Monday morning

A Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker yesterday at Onuma.

A weird surreal atmosphere at the moment, Hakodate seems to be normal if a little quiet. Only 1 person (AFAIK) died, he drowned in his apartment when the low lying area near the bay was flooded. As I said in my last post I was there 2 or 3 hours before. I was sitting on the edge of the harbour, feet dangling a few inches above the water whilst taking photos of the Black Necked Grebe.

When I got home I was taking a nap, the doorbell rang (it was the postman with a recorded delivery) and just as I was signing for the letter the quake hit. As the water started sloshing out of the fishtank I grabbed hold of it expecting the quake to peter out after a few seconds but it just kept going and going, I thought christ I should get out of the building here and put some clothes on and headed out of the door with the whole building swaying and creaking. It stopped as I was heading out of the door so I went back in and mopped up in the living room, a strong aftershock a few minutes later meant I was mopping up again soon. My wife called and said do NOT go near the sea. 

I switched on the TV and watched the local news, it had live footage of some ports in Hokkaido getting damaged but nothing too bad, it said the tsunami would hit Hakodate at 4.10pm (in about 20 minutes). At 4.10 they had a camera fixed on the low lying area in Hakodate Bay and it quickly filled with water, nothing too dramatic but a bit disconcerting. I thought well maybe this wasn't too bad after all. Then I turned in the national news to see what was happening elsewhere in Japan and I'm sure you've all seen how utterly shocking those pictures were.

If that wasn't bad enough now there are the nuclear issues. I used to live in Fukushima Prefecture, thank god I don't live there anymore. Up here we are far enough away (and the wind direction is helping too) for us presumably to be unaffected but it is pretty scary stuff, if I was living in Fukushima now I think I would be heading south ASAP. There are some nuclear power stations just across the straits from Hakodate in Aomori but I understand they are undamaged.

No food shortages so far up in Hokkaido but there were lines at some of the gas stations yesterday, hopefully that's just a few folk overreacting. The planned power outages shouldn't spread up here, at least I wouldn't have thought so. In Hokkaido we haven't really been directly affected by the quake/tsunami but obviously it isn't very far away at all (400 or 500 km away as the crow flies to Miyagi-ken) and many people here have friends/family in the affected area. My wife's friend lived in one of the coastal neighbourhoods in Sendai that was very badly hit, she has tried contacting her but hasn't heard anything back yet.

Thank you for all the messages expressing concern on the last post. I feel a bit sheepish, like I say we got off very lightly indeed here. Just a couple of very scary minutes when the quake hit and lingering unease over the nuclear issues, very very minor indeed compared to the horrors the people are facing further south.

We couldn't go near the coasts yesterday, the tsunami warnings were still in effect so we spent a couple of hours at Onuma feeding the Tits and Nuthatches.

Other stuff at Onuma included Smew, Goldeneye, Goosander, Great Egret, Grey Heron, White Tailed Eagle and Treecreeper.

Not much in Hakodate the last few days, just the usual common stuff. 2 Great Egrets on the river as well as 7 species of duck (including both Merganser species and a drake Shoveler), a flock of Brambling and this tame Oriental Turtle Dove.

A quiet week in February

A Siskin near my apartment a couple of days ago.

It's been a bit of a quiet week, very mild and sunny for most of the time. The snow has turned to slush finally. Not so many birds around though, I was hoping to find some Crossbills but nothing doing there yet.

The small Siskin flock contained one Redpoll.

There have been several finch species around this week. A flock of Brambling in Goryokaku park, Hawfinch, Oriental Greenfinch and Long Tailed Rosefinch too. But Siskins were the most interesting.....

Not much else to report. Grey Headed and Great Spotted Woodpecker in Goryokaku Park, Sparrowhawk, Wren, Dusky Thrush, Coal and Great Tit.........

This Oriental Turtle Dove near my apartment is a bird I normally don't see in winter, I've seen 1 or 2 on several occasions this year.

