On this day (March 2nd).........................

March 2nd 2015.

A Goshawk near Oshamanbe 3 years ago today. This species is not especially rare but I don't photograph it much for some reason: just distant immatures against grey skies usually. This adult is probably the best shot I've managed.

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.........................

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A Pacific Diver near Yakumo this afternoon..............

The seasons are changing.

A quiet week in mid March..............

An out of foocus immature Goshawk on the edge of town today................

It's been a quiet few days.

New Year in Yakumo #1

A Mountain Hawk Eagle in Yakumo yesterday...............

2015 Best of #2

Some more shots from the early part of 2015.......................

Not really happening

On Monday afternoon we were in Onuma and Sawara................

Goshawk and more Glaucous Gulls

A Goshawk at Oshamanbe earlier today.....................

In Limbo

A Kingfisher at Yakumo this morning.

I'm in limbo, waiting for my new lens to come. I was thinking how much better these shots would have been.

Slightly pathetic I know.

But 700mm at f5.6 would mean a lot less cropping, or 500mm at f4 would mean a lower ISO. I have to use my 100-400L at f8 to get acceptable images most of the time.

Let's hope they stick around then.

There were loads of skuas offshore, no doubt blown in on the strong easterly wind. Most of them were Pomarine Skua (I think, any comments appreciated re the ID). Here are a few to give you an idea, still too far for a decent shot with my current lerns (c'mon Kojima and Canon, hurry up, hurry up!).

I think there may have been some Arctic and Long tailed Skuas among them but I am terrible at skua ID. Is this one an Arctic?

I put some (even worse) photos on birdforum for help with ID.

Lots of other stuff on the move. In Onuma this morning there were thrushes, buntings and Japanese Grosbeaks aplenty. A Greenshank was a surprise (I don't see many waders there).

 At Yakumo there were the first swnas of the winter, 5 Bewicks Swan. Here are 4 of them...............

There were also Scaup, Wigeon and Black Necked Grebe. And growing numbers of Black Legged Kittiwake both at Yakumo and Sawara.

Other stuff around included Japanese Green Pigeon, Peregrine, Osprey and Great Egret.

Rather quiet in Hakodate. This young Goshawk was in Ono yesterday.

Not much passing through except large numbers of Skylark.

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A very quiet long weekend

A not terribly good pic of a young Goshawk at Shikabe this afternoon. This and a Peregrine were terrorising the Japanese Green Pigeons...........

It was grey, windy and drizzly on the coast around Shikabe. We checked Kamiiso (twice) but couldn't find any waders, at Onuma there were only common birds and mosquitoes. In the mountains near Mori we saw 3 Crested Kingfisher but they were way too far off for any pictures.

Still really hot, the weather has to break this week. Surely?


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Wader Season #7

Wader season continues. This is one of 2 scruffy looking  Dunlin on the beach at Kamiso just before sunset today. Marginal conditions for my set-up, the lens was wide open and ISO was up to 800 meaning some fairly crappy shots. Hopefully the 7D will serve me better.

One Red Necked Stint and the two Bar Tailed Godwits remained from Friday.

Common Sandpiper and Grey Tailed Tattler were also around but most of today's shots are of grainy blurry Dunlins.

We made it out to Onuma but nothing there except mosquitoes. Over at Shikabe there was a Common Guilemot bobbing around offshore but absolutely no waders whatsover.

This lighthouse used to be the spot in Hokkaido for seeing Gyrfalcons.

But not anymore (and anyway they were only in winter and actually they had stopped coming by the time we got a car and were in a position to visit the location). There was a Peregrine around as well as this young Goshawk which took off before I could get a decent shot.

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Waders, Foxes and Bugs.

This will be a long post. You have been warned.



A Red Necked Stint at Mukawa on Wednesday. I just got back bfrom a 2 night camping trip in Hidaka in central Hokkaido. We started off on Wednesday morning at Kamiso. 2 Bar Tailed Godwit, 2 Red Necked Stint and a Kingfisher were present. Heading northeast we stopped at Shiraoi for a break. Osprey, Eastern Marsh Harrier and lots of hirundines/Pacific Swifts were on the move. We also saw a Magpie near Tomakomai on the way back.



Anyone who has driven (or been driven) in this part of the world will remember this huge bear and crab atop a seafood etc souvenir emporium. And inside you can get bearmeat curry.



Don't fancy that? How about a seal curry? Mmmmmmmmm. Taste that spicy blubber.



And so on to Mukawa. We stopped off here both ways. The freshwater pools have almost all been drained leaving only a few puddles. It was very hot and bright both days and it was hard work finding any waders but there were some about. 10 or so Red Necked Stint, 5 or 6 Wood Sandpiper, 2 Whimbrel, 2 Eastern Curlew, 1 Grey Tailed Tattler, 1 Curlew Sandpiper, 1 Pacific Golden Plover, 1 unidentified snipe species (probably Lathams) and 2 Little Ringed (?) Plovers. There was another Harrier here and an immature Goshawk. The birds were pretty skittish and I got some lousy flight shots only.






We camped near Hidaka. Hawfinch, Eurasian Jay and Japanese Grosbeak were the most interesting birds around. There were however lots of bugs.



We spent a day up at Furano and Biei. These are very popular spots for Japanese tourist to, basically, come and look at trees in fields. There are sometimes flowers or lone trees standing in the middle of said fields. Coachloads of J-folk come and gawk. Souvenir stands blasting piped muzak pollute the ambience even more. The famous trees in question feature in Japanese tobacco advertising. Trees in fields. Great.

Furano is also famous for melons and lavender (and flowers generally). The lavender had gone but there were still lots of flowers which attracted lots of butterflies. Dunno what this one was (Blue Swallowtail?) but it wouldn't stay still.






And here's a other kind of Swallowtail.






A decent macro lens is on the list (about #6) of things to get. I didn't need a macro lens for this Red Fox which was hanging out on the road in the mountains.









The most numerous wildlife on the trip was this king of dragonfly. They were everywhere. We went over a mountain pass that was over 3000 feet up and they were abundant there too. There must be literally millions of them.






Listened to the ipod a lot in the car. Frank Black (lots of random tracks) , Neil Young (Decade) and The Stranglers (Rattus Norvegicus) were my faves this time round. Missed England v Germany (can't believe I didn't give a toss about the result in that game) but after the Liverpool v Chelsea travesty I needed a break from football anyway.