Above zero

A Black Necked Grebe at Shikabe this afternoon. The temperature climbed above zero (just) after a bitterly cold week. Last week was a bit of a write off birdwise. Merlin and Great Egret were the only noteworthy species in my brief forays out.

Today we headed out to Sawara to check second-hand reports of a Gyrfalcon there. There used to be a regular adult in winter here (before we got our car though.........I've never seen one). Things looked promising as soon as we arrived, a falcon flashed in front of the car (it was just a Peregrine I think). Things took a turn for the worse when we got stuck in the snow on a dirt track. The only car we saw all afternoon in the area pulled us out, how lucky was that?

Not only was there no Gyrfalcon there was nothing at all except for lots and lots of Black Kites.

In the nearby fishing harbours there were a few of the above Black Necked Grebes as well as the usual common wildfowl including Harlequin Duck.

We also saw several White Tailed Eagles but they were high up in a grey grey sky.

Back at Onuma the tame Tits and Nuthatches have survived the cold snap.

There were a couple of White Tailed Eagle here too as well as Black Woodpecker.

Liverpool have quietly crept up to 4th, some good results last night...........

On this day (February 4th)....................

February 4th 2009.

The main influx of Waxwings into the local neighbourhood started on the 4th in 2009, slightly later than in most years. They had been around the city for a week or two but only hit the area near my flat on this day.

The flock was on the main high street in Hakodate, feeding on the wizened berries there. They swarm down from the wires and TV antennas en masse. They never do that near me, by the time I get there pedestrians have scared them off. Or they're on the other side of a busy road and by the time the lights change and I can cross they're back up high...............and I can't dash across the road because this is right in front of Hakodate Police HQ.

Despite the frustrations of getting a decent shot this is still one of the birding highlights of the year.........hopefully there will be an influx in 2010. In 2008 they didn't come until March, in 2005 there were several influxes over 10 or so weeks that included both this species pictured above (the Bohemian Waxwing) and Japanese Waxwing.

Brent Geese

Yesterday I walked down to the dock area to check out the Brent Geese. It was my first visit to the area for a couple of months and there were a lot more Geese this time, about 20 or so birds in 2 or 3 loose groups.

It was a cold raw day and the paths were very very icy, I even put my spikes on to avoid the inevitable slips. Not much else around, a few Harlequins bobbing around offshore, small groups of Scaup and Goldeneye but that's about it.

Today is really cold, a high of minus 9. Of course to those of you in the interior of North America, the high latitudes of Scandinavia or indeed further north/east in Hokkaido  this might not be so cold to to me it is. At least some fresh snow has fallen atop the ice making walking a little easier........

No birds around town (and still no Waxwings) except for a few Dusky Thrush and Hawfinch. Hopefully this cold snap will lead to an influx of some interesting stuff. Apparently someone reported a Gyrfalcon at Sawara last week so perhaps that's where we'll be heading on Sunday.......

On this day (February 2nd)....................

February 2nd 2009

A well known Ural Owl in a well known spot at Onuma. We know 3 Owl 'holes' and the winter of 2008/9 was a good one for Owl sightings. There were often 3 or 4 photographers sat in the snow waiting for the Owl to do something (it never did).

This winter hasn't been so good for Owl pics. I've seen the Owl only once in this particular tree and it flew off as soon as I glanced at it................it must have moved to a more upmarket tree deep in the forest away from prying eyes...............

Lots of good stuff to end the month........

Two of today's star birds, a drake Long Tailed Duck at Oshamanbe and a Mountain Hawk Eagle tucking into some salmon at Yakumo.

The latter is a scarce bird in Hokkaido and is only the second one I've ever seen. It has very thick powerful talons and it looks like it doesn't take s**t from anyone. The local Crows left it well alone (something they don't need to do with the bigger Stellers and White Tailed Eagles). The above photo was taken with a 1.4 teleconverter as was this video.........

This video was cropped and downsized, for the full HD version go here.

I still haven't quite got the hang of liveview, this video with DSLR lark is tricky to master as is editing it on the PC.

To be honest the jury is still out on the 7D/100-400L combo when used with a teleconverter and I took it off, these shots below are without.

It was by the side of the road and attracted several folk with large expensive lenses. We spent part of the afternoon with 'dotetin' (blog linked on the right) and although the Hawk Eagle was the top bird on show today the usual stuff was still around. Not many BIFs today...........here is an adult Stellers Sea Eagle in a tree instead.

