An icy Monday

A Marsh Tit at Onuma this afternoon. Another cold snowy day added to a hospital visit in the morning meant not much birding. Other stuff at Onuma included Smew and the usual wildfowl, White-tailed Eagle, Great Egret and a male Black Woodpecker..........

After a very mild few weeks winter arrived with a flourish this weekend.

Birds in the litter..........

Some more pics from Onuma last Friday.........

Last shots from the pool

The last batch of shots from the pool near Shikotsuko............

Another slow weekend

The wintry weather is unrelenting this December...............

A Late Spring Trip #7

A final batch of photos from last week...........

Some common locals

The common local residents were present in Onuma earlier in the week...........

The residents

Some of the local residents at Onuma yesterday afternoon......................

Quiet end to Christmas..........

Crappy weather and a wife under the weather meant little birding..................

A quiet Monday

A very low-key Monday....................

A hungry Monday

I'm in the middle of a couple of rather unpleasant days..................

First quarter gone...........

Not a great picture but some kind of Marten we saw today........................

Blizzards on a Monday. Again.

Winter has returned, it's freezing.

We went up to Yakumo today but although some eagles of both species weere still present the blizzards made pictures out of the question. Sawara was as bitterly cold as I can ever recall it being and there were no birds at all (except a briefly seen medium sized raptor, probably a Goshawk).

The Ural Owl and Marsh Tit above were in Onuma. the owl has been cordoned off believe it or not. There is yellow tape (the kind at crime incidents) tied between the trees in fromt of it as well as 2 notices in Japanese asking people not to go near. When we drove past there were three retired Japanese men taking photos with their cellphones and one of them was right near the owl tree, he had totally ignored all the (obvious) warnings not to go near. There were also footprints in the snow right up to the tree. They sheepishly left as I glared at them. WTF? People can be so stupid sometimes.

Actually I'd heard that someone had scared it off a couple of weeks ago, this was the first time I'd seen it in a while.

Also around of note were Smew, White Tailed Eagle and White Backed Woodpecker............

2015 ending slowly............

The weather relented a bit and we ended up at Onuma in brilliant winter sunshine.............

Some more signs of winter

Groups of Whooper Swans have started to arrive......it's getting very close to the start of winter..............

A difficult one

Is there any other common bird as difficult to photograph as a Treecreeper?

A lot of tame small birds..............

There were lots of small birds at Onuma on Monday morning.............

Bedraggled Rosy Finches

A very wet Asian Rosy Finch near Shikabe on Sunday afternoon................

February begins

A low key start to February in Onuma...................

A night in Onuma................

We spent Sunday night in Onuma................

Well it snowed at last

Well it got cold finally and snowed a bit...................