Scratching and red eyes...........

One of many Black Necked Grebes at Shikabe and the Ural Owl at Onuma.

We had a long drive today, first we headed east towards Esan. Brent Geese, Harlequin Duck, Goldeneye, Red Breasted Merganser and Scaup were on the sea but nothing close enough for a decent shot. This adult Glaucous Winged Gull at Menagawa was one one of many.........

The coast was looking nice in bright spring-like sunshine, we headed north up to Shikabe to check out the harbour there. the Black Necked Grebes were present and some were well on the way to breeding plumage.

Most were still in winter colours however...........

My poor wife hates this kind of birding: hanging around fishing harbours full of birdsh*t and grumpy old fisherfolk. We headed over to Onuma where the weather turned wintry. The Ural Owl was there, I even took a video. In the second half of the video it actually does something...........

Shame about the sound of people talking. There were 2 other photographers there quietly doing their thing when an old oyaji came talking loudly and blowing cigarette smoke in my face.

It's a well-known Owl and I'm sure lots of folk have identical pics to these.

Whilst I was taking these shots I could hear the barking cries of eagles. There were 3 of them on the frozen lake, nearby a fox and lots of crows were eating a dead Whooper Swan. It was very dark, here's a young Stellers Sea Eagle in the distance.............

By now it was snowing and rather cold.............

Not much in Hakodate the last few days. Hawfinches everywhere: usually I can see 1 or 2 on TV aerials from my living room window. Dusky Thrush too............and that's about it.

I walked down to the Brent Goose spot on Friday.

Not many close enough to photograph, ditto the Harlequin Ducks. A Black Throated Diver was the most interesting bird of the day..........

Here's a view from Hakodate looking towards Onuma.

So another quiet week draws to a close. It was nice to see the Owl again though and if I can persuade the wife we can hopefully return to the Black Necked Grebes a couple more times and see them change into their summer plumage...........

On this day (March 5th)....................

March 5th 2008.


Male Common Crossbill in Goryokaku Park. This individual is presumably a 3rd year or older bird as its plumage is deep red, younger birds tend to be more orange in colour.


This individual was part of a very tame group that came down to drink some of the snow, I got up early to take this shot before the park was overrun by tourists.


The park is now overrun by a construction project and the part of the park where I shot this is currently out of bounds..........the work will apparently finish this summer after 4 or so years of plundering the tax revenues to create artificial jobs and no doubt big bank balances for corrupt local politicians.


The last 2 years were very good for Crossbills but they are an unpredictable bird, so far in 2010 I have yet to see a single one. I check all the local stands of pine trees every day almost as an act of faith................


I first saw them back in 2002 and they came the next 2 years and then were absent from 2005 until 2008: I hope it won't be such a long gap this time, they have to be my fave small bird.

Hawfinches

Not much in the way of new birds in Hakodate this week, there were however a couple of small flocks of Hawfinches eating berries which had been revealed by the melting snow..............

It was nice to see them on the ground.

Usually they're up in the trees............

They are very shy birds but a couple of individuals were slightly bolder than the rest.

Several Dusky Thrush were in the same tiny park.

Not much else in town, no sign of Crossbills or other winter finches. A very skittish Great Egret was on the river.......

And the Common Teal have started displaying with their weird whistling calls. Here's a drake on the local river..............

On this day (March 3rd)....................

March 4th 2009.


Japanese Cranes near Kushiro at the Akan International Crane Sanctuary............


Wild birds behaving as if they were in a zoo. Don't get me wrong: it's still a great spectacle and I highly recommend the place. It's just a bit too easy that's all...........


They're definitely wild: in the breeding season they get all coy and shy and disappear into the middle of huge marshy wetlands.

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

March 2nd 2008.

The Waxwing influx was rather late in 2008 and consisted of only one species, the Bohemian Waxwing. They only stayed a few hours but I got lucky and fired off some shots, shame the light was so poor.

They love sitting on these TV aerials. Once every few minutes they swarm down to pick up some berries. Of course we don't know which tree they'll choose, on a tree lined street this can be frustrating. They don't mind hopping around the feet of uninterested pedestrians either but if you want to take photos of them they fly off in a huff.

On this day (March 1st)....................

