And so it begins........

A male Red Cheeked Starling near my apartment this afternoon........

It was busily grabbing all the food it could, presumably to feed its nestlings.

I spent a whole afternoon watching them (the construction noise was unbearable so I had to leave the flat). I've also changed the design of this blog as you can see........

It was tricky to get the exposure right as they kept dashing in and out of the shadows.

A Night Heron flew over but by the time I noticed it the opportunity for a photo had passed. Bird of the day was another Wryneck, a very difficult bird to get a decent shot of, here's a crappy record shot.

The Oriental Reed Warblers allowed me to capture them in some slightly new poses.

So the World Cup begins very soon, just time for a bite to eat and a bath before I settle down to watch the first game. I'm not going to make any predictions about England (don't want to jinx them) but I bet you neither Spain or Brazil will win it.............

Asian House Martin

An Asian House Martin collecting nestbuilding materials on the river near my apartment yesterday.

I took this handheld video. Click on 'vimeo' for the HD version.

Housebuilding of another kind is currently driving me nuts, the construction noise outside my living room window as I type is deafening.

Some birds have already bred, baby ducks and crows are all over the place and a family of Oriental Greenfinches landed near the martins.

I've seen an adult Night Heron the last couple of days, hopefully there will be some young ones to photograph soon. Lots of Red Cheeked Starling activity in the centre of the bushes, again hopefully the young will be out and about on a few days too.

The Oriental Reed Warblers are still singing their hearts out.

I did manage to catch this one in a slightly different pose..............

So only one day to go until the World Cup begins...............the torture of watching England is just over 48 hours away..........

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Black Browed Reed Warblers

A Black Browed Reed Warbler, one of many at Shizukari Wetlands yesterday afternoon.

Here's a video of one singing.

Unfortunately f**kwit here forgot to switch the IS back on after taking the video and some of the pics suffered as a result...............

Cuter and perkier than the large and noisy Oriental Reed Warblers this species is my fave bird of summer.

Lots of Cuckoos around today, 3 species in all. Little Cuckoo, Common Cuckoo and Oriental Cuckoo. This crappy record shot is of the latter, they all look the same but their songs are totally different. I ID'ed it by call obviously.

This species apparently favours the nests of phylloscopus warblers. the Common Cuckoo prefers Reed Warblers and the Little Cuckoo goes for Bush warblers........

The wetlands (which actually seem to be bone dry) near Oshamanbe and the ricefields outside Hakoadte were full of summer birds. Aforementioned Cuckoos and Reed Warblers, Black faced and Reed Buntings, Lathams Snipe, Siberian Stonchat, Long Tailed Rosefinch, Bulheaded Shrike and Grays Grasshopper Warbler were everywhere.

One especially common one in summer is Chestnut Eared Bunting.

It's gotten pretty warm now and I got my first sunburn of the year yesterday...............I reckon this sumer will be a hot one, something we haven't had in south Hokkaido for a while.

Only 4 days to go to the World Cup.........I'm ashamed to see that'll blot out everything for the next 4 or so weeks. I wish it could blot out the sound of the construction outside my window though............

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

June 6th 2007.



Ruddy Kingfisher at Onuma. For 2 years a pair of Ruddy Kingfishers nested close to the road around the edge of Onuma. The scrum of photographers sporting $000's worth of equipment had to be seen to be believed, they must have been the most photographed birds in Hokkaido those 2 summers. They must have chosen another site in 2009 though, well away from prying lenses.


I digiscoped this shot, with an ancient 4MP Nikon compact camera attached to a Pentax 65mm scope. I felt a bit embarrassed next to all those huge white lenses................but I know said lenses cost more than the car we recently bought.

Eleven

I had some time to kill today so I had a walk down the river to confirm how many Oriental Reed Warblers there were.

There were 11 singing males. Various bridges divide the river neatly into territories.

There aren't any migrants about now, just the breeders. The most interesting bird of the day was some kind of Cuckoo which emerged from the bushes to the sounds of an angry Warbler, guess they'll be having a single big ungrateful lump as their family this year..........

A single pair of Chestnut Eared Bunting is the on the same patch of wasteland they have occupied the last few years, they are impossible to approach though. Other summer regulars included Black Faced Bunting, White Wagtail, Bullheaded Shrike and Red Cheeked Starling. The first Spot Billed Duckings were around a few days ago too..........these suffer a very high mortality rate as in summer the river swells dramatically after any rains. Hope it's a dry summer for their sakes..........

Bad news of the week is that there is going to be another f**king construction project right next to our apartment for the second summer running. So those nights I stay up to 5.30 am watching the World Cup and relying on a lie-in will be scuppered by the sounds of middle aged men hammering, sawing and drilling outside my window.

I hope England do well in the World Cup because it doesn't look like Liverpool will be doing much for the next few seasons. I haven't quite decided how to approach the World Cup this time as an England 'fan' but I'm veering between realist and pessimist. 2006 knocked any trace of optimist out of me I'm afraid.

I'm listening to Test Match Special at the moment, one of my fave things of any summer.

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Summer staples

Some great weather this week most of which has been spent indoors working...............

Outside I've been chasing 2 of the local summer staples. One of these being Oriental Reed Warblers which are very common summer visitors and about a dozen males set up territories in the bushes along the local rivers. They are pretty shy and difficult to approach. They usually sing from the tops of bushes/trees but as soon as you even glance at them down they drop into the long grass..........

Their loud song is one of the most evocative sounds of a Hokkaido summer. Not exactly beautiful but they certainly get noticed.

Another summer staple is the Red Cheeked Starling, here is a male and female.

The exact same birds I photographed a couple of weeks ago in the cherry blossoms. They aren't as approachable as before and were busy nestbuilding in the wall of the rampart I was standing on when I took these pics.

I took a brief video too............

This species is also very common in Hakodate but is pretty much restricted to northern Japan in summer, it's almost a Japanese endemic (although it winters in the Philippines).

I see the Japanese PM resigned today. Like the arrival of the above 2 species this seems to be an annual occurrence, I make that 4 in 4 years. Hatoyama, Aso, Fukuda and some other nameless money grabbing oyaji in a suit whose name escapes me for now.

Walcott missed the cut, thanks for reading my blog Fabio.

The last time I watched England in England play in a World Cup was 20 years ago. Italia '90. I was finishing university at the time, it was a golden summer. 20 years ago. OMG. Not a vintage World Cup by any means but I loved it and for an England fan who wasn't even alive in 1966 this was as good as it would get. I can't believe this was 20 years ago. Pavarotti, Gazza's tears, Platt's goal against Belgium. That awful game against Ireland. Peter Purves advertising some power company during every break.

Actually this summer has quite a few anniversary landmarks. 30 years ago I started secondary school, 25 years ago I finished said school, 20 years ago I graduated from university..............where did those years go?

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