So now I'm middle-aged then.

A Grey Tailed Tattler at Kamiso this afternoon. A pretty good day for waders in fact, as there were 8-10 Red Necked Stint around as well as this Sanderling. They look very similar (if paler) to the stints until you see them next to each other, the Sanderling seemed double the size of its' companions.



The Stints weren't as tame as earlier in the month but I got some OK shots, I have hundred of RAW stint shots on my hard drive.





The Tattler was a bit more confiding and I could get fairly close, these shots are hardly cropped (the one on top of the page isn't either).





Not much else around. The first Herring (Vega) Gull of the winter, a lone Kingfisher, no ducks yet and all the Night Herons aseem to have upped and left. This Temincks Cormorant was also at Kamiso.



We went to Onuma yesterday, here's yet another picture from the same viewpoint we always end up at.



Lots of birds in the forest (and still a few mosquitoes too I'm sorry to say). Flocks of Japanese Grosbeak and Japanese White-eye were on the move as well as lots of the regular resident Tits, Woodpeckers and Nuthatches, a poorly seen largeish raptorish bird that freaked all the small birds out (actually it could have been an Ural Owl).

So I'm 40 now. Saturday night was not as maudlin as I expected (actually I don't think I even discussed turning 40 at any point in the evening except when it prompted a couple of free drinks in 2 of the places we visited). Here's the least unflattering picture of me from the night. the rest are (even) much much worse



That's my good friend Don in the background, he's been here even longer than I have.

I got plenty drunk, certainly drunk enough not even to care about Liverpool failing to beat Stoke at home.

End of the 30's

The yellowing ricefields out at Ono this afternoon. This will be my last post when I'm under 40 years old, a sobering thought (and I am indeed sober as I type this).

The beautiful warm clear weather continued the last week but for various reasons I didn't get out much. We went looking for waders at Kamiso again this afternoon and the only one we found was this Grey Tailed Tattler.



Not a great shot, it wasn't as tame as last week's Stints.





Not much else around to be honest. The main birds in Hakodate recently have been the migrating muscicapa flycatchers. 3 species pass through- Asian Brown (the most common by far), Sooty (pretty scarce) and Grey Streaked (rarest of the 3). They're difficult to get good shots of and they all look pretty similar. Here are 2 lousy heavily cropped record shots. The top one is an Asian Brown and the second one is a Sooty Flycatcher. I think.





Here are 2 familiar views from Onuma.





If anyone had told me a week ago that England would thrash Croatia, Liverpool would beat Man Utd (without our 2 best players) and go on to open up their Champions League campaign with an away win against tricky opposition............I would have said they were f***ing crazy.

So I'm 40 on Saturday. A bit of a downer. It'll be a low-key affair, dinner and a few beers with about half a dozen people. I remember turning 30. It was a Sunday and I flew from Manchester to Thailand. I'd gone out the night before with a friend who lived in Manchester so my 30th birthday was sat on economy class on China Airlines hungover as hell and (due to time differences) by the time I arrived in Thailand my birthday had already finished...............

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.