The annual lull.........

Well it's that time of year again. Mid July heralds a month or so of very quiet birding, most of the summer stuff has stopped singing and now I'm just waiting for the waders to start passing through in mid August.

The 2 staples at this time of year are the fishing Ospreys at various locales and the Japanese Green Pigeons at Shikabe. I had no luck with the Osprey pics last Wednesday at Yakumo (despite there being four of them fishing at the rivermouth) and headed out to Shikabe this afternoon on a dark grey afternoon more in hope than expectation. Recently every time I've been there have been fishermen standing on the rocks where they come down to drink but today I had the beach all to myself........

The light was terrible and I couldn't get that close to them but I managed to get a few shots of what is one of my favourite local species.

It was a bit dark for BIF shots.........

Not much else around here but I was surprised when 2 Grey Tailed Tattlers flew overhead heading north.............what's their story? Pretty late to be heading north to breed........

At Onuma earlier I spent a couple of hours getting bitten by mosquitoes.

If the above pigeons seem exotic to UK birders the Little Grebes and Moorhens at Onuma are reassuringly familiar. The latter is much scarcer (and shyer) than it is in the UK.

Nothing much in Hakodate the last few days, just common stuff like this Brown Eared Bulbul.

No sport on TV or the internet this weekend...........thank god for beer.

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

July babes

 

A baby Moorhen at Onuma this afternoon. A hot day and a last days birding with Dan who is back off to Canada next week. He got 2 new for his J-list today, Sand Martin (a group of 10 or so at Kamiso) and Japanese Green Pigeon near Mori.......

 

The Sand Martin were also a new species on my local list. Other stuff at Kamiso included the usual farmland stuff plus Osprey, Kingfisher, Common Sandpiper, Night Heron and Little Egret. At Onuma there was nothing much about although my wife did manage to see a Flying Squirrel.....

Up the coast there were some baby Little Ringed Plover.....

 

And Mt Komagadake was looking as nice as ever.

 

England managed to win the 2nd Test with the minimum of fuss, I was expecting Australia to either win or to get very very close. If Flintoff and Pietersen are fit (a big if I know) it could be England's summer. Australia can't play as badly as that again and will presumably change the side around. I predict the Ashes will still be up for grabs in the 5th Test, something that looked very unlikely this time last week when they were grimly hanging on in Cardiff......

Quiet summer days begin.......

Another hot day and summer is here in south Hokkaido. From the second week of July to the end of August there generally isn't much to photograph birdwise. This big 'orrible frog was at Onuma yesterday.



I could hear lots of birds in the forest but couldn't see much, the baby Moorhens have left the nest though.........



Back nearer Hakodate this summer plumage Cattle Egret was a nice find.......



I spent a frustrating couple of hours trying to get shots of Reed and /or Chestnut Eared Buntings without any success, luckily the Night Herons and Stonechats were still around (the latter being much shyer than a few weeks ago) as well as all the common stuff.







Lots of Little Cuckoo calling but I couldn't locate any..........

I'm just debating whether to pay $25 for a 3 month subscription to JustinTV to try and watch the Ashes online. I'm reluctant to fork out money just to watch unreliable (and illegal I suppose) internet feeds..........hmmm..........I'll wrestle with this one for a couple of days..........

Can't believe Owen signed for Man U. Surely Benitez could have got him on a similar cheap and almost risk-free contract? Sorry to say but obviously I hope it doesn't work out for him, or at least he doesn't score against Liverpool and/or doesn't provide enough goals for another title for Fergie.

Midsummer in the ricefields..........

A Siberian Stonechat at Ono this afternoon.



The sun finally came out today (and I even got a nasty sunburn on my neck) and we headed out to Onuma and after that the ricefields in Ono. Lots of activity in the padis, lots of young birds and singing adults. Night Herons were everywhere feasting on the frogs and tadpoles, Skylarks were abundant, Chestnut Eared Buntings were singing from the fenceposts, Swallows and Asian House Martins were swooping low over the water and family groups Siberian Stonechats were all over the place.





This tame but bedraggled looking male was star of the day...........









Black Browed Reed Warblers occupied very patch of long grass............a shame that I couldn't get a clear shot all afternoon........





Oriental Reed Warblers were even more numerous.........



And here's a boring pic of a bird I don't get to photograph so often, a female Reed Bunting.......



Earlier we were at Onuma, I got my first mosquito bites of the summer. Not much here. There were birds in the forest but now it's so lush and overgrown they're difficult to find. Lots of Narcissus Flycatcher singing, we heard a Black Woodpecker and I got this so-so shot of a Moorhen in amongst the lotus..........





I spent a frustrating night trying to watch the Lions game on P2P last night. I have to watch this type of stuff on a Windows system alas. Sopcast doesn't seem to work on IE8 and the usually reliable JustinTV seems to be pay per view now..........

Tuesday is the 10th anniversary of my arrival in Japan. My God. I can't believe it's been 10 years. I arrived as a slightly jaded 30 year old and spent the first 4 months in a boring small town about 2 hours north of Tokyo. It was stinking hot and I wondered what I had let myself in for. Things improved when I moved to Hokkaido though........

10 years ago! That was when the internet was still a bit of a novelty (well it was to me anyway). I was single, a heavy smoker and drinker, in debt and still living life as if everything was temporary, nothing had changed since I'd left university. I had no interest in photography and was a partially lapsed birder. Man U were the top team in England and Europe, Liverpool were good but always second or third best. I still cared about music and fashion. I wasn't overweight.

I'm going to crack open a beer (note use of the singular) and think what else has changed since then..............and what hasn't.

England #2

A few random images from a very busy week back in England. I just got back from a trip up to the Lake District and Hadrian's Wall, nearby to where I was born.





Some of these images today are very hastily edited. The weather has been typically English, very changeable if generally overcast and grey.




These were around Wastwater. The last time I'd been here was back in 1995 when I and a friend climbed Great Gable and got lost on the descent. No such drama this time.








The toads were in a carpark near some of the Hadrians Wall ruins. And we even found some standing stones to continue the historical theme.



Not much in the way of birding, I'll write that up when I get back to Japan. A Ross' Gull appeared at nearby Blackpool but I missed it. Nowt at Leighton Moss but I managed to spend another afternoon at Marshside trying to get some better Avocet shots than last time. They were better, marginally.







Black and white birds in overcast conditions are tricky............



















The main other species of interest was Black Tailed Godwit, which were everywhere.





Nearer home I went up the river on March 31. Sand Martin and Chiffchaff were new arrivals, Corn Bunting were singing near the marsh, Great Spotted Woodpecker were drumming,Brown Hares were boxing in the fields and Nuthatch were around in places I'd never seen them before..........

Here's a view from the river, my old local patch and also St Walbergs church in Preston. I lived almost next door to this place back in 1996........






And a male Blackbird and the baby Moorhens near my parents' house.......





Thanks for people's comments since I got back to England. It just been too hectic to check the internet most of the time let alone other people's blogs.......I will return to normality at the end of the week..........