5 species of duck on the river including a female Red Breasted Merganser and the Great Egret is still around...........

Only another 4 weeks of construction noise to endure, today they were digging up some of the new road they'd laid last week. Sometimes I think they may as well just bang big drums whilst burning ¥10000 bills: it'd achieve the same results. Lots of noise, lots of money wasted and nothing changes at the end of it.

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

Golden Week 2010 #3

A very confused male Grey Headed Woodpecker near my apartment a couple of days ago. I'm sure it thought it was behaving normally, sitting atop a grey tree calling for a mate and drumming.

The only problem was it was in downtown Hakodate.

And it was drumming on metal lamposts,. I took some jerky video (difficult handheld with a 400mm lens in a busy street).

It has gotten warmer and the cherry blossoms have finally opened, rather later than usual this year........

I didn't go far in the last few days so all my birding was on the local river. Lots of common spring arrivals like this Oriental Turtle Dove.

2 of the commonest summer visitors are Red Cheeked Starling and Bullheaded Shrike.

The Starlings are pretty wary (except when the young leave the nest in mid June when they seemingly ignore pedestrians). This is the male.

And this is the female.

The Starlings nest along the river in small colonies. The Shrikes nest there too, usually 2 or 3 pairs. These are also tricky to photograph and are as wary as the Starlings. This is the male.

I saw the first Oriental Reed Warbler of the spring today, this is another common/wary breeder along the river.

Other stuff passing through has included Pale and Japanese Thrush, Eastern Crowned and Japanese Bush Warbler, Red Flanked Bluetail and Long Tailed Rosefinch. Some of the winter birds are still hanging on: Dusky Thrush, Hawfinch and a few Teal.

I got up to watch the Spurs/City game, quite exciting stuff and I'm glad it was Spurs who finished 4th and not City.......................Ledley King for England at the World Cup? I reckon so.

Flycatchers and other stuff

A male Narcissus Flycatcher at Onuma this afternoon, one of the most beautiful of the local avifauna. Quite a few of these around today I also got a male Blue and White Flycatcher and a lone Asian Brown Flycatcher near my flat this morning. My wife spent most of the day sleeping off a hangover but we made it out to Onuma in the late afternoon and the forest was full of birds and the views of the mountain were fantastic.





As well as all the common resident Tits and Woodpeckers there were also Mandarin Duck, 5 species of Thrush including several Eye Browed (see the crappy pic below), a Fox munching on a carp (too dark for a picture of this alas), more Blue and White Flycatchers and loads and loads of Russet Sparrow (again see crappy photo later on), parties of White Rumped Swift.......and (I think but I'm not 100% sure) some Ruddy Kingfishers calling deep in the forest........

Closer to home the migration season continues.





Japanese White-eye on my early morning trip to Mt Hakodate last week. Lots of Blue and White Flycatchers here too (please see yet another crappy pic below) as well as loads of Eastern Crowned warblers and this lone Sakhalin Leaf Warbler.



Red Cheeked Starlings continue to frustrate my attempts to photograph them, as did the first arriving Oriental Reed Warblers which didn't even pose long enough for any record shots........





We went to Onuma last Wednesday too but not so many bird around though of course the mountain was still looking as nice as ever. This Oriental Turtle Dove was the only bird shot worth uploading from that afternoon.





Here are some of the crappy record shots mentioned above.







I'm just getting ready to watch the last round of Premier League games. I hope Man U don't score early on or the whole evening will be an anticlimax. Now that Mr Mclaren has left my footy watching schedule empty next month I hope that either tonight's games or the Champion's League final (which I can't watch live) are memorable.

I watched '10,000 BC' last night. Oh my god it was bad. An absolute stinker of a movie. It wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't taken itself so so seriously.It was kind of Clan of the Cave Bear meets Stargate with all the utter utter crapness that entails. At least "1,000,000 years BC" had Raquel Welch in a bikini. I've started watching 'Wonderland' which looks like a pretty good movie anyway.