More Stints

A beautiful September day in south Hokkaido saw us head up to Yakumo for the first time in ages. I was hoping for some more wader shots but the only waders (10 or so Greenshank and a lone Whimbrel) were way too shy for any photos. Lots of common stuff flitting around in the still-long grass, Reed Bunting, lots and lots of Stonechat and Black Browed Reed Warblers mainly. Also around were Hawfinch, the first Teal of the autumn, 30 or so Grey Heron, Osprey, Goosander and large groups of Swallows and Oriental Greenfinch getting ready to head south...........

On the way home lots of Japanese Green Pigeon were flying down from the wooded cliffs to the beach to drink saltwater, unfortunately on that stretch of road there is nowhere to park and anyway it would be suicidal to stand on the side of the road with trucks belting past on one side and a drop doen to the rocks on the other.

No tame waders at Yakumo today so here are some more shots of the Red Necked Stint a couple of days ago. The beach at Kamiso isn't the cleanest beach in the world.







I think this was the same individual from last week. We checked the beach at Kamiso today but there were no waders at all, looks like it headed south.







Why are Stints so fearless and Greenshanks so timid?







The only bird photos from Yakumo worth keeping were these so-so ones of a distant Kingfisher.





Lots of Asian Brown Flycatcher passing through Hakodate this week. The Glaucous Gull was still around and looked dramatic against a blue sky.



No classic 1970's puppets today but here's a happy memory from 2004, the last time I remember watching England play well. Hope they get a result tonight but I'm not expecting too much. I looked at some of the UK newspaper website and football365, wow what a sea of negativity.

Still, you never know.

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.

A stint on the beach

Finally a bit of sunny weather co-incided with a bird to take photos of. This lone Red Necked Stint was at Kamiso this afternoon and was approachable and tame enough to fire off lots of shots. A touch repetitive which I apologise for.







This was one of 4 common wader species in Hakodate this last week. Red Necked Stints are generally the commonest autumn wader and are cute perky little birds. The first Stints I saw were back in Penwortham almost 25 years ago to the day. A group of 17 Little Stint (a slightly stockier bird than the Red Necked but otherwise very similar) running around on the mud on Longton Marsh.







Last year there were loads of them but this year there are far fewer. I guess the numbers fluctuate from year to year. I also saw a flock of over a thousand in summer plumage at Mukawa in Spring last year, maybe 2007 was a bumper year.

Most of todays's pics are only cropped slightly, some aren't cropped at all. Sometimes the bird was so close the depth of field was too narrow so some parts were out of focus, which you may notice in a couple of the shots below.







Not much else around recently. Common and Terek Sandpipers, Grey Tailed Tattlers, Stonechat, Osprey and Night Herons. None of them as photogenic as the Stint.





A juvenile Night Heron to break the monotony.



A crazy crazy week in the Premier League. Man City's millions, Newcastles's and West Ham's power struggles........I remember being a student at Newcastle over 20 years ago and they were singing 'Sack the Board' then too.

As all that was going on I almost forgot Liverpool's crapness. I have a really gloomy feeling about this season. I think Liverpool may fail to finish in the top 4 and have some nasty financial problems (although they would be an attractive brand for some rich foreigner to buy as a plaything I suppose).

I'm finding it difficult to care about footy now, I almost wanted them to lose against Villa last week. Take away Gerard and Torres (as injuries have done) and Liverpool are around the same level as a Blackburn or a Middlesborough. I look at the dull Liverpool side full of mediocre foreign journeymen managed by a coach I'm losing more and more respect for as every week goes by and think................er, why do I support these people again? I've been a Liverpool fan since the late '80's. Naturally I'm not even considering ever going on to support another team (of course not, never) but.............I'm beginning to get mighty tired of this current set-up. I may practice some Premier League celibacy.

I daren't even think about England. Chasing the opposition after surrendering possession to technically superior players, desperate defending, long balls humped upfield to be easily dealt with by the opposition. And then after all that on Saturday we have to go to Croatia for a really difficult game.

