2018 Best Of #4

Some finches and buntings from last winter................

Another day with the Buntings..........

Both species of Bunting were still around on Monday...........

Snow Buntings in the sand dunes...........

There was a flock of 25 Snow Buntings on the nearby coast this week..............

A sunny Monday in February #5

2 rare winter Butings from earlier in the week.................

A sunny Monday in February #3

More shots from Monday.............

It became so bright I had to put some sunscreen on my face................

A sunny Monday in February #2

Whilst we waited in vain for the Gyr to appear yesterday a lone Snow Bunting kept us entertained.................

More signs of winter..............

A Black Legged Kittiwake shaking itself dry at Yakumo this afternoon. There were 8 species of gull at the mouth of the river and they included 50 or so Kittiwake...........................and unfortunately they all appeared to have black legs.

We were in Yakumo to check if any eagles had arrived. There were small numbers of salmon spawning and the Yurappu Valley was aflame with autumn colors (what a cliche that is but I don't know how else to describe it) and we found the grand total of ONE adult White Tailed Eagle (and that was too far away for a photo). The only raptor apart from the abundant Black Kite was this Common Buzzard.

We did see a Crested Kingfisher, I managed to get this record shot as it flew at great speed over my head...........................

This is one bird I hope to finally get a decent photograph of this winter.

There were some interesting birds at the mouth of the river too. Goshawk, the first Goldeneye of the winter and another species I hope to get a good photo of this winter. This was the best I could manage today. 2 Snow Bunting. It looked like they had literally just arrived (they came in off the sea). They flew over my head and landed on the beach, stayed 10 seconds and then disappeared to the opposite side of the river.

When I walked back to the car I disturbed another 2 buntings....................I snapped a record shot and when I reviewed the image back in the car I was surprised to find it was a male and female Pine Bunting.

Back at Onuma there weren't many birds in the forest but the lake was looking very autumnal..............

I watched The Hunger Games a couple of days ago. Very silly.
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A Snowy Sunday in December

Some adult Stellers Sea Eagles at Yakumo this afternoon. These (and most of the eagle BIF shots below) were taken in a 5 minute period when the blizzards stopped and the skies cleared briefly.

The day started off on a very cold windswept beach looking for Snow Buntings in a blizzard. This has been one of my bogey species in Japan, everyone else seems loads of 'em but until today not me (though I've seen them in the UK before).

There were 6 of them. They were difficult to approach and like I say the weather was just atrocious.

In amongst them were 4 Lapland Buntings, they were even shyer..........this was the best I could manage.

The eagles were up in the trees sitting out the blizzard.............this one was during a very temporary lull in the snow.

When the sun did break through several of the eagles took off..........this is an adult White Tailed Eagle.

Most of the birds my camera was chasing were Stellers though.........

The weather soon closed in again..............

And finally an immature of both species as the skies grew gloomier and gloomier.......

It was the first real heavy snow of the winter, it was just about possible to walk off road in Yakumo today but that'll probably be the last time until spring.

Not much else around, we had a look at the port in Oshamanbe, there were only Scaup, Black Necked Grebe and Goldeneye. Lots of Great Egrets everywhere too.

Liverpool won, now up to #6, will they get any higher?

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