Where are all the birds?

A Grey Heron from Onuma last Sunday, there are one or 2 tiny ice free patches at Onuma (a result of the temperature climbing above zero occasionally) and the Heron was standing in one.

There was a larger open area where the Whooper Swans and Mallards gather. In among them were several Tufted Duck and a lone male Pintail.

There were 7 Smew and 1 Goosander further away but nothing else, here's a Red Squirrel instead.

The last couple of days in Hakodate have been pretty birdless, the Red Breasted Merganser was still around as was the Sparrowhawk, the Ducky Thrush and the single Hawfinch but not much else. It's been a strange winter: very mild at first and then an extremely cold snap followed by the heaviest snow in the region for a long long time. I'm guessing the odd weather may have disrupted migration somewhat. I've given up on the Waxwings, I hope we get some winter finches in town soon.

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2009 winding down

Nuthatch and Marsh Tit at Onuma this afternoon. S***loads of snow this last few days and Onuma has transformed into a white winter wonderland (I've been listening to to too many christmas songs obviously). The Whooper Swans were present and joined by a few common duck species.......

5 species of tit, 3 species of Woodpecker, White Tailed Eagle and Yellow Throated Bunting were the main birds of interest at Onuma. Oh and Nuthatches of course.

This was taken with a 100mm macro lens and only slightly cropped. This gives you an idea how tame these are............

Pretty sharp. You can even see my reflection in its eye when zoomed in full size.............

This one is from a 90mm macro lens (we have 2) and is cropped but not heavily.

I couldn't get as close to the Marsh Tits and there were no Varied Tits nearby either...........

Here are a couple of crappy shots to give a wintry atmosphere............

Liverpool go from bad to worse. England look like they're going to get a draw in the 1st Test.........hope I didn't speak too soon there.

Some more common birds.........

A wintry view of Onuma this afternoon.






A couple of close-ups of some of the flock of Whooper Swan at Onuma. Every year a small tame flock of about 70 overwinters in a small unfrozen corner of the lake. They are fed by the local council as a matter of fact. Just about the whole lake is frozen now so they are beginning to congregate. My close-ups weren't entirely successful (I think a normal point and shoot camera would have done the job just as well as the 100-400mm) but I have all winter to get it right. There were also lots of Mallards, a few Tufted Ducks, 3 Coot (relatively uncommon in Japan compared to the UK), sveral teal and a lone Goldeneye.









Lots of common birds in the forest. Jay, Siskin and Hawfinch and the usual common Tits and Woodpeckers. I got my first Treecreeper picture.........which wasn't so great actually. The other usual photogenic species compensated.









Not much new around in Hakodate the last couple of days. This was just outside Kamiso this morning. Not a very good picture but an interesting scene of a distant White tailed Eagle being argy-bargied by some of the local crows.



Over the festive period we should be heading up to Yakumo to hopefully get some decent pictures of Eagles (both Stellers and White tailed).

The 'festive period' in Japan is a bit of a joke. They have christmas decorations and carols in the shops but that's as far as it goes. It's not a holiday and there's none of this 'good will to all men' stuff going on here. It's just an excuse for the shops to con a bit of cash from their customers by inventing an artificial 'festival'. Actually put like that it's not so different. At least we have the pretence of it being vaguely spiritual.

They have a big New Year's thing here anyway which is exactly like christmas back home. Meaningless annual visit to the shrine, time spent eating and drinking with family, cards sent to vast legions of acquaintances who you have no other contact with except sending these cards, a week or so off work (a long time in Japan), absolute mindless drivel on TV (even more so than usual), everything closed or over priced............

Just to show the Japanese have no idea of christmas and have just half-arsededly copied it from the west..............they buy Kentucky Fried Chicken on Christmas day. Turkey is a bird right? KFC is western food isn't it? And they are amazed when I tell them nobody does this in the UK (is KFC even open on the 25th?) and I'm pretty sure nobody does it anywhere except in Japan. The ads are on TV already. Have a Kentucky Christmas.

Here's an interesting article from snopes talking about this kind of stuff. It's pretty funny. I talks about that urban myth (which may actually be true) about the crucified Santa.

I watched an absolute stinker of a movie yesterday. 'Reign of Fire'. A post apocalyptic story (I usually like those). Christian Bale (I think he's a great actor but he must cringe when he watches this). That Scottish actor who always plays sarcastic macho Scotsmen (I forget his name but he was in '300' and 'Timeline'-2 other preposterous movies). Dragons. Crazy American soldiers. Plot holes you could drive a military convoy through. Don't watch it. Trust me on this one.

Early winter birds in Hokkaido

A quietish start to 2007. I gave up listening to England's pathetic efforts in the cricket and went to Onuma for the second time in 2 days. Yesterday I had seen a few Smew but it was too dark for a decent pic we returned today to the same place to try again. The smew had gone but there were 2 Geese. 1 Whitefronted and 1 Bean Goose together. Grey Geese are pretty scarce down here in southern Hokkaido (they tend to bypass the region on their way south in autumn) so to see 2 different species together was pretty impressive.




Not much else of interest in Onuma today or yesterday. Pick of the rest was a lone White Tailed Eagle. Today was a bit chilly but yesterday was very mild and the lakeside was prettty busy which limited photo oppurtunities. This is a pic of Mt Komagadake. An semi-active volcano that dominates the lake.



Fancy a whaleburger?



"Kuzira" (sic) is Japanese for Whale. This restaurant is a well-known chain in Hakodate and is a pretty bizarre experience all round. A new out-of-town branch opened a couple of months ago and is handy when I go birding in Onuma or Yakumo.

It's a distictly Japanese take on the classic American burger bar. You can get normal(ish) burgers as well as whale, squid, shrimp and various other local favourites. 50's pop blares out. You can watch Japanese people eat squid pizza with chopsticks whilst listening to the Everly Brothers and contemplating your own burger dripping with nameless sauces that you wouldn't really expect to see on a burger. Still, it's cheap.

At Kamiso a couple of days ago most of the birds from Jan 1st were still present plus 2 Great White Egret, 2 Glaucous Gull and a 1st winter Glaucous Winged Gull.

Yesterday's Smew defied my attempts to get a nice pic but this photo at least has a bit of character. A yawning immature (or female?) Smew with a couple of Tufted Ducks for company.