Uncooperative Woodpeckers

One of several Black Woodpeckers we saw (or heard) today at Onuma. This appeared to be checking out a nesthole (Great Tits and Nuthtaches were investigating the same hole too). A female. Too many branches and too far off for a good shot really. By the time I got the Scope set up for a long range shot it had left. The smudge on its wings is a twig in the foreground. I don't photoshop well enough to remove it.



LOTS of Woodpeckers around today. Great Spotted were the commonest floowed by Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker.



1 Grey Headed Woodpecker didn't stick around long enough for a pic.

If Nuthatches ever got romantic it would probably look something like this.



I haven't got tired of posting Nuthatch pics yet. Here's a slightly experimental one.



The Marsh and Varied Tits were as commmon and tame as ever.





Lots of Mandarin Ducks at Onuma this afternoon (they look pretty odd perched 30 feet up in a tree) as well as Wigeon, Pintail, Coot, Goosander, Teal, Russet Sparrow, Stonechat, Long Tailed Tit, Kingfisher, Oriental Turtle Dove, Little Grebe, Grey Heron, Stonechat and Treecreeper. Here's a view of Onuma at the end of the day.



Very predictable my posts these days. The same species finished up with a pic of Onuma.

Hakodate? Not much. I had a nasty cold and didn't go out on Monday/Tuesday. This morning Dusky Thrush, Stonechat and Bullheaded Shrike were near my apartment and the usual common Ducks/Gulls were at Kamiso.

There's another election going on right now. The last election was for all Hokkaido and this one is just Hakodate. It's even more annoying and noisy. They were electioneering in the Onuma area in their absurd little election cars with 4 morons hanging out of the windows waving in their bright yellow tops and white gloved hands and another even bigger moron bellowing inanities over and over again through a megaphone. Who did they think was going to vote for them? The Woodpeckers?

Memo to whichever corrupt middle aged man wins aforementioned election:

Please employ someone to pick up the litter that spoils Onuma. Go on. It's a national park after all. Not a dumping ground for hundreds of fridges/TVs and thousands of platic bottles.

In winter the garbage is hidden by the snow. In summer it's hidden by the greenery. In spring it's there for all to see.

Around April 18th down the years:

1985 (April 18) Penwortham. Singing Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Blackcap in the small woods near my parents. The woods are much smaller now due to a new housing estate (I shouldn't complain too hard as it's where my brother and old birding pal both live with their families now). I wonder if the birds are still there?

1987 (April 17) the Ribble at Penwortham. 3 Black Tern flying upstream on a beautiful spring day. I saw a colony of these birds at Stafflelsee in the Bavarian Alps sometime in the spring of 1998 during an idyllic rowing trip out to a small island in the centre of the lake. The terns were flying around our boat. Not too idyllic in the end though as a tick from the island later migrated to my groin area.

1989 (April 18) North Lancs/Lakes. An epic day's birding that saw me and the friend mentioned above miss out on Richard's Pipit (Inskip), American Wigeon (Duddon estuary) and Ringed Necked Duck (Coniston). We did however get the Ferruginous Duck (Brotherswater) and (for the first of only 2 times) the Golden Eagles at Haweswater. Also Long Tailed Duck and Sandwich Tern at Walney.

2002 (April 13th-I forgot the last time I did this) Tokyo Oi Yachi Koen. Azure Winged Magpie, Black Winged Stilt and lots of other Ducks/waders.

2004 (April 18th) Hakodate. Pale Thrush, Osprey, Eastern Crowned Warbler, Glaucous and Glaucous Winged Gull, Red Necked Grebe and Siskin.

2005 (April 20th) Hakodate. Whites Thrush, Rustic Bunting, Yellow Throated Bunting, Common Guilemot, Red Flanked Bluetail and Rhinoceros Auklet.

2006 (April 18th). Hakodate. 2 Black Winged Stilt at Kamiso.

Black Woodpecker

A bit under the weather today. My first cold in over 2 years. And it was snowing too!

At Onuma this afternoon we pulled in to the lay-by where the Nuthatches and Tits feed. On the log where all the birds feed there was a male Black Woodpecker!

Of course it flew off straight away. It would have been an amazing photo if it had waited around a few more seconds. But it came back a few minutes later. Not in an obliging position though. I had to use manual focus (lots of branches in the way) and it was very dark and overcast so the ISO level was at its' maximum. And not exactly close either. But here it is.



