Hoarding

One of the disadvantages of having cheap external hard drives with lots of space is the accumulation of thousands of photos...............

On this day (November 16th)....................

November 16th 2007.


An adult Thayers Gull on the river near my apartment. This bird was present for at least 4 winters but didn't return for the 2009/10 winter, hopefully it or another one will return this year. This pose shows its distinctive wing pattern.


It is a pretty scarce but regular visitor to Japan and is one of the many 'new' Gull species to have emerged over the last 20 or so years.

Geese on a grey day

2 out of a group of 21 Brent Goose in Hakodate yesterday. The weather has been lousy this week, it's mild but wet. Raining instead of snowing. The usual common winter birds have been around, to name some of the more interesting: Hawfinch, Brown Dipper, Kingfisher, Pelagic Cormorant, Wigeon, Harlequin Duck, Blue Rock Thrush etc.

In the middle picture you'll notice one of them is shorter legged and necked. Is that a female? I don't really know.







From only 4 a couple of weeks ago the flock has now risen to 21. Many harbours and inlets have their own little groups. They are a little wary but you can get pretty close. Most of these shots were only slightly cropped.

Metering is a bit of a problem especially on a grey day when they're on the water.





Metering was a big issue with 2 Great Egrets that have been on the local river this last month or so. Damn white. And these things are very wary indeed.




The local crows were given them a hard time. Awful picture I know.



The Thayers Gull is still getting more ragged every week. One of 5 Gull species on the river, at least it was a in a different pose from usual. You can see it has very short legs.



It's raining again. I wish I could say I've been spending the time stuck indoors productively. Is watching old Water Margin episodes on youtube productive?

What a great TV show this was. Made in Japan although I've yet to meet a single Japanese person who ever saw it. It used to be on BBC2 on Friday evenings at 6pm.

Just to get you in the mood here are the opening and closing credits.....

A walk down the river

A very mild winters day saw me walking down the river to the beach today. I needed to clear my head (see below).

The usual common winter birds were about. The above Wren is the first time I've been able to photograph this species in Japan. Lots of Hawfinch around today, also Brown Dipper, Kingfisher, Daurian Redstart and Great, Coal and Varied Tits. A momentarily glimpsed raptor from my window was probably a Goshawk.

5 species of duck included this male Pochard, another personal photographic first for Japan.



5 species of Gull on the river included the long staying Thayers Gull which is now entering the raggedy winter plumage phase.




I had some very bad news the day before yesterday. One of my best friends from school passed away. He leaves a widow and 5 young kids and a 6th on the way and due around christmas. I've had a numb empty feeling since I heard the news and am having difficulty dealing with it. Being so far away makes the whole situation worse, I can't go the funeral either.

I met Michael in primary school in 1977 and we stayed good friends over the years. His parents live in the same village as mine and attend the same church. Here's a picture of him and me back in 1995.



Michael ended up living in Worcester. The weekend me and another friend visited him saw the hottest weather I can ever remember in England. We did a small hike, somewhere on the outskirts of the Cotswolds where the above picture was taken. It was a perfect weekend. Going out for beers in Worcester on a Saturday night, drinking in country pubs, watching Dominic Cork take a hat-trick against the (then) mighty Windies. I visited him and his wife several times in the heart of England including one time just before I came to Japan. They also visited me in Germany. We hung out in many places, when I was working in Stratford in 1998 he was just up the road. He came to see me in London and Newcastle. We kind of drifted out of touch over the last 3 or 4 years and I didn't get in contact with him last time I was back home. I only had 2 weeks and hey I thought he's probably too busy and anyway I had lost his e-mail/telephone and was too lazy to get them off his parents. I'd do it next time I go home, I thought at the time. We had plenty of time to catch up, I mean the rest of our lives lay ahead.

My thoughts go to his wife, kids and his parents. He was a very kind considerate person and a great friend who put up with my selfish behaviour and numerous bad points over the years. I still can't believe I'll never see him again. His funeral is on Friday in Worcester.

More of the same............

A Varied Tit on my wife's hand at Onuma this afternoon. It was a dark grey day which was annoying as the whole of last week saw quite beautiful autumn weather. My wife whose only current day off is Sunday was not happy.

Birds were almost identical to last Sunday. Still some Rooks ate Onuma but I couldn't find the Daurian Jackdaws. No eagles yet either. This is the last remaining Night Heron on the river a couple of days ago.





Not much else new to report. The Thayers Gull was still present.





And on the beach was this unusual Gull.



Note the yellow legs. I think this is a type of Heuglins Gull but all these recent splits of Gull species have left me somewhat befuddled.

The first snow will probably come next week sometime, the autumn colours were still very nice in Hakodate last week.



A bit of a dull week I suppose. I finished 'How to lose friends and alienate people' which started off well but turned out to be pretty crap by the end. I sold my first calendar (woohoo!). You can check out a preview here. The printing company finally sorted out its' shipping fees. I watched lots of sport last night. Dirk Kuyt is winning me round, the Villa v Arsenal game was pretty good and I followed England's lame efforts in the rugby live on a jerky flash player.

