More waders...............

A Dunlin on the beach in Kamiiso this morning, wader season 2010 continues.............

Dunlin is not as common as back in the UK and I generally only see the odd 1 or 2 mixed in with the more common Red Necked Stints. This one was pretty tame today.

I was trying for running wader shots again today.

I'll get the hang of it eventually.

There was also a lone Lesser Sand (Mongolian) Plover.

And 11 Red Necked Stint too.............

And lots of Night Herons again.........

Just listening to England f**k it up in the cricket, Liverpool won't finish anywhere near the top 4 this season and next week England play some Euro qualifiers (way too soon after the torture of the summer)................

Here's a wobbly handheld video of today's waders.

August Shorebirds from Stuart Price on Vimeo.

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On this day (August 25th....................

August 25th 2006.


A blurry out of focus Black Throated Diver at Kamiso. I think I saw this individual several times that year, I was very surprised to find it in August in full summer plumage.


This was taken with my ancient digiscoping set-up, this would have made a really nice shot if i'd had a DSLR as it was pretty tame.

A very hot day on a very long beach........and a rarity.

1 of a group of 3 Great Knot at Oshamabe yesterday, the wader season is well underway.

It was extremely hot and humid and the waders were on several long beaches. The Great Knot were fairly approachable at least.

Here's one with a couple of Red Necked Stint in the background.

There was a large(ish) flock of 50 or so Red Necked Stint on another long deserted stretch of beach, they kept flying ahead as I floundered in the sand in their wake. A hot sweaty business it was too I might add, it must have been in the low to mid 30's yesterday afternoon.

In amongst the flock were a couple of Terek Sandpiper and a Grey Tailed Tattler.

We headed back to Yakumo and I saw this bird, a 100% crop of a distant Black Faced Spoonbill.

This was reported 3 weeks ago, I'd been 2 weeks ago but couldn't find it and had assumed it had upped and left. But no, here it was. This is a rare bird, only about 2000 or so individuals in the world apparently. We waited for an hour or so to see if it would do anything (such as fly closer) but it just stood on a dead tree in the middle of the river watching the world go by.

There were some Stints near Yakumo too, here's one in the very late afternoon, I'm still looking for that perfect running wader shot.

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Ospreys and Night Herons

One of 3 Ospreys hunting at the river mouth at Kamiiso on Friday.

I was looking for more waders but the only ones I found flew off before I could even ID them let alone take a picture. The beach where the Stints usually are has been cleaned up meaning there is no detritus for them to hide in anymore.......

I think the Ospreys were this year's young, judging by their hunting technique anyway. Many times they plunged into the sea and got nothing except wet feathers. I hope their parents are still around to feed them or else they'll go hungry.

Here's one with a view of Hakodate in the background.

It was hot and sunny again and I got sunburnt..............

My best Osprey shots to date.

Also around were lots of Night Heron.

There must have been over 50 of them and I witnessed most of them arrive, they'll probably hang around for a few weeks before they head south.

Not much else around, the first Mallard of the autumn, a lone Little Egret, a few small migrants flitting around in the bushes (probably Japanese Bush Warbler).........

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A hot day on the beach......

Part of a group of 4 Red Necked Stints on the beach at Kamiiso this afternoon.

It was a hot hot day yesterday and the sun was usually behind the birds making them look very pale.........

When they stand around in the flotsam they are very well camouflaged.........

The holiday period has just ended and the beach was pretty empty allowing me to stalk the Stints in peace...........

One of the birds was still showing the last remnants of its summer plumage.

 

I tried to get some shots of running waders but almost all were out of focus............these were the best of a bad bunch.

The wader season is one of my favourite events of the birding calendar. 28 years ago at the end of August I made my first trip up the Ribble and got Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Curlew, Green Sandpiper and I've always been fascinated by them.

 

The only other wader species around was Common Sandpiper. There were several immature Night Herons around as well as this one which looked a bit different..........

A heavy crop and a crappy record shot of an immature Striated Heron, a local tick (#196) although I have seen them just outside town before.

Not much else about, an Osprey kept me entertained but yet again didn't come close enough for a decent shot.

On the river near my flat Eastern Crowned Warblers have started passing through again and as the vegetation thins slightly I noticed the first Night Heron since June.........

I watched the Liverpool game, not a bad result I suppose but I used some fairly choice language when Reina dropped the ball in the back of the net.

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The construction work next to our apartment building still hasn't finished. That's 12 weeks now. They were cutting tiles the last couple of days (why they have to do this on site I just don't know) and also cutting and digging up the car park, the noise is just endless.....................at least I can escape to a beach and gently harass shorebirds to forget about it for a while every now and then.

On this day (August 19th)....................

August 19th 2009.

Great Knot at Kamiso. This very tame bird was the only the second time I'd seen this species. The first time has been almost exactly 3 years previously on exactly the same stretch of beach.............