With Stellers Sea Eagle this is one of the star birds of this region of Japan. The woods seemed more alive today despite the lousy weather. Varied Tits were eating out of my wife's hands again, lots of the commoner residents were around including Long Tailed Tit, Japanese Pygmy and Great Spotted Woodpeckers. A male Yellow Throated Bunting was the second most interesting bird.

Varied Tit and Nuthatch. Again.

I wish the Black Woodpecker had been as confiding.






And not so great but an ok 'record shot' of the Yellow Throated Bunting.



At Kamsiso this morning there were 3 Shoveler on the river and 1 Pacific Diver offshore. I find Divers difficult and this one was bobbing around in rough seas. I think it was a Pacific anyway. Lots of Wigeon, Scaup and Gulls (6 species) too. Not so much over at Shikabe. Lots of Glaucous Gulls but none close enough for a photo.

I'm going back for the Woodpeckers on Wednesday hopefully.



Damn this cold.

Fox and Shrike

A Red Fox at Onuma this afternoon. Foxes aren't hunted here and are surprisingly bold compared to the UK. A few years ago one even came into our tent looking for scraps. They have a stomach parasite that is fatal to humans too. So if they crap in your water supply you have serious problems.



A Bull Headed Shrike in Hakodate this morning. A very common summer vistor to Hokkaido, they breed in the bushes alongside the river near my flat. My Dusky Thrush pics are slowly improving. They'll all be off in a week or 2.



The usual stuff at Onuma but no interesting Woodpeckers again today (but lots of the commoner ones). I'm tired of posting Nuthatches so here's another Marsh Tit instead.



I injured my back yesterday whilst I was vacuuming. Annoying and I have to wince every time I get out of my chair. I had a bizarre experience in my local supermarket the other day. They pipe out muzak all day long. Usually it's fairly standard stuff ("thriller" or "eye of the tiger" done in a muzak style) but this time it was "Anarchy in the UK"!!!!!! The Sex Pistols' great anthem of youthful anger/nihilism/despair is now elevator type music to accompany a visit to the frozen food section.

Here are some photos that didn't really make the grade. Sometimes even cropping and photoshopping isn't enough.







A Spotted Redshank and male Long Tailed Rosefinch at Onuma today and a male Siberian Stonechat near my flat yesterday.

Around April 13th down the years:

1984 (April 15) Ribble near Penwortham. 6 Wheatear, 1 Spotted Redshank, 50+ Black Tailed Godwit, 3 Corn Bunting, 10 Tree Sparrow and 1 dodgy looking Pipit we ID'ed as a Water Pipit.

2005 (April 13) Hakodate. Rhinoceros Auklet, Harlequin Duck plus White Backed Woodpecker.

Osprey on a nest plus other stuff

After following both the Champions League quarter-finals live on TV and seeing what a wonderful morning it was (at 5.30am ish) I went out for a short walk and photographed this Varied Tit. And then I went back to bed before re-emerging a couple of hours later to be driven round Oshima by my good wife. First stop was the river at Kamiso. The usual commmon Ducks and Gulls. The main thing of interest was these 9 White Fronted Geese relaxing on the beach.





An odd looking bunch that got me thinking of possible Lesser Whitefronts at one stage before I woke up properly. Next stop was Moheji where this Osprey was being mobbed by a Crow.



A couple of Divers offshore (we couldn't stop to check) and some Whooper Swans were at Kikonai. Lots of Scaup, Red Breasted Merganser and Wigeon too.

Next up was Asabu. This is a pretty good place from May to September but can be a bit bleak the rest of the year. I got a first for Hokkaido at this very same spot last year. A Caspian Tern. I even wrote to the oficial recorder and have heard nothing since. Mind you I did write in English. Hmmmmm.......

From late May the area is alive with the songs of a dozen or so species but today there were only Japanese Skylark plus a few non-singing Reed Bunting. No ducks either except for a handful of Goosander and Tufted Duck. Just down the coast from the rivermouth at Asabu is this stack.



And if we zoom in a lot we can see what's on top.



We finished the day at Onuma. Still lots of Whooper Swans scattered around the lake. The woods were pretty quiet. No summmer vistors here yet. Singing Treecreeper was the best bird. I walked into the forest trying to find some of the rarer Woodpeckers (Black specifically but Grey Headed or White Backed would have been ok) but was unsuccessful. Oh well at least I can rely on the Nuthatches.



Here's a view across the lake just before sunset.



I think I'll tape the Liverpool game as I need an early night.

