Spring ducks

Late March is usually a good time for wildfowl..............

A quiet end to November

I just had 2 days off but the weather was pretty nasty...................

More harbour stuff...........

The Long-tailed Duck from last week was still in the same harbour.............

Some nasty weather

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

Some autumn ducks

A quiet late October Sunday, not much around..................

Some visible migration.............

Flocks of Brown-eared Bulbul heading south across the Tsugaru Straits at the weekend................

A quiet week in mid March..............

An out of foocus immature Goshawk on the edge of town today................

It's been a quiet few days.

A Monday in a harbour #1

Most of Monday was spent in a couple of ports north of Yakumo..............

Grebes still around..............

The grebes were still at Kamiiso this afternoon. The top one is a Slavonian Grebe and the bottom one a Black Necked Grebe.

Both the above shots are uncropped as are many below: they were pretty tame..............

Some Scaup

Winter is coming

2 common winter birds in Kamiiso this afternoon. Very very dark and overcast. Handheld from the car.

A strong wind from Siberia, snow flurries in the air and Glaucous Gulls on the beach. Winter is coming..................

Black Monday

Some Black Scoter at Yakumo this afternoon....................

Quietish mid March

Great Egret and Crossbills in Hakodate yesterday afternoon................

A bit of a quiet time birdingwise.............I'm busy with work being the main reason.

Christmas 2013 #2

A drake Harlequin Duck in one of the ports in Sawara this morning. There wasn't much in the port. just the above (with a female) and 3 Black Necked Grebe. It was very dark and the water very choppy.

Winter 2013/14 begins...............

A Stellers Sea Eagle at Yakumo today. It was a day of blizzards and the first really cold day of the season: that's it atumn has gone and winter is here.

A quiet start to November

A very quiet Sunday afternooon with only common birds like the above Scaup and Nuthatch. That little rush of rarities and semi rarities seems to have come to an abrupt halt.

My initial impressionss after one week with my new lens: it's really really heavy.

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2 days off so the weather is crap. Again.

4 Harlequin Duck at Kamiiso yesterday. They are in moult and take shelter in the river................

The weather has been crappy the last 2 days..................a bit annoying after the great weather last week when I was busy. At Kamiiso yasterday there wasn&t much about. 10 Grey Tailed Tattler, 1 Dunlin and 3 Common Sandpiper were the only waders. A handful of duck remained. 2 Black Scoter were offshore and there were a few Scaup too.

A Red Throated Diver was offshore and in the ricefields whilst i was looking for waders (nothing doing there) I saw my first Oriental Honey Buzzard of the summer.

Today in Goryokaku Park the weather was very dark and grey but many of the migrant species were still in evidence. Asian Brown, Narcissus and Blue and White Flycatchers, Eastern Crowned and Sakhalin Leaf Warbler Japanese White-eye, Common Crossbill and I even heard an Oriental Cuckoo.............

Not many photos, here's a Blue and White Flycatcher.

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A drive in the sunshine

A Red Squirrel in a park in east Hakodate this morning. There are several feeders which attract lots of tits and nuthatches................there must have been 20 or more Varied Tits.

It was a sunny (even mild..........maybe even above zero for the first time in ages) day and we drove around the coast to Onuma.  A very nice drive in crisp clear light.

Lots of common stuff on the sea and in the harbours................such as Scaup and Glaucous Gull.

The eastern side of the peninsula has lots of hills coming down to the sea meaning it is ion the shade most of the day: on some of the cliffs huge icicles form and it was distinctly chilly out of the sun.

Back at Onuma the Ural Owl was in its hole.

There were several White Tailed Eagle in various spots, a flock of Brambling in the park at Hakodate, some Black Necked Grebe at Esan and the usual gulls and wildfowl on the sea.


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A quiet end to October............

Some Scaup at Kamiiso this afternoon, there were about 10 or so species of duck around (lots of Pochard) as well as several Great Egret and the 5 commoner species of gull.................a Siskin in the long grass on the beach was a surprise.

The Scaup were a scruffy bunch, they'll look much better come spring.

And here is a hybrid of Mallard and Spotbilled Duck, I saw quite a few of these last year too.

Nearer home over the last few days  there were more Great Egret, Night Heron, Rustic Bunting, Daurian Redstart, Red Flanked Bluetail and Hawfinch.

Last Sunday it was very very windy and the direction was from the east so we headed over to Sawara where in the last couple of years several Red Legged Kittiwakes have been found at this time of year after such storms. There were about 50 or so Black Legged Kittiwakes but I couldn't find any of the (much much rarer) Red Legged. There were a few Harlequin Duck around but not much else, at Onuma there was the usual common stuff in the forest but nothing noteworthy.

I've been a bit lazy this year. No trips to Mt Hakodate at all. I need to get my arse in gear in 2013.


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So this is March

A Red Breasted Merganser and some Scaup on the sea this morning. I walked/waded through the slush down to the nearest fishing port, not much around. In addition to the above there were Great Crested Grebe, Goldeneye and Wigeon. I could have walked down to Irifune to check out the Brent Geese and Harlequins but couldn't face the inevitable trudge through the deep snow, they'll still be around in a week or 2 when hopefully the thaw will have set in.

There were also 2 or 3 Red Breasted Merganser on the river near my apartment.

I don't really know why they are hanging around so far upstream. Not much else around: Wren, several Daurian Redstart, a handful of Dusky Thrush, a single Long Tailed Rosefinch. Very quiet. No Waxwings. No Crossbills or other winter finches.

The Grey Heron and Great Egret were still around yesterday.

Here's one of the commonest local birds, a Brown Eared Bulbul. It seems to be missing a tail.

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