New car & old birds..........

So our new car came, unfortunately the weather was lousy on Sunday. Dark and rainy, we managed to get to Onuma and the tame Tits and Nuthatches were present and still hanging around waiting to be fed.

In the 5 weeks since we'd last had a car Onuma has completely thawed. Summer returnees included Moorhens, Coots and lots of Little Grebes........

The first Asian House Martin and Black Faced Bunting were also present but aside form those this was the most interesting bird of the day.

A young Bewicks Swan I think. Much less yellow on the bill than a Whoopers Swan and a shortish neck too. Onuma has a big flock of Whoopers every winter (they have all gone now) but this is the first time I've seen a Bewicks in south Hokkaido..............

Looks like an interesting end to the footy season. Why didn't Liverpool try to buy N'Zogbia, Bale or Dawson instead of some of the other crap they've bought in recent seasons?

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A bit of spring after a bit of winter...........

A Black Crowned Night Heron on the river near my flat this afternoon, presumably a new arrival.

Today saw bright mild spring weather and in the morning I went down to the nearest quayside (about 25 minutes on foot) to see if anything interesting was on the sea. Last week's Black Throated Diver was still around.

It wasn't as confiding as last week. Whilst I was waiting for it to come closer I noticed what appeared to be a little penguin just a few metres off the harbourside.

It was another Ancient Murrelet, my third sighting in Hakodate in the last 5 months. You have to admit it's cute.

It was very active, diving all the time.

Like I say just like a Penguin except with longer wings.

Other stuff on the sea included Red Necked Grebe, Red Breasted Merganser, Scaup plus both Temincks and Pelagic Cormorant.

A long way out there was an Osprey fishing, here are 2 very heavily cropped images (almost 100% crops in fact).

If today was springlike yesterday most certainly wasn't. I met a nice couple from Colorado, Wayne and Laura, who were passing through Hakodate on a Cruise Liner and had a few hours to stretch their legs onshore. We met at Cape Tachi-Machi and had a walk through the forest at the foot of Mt Hakodate. There were frequent snow flurries and there was a bitingly cold wind. The usual resident Tits and Woodpeckers were around including a female Grey Headed Woodpecker, the first I'd seen in Hakodate for a few years. Due to the nasty weather there weren't so many birds in the forest although we did hear the first singing Japanese Bush Warblers of the spring.

Down in Yachigashira Port I was surprised to find a group of 9 Brent Geese. I thought they would have gone by now, apparently not.

The light wasn't great yesterday, apart from the green seaweed these could almost be monochrome......

There was a  'Tamiyr' Gull on the beach.........

Not much in town. I saw the first Grey Wagtail of the year a couple of days ago, an Osprey flew upstream yesterday, there are still a few Dusky Thrush and Hawfinch around and there were a couple of male Pochard in Goryokaku Park a couple of days ago.

The Night Heron was a nice find today, out in the open in good light for a change.

It flew off pretty quickly though. Shame about the scaffolding in this hot. Damn construction is everywhere.

Flying Night Herons were my first ever shots with the 7D: we have come full circle.

Big weekend of footy coming up, I've given up on Liverpool's 4th place chances so I'll just sit back and enjoy the Manc derby and Spurs v Chelsea.

I lived in North London for 2 or 3 years back in the early 90's. Most of that time was in Arsenal territory (in fact at one stage I lived about 100 metres from their old Highbury ground) but I always had a soft spot for Spurs. One of my co-workers was a big Spurs fan who had connections at White Hart Lane and I sometimes went to games and even went to the Players Bar a couple of times (I saw an injured Gazza drinking with his mates one time). 

The only north London derby I saw was one at Highbury when Spurs won 3-0. It was before an FA Cup game so George Graham put out a reserve side and the Spurs fans I was with went crazy........... if you're a Spurs fan a win is a win. I watched the second half of Wednesday's game, it isn't often Spurs beat Arsenal.

It isn't often Liverpool have beaten anyone this season.

We have a new car! Let's hope the nice weather continues until Sunday (I'm busy tomorrow). The forecast is for rain but weather forecasters are sometimes as accurate as those 'experts' who said  Liverpool would win the League this season.

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On this day (April 15th)....................

April 15th 2008.

A Goldcrest feeding in some trees near my flat. A common winter visitor and passage migrant in Hakodate, this is one of many species that is the same as back in the UK. Tricky little blighters to get a photo of mind you.

Red Flanked Bluetail appears......

A female Red Flanked Bluetail in a small vegetable garden next to the river this morning. As is usual with this species it kept flitting around in the shade, at least this one kept still long enough for this shot, shame it was so dark. At 1/250 sec it's on my personal limit of handholdability for the 100-400. Hopefully I'll get a nice shot of a male this spring.........