Red Flanked Bluetail

Every second week in April there are Red Flanked Bluetails in the same bushes next to the river about 3 minutes walk from my flat. Sometimes females and sometimes (like yesterday) males. A bit difficult to get a good shot (and a bit grainy as the light wasn't so good) but there you are.



Pretty nasty weather the last couple of days so not much about............

Ospreys and the start of Spring

An Osprey near my flat this afternoon. It was hunting on the tiny nearby river before it got chased off by the local Crows. I wasn't quick enough to catch its' dive into the stream and am still not completely au fait with the camera's settings so this was the best pic I could muster. Ospreys are common summer vistors across the region and most major rivers have a breeding pair (the river near my house isn't big enough to support a pair plus it's bang in the middle of town). I remember the first Osprey I saw. Loch Garten. May 1976 (I think). Just a female's head visible as it was incubating the eggs on the famous nest. I've seen lots since. In Asia, Australia and South America.



A Brown Eared Bulbul. Dirt common at the best of times but now spring is here there are even more as newcomers arrive from down south. This species is extremely noisy. When I first arrived in Japan (June 1999) I had 4 or 5 free days before I started work. So naturally I went on a 4 or 5 day bender. This combined with the jetlag meant my sleeping patterns were somewhat interrupted. I remember being awake at dawn almost every day listening to them screeching and whistling above the noise of the cicadas.



A Grey Heron on the river this afternoon. Overexposed of course. I changed the camera's compensation setting after this shot which meant the Osprey an hour later was underexposed. Other birds on the river today included lots of Teal, Black Backed and Grey Wagtails, Daurian Redstart and Dusky Thrush are still around, Hawfinch, a couple of Bull Headed Shrike (another spring migrant), a female Reed Bunting, ever increasing numbers of Asian House Martin, Blue Rock Thrush and a few Red Necked Grebes offshore.



This over exposed male Pintail was on the river a couple of days ago. There are usually 3 or 4 common species of Duck there, the resident Spotbills plus Teal and small numbers of Mallard and Tufted Duck outside the breeding season. Occasionally they are joined by others like this Pintail. Of course at Kamiso there are loads of Ducks but this was a nice one so close to home.



A not very good pic of the Hokkaido race of the common or garden Bullfinch eating some cherry blossom buds. This was one of a group of 4 feeding next to the local kindergarten.

On Friday I went to the Harlequin Duck spot to see if I could finally get some decent pics of this beautiful and colourful bird. I failed.



Inspired by a similar photo on one of the blogs linked to the right here's a Slaty Backed Gull.



Some pretty good matches last night. All 4 live on TV too. Nice tense one (Chelsea), a satisfying victory (Liverpool) and at the same time another laughably slack Arsenal defeat (ha!). Shame I fell asleep in the second half on the Man U game and missed Rio's own goal. Mind you I'd had 5 beers and a couple of large whiskies. Waking up at 5.30am on the couch with a dry throat and bad head is never nice........

Around April 8th down the years:

1983 (April 8th). The highlight of my school life probably. A 2 week exchange trip to France (Lyon). The usual high school japery. I saw some pretty good birds too. Red Crested Pochard, my first ever Black Kites, White Stork, Apline Chough, Serin, Citiril Finch, lots of Black Redstart, Pied Flycatcher, Honey Buzzard..........plus Arctic Skua, Gannet, Fulmar, Manx Shearwater and Common Scoter on the ferry. Here's a pic of me ski-ing near Chamonix.



The only day's ski-ing I've ever done in my life even though I later lived near the Alps for 2 years in my late 20's and now live very close to to some top class slopes. I was wearing jeans! The other thing I remember very clearly was that my host family took me to their relatives deep in the countryside and there was a whole pig being roasted on a spit. And they even let me get drunk on wine and beer (I was only 14).

1984 (April 8th) Walked to Longton Marsh on the Ribble. Whooper Swan, 250 Black Tailed Godwit, Greenshank, Long Eared Owl, Corn Bunting and Shoveler.

1998 (April ?). It was around this time I and some friends went hiking somewhere in the Austrian Tyrol. Can't remember the exact date but I can remember seeing Crested Tit and Chamoix. We hiked quite high and slept in a shepherd's hut (we broke in). That night it snowed outside and was absolutely freezing and my thin sleeping bag was woefully inadequete. I had a huge row with my then girlfriend about something or other and (unrelated) had to take a dump behind a bush which is never a nice thing to have to do. Despite all this I had great time. Bizzarely we also saw a Cappercaillie at the border checkpoint between Germany and Austria.

Unfortunately I lost all my photos of my 2 years in Germany when I moved.......

