Kingfishers in the snow

Winter 2007/8 is here to stay.






The snow arrived a couple of days ago........a foot or more dumped on Hakodate. I haven't done much birding except trying (with limited success) to get a decent Kingfisher pic with the 400mm lens. Difficult in the poor light with snow streaking across confusing the autofocus. It fishes on the river 3 or 4 minutes walk away.I went to the river (complete with heavy insulated snow boots so I could stand in the snow) on 4 separate occasions in the last 3 days.





The bird in question isn't exactly shy either. It perches motionless, striking nice poses. I tried to get some shoots of it diving but I just wasn't quick enough (and it was too dark anyway). A couple of times the snow stopping briefly and the clouds thinning out temporarily co-incided with the bird being present but alas it wasn't as close as the pics above.





Nothing else exciting on the river. The Brown Dipper flies up and down and stops occasionally to sing its' strange warbling song (Dippers seem to have a strange talent for ventriloquism), a few Hawfinch and Dusky Thrush, the usual male Daurian Redstart, a cold and miserable Grey Heron, the last Black Backed wagtails and Oriental Greenfinches fleeing the snows of Hokkaido, a lone Grey Starling, a few of the commoner Ducks.



This was the local park yesterday........I got caught in a small blizzard. At least i had the park to myself. A couple of days ago (before the snow came) there were some pretty good birds in the park including this species. These shots were with the 70-300 lens.





A Common Redpoll, one of 4 feeding on pinecones. This was only the second time I'd seen this species in Japan, I haven't seen that many in the UK either. I'd noticed a few Finches zipping around in town the last few days with slightly odd calls....I suppose they must have been these. Also in the park were a small flock of Rustic Bunting (check the crappy picture below), lots of Coal Tit, a few Great Tit and Varied Tit, Hawfinch and Dusky Thrush.



So winter is well and truly here. Much colder than the UK and loads more snow......at least we usually get a white christmas.

Songs on my ipod recently have included 'bodysnatchers' by Radiohead (a band I'd never really given much time to but I like this song), 'vessel in vain' by Smog (the song from 'dead man's shoes'), 'peasant army' by the Redskins and 'sunrise', an old New Order song. I'm looking forward to seeing that new movie about Ian Curtis.......

More local patch stuff and some Kathmandu memories

The Kingfisher was still around yesterday as was a lone juvenile Night Heron. I wish I'd had the 400mm lens to get these pics but it just isn't practical to drag around town. A bit of a pain to update the blog as google seems to have a bit of a bug meaning I have to fiddle about with html just so you can enlarge my photos (none of which are particularly exciting today anyway). Just the usual stuff around my flat so here's 2 pics of the same birds again.





Even if I'd had the 400mm lens it couldn't have hidden the garbage from the background. Not much else around, nothing new anyway. So here's another Teal.



So Liverpool doing ok. Interesting group of death in that footie thing next summer which I probably won't be watching much of. England screwing up after a promising start in Sri Lanka.

Around December 3rd down the years:

1983 (Dec 3) Walney. Wow, 24 years ago (and just after England had got knocked out of Euro 84, these things go in cycles). My first and until now only Lapland Bunting amongst the commoner winter stuff.

1987 (Dec 2 and 4th). St Marys near Whitley Bay. I didn't do much birding in my university days but these 2 days I went to the rocks by the lighthouse and saw 82 Purple Pandpiper, lots of other waders, Puffin, Guilemot, Red Throated Diver, Eider and Rock Pipit.

