Bad luck comes in threes...........it's true.

Yesterday was very clear sunny weather bang in the middle of the peak of the wader migration season. I had most of the day free and was planning to go to the beach at Kamiso.

But I couldn't go due to an attack of gout, something of a family curse (not helped by my love of beer and seafood). All I can do is hobble around my apartment with a very painful red swollen big toe cursing life in general and the construction noise specifically. I also have had a chronic sore throat the last 3 or 4 weeks and half of one of my teeth fell out last week. F**king hell! If it really comes in threes I've used up all my bad luck for a long while....

I was bored so here are some photos from earlier in the year that never made it onto this blog. They were on my 2 abortive attempts at a second blog, both of which bit the dust.............

This Spectacled Guilemot was in one of the fishing harbours in town in January. It just about managed to swallow that big fish.......







And here is its relative, an Ancient Murrelet also in January out at Menagawa..........



The influx of Crossbills in March/April provided lots of photo opps very close to my apartment........









And here are some Eagle in flight shots at Yakumo last winter where I messed up the exposure..............







And on the ground.............







I don't know why I didn't put this Crane shot on this blog, it's one of my fave ones.....



The Black Necked Grebes in Shikabe were very photogenic in early April.......in both winter and summer plumages..........





I rarely get to take shots of this species: a White Backed Woodpecker in Yakumo in January...........



And here is a Daurian Jackdaw, a scarce winter visitor. This was last winter just outside town.......



Hope there are still some waders around when I can walk properly again in a few days time..............

A bit of a change

 

I had a day off today but the lousy grey weather put paid to any ideas of going to Kamiso to look for yet more waders.

There were 5 or 6 Night Heron on the river though..........

And lots of small birds flitting around in the bushes as the warblers and flycatchers start to pass through....

This is an Asian Brown Flycatcher. I think most of the above mentioned birds were this species although there was at least 1 phylloscopus warbler which I couldn't get a clear view of to ID it (it was probably an Eastern Crowned Warbler).



Or is it a Sooty Flycatcher? Another of my mental bloc ID problems........

Wader Season #3

We were back up at Oshamanbe today and there was a mixed flock of about 40 or so waders. Most of them were Red Necked Stints. There was also 1 Dunlin and about half a dozen Sanderlings. The Sanderlings are much bigger and easy to pick out.





The Dunlin and some of the Sanderlings still has the remnants of summer plumage.......







Red Necked Stints are one of my fave birds. They come very year at the same time. There's a window of 5 or so weeks when there are loads of them everywhere. Shame it was such a grey cloudy day.......





Not much else around. Lots of migrating hirundines and Pacific Swifts.

Only another 4 or 5 weeks of local construction noise (I'm saying that through gritted teeth).

My wife voted in the Japanese General Election today. Looks like Japan will be getting a new government after pretty much 54 years of one party rule. Will anything change? Some anti-noise laws wouldn't go amiss Mr Hatoyama.

Installed Snow Leopard with no major issues and am hoping the 7D will be announced next week. My trusty old Canon 400D/XTi has served me well but now its time to move up a level. I just found out today the flash is broken so I can persuade my wife I may as well get a new model...........

The Liverpool victory was exciting last night but they aren't looking like title contenders. If I was a betting man I'd put a few quid on Man City.

I may watch the 20/20 cricket later today, I've never seen one ever.

Wader Season #2

One of several groups of Red Necked Stints up at Oshamanbe this afternoon.







I couldn't get so close to them, the darn things kept flying away.........



Here is a pic of the maestro at work.........



Other species of wader on the same bit of beach included these 2 species: Mongolian Plover and Grey Tailed Tattler.









I get a lifer today, Long Toed Stint. A group of 3. Here's a record shot.



And here's another record shot of a Greenshank (?) at Kamiso a couple of days ago. This was a local tick that I misidentified as a Marsh Sandpiper at first..............



Bizarre find of the day was this. Some kind of weasel in a railway waiting room (this shot was through the dirty window).



I assume it is a wild creature, it disappeared pretty sharpish when I opened the door.......

I'm watching the cricket, god it's tense stuff. Those 2 run-outs have helped me relax a bit but I'm still a nervous wreck. C'mon England just finish it.

Wader season underway...........

A bit of a grey day yesterday saw me on the beach at Kamiso checking for waders. There were several Red Necked Stints and a very tame Great Knot. It was a very dark day but I was happy with the Great Knot shots at least........







I'd only ever seen this species once, 3 years ago and in almost exactly the same spot.............





I could even take a handheld video on my compact digicam, uncropped........



The Red Necked Stints weren't as tame and were on a different part of the beach. They seemed to like eating/drinking from upturned shells............







Not much else around, a few Grey Tailed Tattler and a returning Black Headed Gull or 2. There were lots of Night Herons at Kamiso this time last year but none at all so far in 2009. I did find a young one on the river near my flat as well as a family of Kingfishers (on several occasions) but couldn't get a picture. A few migrants have been passing through, more Asian Brown Flycatchers and some phylloscopus warblers.

I watched some movies this last week. 'Bruno' was infantile but funny, 'The Damned United' was pretty good even if it wasn't actually 100% factually accurate. I watched the original youtube TV interview with Brian Clough and Don Revie just after Clough had been sacked by Leeds, interesting stuff.

Liverpool were terrible against Spurs but won last night, the squad still looks a bit thin though.

Hope England can confound everyone and win the Final Test.

The noisy bastards outside my window continue to make my life a misery. Only 1 day off in the last 30, they make noise 10-12 hours a day. We have diggers, hammers and saws going as I type. Invading my every thought. My nerves are completely frazzled. Japanese people seem to be able to filter out a lot of this kind of noise but I don't have such skills. By the time they finish at the end of next month I'll be ready to kill someone. Well maybe not kill them but humiliate them in a painful way perhaps. . The CEO of Daiwa House beware.

Things moving..........

An immature/female falcon at Yakumo a couple of days ago. At first glance I thought it was a Hobby (Merlins are winter visitors only). Whatever it was, it was a bit of a surprise..........

Doh! A female Kestrel perhaps? Thanks to Unravel for that one. I've seen thousands of them over the years back in Europe but they're pretty scarce in north Japan and it completely slipped my mind............



We were looking for waders and on the local beaches and rivers there were 6 species present. Nothing too exciting,this Eastern Curlew was at Kamiso.

And these skittish Red Necked Stints were near Oshamanbe.






These are adults, the juveniles pass through later and are generally tamer.

In town a few migrants are passing through. Asian Brown Flycatcher and Stonechat mainly. I haven't managed to locate any young Night Herons yet.................

It's been overcast and humid, not great weather for photos. On Sunday there were fishing Ospreys everywhere as well as fishing Kingfishers but no decent shots of either alas. here's the best of a bad bunch.........



This Whooper Swan must have stayed all summer at Kikonai, 1 or 2 seem to do that every year.......



I did find this big horrible spider. the 100-400L is not a great lens for macro type stuff. I don't know the name of this species but they are very common in summer.



And here's an old fisherman looking for kelp..............



The 11 hours a day/7 days a week construction next door and opposite my flat continues and I'm beyond sick of it.

England reverted to type in the cricket but early on the 5th day of the 1st Test I'd have settled for 1-1 with 1 game to play.

I fell asleep watching the Charity Shield even though it wasn't on especially late, being woken at 7.30am every morning by the aforementioned construction is starting to take its toll.