F***ing Freezing

A male Daurian Redstart on the river near my flat this morning.

It's been very cold the last couple of days, the mild weather lasted only a few hours and melted all the slush which of course then refroze meaning it's very tricky to walk around town even with my spikes strapped on to my boots.

Not many birds around. I looked for the Pallas Rosefinch yesterday but the park has been engulfed in yet more pointless construction work. They're even doing something on the river too. When I see groups of men in grey overalls and white hardhats appear I know 2 things will happen.

1. Lots of noise.

2. Lots of public money wasted.

Still no Waxwings. In 7 of the last 8 winters they've visited Hakodate and on 6 of those occasions they appeared in the 3rd or 4th week of January...................so they may arrive next week I guess.

Liverpool beat Spurs, I was surprised by that...............

'Gary Neville is a boot-licking moron!' Haha! Carlos Tevez may not understand much English but he understands people............

On this day (January 22nd)....................

January 22nd 2009.


Great Egret at Onuma. This individual found an unfrozen corner of Onuma to spend the winter in and lost its shyness as the winter progressed.


This is a winter visitor and passage migrant to the region and sometimes occurs in small groups or even large flocks. A bit odd to see it in a snowy landscape though..............

On this day (January 21st)....................

January 21st 2009.


Slavonian Grebe at Oshamanbe. These are fairly common winter visitors and are often seen bobbing around way offshore. This individual was in the harbour at Oshamanbe and posed briefly for the camera.


I find grebes tricky to ID when they're out on the sea and i'm peering through my scope in the teeth of a winter gale. All 5 species present in the UK are also present in Hokkaido.

A lifer

OK it's a totally crap photo but it does show a Pallas Rosefinch, a new bird for me. It was flapping around in the snow and slush in Goryokaku Park this afternoon.

Not much else around this week, mild weather today temporarily turned the snow and ice into slush. Long Tailed Rosefinch, Sparrowhawk plus lots of Dusky Thrush and Hawfinch were the other noteworthy species. I've spent the last 3 days trudging around town in a vain search for Waxwings, all to no avail.

Dark gloomy weather meant poor photos so not much to post today.

I heard some scumbag mugged my gran in Blackpool yesterday. Well, Mr Mugger-Junkie,  I hoped my poor 85 year old gran's pension got you enough smack to get high so you can forget your miserable worthless pointless empty life for a few hours, you pathetic piece of s**t.  My gran only got bruised thank god, hope karma bites the mugger on the ass with something a lot more severe than that.

A lot below zero

An adult White Tailed Eagle at Yakumo this morning..........

Well last night was extremely cold and south Hokkaido was as wintry as I've seen it for a long long time. Deep deep snow and scarily icy roads were the order of the day as we drove up to Yakumo on the morning. The eagles were the same as last week although today's weather wasn't as good.

This young Stellers Sea Eagle was eating a salmon in a tree and after it finished it relieved itself in spectacular fashion.

Immature Stellers are much more attractive than the raggedy immature White Taileds..........toilet habits aside.

I got some more BIF shots but not as good as last week..............

Again, lots of birders around including 2 people linked on the right ('Dotetin' and Kim aka 'Sepak in Hakodate'). Because of my wife's job we only get to Yakumo at the weekends these days, in previous years we could go weekdays and pretty much have the eagles to ourselves. Not that I'm greedy or anything of course.

Not much else in the river valley, here's a male White Backed Woodpecker and a Common Buzzard being bugged by the local crows..........

We checked the river mouth and I was amazed to see the river was almost completely frozen, I've never seen this before...........

Not many birds about here of course. Offshore there were several species of duck, a few Great Crested and Red Necked Grebes and a lone Brent Goose. Lots of Glaucous and Glaucous Winged Gulls, here's one of the latter........

We got to Onuma just before sunset. A brief view of a Black Woodpecker was the highlight here. It was pretty dark by now, here a couple of high ISO shots with the lens wide open and the flash on.

I got back just in time to hear England capitulate in the cricket (what a weak end to the series that was). I watched 2 things last night. First up was 'The Road' and second up was Stoke v Liverpool. The former (a rather grim post-apocalyptic drama) was probably less depressing than the latter (Liverpool's second string throwing away 2 points in the last minute).

Still, before they began  I would have settled for 1-1 in both the cricket and last night's footy so maybe it isn't all that bad.

This upcoming week should be the week when the Waxwings come to town.............

On this day (January 16th)....................