1994 (first week Dec) Cairns. I wound up in Cairns, North Queensland for a few days after working for 6 weeks up in Cooktown. Cairns seemed like a huge metropolis after Cooktown. The birding on the esplanade was spectacular. I wish I'd had my current camera with me. Lots of waders very very close. My logbook (written up months afterwards) indicates almost 30 species but I've purged some of them off my list. I can recall some quite clearly. My first Terek Sandpiper and Red Necked Stints,Pacific Golden Plover, Pied Oystercatcher, Turnston and probably a dozen others, perhaps Marsh Sandpiper, Great Knot, Sharp Tailed Sandpiper?. Add in Crested, Little and Gull Billed Tern, several species of Heron, Royal Spoonbill and thousands of screaming Rainbow Lorikeets. I did my only touristy thing in Australia:I went to the Great Barrier Reef and did some snorkelling. I'm not a good swimmer and I even went in the water using cut off jeans with a piece of old string as a belt. And I saw 'Pulp Fiction' in a cinema............and for a short time thought it was the best film I'd ever seen. Mind you I was stoned and had been stuck in the bondooks for a while.

1998 (first week Dec). I was in Kathmandu waiting to fly back to the UK. My long trip around the subcontinent was coming to an end and I was a little bit tired of Asia to be honest (I also had a nasty throat infection). Still, it was a nice end to the trip pottering around what is one of my favourite cities. i spent most afternoons on the roof top smoking hash and watching the Kites fly overhead. In the evenings flocks of Paddybirds and Cattle Egrets flapped across the horizon, I also saw Magpie Robin, Red Vented Bulbul and the other common urban birds of the area. In the mornings I explored the city and took lots of crappy pictures like these.





2002 (Dec 8) Yakumo and Sawara. Lots of Stellers and White Tailed Eagles but the main target of the day (a regular wintering Gyrfalcon) eluded us. It was supposed to be in a windwsept coastal area and a friend drove us there (we didn('t have a car at the time). It was bitterly cold and our friend got bored of waiting...I never did get to see it. The next winter it didn't return.

2006 (Dec 4) Kamiso. 3 White Fronted Goose.

A walk in the forest

One of many Goldcrests today. Difficult things to photograph.

We spent a very pleasant day in the forest at Onuma. My wife was a bit worried as a Brown Bear had been seen here a few days ago (there were a few signs up). This was the largest mammal on view today.



There were lots of birds in the forest and on the lake. This was the most interesting bird and least pleasing photo of the day.



One of a group of 3 Common Crossbills atop some kind of evergreen. These were the first ones I've seen in ages (over 3 years in fact). For 3 consecutive springs they were everywhere in Hakodate and then none at all until today.20 or 30 Whooper Swans were on the lake, 2 Great White Egrets were lakeside, there were also single Goshawks and White Tailed Eagles, huge rafts of Goosander, Long Tailed Rosefinch, Siskin, all the common woodland stuff including the usual suspects.



Common woodland stuff being Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker (above), Great Spotted Woodpecker, Grey Headed Woodpecker, the 5 paridae species, Nuthatch and Treecreeper.

It was very sunny today but the lake is beginning to freeze so the ice was making strange whistling creaking noises.





If those shots look unoriginal try these 2.





At least the Goldcrests broke up the monotony a little. Here's a pic of me fondling the (borrowed) Canon 100-400. My wife prefers anonymity on this blog but she couldn't object to the sunset picture surely.





Yesterday in Hakodate was also good for birds. I saw 2 very late species (usually they're well gone by now)-Black Faced Bunting and Japanese Bush Warbler. Also around were Grey wagtail, Grey Starling, Hawfinch, Dusky Thrush, Brown Dipper amd this Common Kingfisher. I didn't have the big lens with me for these shots......





So that was November 2007. I got a nice new lens, was loaned an even better one, watched in utter horror as England f*#ked up big style, ate the nicest sushi I've had for ages, changed my fave beer brand from Sapporo back to Kirin, went to a hot spring resort and updated my ancient i-mac with an external DVD writer, USB webcam and a self procured copy of Tiger.

Dark days

'Dark days' refers to the weather rather than any sinister happenings or mental anguish...............

A Red Flanked Bluetail at the foot of Mt Hakodate this morning. NOT taken with the 100-400 lens which was in my backpack at the time (actually it stayed in my backpack all day). Dashed difficult to get a picture as the bird just refused to stay still. Here's another one that at least shows us it's an aptly named bird.



