2018 Best Of #8

Some waders from spring/autumn 2018...................

Long-toed Stint creeping around..........

Our quest for the Spoon-billed Sandpiper was unsuccessful but there were some compensations...........

On this day (August 28th)...................

August 28th 2011.

A Long-toed Stint near Hakodate 7 years ago today. This tame juvenile bird stuck around for several days and didn't mind being photographed at all............

On this day (May 10th).....................

May 10th 2015.

A Long-toed Stint at Yakumo 3 years ago today.

Another wader we don't see so often in spring (although they are fairly common in autumn).

On this day (August 30th)...................

August 30th 2011.

A Long-toed Stint on one of the local beaches 6 years ago today.

This very tame individual (the above picture is uncropped) stuck around for several days, I took lots of shots of what is usually a very shy species..............

Waderless

Typhoons, workload and various minor health ailments have kept me off the beaches this August more than I would have liked.................

Long Toed Stint and other stuff..............

A Long Toed Stint at Yakumo this afternoon...............

On this day (August 29).............

Long Toed Stint, August 29th 2011.

An immature Long Toed Stint at Kamiiso 3 years ago today. Normally this species seems to be extremely shy but not this individual. This pic was only at 300mm and is uncropped too.........

It had appeared the day before and was still around the day after too, 3 days hanging around in a rather dirty little stream flowing into the beach at Kamiiso.

A lazy end to the month

After spending 4 of the last 5 days trudging along beaches in the summer heat I took it easy today, just a short walk near my apartment. There were flocks of Red Cheeked Starlings everywhere but not much else. A briefly glimpsed Kingfisher, a few Grey Wagtails............

Yesterday I was on the beach at Kamiiso. Waders included 3 Terek Sandpiper, 1 Great Knot, 3 Mongolian Plover, and 70 or more Red Necked Stint. Here's a photo of the latter.

The Long Toed Stint was still present and I tried taking more action shots of it feeding.

It was eating lots of little insects on the sand (rather than the worms in the mud favoured by the Red Necked Stints).

I imagine this was the last time I'll be able to see it. I have days off on Friday/Sunday but it looks like Hakodate will receive the last dregs of a typhoon (meaning rain) so I don't know if I'll be doing any birding for a few days and next week I don't have much free time either.

By the time I get to Kamiiso again it'll be the end of next week when the waders will have changed.

It was great to have such a tame one, every wader season throws up such individuals from many different species.........and this August it was Long Toed Stint season.

I'm quite enjoying the start of the footy season, hopefully England won't spoil it too much this weekend. I'm sure they'll qualify (albeit unconvincingly) but don't hold out much hope for the finals. Mind you there do seem to be a few young players emerging, maybe the future isn't all doom and gloom.

Thanks for clicking this link

Another day on the beach.............again.

I spent a couple of hours on the beaches at Kamiiso again yesterday, as you can see the Long Toed Stint was still around..........

Other stuff around included a couple of Terek Sandpiper, a shy species that always disappears before I can get close enough for a decent shot, this was the best I could manage today.

Also around were a lone Common Sandpiper, a couple of Grey Tailed Tattler and loads and loads of Red Necked Stints.

But the Long Toed Stint was star of the day again.

I'll probably never get this close to this species again so forgive the deluge................

Thanks for clicking this link........

Long Toed Stint up close

A Long Toed Stint at Kamiiso this afternoon. Thanks to Osamu for telling me about this one. The beach was packed with people (it was a beautiful sunny day) and I wouldn't have bothered checking it out had I not known about the Stint.

It was feeding in some drain that emptied out onto the beach (not sewage but whatever it was it wasn't nice) and it was very very tame indeed. The day today had started with 4 very shy Long Tailed Stints skulking in the ricefields and not wanting to be photographed at all. Why was this one so fearless?

It scampered around coming as close as 1 meter or so.

There were 3 Red Necked Stint further up the beach, on the next beach down there were more Red Neckeds and a few Common Sandpiper. Osprey, Black Headed Gull, Goosander were the other noteworthy species in Kamiiso.

Here's a jerky handheld video of the Long Toed Stint.

Earlier in the day we were at Sawara, there were over a 100 Red Necked Stints here as well as 2 or 3 Sanderling.

Also at Sawara a few Japanese Green Pigeon came down to the tetrapods...........

At Shikabe the usual Japanese Green Pigeon spot was overrun with fishermen so nothing doing there..................

Man City have just scored their 4th against Spurs, are we looking at this season's champions?

Thanks for clicking this link........

Another grey August week......

2 of many Pacific Swifts near Sawara yesterday, there were huge flocks of them heading south.

In amongst them were a few White Throated Needletails.

On the beach at Sawara I was hoping to see a few waders but all I could find were 3 distant Red Necked stints and one very large smelly dolphin corpse. It has been rather hot the last week or so, hot and humid punctuated by some very heavy rain.

We finished off at Shikabe. A late Grays Grasshopper Warbler was still singing. The Japanese Green Pigeons were as skittish as ever, I couldn't get close and anyway even I'd been able to get close it was probably too dark for a decent photo.

On Sunday I went to Ono to look for waders in the ricefields. Osamu has been finding lots of interesting waders again including several species not on my Hakodate list. He also saw the rare Pectoral Sandpiper and Swinhoes Rail.

With the location kindly e-mailed to me I went and saw Little Ringed Plover, several unidentified Snipe and up to 10 Long Toed Stint, a new bird on my local list. They were very shy and it was hard to even get a record shot, this was the best I could manage.

I couldn't find any Green or Marsh Sandpipers (both yet to make my local list), out of the corner of my eye I did briefly see a small wader with white on its rump/tail but couldn't relocate it. Hopefully there will be some waders there next weekend.........

Not much in town, a Glaucous Winged Gull was an early returnee on the beach at Kamiiso on Sunday, a Peregrine near Mt Hakodate, a few Kingfishers here and there, nothing of much interest near my apartment last week.

So England won the series very easily and are now ranked #1.................wonder how long that'll last? Can't believe how abject India have been, Sehwag arriving as the big saviour and then bagging a golden pair just about sums it up.

Liverpool looked good in the first half at least but on the second half showing it is going to be a tough fight to get in the top 4 though Arsenal and Chelsea didn't look so hot either. Mau U were as lucky as ever, may be Moneybags City can pip them this year........

Hope it cools down and the skies clear soon, I haven't taken any decent photos for ages.

Thanks for clicking this link........