Waders in the rain.............

Some more waders from near Tomakomai last week...........

North Hokkaido 2018 #3

A Long-tailed Rosefinch from a few days ago..............

A grey Friday in May

I couldn't do much birding this week................

A summer visitor............

Despite a bitterly cold westerly and a light dusting of snow last night it was definitely spring. The above Little-ringed Plover was newly arrived at Yakumo. Shame about the background............

2017 Best Of #5

Some more shots from earlier in the year, these are from spring.................

A double dose of LRP/LPR

Well I didn't find any Hoopoes today, in fact the birding was pretty quiet but I did manage to photograph this Little Ringed Plover up close. Many birders call it 'LRP' because they can't be bothered to write or type it.

LPR  stands for Laryngopharyngeal Reflux,a condition which I think I've been suffering from for a while. Sore throat and hoarse voice....I'm a bit tired of it. In fact I'm going to the doctor tomorrow.

I know how to say LRP in Japanese, looks like I'll have to learn the LPR word too.

Stilts in the gloom

There were 3 Black Winged Stilts near Yakumo as we headed home on Tuesday.................

Some April waders.........

Only a few passage waders around, so here is a summer visitor and a winter visitor from Sunday.............

2014 Best of #3

Some of my fave shots from late winter through to the end of spring........................

 

Still waiting......................

A Little Ringed Plover at Asabu this afternoon...................

A short walk on the beach

I had a spare afternoon so we checked out the ricefields to see if a) they had been flooded yet and b) if there were any waders there yet. The answers were yes but only a little and no none at all. So I checked out the beach at Kamiiso. There were 2 Whimbrel and half a dozen or so Grey Tailed Tattler.

The Whimbrel were a bit jumpy but I could get closer when they were preening.

One Whimbrel had a normal bill but the other seemed slightly misshapen (it couldn't close it). You can see the comparison between the 2 birds here.

It was nice light late in the afternoon...........

The Tattlers were also pretty jumpy, this was the best shot I could muster.

In the car park next to the beach there was 1 Little Ringed Plover.

Not much else around, a couple of Ospreys flew over carrying wriggling fish. In Hakodate the last few days there hasn't been much, still lots of Asian Brown Flycatchers passing through but nothing else of interest. I spent an hour this morning watching a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers driving off the Red Cheeked Starlings which were trying to pinch their nesthole.........

So Kenny Daglish got sacked, I'm past caring. And I was consumed with apathy when the England squad was announced..................thank the lord Test Match Special is on for the first time this summer...............


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Typhoon hits Hakodate, sort of

Well the weather has been lousy for a while, very hot and humid followed by very windy and rainy (but still hot) as the fizzling out typhoon hit Hakodate. It was a big one further south a couple of days previously, 20 dead and 55 missing I saw on the news..........

Not much birding except on Sunday when we went out to Kikonai.

This Little Ringed Plover was at Kamiiso.

Also here was a flock of 15 or so Red Necked Stint but not much else. At Kikonai there were more Red Necked Stint as well as 2 Lesser Sandplover and 2 Sanderling. It was very windy (but still hot and even sunny, no rain yet), impossible to hold the camera steady by this point.

Here are some Red Necked Stint running into the wind.

Ospreys were everywhere, this one was diving pretty close but was facing away from me when it emerged with a fish.

I got up in the small hours to watch the second half of the Bulgaria v England game, bit silly as all the action was in the first 45 minutes, hopefully I'll get up early tomorrow to find them 3-0 up against Wales and I can stay in bed.

My next day off isn't until Friday, hope the weather is better then and there are some new waders on the beach, only 10-14 days more of the wader season left and I don't have so many free days to find 'em.

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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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Some more birdscaping

A baby Moorhen at Onuma last summer, uncropped to show off its habitat.


I still have gout problems and am housebound, it's stinking hot and the construction noise is about 10 or so metres away..................no going out for walks in the day and no cold beer in the evening makes me a right grumpy basta*d I can tell you.


I dug out some more 'birdscape' photo from the previous 2 summers. All the photos are uncropped, like I said in my last post they suffer a little composition-wise as the birds tend to be dead centre (I wasn't anticipating birdscape type pics when i took them).


The Moorhen above was from July 2009, here is are some Little Ringed Plovers, the adult is from 2008 and the chick (it is there if you look closely) from 2009.








And here's a Night Heron poking its head up in a padi field last year.





Early last August the Red Necked Stints reappeared on the beaches, these are adults and were much shyer than the juveniles which pass through later and are much more approachable.





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Hopefully I'll be up and about soon. At least my gout has struck at the worst time of year birding-wise...........


Joe Cole eh? Interesting................

On this day (June 25th)....................

June 25th 2008.

Little Ringed Plover at Kikonai. This is a common summer visitor and can be seen in suitable habitat across the whole of south Hokkaido: it and Common Sandpiper are pretty much the only locally breeding waders in these here parts...........