No Bear Sunday

We spent a dark grey Sunday unsuccessfully looking for the Brown Bear I'd seen earlier in the week..............

Some late February raptors............

There were quite a few White-tailed Eagles east of town today..................

2017 Best Of #2

Some shots from Jan/Feb this year.............

In the park shadows.............

We were in one of the local parks this morning. It was rather dark, the park is full of trees and is difficult to photograph birds sometimes.

This female Sparrowhawk was a nice find, looks like it was eating a Brown-eared Bulbul............................shane about the poor light.

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A Pacific Diver near Yakumo this afternoon..............

The seasons are changing.

Year end raptors

Another early visit up to Yakumo today. It was very cold and clear, beautiful in fact. Weird ice crystals were shimmering in the air and mist was rising from the mountain river...........here's the best mood shot I could manage with a 100-400L on an APS-C camera.

Of course we were there for the eagles.

I'm still awaiting a decent  eagle feeding in the river shot. Not all today's shots were BIFs however. Notice there are no branches in the way for a nice change..........

This adult White Tailed Eagle flew right over the bridge on the busy road north.......

The Stellers Sea Eagles didn't fly quite as close........

Or if they did fly close it was against the sun.........

This Sparrowhawk was a nice surprise, not a bird I often get to photograph.

We stopped off at Onuma and the Ural Owl was in one of its winter holes.

It even woke up momentarily.

It was at this pont the snow returned and the days photography was curtailed.

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Spring 2011 continues..........

A male Crossbill this afternoon in a small patch of pine trees next to one of the harbours at Oshanambe. It was a productive stop, I got this shot of an Osprey there too.

My father-in-law informed me the fish is an 'akahara' (redbelly) which is apparently almost inedible to humans, I hope baby Ospreys are less fussy.

Another nice spring day saw us start off in Onuma. The Black Woodpeckers were active but difficult to get close to, it looks like they may be nesting in the middle of a swampy patch which should ensure privacy from prying lenses. This crappy record shot of the female was the best was the best I could manage.

There were still plenty of Whooper Swans plus all the usual residents, the Nuthatches are starting to look a bit scruffy............

Other stuff at Onuma included Siskin, Mandarin Duck, Goosander, Great Egret, Japanese Grosbeak etc.......

Lots of common ducks everywhere including large flocks of Pintail and Wigeon at Yakumo and Oshamanbe, Shoveler, Harlequin Duck and Black Scoter, lots of summer plumage Great Crested Grebes.

Today was definitely a BIF day. This Osprey was at Yakumo.

There seemed to be lots of raptors on the move, this was one of several Sparrowhawks.......

The 7D is a great BIF camera.........

The Crossbills were a nice find, they were sharing the trees with a flock of Siskin. They were very flighty although this male stuck around long enough for a few shots...........

We had a quick look at some of the wetlands but these don't really get interesting until mid to late May. The only birds here were lots of Skylark and a few Reed Bunting.

On Friday I went back to Goryokaku Park to see if the Crossbills were still there. They were but not close enough for a picture. The Brambling, Hawfinch and Siskin flocks were also around as were the 3 Pochard. A Peregrine was a good flyover bird. The only photos I took though were of this rather tame male Grey Headed Woodpecker.

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A quiet run up to Christmas

A big influx of Dusky Thrush this last week, with them were a few Hawfinch and a pair of Bullfinch, something I don't usually see until the early spring.

Lat winter I saw a Fieldfare with the Duskys and this week I was hoping to find a few Waxwing perhaps but nothing doing there. Otherwise only common stuff in town........

This female Sparrowhawk flew over during a rare 10 minutes with blue sky..........

We went to Onuma yesterday, the usual suspects posed nicely for photos.

Just in case you stumbled across this blog and are impressed by the above photos I'll show you this one to shatter your illusions.

Most interesting photo of the day was this.

A White Tailed Eagle and lots of crows eating a dead frozen Red Fox at Onuma. I tried to get closer for a better shot but my foot went through the ice................I didn't want to end up like the fox.

So Christmas Eve. Here I am on my own drinking mulled wine and beer (the wife is out at some office party or other). I may switch on one of the christmas stations on itunes or listen to the BBC (Radio 2 I suppose these days?) to find some seasonal tunes. I can't get that s**t-awful Shakin' Stevens song out of my head ('Merry Christmas Everyone' I think it's called). I hope they don't play that particular one.  Damn. Maybe they'll play Slade though. On that rather sad note.............

Happy Christmas to the regular readers of this blog. If you're lonely or down just think about what kind of christmas that fox's family is going to have.................

By the way I've had to enable comment moderation after getting spammed by folk suggesting I buy all kinds of products for sexual dysfunctions and the like.