March 1st 2009.

Adult Stellers and White Tailed Eagles atop a streetlight in the port at Rausu.

This was taken just before sunset, the eagles presumably roost in or near the harbour. The eagles appeared to be a common urban bird in northeast Hokkaido, we went out on a cruise to the sea ice the next day to see them up close but we were very unlucky with bad weather meaning the boat couldn't approach the ice. This is what we missed out on.....................

I vowed to go back this winter to get eagles on the ice with blue sky pics but I can't really afford it and next winter I plan to visit England. So 2012 would be the next time I can go to Rausu and see the eagles again. I hope global warming hasn't finished off the ice floes by then.................

A quiet end to winter #2

We went up to Yakumo this morning and were bombarded with tsunami warnings all the way, the harbours were all closed (a worried looking policeman allowed me 5 minutes to take these Long tailed Duck photos).

This warning came as a result of that big earthquake in Chile. The birds obviously hadn't heard the warnings or perhaps they knew that nothing was going to happen.

There were lots of birds on the sea but we were a bit reluctant to chance it so we headed inland to see if any Eagles remained. Only a few were still present.......

The majority were White Tailed Eagles, like these 2 immatures. I only saw 2 Stellers Sea Eagles. There was also an adult Stellers at Onuma which flew right over the car but I couldn't get my camera ready in time, a low-key end to the 2009/10 eagle season in south Hokkaido.

The usual stuff at Onuma, the lake is about 5% ice free now. This Grey Heron was pretty much the only shot I took.

I enjoyed the Chelsea v Man City game last night although the result wasn't good for Liverpool. I wish Bellamy had worked out better at Anfield, who would you rather face as an opponent, Bellamy or N'Gog?

A quiet end to winter

A quartet of Harlequin Ducks in Hakodate yesterday. They were displaying and this group of males (the one on the end is a young one) were harrying a group of females off camera.

It was a mild sunny day and I walked down to Irifune port to check out the Brent Geese.

Like I said it was mild, warm even. Actually it felt like the start of spring. About 13 degrees!!!! Only 2 or 3 weeks ago it had been highs of minus 9 in the day and so cold my fillings hurt. The town is slowly thawing, last night the snow on the rooftops was dripping down onto the road and lying atop the ice meaning it was crazily slippery. Now it is raining, hopefully it'll wash the snow away........

I took some more handheld video of the Brent Geese.........they may take a few seconds to load so please be patient.

This is one where they meet a Gull and scatter and then one steps over a rope. Will the excitement ever end?

This is one where I messed up the settings. I have a registered user setting (C3) for the best video but I forgot to change it for this one alas.

I couldn't be a**ed lugging a tripod down there (it's quite a long walk) so I had to rest the camera on walls or anything handy.

Lots of Red Breasted Merganser offshore, also Wigeon, Scaup, Pelagic Cormorant and several Red Necked Grebe too. This is common in late winter/early spring, hope some come a bit closer inshore this year............

Not much in town, just the usual common stuff that has been around all winter such as Hawfinch.

I don't know why early 2010 has been so poor for small birds in south Hokkaido. The first 6 or 7 weeks of the year were very very cold and there was a lot of snow. Did this disrupt bird movements? Did they winter further south? December 2009 was very very mild, were the birds still up north or to the west and got caught out by the sudden drastic change in weather? Did most of them perish? Or they just avoiding me because they know I got a new camera in the autumn?

I'm still holding out for some Crossbills but have officially given up on the Waxwings. 

Hopefully the mild weather may result in some interesting stuff heading back to the north from balmy Honshu......

On this day (February 25th)....................

February 25th 2008.

Black Crowned Night Herons are primarily summer visitors, most leave when the first snow comes. This hardy individual stayed the winter though but you have to say it doesn't look as if it's enjoying the weather much............

This was on the river just around the corner from my flat and was taken with a 70-300 lens.

On this day (February 24th)....................

February 24th 2008.

The winter of 2007/8 saw a huge influx of Common Redpolls into south Hokkaido, they were everywhere.
I saw flocks of hundreds of birds on the outskirts of Hakodate and even in the city itself there were loads of them............

This individual was feeding along the river near my flat and posed nicely for a few seconds before flying off.