Other stuff in the forest included Siskin, Japanese White-eye, Long Tailed Rosefinch, 1 or 2 Japanese Accentor (a local tick) as well as the common residents, none of whom wanted to be photographed. On the long walk to the mountain I saw Brent Goose, 5 species of duck including Pochard, Brown Dipper, Little Grebe, Glaucous Winged Gull and hundreds of Common Gull resting before heading south to Honshu. The snow has all gone (temporarily alas) but it was a raw wintry day. I went to the small hide in the forest that overlooks a feeding station (I wanted to get some shots of Woodpeckers with the big lens) but for some reason the folks who organise such things haven't left any food out yet so there weren't actually any birds there.

In the last 2 or 3 days I went to Onuma and the Brent Goose site in Hakodate and took some more predictable shots of the usual species. At least the Nuthatches were striking some different poses. The following shots were with the big lens.






And The Brent Geese were swimming around and trying to feed. I say 'trying' because there was an awful lot of garbage in the sea. I cropped most of the flotsam and jetsam out of these pics.





I tried to get some other shots of some other species the last few days. The 100-400 lens is great of course but it's a little heavy for a walkaround lens (especially dangling around the neck). It also needs reasonably good light which hasn't really been a feature of the last few days. Here's the Japanese race of Great Tit (much shyer in front of the lens than its' congeners). The Long Tailed Tit and Japanese Accentor shots on my PC aren't worth uploading..........



The Marsh Tits were as tame as ever.



And as the picture quality declines here's a White Tailed Eagle flying over Ono on Tuesday.



I'm sure winter will return in the next few days. Not much happening in my life at the moment........November always was a bit of a slow month.

Mourinho for England? Now that would be interesting. If I ever care about football again that is.

Today's gripe about Japan. Potato salad/spaghetti/noodles in sandwiches. Whose insane idea were those fillings? They were my only choices in the nearest supermarket to Mt Hakodate. And they put mayonaise on pizza too.

Blessed are the Cheesemakers

One of a group of 4 Brent Goose in Hakodate this morning. Very mild weather after last week's snow, sleet and freezing temperatures. I met up with Franck today, a French birder/photographer from Grenoble living in Date (about 2 or 3 hours north of here). He's a technician in a cheese factory (hence the title of the thread and see later for more). An interesting companion for the day, he has worked in various countries including Uzbekistan and has wound up here in Hokkaido.

I took him to see the Thayers Gull (which hung around just long enough for Franck to get a shot) and the Harlequin Duck/Brent Geese near Mt Hakodate. The Geese in particular were highly photogenic today.







Not much else on view. Here's a crappy shot of a Harlequin Duck and a close up of a scruffy Slaty Backed Gull with an apparent black eye.





We then headed up to Onuma and at that point Franck very generously lent me his 100-400 IS L lens...............not just for this afternoon but until March. All the pictures below were taken with this lens. Franck was using the Canon 500mm F4, a real monster of a lens.



The Varied Tit had joined the tame paridae and Nuthatch group.





It really is a nice lens (if a touch heavy). My 70-300 IS USM lens is very nice too of course (and I'll continue to use that as my everyday 'walkaround' lens) but the big white L lens is in a different league altogether. It gives me a nice 3 month 'free trial' to see if it's worth splashing the cash in the future.









2 White Tailed Eagle flapped over the trees before I could take a picture, the woods were full of Jay, Siskin and Dusky Thrush, there were Coot and flocks of Goosander on the lake, a few groups of Whooper Swan scattered about, a female Yellow Throated Bunting and the usual common woodland stuff including this Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker.



Oh and Marsh Tits of course.



So thanks again Franck for the wonderfully generous loan of the lens. I'm looking forward to using it this winter. Oooh. It's almost made me forget about the football. Which I won't be mentioning again anyway.