More birds in the gloom

Some more birds from the forest pool near Tomakomai.............

2 Bush Warblers

Some more birds from the pool near Shikotsuko last week.............

An autumn camping trip

We just got back from a 2 night camping trip..................

A Late Spring Trip #1

We just got back from a 3 day trip.....................

A pair of little brown birds.............

A Japanese Bush Warbler on the grasslands near Oshamanbe yesterday.............

Ubiquitous

Red Necked Stints are ubiquitous at this time of year....................

More visitors to the pool

 About a dozen species visted the small pool in the forest...............

Another spring day...............

It was a beautiful spring day, the first real warmish weather since the back end of October. I got up early and walked to Goryokaku park and there were Japanese White-eyes everywhere.

Today was a good day for migrants. In the park I saw Pale and Brown Thrush (and lots of Duskys), 4 Rustic Bunting with 2 males in summer plumage, Eastern Crowned Warbler, Red Flanked Bluetail, Asian Brown Flycatcher and this male Blue and White Flycatcher.

This is a Japanese Bush Warbler, a very common summer visitor but usually very skulking. This one wasn't............

There were lots of Red Cheeked Starling around.............

Some were even trying to muscle in on this Great Spotted Woodpecker's new spring/summer residence............

The Black Winged Stilt was still around in the morning..............

Why wasn't the weather like this on my 2 days off last week????

At least I had some free time today (and tomorrow). I was hoping for some Narcissus Flycatchers.................maybe I'll get lucky tomorrow................
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Spring slowly unrolling #3

A male Black Woodpecker at Onuma this afternoon. 4 species of woodpecker, 6 species of tits and the Nuthatches were all very active today. Other stuff in the forest included Brambling, Dusky Thrush, Japanese Thrush, Japanese Grosbeak and lots of Black Faced Bunting and Japanese Bush Warbler................the latter is a dull skulking bird but it is easy to see at this time of year.

The lake is largely ice free now so the waterbirds have dispersed. I saw lots of Mandarin Duck but that species is very shy here and impossible to approach closely. Grey Heron, Little Grebe, Coot, Goosander, Whooper Swan and Great Egret were around.............

Not much in Hakodate this last week, the Brent Geese were still around earlier in the week........

A Woodcock near my apartment was the most interesting bird in town and offshore at Cape Tachimachi a few days ago I saw several Black Throated Diver, a Rhinoceros Auklet and lots of Red Necked Grebe. A female Merlin flew across the highway in Ono on the way home today too.

Not a great last few weeks for my teaching business, we all have slumps but this was one has been a little severe as the wife is now between jobs. Why am I 43 years old and skint all the time?

To top it all there appears to be something wrong with my 100-400L lens...........the tension ring doesn't lock and there is quite a bit of dust in the lens too. I'd hoped to buy a new lens this spring but lack of money has put paid to that. I can still use the 100-400 of course but I'm debating whether to send it off to be fixed or not.

Actually I've been a bit frustrated with my photos recently. They seem to be lacking something, sharpness or 'pop' I dunno.

Today's Black Woodpecker was certainly frustrating. A tame male but unfortunately the light was terrible meaning highish ISO, the AF also had trouble locking on to an all black bird in the gloomy lighting.

So spring moves on, the birds are changing, hopefully some waders will start passing through soon. I saw a Common Sandpiper in the park yesterday. I checked the beach at Kamiiso this morning but nothing happening there, next week should be better I think.

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Spring 2010 continues

Spring is moving on and more migrants are passing through, the above is a blurry pic of a Japanese Bush Warbler which is one of the commonest. A nondescript bird, it does have a remarkable song. The first Red Cheeked Starling of the season also appeared today, a female. Again, not a particularly good shot but it like I say this individual was the first of 2010.

Asian House Martin have arrived, they nest in colonies under some of the local bridges. Black Faced Bunting, another common summer migrant, have also started singing along the river. Other stuff this last couple of days included Reed Bunting, Red Flanked Bluetail and Bullheaded Shrike.

I took a walk down to the nearest quayside, not much around except for the Black Throated Diver which is still in winter plumage.

