quiet birthday weekend...............

The end of the wader season saw us up at Yakumo and Oshamanbe yesterday, my 47th birthday in fact.............

f4 and sore arms

A Crossbill in the east of town this morning....................there were quite a few of them around as well as lots of Redpoll................

Both of the above are males................

Although it was a bright, sunny (even warmish) day most of the time the birds were in shade. I was handholding the 500 f4 lens and it was wide open most of the time. I should have used a monopod or tripod: after a couple of hours my arms were pretty tired.

A quiet end to May

A Goosander in Kamiiso last week. A quiet end to May after the deluge mid month. Teal, Tufted Duck, Wigeon, Mallard, Sacup and Harlequin Duck were also around in very small numbers, a few Black Headed Gulls remained, the only waders were Grey Tailed tattler and a lone Terek Sandpiper.

The migrants have stopped passing through, a female Narcissus Flycatcher at the start of the week being the only thing of note. There are lots of Oriental Reed Warbler on the river at least.

A drive to Kikonai and Onuma last weekend produced nothing but common birds and nothing posing for the camera.......................my first Common Cuckoo and Japanese Green Pigeon appeared but mostly the week was as dull as an England end of season friendly.

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Another Winter weekend in Yakumo

A Glaucous Winged Gull in Oshanambe this afternoon. I was looking for Long Tailed Ducks and Pine Buntings but despite checking several locations could find neither. Black Necked Grebe, Red Throated and Black Throated Divers were offshore and there were lots of Scaup, Goldeneye and Black Scoter in the ports.

Glaucous Winged Gulls are common winter visitors.

Here is one with the resident Slaty Backed Gulls........

2 days ago a Japanese friend very kindly took me to Yakumo. She wanted to see the eagles and see them we did.

Mariko was excited to see the eagles, indeed an adult  Stellers Sea Eagle flew right over our heads as we waited on the bridge.

I even managed a non BIF one........

This Goosander was from the bridge in Yakumo  today.

I had a pretty good day at Yakumo today, I have lots of photos to sort through. I'll update it tomorrow or the day after, here's a little taster........



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Late autumn in south Hokkaido

A Black Necked Grebe at Toya a couple of days ago: there gather on the lake in late autumn although they are usually too far out for photos unless they're in a flock like this........

On the way we stopped at Yakumo: the eagles hadn't arrived yet although we did see 3 Crested Kingfisher. At the river mouth were a flock of Great Egret and a small group of Whooper Swan too. Great Egret were everywhere; Onuma, Yakumo and Oshamanbe (and the Ribble too I hear).

Toya isn't so great for birding to be honest. There were the usual common ducks. a few feral Mute Swan and small flocks of Goosander......

We stayed in one of the large hot spring hotels on the lakeside, we could see the Grebes from our 9th room floor. The hotel was a bit tacky and noisy but it didn't stop me doing my usual trick of eating and drinking way too much before passing out about 9pm.

Before the eating and drinking we visited the small island in the middle of the lake, it looked potentially good for birding but at this time of the year there were only the usual common tits, nuthatches and woodpeckers.

On the way back there were flocks of Brown and Eye Browed Thrush in Kuromatsunai and at Yakumo there were the first Black Scoter of the winter as well as several Great Crested Grebe and 8 species of gull including 30 or so Black Legged Kittiwake.

Today we briefly checked Ono.........a Merlin was chasing some kind of Snipe, 2 Whooper Swan and 1 Bewicks Swan flew over too. Near Sawara there were lots more Black Legged Kittiwake......

As you can see it was very dark today. At Onuma the forest was full of birds. Lots of Jay, more Whooper Swan and Great Egrets, Great Cormorant, Little Grebe, lots of Tits, Nuthatches and Woodpeckers here too. Most interesting was a pair of very active Black Woodpeckers. It was very very dark and also very hard to get a clear view. This was the best image I could manage.......

This autumn has seen many many Brown Bear sitings in Hokkaido. Apparently the bears are very hungry (their normal autumn food supply is rather scarce this year) and have been seen much closer to human habitation than normal. Some have been seen at Onuma, hence this rather alarming sign......

It's easy to snigger at the overcautiousness of the Japanese but bears can and do regularly kill folk in the mountains and forests of Hokkaido. One person who I teach had an uncle who was killed and partially eaten by one...................

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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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A fishy post

One of many fishing Ospreys today, this one was at Yakumo. Shame I clipped the end of its wing off.

They really are adept fishers, every time they dived they got a fish. I didn't get any decent diving shots though.............

Most of the common stuff was still around but not as much singing and displaying, slow times are just around the corner.

The main focus in July will probably be the Japanese Green Pigeons. WE spent an hour or so at the regular spot, they briefly came down to the beach but the only shots I could get were rather distant BIFs.

The day ended at Kamiiso. There were only 3 Harlequins, either the male perished or maybe his moult finished and he flew off. Here's a pic of 2 females and also a female Goosander.

I think I now know the place where the Pharalopes were last week, unfortunately they seem to have gone. There was a family of Little Ringed Plover nearby however.........

I watched England's multinational 20-20 game last night (well I gave up after England's pathetic innings) and I also saw the movie 'Priest' which was very very silly indeed.

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Whitefronts

A pair of White Fronted Geese at Kamiiso this afternoon. Not a vintage week for photos so far.........

Not much around in town the last week, it turned pretty icy and nothing to report from near my apartment except a couple of Red Breasted Merganser and a male Goosander on the river yesterday.

I checked out the port in Kamiiso, not much here either. Lots of Great Crested Grebe offshore, the usual common seaducks including flocks of Black Scoter and the Kentish Plover was still around too.

I headed slightly inland and the Geese were in among the Whooper Swan and ducks.

There were also Pochard, and these Goldeneye and Goosander here.......

Small birds included Japanese Wagtail, Siskin and Long Tailed Rosefinch. These 2 White Tailed Eagle were in an inaccessible place of the river, I didn't want to wade through snowdrifts to get any closer so this record shot will have to do.......

There were lots of dead salmon in the river, probably a little too deep for the eagles to get easily(and too deep for the abundant crows/kites too). Actually this spot is very good for Kite BIF shots as they fly around very close but against stone grey skies like today it's difficult to get any keepers............

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