As you can see we finally had some decent weather, after a whole month with only a couple of half days with blue skies.

I got several blurry out of focus shots of Crested Kingfisher, other stuff upstream included White Tailed Eagle, Jay, Brown Dipper, Japanese Wagtail, Goldeneye, Whooper Swan and Goosander.

Lots of Rooks around today. Near Onuma, just outside Yakumo and this one in a supermarket car park in Hakodate.

Rooks are a scarce winter visitor in northern Japan.

After Yakumo we headed up to Oshamanbe and the Long Tailed Ducks (well 3 of them) were in the harbour.

Other ducks in the harbour included several Wigeon. One of the drakes had a green crescent on its head, was this a hybrid with an American Wigeon? I didn't get a decent shot of it, it looked just like a regular Wigeon otherwise............

Lots of Goldeneye and Scaup..........

Lots of Glaucous and Glaucous Winged Gulls around, here's an adult Glaucous Gull.

The weather took a turn for the worse and sleet turned to snow on the drive home. The forecast for next week is very bad, well below zero all week and more snow so we got really lucky this morning........

I got drunk and fell asleep on the sofa watching Liverpool v Bolton last night. i'll stay up late tonight to watch the Man U v Arsenal game. A tough one to decide who I want to win, I dislike them both.............but I'd rather a northern team with a few English players won tonight's game. Having said that I'll despair if Man U win the league again (god that means I hope Chelsea do it).

Grey January continues.........

The crappy weather continues. After the blizzards came rain which then froze everywhere, not much birding done. The above White Wagtail was on the coast, I'd walked down there this morning looking for Asian Rosy Finches (no luck). A Buff Bellied Pipit was around but not much else.

This immature Glaucous Winged Gull was amongst the predominately Slaty Backeds.......

Several of the local subspecies of Common Gull were present too.........

I was hoping to find the Thayers Gull which had visited the previous 4 winters but this winter it hasn't appeared..........

A few raptors flew over this week (and always before I could get my camera out), these included Merlin, White Tailed Eagle and Peregrine. Otherwise, not much to report, still no Waxwings in town.

Hakodate City is 'improving' the river near my flat. They're digging up stuff and cutting down yet more trees. It appears to be a 100 meter or so walkway that starts nowhere and ends nowhere. Hakodate is very very heavily in debt. They are using money they don't have to build something they don't need (actually this pretty much sums up postwar government spending here). 

The trees and bushes they've cut down recently used to look nice, they included a beautiful old weeping willow. Now we will have a concrete pathway that doesn't go anywhere. I got my first Siberian Rubythroat in those trees and bushes as well as Wrynecks and all kinds of migrants. Oriental Reed Warblers nested there, Night Herons roosted there. What a waste of time and money for something that makes the area worse not better.

Some Japanese, especially those in positions of power,  appear to love concrete. It's everywhere and is winning the battle with grass and trees for ground space. I'm sure there is a big government office in Tokyo with a map of Japan slowly turning from green to grey with a lots of old men in grey suits from the concrete ministry sagely nodding their heads and saying 'one day one day there won't be any green on that map and our work will have been completed'.

On this day (January 28th)....................

January 28th 2008.


A male Merlin on the outskirts of Hakodate, just before sunset. This is a winter visitor in small numbers. They favour the snow covered ricefields in Ono and Nanae but I've also seen them in town, on one occasion I saw a female from my living room window.


They like perching on wires and fenceposts and have a canny ability to fly off the second before the camera's AF locks on.

Well no Waxwings yet...............

I caught a cold at the end of last week so today was my first venture outside the apartment for over 3 whole days.................I was hoping for a nice flock of Waxwings but there weren't any to be seen. A blizzard hit around lunchtime and this Great Egret was difficult to see in it, the camera did a better job than I did.......

It was a complete whiteout, not the best conditions to shoot a white bird with........

Not much else around, just this Grey Heron and Daurian Redstart..................

A word of advice to those who feel like they're just starting a cold: don't dismiss the warning signs in your nose/throat and go on to drink the equivalent of 6 or 7 pints of strong lager and expect to feel like you want to live the next morning.

On this day (January 23rd)....................

January 23rd 2008.

Female Black Woodpecker at Onuma.

I had to wade trough deep snow and walk over a frozen pond to get this shot. This must have been her roosting hole, I could hear her mewing away in the distance and eventually found her just before sunset.................