2003 (April 9th). Hakodate. Grey Headed Woodpecker, Common Crossbill and Osprey.

2005 (April 8th). Hakodate. Common Sandpiper and Red Flanked Bluetail near my flat.

Here's a couple more pics from the feeding staion last Tuesday. The Hokkaido race of Great Tit and a Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker.

First summer arrivals

A Black Kite flying over my apartment this afternoon. Just a practise shot.

The first summer arrivals in Hakodate were 3 Asian House Martin flying around one of the bridges over the river close to my flat. A small colony of them nest there every year. It actually snowed a bit today. Bet they felt cold. They appear identical to the House Martins back home in the UK but are apparently slightly different and are a separate species. Japanese Skylark, Oriental Turtle Dove and Common Reed Bunting also made their first appearances of 2007 in Hakodate. I saw all 3 species of Wagtail today with Japanese Wagtails singing and displaying.

Still lots of winter stuff. The Dusky Thrush pics are getting (very) slowly better.



Basically very similar to Fieldfares in habits, Dusky Thrush can be a bit difficult to approach. The other 6 species of Thrush in Japan are usually even shyer. No hopping across the lawn or singing atop TV aerials here.

Other birds around this week have included Buzzard, Peregrine, Brambling and the usual common woodland stuff. Here's a Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker at the feeding station at the foot of Hakodateyama yesterday.



My wife says these pics (and the exceedingly tame ones at Onuma) are cheating. So here's a real genuine shy Nuthatch that would never eat out of any human hand in the forest yesterday afternoon.



All pics taken with the new camera. I'm slowly getting to grips with all the settings and things on it. Of course now I'm thinking of which lens I'm going to upgrade to next.

Great result for Liverpool last night. A Liverpool v Man U final????

Around April 4th down the years:

1984 (April 6th). Ribble at Penwortham. 54 Fieldfare, 9 Ringed Plover, 1 Grey Plover, Tree Sparrow (abundant here in Japan but where are they in Penwortham now?), Corn Bunting......earlier in the week I also saw Willow Tit which is similarly very scarce now in those parts.

2006 (April 5th) Hakodate. White Backed Woodpecker plus all 6 species of Japanese paridae.

Spring in northern Japan

2 pics of 2 of the commonest residents in Hakodate. Slaty Backed Gull and Large billed Crow. Very easy to photograph and good practice for my new camera.

So spring is here. It's been raining on and off the last 3 days so I haven't done much birding. Next week is election time. Electioneering here consists of the candidates driving around in little convoys with a speaker attached to the roof. They are very very loud. "Vote for me! My name is Sato! Thank you! Good morning! Thank you! Vote for me!" etc etc. They do this all day. Another 7 days of this. I can't even vote (I'm a nasty suspicious foreigner you see) and even if I could I couldn't bring myself to vote for any of these bland grey-suited corrupt lackeys to the construction industry middle aged nobodies.

I found a feeding station in the forest at the botton of Hakodateyama. Lots of Tits (4 species), Nuthtaches, Woodpeckers (2 kinds) and also some Brambling. There's even a hide. Here's a pic of a Great and Coal Tit pecking at I don't know what.



And a perky but scruffy Coal Tit.



If you click on the above 2 you'll see I'm having a few resizing issues.

Annoyingly my brand new camera's memory card started playing up just as I was snapping away at a Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker. This is the second time it has happened and will result in a polite but firm and assertive trip to the electronics shop next week. I switched to my baby Scope and compact digicam and got these pics of a male Brambling and a female Great Spotted Woodpecker.




Not too much around town this last few days. A female Red Flanked Bluetail and a handful of Japanese Waxwing didn't hang around in shot long enough for a photo. Glaucous Winged Gull are still about and there was this odd Gull on the beach. Probably just a Herring (Vega) Gull but it was much smaller than the other Herring and Slaty Backeds abd had yellow legs. Apparently some of them do.



Here's a Dusky Thrush near my flat today. It was tiny in the original but with heavy cropping and a little editing in my ancient copy of photoshop it's almost ok.



The fast shutter speeds on my new camera offer some intriguing possibilities with action shots. Here are a couple of experimental shots from today. A Teal taking off with a splash and 2 very distant Carrion Crows mugging a Black Kite.




A classic Crouch hat-trick against a team with major international defenders last night. Never thought I'd ever type that. If he can do it against Estonians that'd be nice too. Although it'd mean McClown keeping his job. Of course if there's an all out nuclear war with Iran all this will be irrelevant.