Golden Week 2010 #3

A very confused male Grey Headed Woodpecker near my apartment a couple of days ago. I'm sure it thought it was behaving normally, sitting atop a grey tree calling for a mate and drumming.

The only problem was it was in downtown Hakodate.

And it was drumming on metal lamposts,. I took some jerky video (difficult handheld with a 400mm lens in a busy street).

It has gotten warmer and the cherry blossoms have finally opened, rather later than usual this year........

I didn't go far in the last few days so all my birding was on the local river. Lots of common spring arrivals like this Oriental Turtle Dove.

2 of the commonest summer visitors are Red Cheeked Starling and Bullheaded Shrike.

The Starlings are pretty wary (except when the young leave the nest in mid June when they seemingly ignore pedestrians). This is the male.

And this is the female.

The Starlings nest along the river in small colonies. The Shrikes nest there too, usually 2 or 3 pairs. These are also tricky to photograph and are as wary as the Starlings. This is the male.

I saw the first Oriental Reed Warbler of the spring today, this is another common/wary breeder along the river.

Other stuff passing through has included Pale and Japanese Thrush, Eastern Crowned and Japanese Bush Warbler, Red Flanked Bluetail and Long Tailed Rosefinch. Some of the winter birds are still hanging on: Dusky Thrush, Hawfinch and a few Teal.

I got up to watch the Spurs/City game, quite exciting stuff and I'm glad it was Spurs who finished 4th and not City.......................Ledley King for England at the World Cup? I reckon so.

Golden Week 2010 #2

An Asiatic Chipmunk and Siberian Stonechat.

We got up very early this morning and drove to the top of Mt Hakodate. It was windy but clear and not too cold. It wasn't a vintage day for migrants but it wasn't so bad; Blue and White Flycatcher, Asian Brown Flycatcher, Siskin, Rustic, Siberian Meadow and Black Faced Buntings, Nuthatch, several species of Tit, Great Spotted and Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker, Japanese and Dusky Thrush (and other unidentified thrush species), Buzzard, Sparrowhawk, lots and lots of Japanese White-eye, Siberian Stonechat, Japanese Robin (heard only), Red Flanked Bluetail, Eastern Crowned Warbler, Asian Stubtail and Japanese Bush Warbler.

Lots of Bluetails, I'm still searching for the elusive good shot of one.

Black Faced Bunting were everywhere. Another common bird that I find hard to get a good shot of.

There are lots of Chipmunks in the forest that always pose nicely.

Yesterday we went to Asabu, Shiriuchi and Kikonai. I was hoping for some interesting waders. Common Sandpiper, Grey Tailed Tattler, Little Ringed Plover and this Whimbrel were the only shorebirds on show however.

At Asabu there were lots of Skylark, Chestnut Eared Bunting, Reed Bunting and Stonechat. At Shiriuchi I managed to see this species: Whiskered Tern. A new species for my Japan list (I've seen them in Australia and India before).

An awful photo. I only saw it for a few seconds before it flew off. My settings were all wrong so it was horribly underexposed, I didn't even have time to notice the zoom was only at 220mm so it's a 100% crop too.........still, a pretty nice find and the 3rd rare Tern I've found in the last 5 springs (Caspian in 2006 and Gull Billed Tern last year were the other 2).

It was a pretty dark day yesterday, here are a couple more poor underexposed shots. A Little Egret (a species which isn't so regular up here in Hokkaido) and an Osprey.

Other stuff from yesterday included Red Breasted Merganser, Goosander, Harlequin Duck, Red Necked Grebe and Great Egret.

We went back to Kikonai this lunchtime (the Tern and most of yesterday's stuff had gone) and added Pale Thrush to the list of new migrants for the year. This Whooper Swan will probably stay the summer. Is it old? Is it injured? Is it just plain lazy?

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I watched the footy last night. Liverpool were pretty embarrassing, I don't think Gerard's backpass was deliberate but I can understand why some people might think it might have been. Looks like we'll finish 7th, a disaster of a season...............the worst one since the days of Souness. I don't think Benitez will stay but who would want a job at a debt-ridden club with a pretty poor squad and impossibly high expectations?

At least I can start looking forward to the World Cup....................until England start playing that is. More emotional torture in the middle of the night, can my nerves stand it?

Golden Week 2010 #1

Golden Week (a 5 day holiday in Japan) began today and we visited Onuma in the afternoon. The Nuthatches were still tame but looking very very scruffy, it must be spring moult time.

