Another day on the beach

Another day off and another day on the beach at Kamiiso. I didn't find any rare waders but I did find a very tame Bar Tailed Godwit.

I had a lot of time and it wasn't going anywhere so I took some wobbly handheld video. Apologies for the ropey sound quality.

Bar Tailed Godwit from Stuart Price on Vimeo.

It tended to feed higher up the beach than the Red Necked Stints, that long bill comes in very handy I guess.

Lots of pictures of the same bird but it's not a bird I usually get close to.............

There were 6 species of wader; Greenshank, Grey Tailed Tattler, Whimbrel and of course lots of Red Necked Stints. Again............

Forgive me for posting so many Stint shots, they come and go pretty quickly and are a very photogenic bird indeed.

I was hoping to find something interesting with the Stints. Last week in Hakodate other folk saw Curlew Sandpiper and Red Necked Pharalope with the Stint flocks, today all I could find was Mongolian Plover (these seem very numerous this year).

I stuck around until late afternoon to catch the Godwit in nice light. You can see it catching little worms here............

There were 4 species of Heron around. Grey Heron, Great Egret, Black Crowned Night Heron and this lone Little Egret, another bird I don't often get to photograph up here in Hokkaido.

And the Ospreys are still around.

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I watched the latest 'Robin Hood' movie last night. Wow, talk about dodgy accents and wild historical inaccuracies.................

Green Day

A male Japanese Green Pigeon on Sunday afternoon at Shikabe. It's been a few weeks since we went to the beach where they come down to drink seawater, it had been sunny in the morning but by the afternoon it was overcast meaning no nice BIF shots.

Migration is in evidence on the river near my apartment. Lots of birds flitting around in the vegetation, there could be anything there. Common stuff like Japanese White-eye and Black Faced Bunting. A few Arctic Warbler too (they always come after the Eastern Crowned Warblers which passed through a couple of weeks ago) and lots of Flycatcher.

This is a Grey Streaked Flycatcher.

And this is an Asian Brown Flycatcher.

I'm determined to get a shot of a Sooty Flycatcher this autumn but first I've actually got to find and ID one.................

The usual wader species were around at the weekend. Sanderling, Common Sandpiper, Red Necked Stint and Mongolian Plover.......

This is a flock of Mongolian Plover at Shikabe.

Other local bloggers have posted photos of Red Necked Pharalope (on the beach at Kamiiso, how many times have I been there this season?!?), Temincks Stint (several),  Pectoral Sandpiper, Broad Billed Sandpiper and Long Toed Stint............all I seem to get are lots and lots of Red Necked Stints........

I have 2 more chances in Kamiiso this week, hopefully I'll find something interesting...........

I watched 'Four Lions' last night which was pretty funny but utterly impossible to explain to the people I teach here.

Liverpool didn't lose at least, another draw on Sunday at Man Utd would be acceptable.

It's still pretty hot and the construction noise is still annoying the hell out of me. Forget roll on autumn, I say roll on winter..........

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On this day (September 11th)....................

September 11th 2009.


Ruff on the beach at Kamiso. The 2009 wader season was especially good at Kamiso, this Ruff was pretty tame and was hanging out with 2 Bar Tailed Godwits.

Groundhog day

Sometimes I wonder if I'm living life like Bill Murray on 'Groundhog Day'. This September feels eerily similar to every other recent September; I take pics of Red Necked Stints, I listen to construction noise (they still haven't finished that stupid new house next door), I watch England play surprisingly well and Liverpool start poorly.............or maybe I'm in a coma and this is some kind of mental limbo like 'Life on Mars'

There weren't as many Mongolian Plovers as this last year though.........

A pretty cute bird even when eating worms...............

A slow wader day today, although I did meet someone who said he'd seen a Curlew Sandpiper a few miles up the beach (a bird not on my Hakodate list yet).

Apart from the above Plover the only shorebirds I saw were 1 Grey Tailed Tattler, 1 Common Sandpiper and 3 Red Necked Stint.

They foraged around in the flotsam eating various bugs and wormy type things.

In previous years wader passage generally peaked in the second week of September but maybe the hot weather this year is playing havoc with migration patterns. It wasn't so hot this week (only about 27 or 28 today) and the nights have become tolerably comfortable ast last.

Other stuff around included Night Heron, Kingfisher and this Great Egret.

Nearer home Asian Brown Flycatcher and Eastern Crowned Warbler have been passing through.

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On this day (September 7th)....................

September 7th 2008.


Wood Sandpiper on one of the local beaches just east of Hakodate. It was sharing the beach with a couple of Lesser Sand Plovers. An odd bird to see on the beach, I usually see them in ricefields or at least a little inland..............