2018 Best Of #8

Some waders from spring/autumn 2018...................

Waders in the rain............

I had a spare couple of hours on Friday afternoon and we checked the recently irrigated local padis to see if any waders had appeared.................

2017: not a vintage spring migration season

It's been rather a quiet spring migration in Hakodate this year...................

Curlew Sandpiper

A Curlew Sandpiper in the ricefields near Hakodate this afternoon..............

Wood Sandpipers

A windy (from the wrong direction) Sunday afternoon was pretty quiet birdwise..............

Some passage waders

It was raining this morning and one of the flooded muddy fields to the north of town had some waders................

North Hokkaido 2015 #4

We left Monbetsu and headed north...............

Waders in the smog

Strong west winds have blown over hazy smoggy air from China...................

On this day (May 4th)...............

May 4th 2011.

2 Wood Sandpiper, part of a flock in the ricefields in Ono 2 years ago today. I have to say I hardly ever get decent views of waders in this habitat (unlike many other local birders................what am I doing wrong?) but I got lucky this day.

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An afternoon in the ricefields

The rain and grey gloomy weather returned today but we had a productive couple of hours in the ricefields of Ono and Nanae.

The Siberian Stonechats returned about a week or so ago, these are one of the commonest farmland birds in Hokkaido.

The padis haven't been irrigated yet but due to the recent rains there were plenty of wet muddy areas and we were lucky enough to find a small flock of Wood Sandpiper. These photos were taken out of the car window.

They were eating some wormlike thing, is it a leech I wonder? Yuk.

These are much commoner in east Asia than back in the UK, indeed I've only ever seen one back home (at Marshside in the mid 80's). I've seen them from a distance a few times in the ricefields but never up close like today.

In the same field I noticed this bird, a Buff Bellied Pipit or at least I think it is. This is a bird I only ever see occasionally, usually flying away on some icy windswept beach in winter.

I took a crappy handheld video of one of the Wood Sandpipers out of the car window.........

A flock of geese flew over late in the afternoon, too far away to ID but probably Whitefronts.

Surprise of the day was a flock of 8 Japanese Waxwing in someone's garden. I've never seen these in May before............

I've had 6 out of the last 7 days off but we've been pretty unlucky with the weather. Hopefully tomorrow (my final day off in Golden Week) will see better weather. May is always the best birding month, fingers crossed for some interesting things turning up in the next 2 or 3 weeks.........

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Some spring waders

Whimbrel, Marsh Sandpiper and Wood Sandpiper, 3 waders from a long long spring day............

We started off very early and drove up Hakodateyama to check for migrants. There were quite a few birds around including lots of Red Flanked Bluetails, a bird I can never get a decent photo of. It was too dark and gloomy this morning for photos anyway. Other birds in the forest included Dusky, Brown and Japanese Thrush, Siberian Blue and Japanese Robin, Black Faced and Siberian Meadow Butnings, Japanese Bush Warbler, Japanese White-eye and Long Tailed Rosefinch. We didn't stay too long here, it looked sunnier to the east so we headed over that way.

Lots of stuff on the sea: Scaup, Red Breasted Merganser, Goosander, Harlequin Duck, Brent Goose, Pintail, Wigeon etc............our first stop was at Kikonai.

There were 7 species of wader here. Grey Tailed Tattler were the commonest, here's one with a Marsh Sandpiper. Like most of today's photos, some heavy cropping going on here.

And a lone Wood Sandpiper............

The other species were Common Sandpiper, Little Ringed Plover, Whimbrel and Kentish Plover. There were 3 heron species. Grey Heron, Great Egret and Little Egret, just one of each plus a lone Whooper Swan that is always here. Did it just get bored of migrating north every summer? It looks fighting fit, is there such a thing as a lazy Swan?

Ducks here included a male Falcated Teal, a female Gadwall, Tufted Duck and Pochard. There were also a pair of Osprey but they were flying too high for any photos. Chestnut Eared Buting, Siberian Stonechat and Blue Rock Thrush were all singing, it was very springlike and even slightly warm.......

We then headed out to Matsumae, on the way I noticed 3 egrets in a field, 2 Cattle Egret and 1 Intermediate Egret. One of the Cattle Egrets was in full sumer plumage........

I think that's the first time I've seen all 4 egret species in one day in Hokkaido before. The 3 smaller ones are all fairly regular spring overshoots but Cattle and Intermediate are a little scarce.

This Rustic Bunting was in the same field..........

In Matsumae I had a couple of hours to kill whilst my wife looked around the cherry blossom park. There were a few Harlequins and Brent Geese on the sea, more Grey Tailed Tattlers and Common Sandpiper and a pair of Whimbrel........

Plus the inevitable Ospreys...........

We headed back to Hakodate and the rivermouth in Kamiiso. There were 4 Great Egret and 10 or so Night Heron which brought today's heron list to 6 species. Just before it got too dark a Black Tailed Godwit flew over, a local tick no less (#203).

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I'm exhausted.

So the Premier League season isn't over yet after all. God I hope Chelsea win on Sunday with a really controversial refereeing decision, just to see SAF's red spluttering rage.

On this day (September 7th)....................

September 7th 2008.


Wood Sandpiper on one of the local beaches just east of Hakodate. It was sharing the beach with a couple of Lesser Sand Plovers. An odd bird to see on the beach, I usually see them in ricefields or at least a little inland..............

More waders............and some puppet legends

A Wood Sandpiper looking slightly out of place amongst the local Black Tailed Gulls.

Not really a bird I normally associate with sandy beaches, this one was out on one of the beaches near Hakodate Airport. Not as tame as the stints last week alas.





The Wood Sandpiper was sharing the beach with 2 Lesser Sand Plovers. Both species were new to my Hakodate list which is now running at 180-something. I've recently culled 2 or 3 slightly stringy species from the list, hopefully I'll achieve 200 before i leave town for good whenever that may be.









I stayed up to watch England's triumph in Andorra last night. Naturally that was a mistake. My wife came home just before kick-off rather drunk, perhaps I should have got blind drunk too as that seems to be the only way to watch England these days. My wife sensibly headed straight to bed (she hates football).

So on a more cheerful note:2 blasts from the past.



Not the best Basil Brush clip........but it still brought a smile to my jaded face this morning. And what about Hartley Hare? I can't remember him being so, er, fruity.