Obon

A hot humid weekend.............................

2017 Best Of #5

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

Summertime lull

It's the summertime lull................

Spring 2017..........it begins.

The start of a holiday week in Japan saw more summer visitors arrive......................

East/North Hokkaido Summer 2016 #2

A Pacific Swift, an abundant breeder on the capes of east Hokkaido............................

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.

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Another Sunday in the grasslands

We were up in the grasslands at Oshamanbe and Yakumo again yesterday, they really are wonderful places at this time of year.

I'd targeted 3 species to get a decent photo of (all 3 lacking from the 'album'. Wryneck, Long Tailed Rosefinch and Eastern Marsh Harrier. I saw the former in the distance only and didn't see a single harrier all day. I did get a nice-ish Rosefinch shot out of the car window, it even perched in front of a nice background for me too as you can see above.

Lots of birds singing. The above is an Oriental Cuckoo, there were also Common Cuckoo, all the common warblers (including loads of Black Browed Reed Warbler, they really seem common this year and also lots of Grays Grasshopper Warbler). The Lathams Snipes are still perching on roadside lights.

Another very common summer visitor today was Pacific Swift, they were everywhere..........

Other birds today included a Hobby at Oshamanbe, Osprey, Great Egret, Common Reed and Chestnut Eared Buntings, Narcissus Flycatcher (at Onuma), Black Crowned Night Heron (in Ono in the morning and evening) and lots and lots and lots of Siberian Stonechat which are very tame in mid June just before the young leave the nests.

It was rather warm yesterday, I got sunburn............

If you are bored (at home or better still at work) try game number 1941 on Freecell. It's f***ing impossible (there is a solution but I'm yet to find it).

No sport at the weekend to watch/listen to. That wasn't so good.

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A quiet start to June

A Pacific Swift this afternoon near Imagane. It's been a quiet week, today saw the first blue skies for a while and another new bird for my Japanese list.

A Spoonbill at Yakumo. I'd actually seen it last week but it was resting with its head under its wing so I couldn't get a positive ID on it. There was a Black Faced Spoonbill (much rarer) which I saw last year, today I could confirm this was a Eurasian Spoonbill. I couldn't get very close, both these shots are very heavily cropped.

Also at Yakumo were Wigeon, Sand Martin, Osprey, Oriental and Black Browed Reed Warblers plus the usual common stuff like these Siberian Stonechats.

We headed west over the hills, a nice drive but not so many birds. Just outside Imagane we stopped on a bridge to admire the view, there were lots of Sand Martins, an Osprey and a large flock of Pacific Swift, very difficult to get any kind of shot but I did my best.

The day started and ended in the ricefields in Ono, here's a Night Heron on the hunt for frogs........

Not a vintage week for photos as you can see.

Last week was very quiet in Hakodate, a Kingfisher on the river being the only noteworthy species. On Friday I headed out to Yunokawa.

This Common Cuckoo was singing, as was an Oriental Cuckoo, lots of Oriental Reed Warblers, one Black Browed too. Kingfisher was also here as was a Little Ringed Plover............

I watched England draw 2-2 with the Swiss, I've been watching crappy performances like this from England for approx 35 years now, I've finally accepted the inevitable (which is most of the time England just aren't very good basically).

I could have taken solace in the cricket before Sri Lanka started batting in the 2nd Test.

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Moving swiftly on.................

A Pacific Swift up near Oshamanbe this afternoon. There were lots of swifts and hirundines flying south and I tried photographing swifts semi-seriously for the first time.

It was hard.

Some heavy cropping going on here.

In amongst the Pacific Swifts were smaller numbers of White Throated Needletails.

We were at Oshamanbe to check out the waders.

The bird on the left is a Red Knot, the one on the right is the very common Grey Tailed Tattler. Red Knot is a fairly scarce species in Japan and this is a new addition to my Japanese list.

There were other wader species around too; Mongolian Plover, Whimbrel, Sanderling, Greenshank, Common Sandpiper and Ruddy Turnstone. Here's a photo of the latter.

And of course the inevitable Red Necked Stints, they were everywhere in small skittish flocks.

This individual appeared to be colour ringed.

Other species today included the first Glaucous Winged Gull of 'winter', Great Egret, Japanese Green Pigeon, Night Heron, Sand Martin, Eastern Marsh Harrier and this young Peregrine.

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Still hot, when will it end?

No footy on tonight. How boring................