Lots more winter arrivals

Some Whooper Swans a few days ago on the outskirts of Hakodate. Lots of stuff arriving for the winter now. Around town in the last week the first Scaup, Goldeneye, Wren and Dusky Thrush have all arrived. And so has this individual.



The same Thayers Gull that has been on the local river the last 4 winters. Other Gull species have been arriving too, including this Glaucous Winged Gull on the beach at Kamiso this morning.



11 species of duck at Kamiso now as well as 3 Great Egret a few days ago too. We also went to Onuma twice in the last week and predictably took a lot of pictures of the tame regulars.





I could lie and tell you I didn't tempt them near my camera with sunflower seeds, but I'm too honest for such deceit.







Anyway I couldn't really photoshop those sunflower seeds away.........

A fox was hanging around waiting for some handouts too. Or eyeing the tiny birds that it would never be able to catch........







I was using the lens wide open which meant that although parts of the birds were often out of focus at least the background (bokeh) was nice. Very autumnal.







There were 5 species of Tit at Onuma including the above Varied Tits as well as Great, Coal, Long Tailed and Marsh Tits.



There were a few swans, grebes, ducks and egrets about too and lots and lots of Siskin though of course these weren't so tame.



Lots of small birds in Hakodate last week. Near my place I got Red Flanked Bluetail, Yellow Throated Bunting and lots of Rustic Bunting. This (and the Bluetail too) are one of my bogey species photo-wise. The best I could manage was this.



Here a few seasonal shots to round off.







Bird of the day was this species.





2 Daurian Jackdaw mixed in with the resident Large Billed and Carrion Crow at Onuma. There were also several Rook. Both species are pretty scarce autumn/winter visitors to Hokkaido and someone told us they weer around and we just manged to find them before sunset.

My Calendar finally arrived. You can buy it via the link if you want. A touch pricey for a calendar I agree but I have to say it looks OK. I don't make much profit, if you buy one the net profit will buy me 2 cans of beer. My book should be available soon too and I'll shamelessly plug that when it comes you can rest assured.

Just started watching 'How to lose friends and alienate people' which is pretty funny so far at least.

My other blog is still being experimented on. It'll be updated more often than this one, whether it'll replace this one is yet to be decided...........er I'll think about that later.

Red Tape and Redpolls

One of many Redpolls around this afternoon. A rather chilly day too. I met Dan and we walked down the river to the beach in the raw wintry weather. Quite a bit of stuff around. 5 species of Duck including a drake Wigeon, 1 Asian Rosy Finch, several Hawfinch and the Thayers Gull which is presumably moulting into summer plumage as it's looking somewhat bedraggled.



I had a bad experience with Japanese bureacracy last week. I have a permant residency visa stamped in my passport but I still need a re-entry permit. I need one as my old one expired last year sometime. I have to provide a copy to my travel agent as the Japanese government likes to keep track of all foreign comings and goings to, like, you know 'prevent terroism' or something. I'll be fingerprinted next time I re-enter Japan too. Memo to foreign terroists: jump through all this stupid hoops and you can attack the Tokyo subway with biological or chemical weapons just like Japanese nationals have done before in what is the only terroist act to occur on Japanese soil in modern times.

So anyway off I went to the Immigration Office on Thursday. When I got there it was closed. All day, because all the staff had to go to Hakodate airport to meet one international flight. Unbelievable I thought. Wouldn't it be logical to leave one staff member in the office? Apparently not. I came back on Friday morning and the office was closed again so I went out to the airport. Of course there was zero activity in the international terminal (just one flight landing several hours later). I got to speak to one of the Immigration 'Officers' who said he couldn't do the paperwork for my re-entry permit at the airport (I had all the documents/revenue stamps etc).

This is when it got really stupid. I asked him if his office would be oipen on Monday. He said that he didn't know. HE DIDN'T KNOW! What was he expecting to happen? An international flight unexpectedly landing at the airport so him and his useless colleagues had better hang around just in case? I bit my tongue and asked for his office number so at least I could call to check if anyone was there. The idiot didn't even know his office number. He disappeared and several minutes later re-emerged to give me the number handwritten on a Hello Kitty memo pad. Morons.

I did see a Black Crowned Night Heron on the way back from one of my wasted vists to Immigration. Of course it was hiding behind a branch (I saw it beiing mercilessly harassed by the local Crows).



And here's a soaked Blue Rock Thrush taken a couple of days ago.



The Redpolls were very photogenic today particularly this individual.





I also saw the Crossbills again but it was impossible to get a good shot. This is the best, ironically it kind of looks like a pine cone.



The Long Tailed Tits were still around, these shots (like the Night Heron above) were taken with the 70-300 lens.





And here's a random Hakodate image from my recent wanderings around town.



I watched the first episode of 'Ashes to Ashes' last night. A carbon copy of 'Life on Mars' only not as good..............hmmm. I'll still probably watch the rest of the series though. What about poor old Newcastle? I think Keegan may well resign before the end of the season. Managers should never go back. Never. Look at Howard Kendall and Graham Taylor in their second spells at Everton and Villa. As useless as Hakodate Immigration Officers.