More harbourside birds.............

3 of the species in the harbour at Kamiso this morning. Red Necked Grebe, Black Necked Grebe and Red Breasted Merganser.

It was dark and snowing but the harbour was full of birds. They were chasing fish around and the flocks followed the food. The Red Necked Grebe came very close...........

Shame it was still in winter plumage but it's still by far the best photo opp I've had for this species.

There was also a lone Slavonian Grebe (too far off for a decent photo and that was in winter colours too) and about 50-60 Black Necked Grebes, many of which were changing into their summer best.

The harbour at Kamiso is much bigger than at Shikabe and a lot of the time the birds were out in the middle and a little far off........

The reason for the concentration of birds appeared to be the fact there were lots of small fish in the harbour........

The Grebes didn't have it all their own way, I saw a Slaty Backed Gull eating a very fresh looking Black Necked Grebe corpse.

The next commonest species in the harbour was Red Breasted Merganser.

And of course there were some Scaup.

Other stuff included Goldenye, a surprise flyover Osprey (very early, I've never seen them in March before) and this male Shoveler.

Another species I haven't photographed so much and one I'd forgotten how beautiful it was.

This Glaucous Gull was eating the Grebe.......

We'd only gone to the harbour by accident, we had intended to spend the day at Onuma.

The weather was really nasty there, this Nuthatch was the only thing to photograph. The Owl wasn't at home and visibility was so poor we couldn't check to see if there were any eagles on the ice.

This adult White Tailed Eagle was in Kamsio however.........

So no way Liverpool will finish 4th this season, I've given up on that. If we did finish 4th it would mean Benitez would stay and I don't think that is a good thing.

I watched 'The Descent Part 2' which was laughably bad (I rather liked the first one) and am halfway through 'The Hangover' which seems pretty funny so far.

So after a very quiet last few weeks the birding has picked up, hopefully we'll get a good spring. I'll try he harbour again at Kamiso, maybe a couple of visits over the next week or so and hopefully with some sunshine...........

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.................