Some nasty weather

A close-up of a Blue Rock Thrush this afternoon.............

Another quiet November week......

A male Blue Rock Thrush at Irifune yesterday. Another very quiet week in Hakodate..........the 2 Brent Geese were still there (but in the middle of the marina) and there was only 1 Harlequin Duck (which was too far away for a photo).

Shame the light was right behind the thrush.........

The egrets were still around most of the week although yesterday there only seemed to be one Great Egret left..........and that flew off straight away too.

In Goryokaku Park a couple of days ago there were a few birds on the moat, 2 Scaup (there was also one of these on the river too), 1 Tufted Duck, 3 Wigeon, 1 Little Grebe, 3 Coot and this male Pochard.

Not much else around town (although I haven't been looking terribly hard).

I'll go to Yakumo tomorrow, hopefully I'll have some eagle pictures to post soon...........

My ancient now broken analogue TV will be replaced next week, hopefully my ancient (non HD) satellite tuner will work with the new one. Good job there's no footy on this weekend. Unless you count England getting spanked by Spain tonight. Luckily that's on too late for me to watch and endure..........

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

Slow week but some crappy pics of a semi-rarity

The 7D continues to be an excellent BIF camera, this was one of 2 great Egrets on the local river and all 3 shots were from the same rapid burst.

Really crappy weather this week, grey rainy days. Like Preston in autumn in fact.

The Egrets were one of 3 heron species on the river and these shots were taken on particularly overcast days.

More trees have been cut down by the river, I have no idea why. Like I say I'm sure it's just the City Hall spending tax ¥en. I really really hope it doesn't mean they're going to 'improve' the river. As anyone who has spent time in Japan will attest the locals just love concrete (or at least those locals who are in charge of government budgets do).

The bulk of the trees and bushes near my flat that sheltered many many migrants over the last few years are now gone forever. In some (as yet) unmolested bushes further downstream I  noticed this unusual looking small bird. Its black tail and white outer tail markings showed it was something a little different.........

Lousy pictures but they show a female Red-breasted Flycatcher, a lifer for me and #192 (I think) on my Hakodate list. Both it and this Red Flanked Bluetail were being mercilessly bullied by the male Daurian Redstart that sets up territory here in the winter.

The first Hawfinch of the winter have returned. In Goryokaku Park exactly the same birds were present as last week. 3 Coot plus the male Pochard and young Temincks Cormorant.

The 2 Little Grebe had been joined by a third individual. This is a species I'm struggling to take a decent photo of, they are so shy, Here is a not really very good one to be going on with.

All the sport on TV is on really late tonight. England's meaningless reserve team against Brazil is on about 2am (or 2.30am?), The rugby is on after midnight too and the Ireland v France play-off, the one really tasty game this weekend,  is on at about 4am or something. I have to get up early to teach a friend's class tomorrow so it looks like I'll miss them all..........

Winter quickly retreats..............

A male Pochard in the local park. A rather quiet week, and after the freezing cold of a few days ago it's been very warm. So much for winter kicking in............

The Pochard wasn't the only waterbird in the park..............

The tame Temincks Cormorant was still around, as were 3 Coot and 2 Little Grebe.

I've had it confirmed that the Cormorants I've been seeing at Onuma the last few summers are a different species from the one above (they are Great Cormorants, the same as in the UK) so my Hokkaido list went up by 1.............

Here's a minor ID quandry that could raise my Hakodate list by 1. This is a duck from last week, is it a female Falcated Duck? It was about the same size as the Coots and looks too brown for a Pintail. Any opinions welcomed........

To complete the duck theme here are a couple of startled looking Goldeneye on the local river........

City Hall have deemed it necessary to chop down lots of trees by the river near my flat. Why? They were in an an inaccessible place (you need a ladder to get down there) and couldn't possibly be doing any harm. I suspect there is a tree-cutting department at City Hall that was using up some of its budget. Naturally they didn't bother picking up any of the litter round and about. Tyres, rice-cookers, discarded underwear, beer cans in their dozens and plastic bottles in their hundreds. Now we jut have trash and tree stumps where there used to be trees full of birds. Nice one Hakodate.

I went to Mt Hakodate on Friday to try and find the Black Woodpecker I'd heard a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't find it although there were a few interesting things in the forest such as Long Tailed Rosefinch and and Red Flanked Bluetail. Today we went up to Yakumo intending to photograph the eagles but they haven't arrived yet, too warm perhaps? There were a couple of White Tailed Eagles though (and we saw one later at Onuma too) and I guess we were a tad early. Our next visit up there will be in a couple of weeks when hopefully they'll have arrived and will be feasting on some of the many recently deceased Salmon we saw in the river today.........

At the river mouth there were hundreds of Kittiwakes.

I met some students from Hokkaido University (a couple of them have blogs linked on the right) and had a chat as we watched the Kittiwakes going about their business.

I went machine gun crazy with the fast continuous shooting on the 7D and before I knew it I'd nearly filled up my 16GB memory card (!).....................and most of the shots weren't even any good, white birds against a grey sky..................I will be more restrained next time.

Liverpool? Meh.

I watched 'Terminator Salvation' and 'In the Loop' last week. I don't need to see the former again but the latter was pretty funny at least...........

A walk down the river

A very mild winters day saw me walking down the river to the beach today. I needed to clear my head (see below).

The usual common winter birds were about. The above Wren is the first time I've been able to photograph this species in Japan. Lots of Hawfinch around today, also Brown Dipper, Kingfisher, Daurian Redstart and Great, Coal and Varied Tits. A momentarily glimpsed raptor from my window was probably a Goshawk.

5 species of duck included this male Pochard, another personal photographic first for Japan.



5 species of Gull on the river included the long staying Thayers Gull which is now entering the raggedy winter plumage phase.




I had some very bad news the day before yesterday. One of my best friends from school passed away. He leaves a widow and 5 young kids and a 6th on the way and due around christmas. I've had a numb empty feeling since I heard the news and am having difficulty dealing with it. Being so far away makes the whole situation worse, I can't go the funeral either.

I met Michael in primary school in 1977 and we stayed good friends over the years. His parents live in the same village as mine and attend the same church. Here's a picture of him and me back in 1995.



Michael ended up living in Worcester. The weekend me and another friend visited him saw the hottest weather I can ever remember in England. We did a small hike, somewhere on the outskirts of the Cotswolds where the above picture was taken. It was a perfect weekend. Going out for beers in Worcester on a Saturday night, drinking in country pubs, watching Dominic Cork take a hat-trick against the (then) mighty Windies. I visited him and his wife several times in the heart of England including one time just before I came to Japan. They also visited me in Germany. We hung out in many places, when I was working in Stratford in 1998 he was just up the road. He came to see me in London and Newcastle. We kind of drifted out of touch over the last 3 or 4 years and I didn't get in contact with him last time I was back home. I only had 2 weeks and hey I thought he's probably too busy and anyway I had lost his e-mail/telephone and was too lazy to get them off his parents. I'd do it next time I go home, I thought at the time. We had plenty of time to catch up, I mean the rest of our lives lay ahead.

My thoughts go to his wife, kids and his parents. He was a very kind considerate person and a great friend who put up with my selfish behaviour and numerous bad points over the years. I still can't believe I'll never see him again. His funeral is on Friday in Worcester.