42

A selection of waders from the last few days. I'm 42 today, time marches on..............

I got up early today (my 42nd birthday) and went to Kamiiso. There were 7 species of wader. Most interesting was this Grey Plover.

3 Mongolian Plover, 1 Bar Tailed Godwit, 1 Sanderling, several Common Sandpiper, 1 Whimbrel and lots of Red Necked Stints were the other shorebirds around.

I met Kim a few times recently, he saw a Marsh Sandpiper yesterday to add to Temincks Stint and Curlew Sandpiper, all these would have been local ticks for me. My local list is on 196 now and I'm eyeing the big 200 so three new birds would be nice......

In the afternoon we headed out to Shikabe. Several years ago on this date I saw lots of Common Terns close inshore at a particular spot and have gone back every year in the hope of photographing them. They've never been back needless to say. I did find this tame Grey Tailed Tattler though.

And here's a short handheld video...............

There were also a few Japanese Green pigeon here too..........

We headed to Shikabe to the well known spot for this species but they only came close when I went back to the car for something................I had to be content with dodgy flight shots only.

At Onuma the forest is still dark and full of mosquitoes, I got bitten on the only part of my body not covered with repellent (my index finger joints). Here are a couple of high ISO shots from deep in the greenery..........

Last week there wasn't much around except the inevitable Red Necked Stints.

How cute is this?

And here's a BIF shot.

This may be the last batch of Stint shots of 2010...........

Yesterday was annoying as hell. Liverpool using to Man Utd was bad (oh and f**k right off Fergie, O'Shea should have got sent off). I also tried booking a flight back to the UK using mileage I've accumulated over the years. Without boring you with details suffice to say the airline in question (Delta) make it as tricky as possible to do this, I can't even do it online. That was bad too.

So 42, wasn't that the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything? Wisdom awaits perhaps.

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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.