January 16th 2008.


Stellers Sea Eagle at Yakumo. An uncropped photo, this was as close as I'd ever been to a wild eagle before. Shame about the branches obscuring parts of the bird. It actually stayed obligingly still in the tree for a while whilst I tried to get a clear shot and then flew off looking bored and haughty.


There is often an eagle in this tree (it's right next to the road) but I'm sure they know they can perch on any branch and I won't be able to get an unobstructed view. They're smart birds..........or they have a slightly mean streak, dunno which one............

Winter continues...............

I was hoping the Waxwings would arrive this week. They usually arrive in the 3rd week of January. If they're not careful the Dusky Thrushes and Hawfinches will have finished off all the berries.

There are absolutely loads of Dusky Thrush around at the moment. And they're behaving exactly like Waxwings, eating berries and perching on TV antennas.

Waxwings don't usually do this though.........

Last winter I saw a Fieldfare with the Dusky Thrush influx. Fieldfares are as rare here as Dusky Thrushes are in Europe. Duskys are generally the only Thrush species I see here outside of the breeding/migration seasons.

There were so many of them around today I was hoping to see something rare tagging along, perhaps one of the other race of Dusky Thrush (Naumanns Thrush is it called?) but no joy.

This Hawfinch was relatively confiding. The berry laden trees are on busy streets which makes taking pics difficult. Pedestrians scare the birds off, drivers gawk at the foreigner with the big camera and the birds fly to and fro across the busy road.........

Not much else of note, here's a female Daurian Redstart. Usually we only get males in winter, I wonder what she was doing in town?

It's been another cold snowy icy week and more of the same has been forecast.

Wow, Liverpool's season just gets worse and worse. Now their 3 best attacking players are crocked, they've bought an injury prone over the hill Argentinian and are talking about buying another foreigner I've never heard of who'll be another flop like all the other foreigners I'd never heard of. I'll be happy with 7th place at this rate.

England are toiling in the cricket, dunno if they'll claw their way out of this one (no Onions to save them this time either). If they do manage to draw the game (it looks like rain may be a factor) then they'll win the series 1-0 despite being totally outplayed in the 3 other games. Which would be pretty funny.

Hope the Waxwings make an appearance soon.........

On this day (January 14th)....................

January 14th 2009.


Black Necked Grebe at Shikabe. A flock of this species spends each winter in the small fishing harbour at Shikabe. They eat some horrible looking worms that live on the harbour floor. This is a common winter visitor to the region and can be seen offshore at many locations as well as closer at hand in several of the local ports.


This port can be productive for birds with various species of waterbird. Raptors also occur nearby but it's a bleak bleak place in the wintertime.............

On this day (January 13th)....................

January 13th 2008.


 Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker at Onuma. This is the race found in Hokkaido (ijimae) which is paler than birds further south and west. The male has a red spot on its hindcrown which this female bird lacks.


This is the joint commonest of the 5 local Woodpecker species, the Great Spotted is also very common and widespread. They aren't shy and allow a close approach but seem to spend most of the time higher up in the trees meaning somewhat limited photo opps.

Happy BIFday #2

An adult Stellers Sea Eagle at Yakumo yesterday.

The Stellers seem a touch more wary than the White Taileds and didn't come as close.

There were quite a few other birders/photographers around, in fact I've never seen so many at Yakumo. It was a Sunday I guess (and Monday is a national holiday too). Often in winter I'm the only person in the whole valley with a camera pointing at the eagles.

Someone had even made a snow 'hide' in a place where the river is next to the road and there are lots of dead salmon for them to feed on. I'd love to go and use it but if I asked my wife to drive me there at dawn and sit in the freezing cold she'd punch me in the face, I'm sure of it.

The blizzards returned later on.

All in all a very successful day, eagle-wise at least.

Other stuff in the valley included Whooper Swan, Goldeneye, Goosander, Brown Dipper, Japanese Wagtail, Crested Kingfisher, Jay and the usual Nuthatches/Tits/Woodpeckers. We also saw several Goshawks and lots of Buzzards. Some of these must be Rough Leggeds, that's one of my targets tis winter: I've never seen one anywhere. Ever.

Here's a video of an eagle not doing very much.

I digiscoped this, something I don't often do these days. Check out Kev's blog for someone who really knows what they're doing with this method. I use pretty old not awfully good gear. Kev asked me about a Japanese adapter for his set-up, the various accessories cost more than my scope and eyepiece did!!!!