The first Bullheaded Shrikes have appeared and the first buds are on the trees. It's spring.

Not much else around, still quite a few Red Breasted Merganser on the sea. This Black Kite was from a particularly fruitless trip to Kamiso last week.

Things should pick up in the next week or 2, there should be a big influx of migrants at the end of April/start of May. I have to show a couple of visiting birders around on Thursday, hope there's some interesting stuff in the forest on Mt Hakodate.

Due to a delay in paperwork we are still carless but we should definitely have it by the end of the week just in time for spring in Onuma and the May wader passage in Yakumo.

Well haven't Liverpool been pathetic in their last 2 Premier League games? If they'd beaten B'ham and Fulham they'd be in with a great shout of 4th place. But a team that relies on a 4th rate player like N'gog to lead the line has no right to expect a place in the Champions League.

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On this day (April 9th)....................

April 9th 2007.


A male Red Flanked Bluetail near my flat. This is a common passage migrant but one I find very hard to get a decent shot of, in fact I have to say this crappy one is probably the best of a very poor bunch. They are very active and love dark places. This was out in the open at least but was very hard to approach, it wasn't shy so much as impossible to pin down as it was so hyperactive. Plus I hadn't really figured out how to use my camera yet and had a crappy $100 lens on it.


Unfortunately the trees where this bird hung out have been chopped down as Hakodate City 'improves' the river, 'improve' being a euphemism for 'finding unnecessary work for otherwise unemployable men to do'. This spring there is a shocking amount of garbage along the river; several bikes, a guitar and keyboard, lots of TVs as well as countless cans/bottles/plastic bags. Why didn't Hakodate City Hall pay those men to pick up the litter instead of chopping down the trees?

Black Throated Diver

A Black Throated Diver in one of the local harbours this morning. It came close to the quayside allowing me to fire off hundred or so shots.

Exposure was tricky, a black and white bird on the sea on a very bright day. Most of my keepers were when the light was behind me of course.

There were loads of little tiny fish around so I guess it was feasting on those.............

I think it's a Black Throated Diver and not the very similar Pacific Diver. It appeared to have the diagnostic white patch on its flanks although you can't see it so well in most of these photos.

A nice addition to my photo collection, it'll go alongside the Red Throated Diver from last month.

Also around was a lone scruffy looking Black Necked Grebe, a few Scaup, several flocks of Red Breasted Merganser and half a dozen Red Necked Grebe.

The weather has been great the last week but until today the birding was very very quiet indeed. An Osprey and a Goshawk were nice flyovers on the river and the first Oriental Turtle Dove appeared last Sunday. The female Gadwall has been sticking around, here are 3 photos from 3 separate days.

And here is a very short video of a drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker in Goryokaku Park.

I got up to watch the 2 Champions League games, I wasn't surprised Arsenal lost but quite how Man U could throw it away after leading 3-0 is beyond me.

Liverpool aren't going to finish 4th. Only the Europa Cup then. Should I get up in the middle of the night to watch them against Benfica?

So we may get a car by Saturday, paperwork permitting. I hope the weather holds.

After our car died last month my wife's laptop conked out last Sunday meaning after buying the car we then had to buy her a new PC. Never ever buy a computer made by Sharp.

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

April 4th 2008.


Avocet at Marshside, Southport UK.


Lots of interesting birds have become more common in NW England since I lived there. This species is one of them, I can't believe how common they've become. Ditto Little Egret of course and now I believe Cettis Warbler has spread up north too.
There were lots of Avocets at Marshside. It would have been a rare and exotic bird when I was a regular visitor in the early to mid 80's.


Even near my parents' house there was new stuff on my last visit. Common Buzzard and Nuthatch were both recent colonists. What next?


Very nice clear weather the last 2 or 3 days in Hakodate but not many birds at all, today would have been great at Onuma and Shikabe.....................if we had a car that is.


Last year on this weekend the Black Necked Grebes were showing very well in the harbour in Shikabe. We should have a car sorted by next weekend, hope the Grebes will still be hanging around. If I can persuade my wife to drive me there................

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

April 1st 2009.


Another Crossbill shot from the park near my apartment last year, this one looks like a first winter male. Still no Crossbills to report in 2010. I looked back on my old notes and discovered that over the years on several occasions they appeared first in April, stayed a couple of weeks and then disappeared again. Fingers crossed this year will see something similar.


It's raining outside and has been all day, you never know there may be Crossbills sheltering in the park ready for me to find tomorrow morning when the rain will hopefully have stopped.