I bumped into my father-in-law who was catching crabs off the quayside............some of which will be arriving for dinner shortly.

Gah, I've done something to my back again, dunno what exactly but it's pretty painful.

So for Liverpool to finish 4th this has to happen; Spurs lose at home to Bolton, City draw against Villa and again against Spurs midweek, we beat Chelsea. If that happens all 4 teams will be level on points going into the last round of fixtures with Liverpool having the best goal difference. I can see the 2 City games being draws but can Bolton do Spurs? About as realistic as Liverpool beating Chelsea, ie not very...........

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A somewhat busy week......

After last week's dearth of pictures I have loads this week, including the above Coal Tit at Onuma a couple of days ago.

Spring migration is well underway. Near my flat in the bushes by the river were more Red Flanked Bluetail, several Japanese Bush Warbler and this species, a Short Tailed Bush Warbler.



Japanese Bush Warblers must qualify as one of the most boring looking birds on the planet.



But they do have a rather startling song......



Eastern Crowned Warblers have been everywhere too, near my flat, on Mt Hakodate and also at Onuma where I took this photo.



This is one of 3 phylloscopus (sp?) Warblers in spring and by far the commonest........

The Red Flanked Bluetails really remind me of Robins back home...



The cherry blossoms are out. This is a bit of a Japanese cliche.





I've been here for ten springs now and don't really get excited by these anymore but boy do the locals love them.......

Japanese White-eyes are locals I suppose.......





Other spring migrants in the last few days have included Blue and White Flycatcher, Grey Bunting, lots of Japanese Robin (these were singing on Mt Hakodate a couple of days ago) and several species of wader. Today at Shiriuchi and Kikonai we saw Greenshank, Bar Tailed Godwit, Little Ringed Plover, Common Sandpiper and one of the 4 impossible to ID species of Snipe. This bird was the most interesting, an adult Striated Heron which is pretty scarce up here.....



Some wader shots are here.

The weather has been pretty warm the last few days and I can't believe last week it was snowing. The snow was still around at Onuma on Thursday though....



Onuma is a beautiful place.



It's a shame the forest is full of litter though. And this is the view I got when I walked out of the small station at Choshiguchi.



Looks like some kind of post-apocalyptic movie set. It also smelt strongly of natto. This is a foul smelling food not well known outside of Japan. It smells like very old socks dipped in ammonia. Either they were making natto or fixing the septic tanks, dunno which one.

The resident species were all present and correct....





The Black Woodpeckers were still at their nesthole but I left them well alone. This Grey Headed Woodpecker was a nice find nearby.......



And the turtles have reappeared at Omuma.......



More Onuma shots are here.

And in Hakodate a couple of Crossbills made a surprise appearance in the park near my flat......






So the 2 Champions League semi-finals were rather dull. Barcelona were particularly disappointing, I actually want them to win as I'm tired of the Premier Leagues's domination (unless Liverpool win it of course) but they looked a tad overhyped. God help us if it's Man U/Chelsea again...........

What else is going on? Not much, I'm in the middle of a few days off. Early May is a big holiday period in Japan (and it co-incides with the cherry blossoms opening here in Hakodate so you can imagine the hordes).

I'm off drinking tonight........let's hope Boro can pull of a shock against Man U before I leave the flat. Of course I hope Liverpool beat Newcastle tomorrow but I'll be sad if (or rather when) Newcastle go down. I went to university in Newcastle and in fact lived very near St James Park. I only saw 1 game when I was there, a 2-2 draw against Liverpool (1988 or 1989?). How times have changed. Much was made about one of Newcatle's line-up that day. They had (gasp in amazement) a Brazilian player!!! Who'd have thought it eh? Mirandinha or whatever his name was. Another thing which shows how the game has changed was that sections of the crowd made monkey noises when John Barnes got the ball. I'm not 100% sure but I think Newcastle got relegated that season too........

I'm going to open a galleries page on smugmug. I've already started actually.

This week's episode of 'Shameless' made me laugh out loud, Frank Gallagher at the funeral............