Another day off, another typhoon..............

It was the tail-end of yet another typhoon...........

A short walk near my apartment............

One of 3 species of heron on the river near my flat today.................

Some March BIFs

Nice light meant some BIF photo opps yesterday...............

A bit of a lull

A bit of a quiet fortnight just passed me by....................

A grey rainy Monday morning

It's been pouring down for several hours as I type this.....................

My 1000th post

Well it's taken exactly 8 years and 3 months to reach my 1000th post on this blog..................

Migrants galore on a dark dark day

A male Blue and White Flycatcher and a male Narcissus Flycatcher.

I had a day off on the 14th and spent most of it in Goryokaku Park. There were lots of migrants about. I don't know how many but seriously there were f***ing loads.  Birds were buzzing around everywhere, it was like something out of a Disney movie.

The light was very poor and there was the constant threat of drizzle. I suspect the poor weather was the reason so many migrants were grounded..................the chilliness also meant they were pretty lethargic and easy to approach. The nasty weather also meant the park wasn't so busy...............

Blue and White Flycatchers were still very common................

And Narcissus Flycatchers were even more numerous, loads of them, everywhere.

The males were at various stages of moult, some of them hadn't quite acheived the full summer look yet...............

As you can see they were just sitting around on walls....................

The above 2 (and yesterday's post with The Siberian Blue Robin) were the stars of tha day but there were lots of other migrants around too.

Asian Brown Flycatcher for starters.

I couldn't find any Sooty Flycatchers...................there are a bogey species for me..............

There were 5 species of thrush. Japanese and Dusky plus these 3............

First Pale Thrush...........

And Eye Browed Thrush.................

And finally Brown Thrush...........................

Both Eastern Crowned and Sakhalin Leaf Warblers were common................

Other stuff included large restless flocks of Japanese White-eye, Siskin, a few Crossbill, Olive Backed Pipit, Japanese Bush Warbler and this drake Shoveler on the moat..............

Of course once I was busy again at work the weather improved dramatically.

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More harbourside birds.............

3 of the species in the harbour at Kamiso this morning. Red Necked Grebe, Black Necked Grebe and Red Breasted Merganser.

It was dark and snowing but the harbour was full of birds. They were chasing fish around and the flocks followed the food. The Red Necked Grebe came very close...........

Shame it was still in winter plumage but it's still by far the best photo opp I've had for this species.

There was also a lone Slavonian Grebe (too far off for a decent photo and that was in winter colours too) and about 50-60 Black Necked Grebes, many of which were changing into their summer best.

The harbour at Kamiso is much bigger than at Shikabe and a lot of the time the birds were out in the middle and a little far off........

The reason for the concentration of birds appeared to be the fact there were lots of small fish in the harbour........

The Grebes didn't have it all their own way, I saw a Slaty Backed Gull eating a very fresh looking Black Necked Grebe corpse.

The next commonest species in the harbour was Red Breasted Merganser.

And of course there were some Scaup.

Other stuff included Goldenye, a surprise flyover Osprey (very early, I've never seen them in March before) and this male Shoveler.

Another species I haven't photographed so much and one I'd forgotten how beautiful it was.

This Glaucous Gull was eating the Grebe.......

We'd only gone to the harbour by accident, we had intended to spend the day at Onuma.

The weather was really nasty there, this Nuthatch was the only thing to photograph. The Owl wasn't at home and visibility was so poor we couldn't check to see if there were any eagles on the ice.

This adult White Tailed Eagle was in Kamsio however.........

So no way Liverpool will finish 4th this season, I've given up on that. If we did finish 4th it would mean Benitez would stay and I don't think that is a good thing.

I watched 'The Descent Part 2' which was laughably bad (I rather liked the first one) and am halfway through 'The Hangover' which seems pretty funny so far.

So after a very quiet last few weeks the birding has picked up, hopefully we'll get a good spring. I'll try he harbour again at Kamiso, maybe a couple of visits over the next week or so and hopefully with some sunshine...........