Music of the week: 'Electricity' by The Magic Band

TV Show of the Week: Season 7 of 'The Shield', that Shane is a bad bad boy and now Ronnie is too.

Food of the week: Mackerel fried in soy sauce with chopped leek on a french style baguette.

A grey end to summer

Every year at the end of August a small number of waders pass through Hakodate. Other places in Japan get many more waders than we do here in south Hokkaido but it's still one of the highlights of the birding year I guess.

Red Necked Stints are by far the most numerous and a couple of days ago there were seven at Kamiso in the company of 1 Terek Sandpiper and several Common Sandpiper. The weather has been truly awful the last week or so with grey grey skies, humid muggy days, terrible weather for photos of fast moving shorebirds. These were the best I could manage of the Stints.







The Terek Sandpiper was even worse.



Last year there was a huge influx of Red Necked Stints as well as various other wader species, hopefully in the next 10 days or so I can get some decent pics.

We went to all the nearby wader haunts today (much brighter weather) but there was nothing. Only a few Common Sandpipers scattered around the beaches and all I got at Onuma were 3 huge mozzie bites.

The second year Glaucous Gull was still around at Kamiso. Last Wednesday there were 60-70 (!) Night Herons at Kamiso but they are a skittish bunch, the individual below was taken near my flat instead.





So that's summer almost done then. Bit of a quiet one. I'm completely indifferent about Liverpool this season and am steeling myself for the torture of enduring England's upcoming trip to Croatia. When I was a small boy I used to 'support' Carlisle Utd (the team for my birthplace). Perhaps I should go back to the fold. Third in League 1 this weekend I see. Plus who's cooler, Jimmy Glass or the likes of Frank Lampard/Dirk Kuyt?

I watched 'Tropic Thunder' last week which was pretty funny and have started watching 'The New World' which is............kind of slow.

OK I'm off to scratch my mosquito bites.

Cheating????

Some sunflowers near Furano a couple of days ago.

We went to Asahiyama Zoo last week. I always felt slightly scornful towards people who take lots of shots of animals at the zoo, I mean it's so easy. But I've always been a hypocrite so here are some pictures of animals from only a few metres away...







To be honest, the zoo was a bit small and the cages were tiny. It was a very warm sunny afternoon so most of the animals were taking a nap. The star attraction of the zoo was this bored looking and sleepy Polar Bear.





The zoo was also extremely busy. The most popular place seemed to be the Penguins....





We were in central Hokkaido for 3 days, staying at our favourite hotel in Minami-Furano. It's a log building with the best food I've eaten in Japan. Normally I'm not a fan of these kind of places (you know those 'small food on big plates' joints) but here the food is just perfect, and just enough to fill you up. Lots of small portions of perfectly prepared tasty morsels.



The weather was nice enough most of the time (although it's cool and rainy down here in Hakodate). We stopped briefly at Mukawa both ways. 3 Eastern Marsh Harrier, 1 Great White Egret, lots of Sand Martin, Reed Bunting and Stonechat and of course various waders.





I think these poor record shots show a juvenile Marsh Sandpiper. It seemed smaller and daintier than a Greenshank anyway. Lots of Green Sandpiper, some unidentified Snipe, some unidentified small waders (Broad Billed Sandpiper I think but too bief a view to be sure) and lots of juvenile charadrius Plovers, probably Little Ringed Plover. All of the waders were shy and unlike last year there were no tame Red Necked Stints running about in the open.





A couple of Buzzards snapped on the roadside near Ashaikawa, shame the tail on the top one got chopped off. Near the hotel there were various common birds including lots of Asian Brown Flycatcher. These pics are not so good, I'd forgotten to change my camera settings after some outdoor night shots.





I even watched a couple of evenings of the Olympics in the hotel room. Female Hammer throwing, Americans (and others) dropping batons, an annoying Japanese table tennis player losing to a Chinese one.........not as bad as I'd been expecting, the coverage was about as biased as I'm sure it would have been in the UK. I missed the England friendly on Wednesday, can't believe Beckham is still playing. Actually I can't believe half of that team is still playing. Wasn't Capello supposed to to radically overhaul the team?