Some Marsh Tits and Great Tits were also around.

Not many summer migrants in evidence at Onuma, some Swallows and Bush Warblers but that was about all. We went to a small pond nearby and it was very reminiscent of the UK. Coot, Moorhen, Grey Heron and these 2 species: Little Grebe and Kingfisher. It was a bit dark and the Kingfisher pic is a very heavy crop.

Earlier in the day we checked Kamiso, not much on the sea at all, here's a summer plumage Black Headed Gull which always feels a bit exotic here in Hokkaido.

I saw another birder here who said he saw a Little Gull (very rare in Japan) 10 years ago in this exact same place....................

We passed through the ricefields in Ono on the way to Onuma. They haven't been irrigated yet and the ditches don't have many reeds in either. Still a few Siberian Stonechat, Reed Bunting and lots of Skylark were about.

I doubt Liverpool will still be in with a shout of 4th place tomorrow but you never know.........

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By the way if you're curious as to how I get so close to the Nuthatches here's the answer.

We cheat.

Eastern Crowned Warbler

An Eastern Crowned Warbler in some of the bushes alongside the local river this afternoon. The weather has been atrocious the last 2 or 3 days, very windy and lots of really heavy rain. Today was my first foray out for a while. I got up early and saw Siberian Stonechat, Osprey, Japanese Bush Warbler, Dusky Thrush, Hawfinch and Teal. I then headed down to the nearest quayside to see if any interesting birds had been blown into the harbours. They hadn't.

The afternoon was better. Eastern Crowneds are one of 3 breeding phylloscopus warblers and are usualy the first to arrive at the end of April, and here is the first one of the year.

It was extremely hard to focus, the wind was blowing branches all over the place and it's an active species anyway.

A female Red Flanked Bluetail wasn't as confiding. A couple of unidentified Thrush species were also skulking around, I couldn't get a clear look at all. As I've said before City Hall has chopped down lots of the bushes and trees but the birds were adept at finding unmolested patches to hide in.

I got up to watch Liverpool vs Athletico Madrid. I'm too jaded to worry about Liverpool getting knocked out but one thing that struck me was how utterly awful the Liverpool bench is. The 3 subs who came on show the paucity of Liverpool's second string players. Degen? That Morroccan one who never scores? That Spanish kid who looks about 12 years old? WTF? Is that honestly the best we can manage? It isn't an exaggeration to say all the other 19 clubs in the Premier League have deeper squads than Liverpool.

Enough of that, I'm in the middle of 5 or 6 days off (a couple of hours tomorrow morning but that's all), the weather seems to have changed for the better and May is the best birding month of the year..............

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

April 28th 2006.

A blurry old pic of a pair of Black Winged Stilt at Kamiso 4 years ago. Just after I'd started digiscoping. There were a bit flighty I recall, dunno if I could have done much better with a DSLR. They stuck around for a couple of weeks and I saw another one a couple of weeks later at Onuma. I got very close to that individual and if I'd had my current set-up I could have got some nice pics. Of course I haven't seen one since.............

Probably a regular spring overshoot, I saw several in 2005 in Yakumo for example.

Spring 2010 continues

Spring is moving on and more migrants are passing through, the above is a blurry pic of a Japanese Bush Warbler which is one of the commonest. A nondescript bird, it does have a remarkable song. The first Red Cheeked Starling of the season also appeared today, a female. Again, not a particularly good shot but it like I say this individual was the first of 2010.

Asian House Martin have arrived, they nest in colonies under some of the local bridges. Black Faced Bunting, another common summer migrant, have also started singing along the river. Other stuff this last couple of days included Reed Bunting, Red Flanked Bluetail and Bullheaded Shrike.

I took a walk down to the nearest quayside, not much around except for the Black Throated Diver which is still in winter plumage.

I bumped into my father-in-law who was catching crabs off the quayside............some of which will be arriving for dinner shortly.

Gah, I've done something to my back again, dunno what exactly but it's pretty painful.

So for Liverpool to finish 4th this has to happen; Spurs lose at home to Bolton, City draw against Villa and again against Spurs midweek, we beat Chelsea. If that happens all 4 teams will be level on points going into the last round of fixtures with Liverpool having the best goal difference. I can see the 2 City games being draws but can Bolton do Spurs? About as realistic as Liverpool beating Chelsea, ie not very...........

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