On this day (December 26th)....................

December 26th 2010.

A Ruff at Martinmere 8 years ago today. I was back in the UK for a christmas visit and arrived to find the whole country frozen.

I've only seen this species 3 times in Japan.............

Waderless

Typhoons, workload and various minor health ailments have kept me off the beaches this August more than I would have liked.................

On this day (August 19th)................

August 19th 2011.

A Long Billed Dowitcher at Kamiiso 2 years ago today. It was in pretty much full summer plumage and was a lifer to boot. A couple of individuals have appeared on other local blogs since then (but they were immatures or winter plumaged adults) so they are probably a scarce but regular visitor.

It shared the beach with a Great Knot and Ruff..............an interesting trio of shorebirds.



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Long Billed Dowitcher

A Long Biled Dowitcher and Great Knot on the beach at Kamiiso yesterday. The Dowitcher was a lifer.........

The wader season on the local beaches has begun, the Dowitcher had company.

From left to right: Long Biled Dowitcher, Ruff, Grey Tailed Tattler and Great Knot. There was also another Great Knot on another section of the beach, a couple of Red Necked Stint and a Common Sandpiper.

Amazingly this was the 3rd occasion I've seen Great Knot on this beach and it has been the same date (August 19th) every time...............

Ruff are reasonably regular but never numerous..........

It was nice to get shots of different species together..........

I even took a short jerky handheld video........

Not much else around, no Ospreys or Night Heron. There were a few Goosander and a lone Sand Martin. Not much in town last week either, the first southbound Stonechat on Thursday, that's all............

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New Year 2010/11

A Ruff at Martinmere a few days ago. The snow has all melted and now we just have dull grey drizzly weather: at least this means my flight back next week should be unaffected..............

I visited various well known locales in the last 10 days or so. At Fairhaven there was a good selection of waders on the beach but the lake was frozen over and the only thing of interest there was a male Shoveler on the ice. The waders were fairly close but the sun was right behind them meaning no decent photos to speak of. I did take this though, part of a small flock of finches. I thought it was a Twite at first but on second thoughts it may just be a Linnet.

I also managed to limp down to the river in Penwortham. Not much at all here except lots of Redwings and Fieldfare and a lone Merlin. The ice drifting down the river on the incoming tide looked like something you would see in Alaska, I'd never seen this before in Preston................

Lapland Bunting had been reported near here the week before but the only Buntings I could find were Reed Buntings..............

At Marshside there were no birds at all, this drake Gadwall was on the frozen Marine Lake.

Martinmere was better, lots of Whooper Swans plus the usual ducks and geese plus plenty of Ruff..........

At Fleetwood there were lots more waders on the beach but it was so cold and dark photos were out of the question so here's a Robin in Penwortham...............

I have a new respect for bird photographers in the UK. In Japan the birds seem a touch tamer and consistently dark dull days are the exception rather than the norm.

So a bit quiet on the birding front, one thing I've noticed is that Common Buzzards are everywhere and there appear to be at least 3 Nuthatch territories near my parents' house (the latter was a scarce bird when I was last living here and the former was only common in upland areas I recall).

So Happy New Year to all those who follow this blog.................

On this day (September 11th)....................

September 11th 2009.


Ruff on the beach at Kamiso. The 2009 wader season was especially good at Kamiso, this Ruff was pretty tame and was hanging out with 2 Bar Tailed Godwits.

Wader Season #6

   

There were still 4 or 5 Red Necked Stints at Kamiso this lunchtime.

And there were several other species of wader including 1 Ruff and 2 Bar Tailed Godwit.........

The light wasn't exactly ideal, harsh midday sun behind the birds..............

2 Grey Plover were also around but they didn't want to be photographed alas.

The Ruff didn't seem to mind the attention though.................

The Red Necked Stint was in better lighting.............

Nearer home there were more migrants passing through, Eastern Crowned Warblers, Siberian Stonechats and yet more Asian Brown Flycatchers............

Other stuff flitting around in the undergrowth was left unidentified, probably just Black Faced Buntings or the suchlike.

Here's a very scruffy looking young Bullheaded Shrike.........

The Night Herons are still playing hide and seek............

This blogger service has changed  its interface so I don't know how this will turn out.........

Great result for England the other night but lets not get too carried away. I've been watching England for over 30 years and am a little too jaded to really believe they can get past the last 8. Still when you think it was only just over 12 months ago they were drawing 0-0 at half-time against Andorra and qualification, hell even second place and a play off place,  seemed a long long way off. Unbelievable that Heskey is still playing. Yes I know he brings others into the game, roughs up opponents' defences etc etc but those 2 absolute sitters he missed!?! C'mon Emile even I could've scored them..............................................

England 's World Cup qualification and the Ashes Victory mean 2009 is shaping up to be a pretty good year for my armchair sports...............................

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