A long walk

I took a long walk down to Irifune this morning to see the Harlequin Ducks that gather there outside the breeding season. There were plenty around.

Last year I got a few nice shots as the birds came a lot closer than they did today. It was still a nice way to spend my day off watching them dive for crabs and squabble amongst themselves.

I still find them very hard to photograph. They have very high contrast plumage that needs very soft light, unfortunately today was either a little dark or too bright and to be honest most of these pics look a little overprocessed as I attempted to rescue them.

The best place to see them is a very secluded fishing port where I can sit on the concrete edge waiting for them to swim by. Only a few gnarled old fisher folk around, normally older Japanese people openly stare at foreigners but these salty old folk didn't stare, I said hello to one of them and got a monosyllabic grunt in return.

Also in the same area was the first Brent Goose of the season, just one individual so far.

There were several Pelagic Cormorant around, a Red Necked Grebe, Wigeon and Goldeneye. A Peregrine swooped low over the port chasing some Bulbuls but I couldn't get my camera on it in time.

Lots of Waxwings reported in Hokkaido this last week or so. Both species too, Japanese and Bohemian. I did see a small flock of 10 or so Japanese Waxwings but they flew off before I could take a photo. There are loads of berries everywhere in town, they'll turn up in numbers soon I hope.

Other stuff around my apartment this week has included Rustic Bunting, Hawfinch, Daurian Redstart, Wren, Brown Dipper, Great, Coal and Varied Tits and a female Sparrowhawk. 3 species of Heron too. Grey Heron of course, 2 immature Black Crowned Night Herons are still skulking around and there was also this Great Egret.

As you can see the river is right in the middle of town..............

Another new construction project has begun, this one is also less than 50 yards from my window. I'll stop writing about it because I don't want to be negative but my direct quote when they started baging and hammering away was something along the lines of J**s*s f******g h**l b*****ds m******f*****s....................and a couple of oyajis were ominously surveying the road this afternoon too. Don't tell me they're going to rip it up and build a new one?

I really need a break from Japan, luckily in exactly 4 weeks I'll be flying back to the UK for a 3 week holiday. If there is loud construction work in Penwortham near my parents' house I will know I am officially cursed and am being punished for sins committed in a previous life.

England lost against France. So what? Meaningless friendly as it was I didn't bother getting up to watch it. I'm sure England will canter through to Euro 2012 and crash out to the first decent side they play, it's inevitable so why bother fighting it?

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On this day (November 16th)....................

November 16th 2007.


An adult Thayers Gull on the river near my apartment. This bird was present for at least 4 winters but didn't return for the 2009/10 winter, hopefully it or another one will return this year. This pose shows its distinctive wing pattern.


It is a pretty scarce but regular visitor to Japan and is one of the many 'new' Gull species to have emerged over the last 20 or so years.

Nuthatches rescue the day

The tame Nuthatches returned to the feeding log for the fourth (or is fifth?) successive winter. There are 2 regular ones: 'Hoppy', so named because he/she hops readily into ones hand for some free seeds and 'Notty' so named because he/she does not.

It was rather dark so I was generally using high ISOs (800 or 1600) or flash.

There were several Marsh and Great Tits with them, a Treecreeper and 4 species of Woodpecker (including Black). I could also hear the distant honk of swans............

But it was nice to see the Nuthatches had survived another year..............

We had started out in Ono in the morning (Merlin and Great Egret here) and then we went to Yakumo: this was a bit of a mistake ans it was raining heavily and there were still only a few eagles, this was the best of a very poor bunch of photos.

We also nearly got the car stuck in a muddy field and the wife was not happy with that let me tell you, the car got caked in mud and I had to ride 15 minutes to the nearest carwash with the grumpiest most pi**ed off woman in Hokkaido...............

An adult Glaucous Winged Gull on the drive back to Hakodate.

I watched England beat Australia on a jerky constantly freezing feed last night, usually these sporting events are very watchable on veetle or sopcast but I could only find a very dodgy flash player stream. I didn't bother staying up to watch Stoke v Liverpool thank god..........

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A very very slow week

A nothing kind of week: crappy weather and busy work days meant very few photo opps. This Falcated Duck was the only noteworthy species of the week, shame it wasn't a male in full colours.

This was on the moat in Goryokaku Park. There were also 6 Wigeon and a Coot in amongst all the Spotbilled Ducks. The centre of the park (which has often held interesting birds in this season) is off limits due to 'construction'. Dunno why, there was nobody doing anything anywhere in sight. It did take them four years (and counting) to build a reconstruction of an old building: was not only a staggering waste of money but it has also meant I haven't been able to do much birding there either.

Am currently watching 'Stoned', a movie about Brian Jones that isn't too bad..............

Hope the weather is OK on Sunday but the forecast doesn't look too good............

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Early Eagles

A very warm (about 18 degrees) autumnal day in south Hokkaido saw me end up in Yakumo on the off chance there might be some eagles. There were.

About 8 or 9 individuals maybe, the majority being White Tailed Eagles with only 1 or 2 Stellers Sea Eagles. They were rather wary and I could only get a few cropped BIF shots.

It was weird seeing the eagles in such mild weather, there were still butterflies in the fields, dragonflies were still buzzing around and not a trace of snow or ice in sight, even on the hills. The atmosphere was very autumnal.

There were some Salmon in the river, not as many as last year but more than the famine year of 2008 when there were hardly any and some eagles apparently actually starved to death in Hokkaido.

January is always the best month for eagle photos, at this time of year they spend most of the time up in the sky.

Other stuff at Yakumo included Rustic Bunting, Jay, Buff Bellied Pipit, Great Egret, Buzzard, 8 or 9 species of duck including a female Smew, Black Necked and Great Crested Grebes, Japanese Wagtail and Brown Dipper.

Thanks to Tomohiro for the driving today, it was his first time to see the eagles...............

Last night I watched Man U get yet another jammy late winner, Spurs get their comeuppance against some good old Lancashire grit and England losing but surprisingly not getting absolutely slaughtered by New Zealand in the rugby.

You know that construction noise next to my apartment building that I was complaining about all last summer? Well after a few weeks lull in the noise it restarted and the stupid ba**rds still haven't finished. It started in June for christs sake. A World Cup has been and gone, the hottest summer on record burned and fizzled but is now just a memory and Japan also got a new PM in the time it has taken to build ONE stupid f***ing house and a couple of outbuildings.

Grey days

An Osprey just outside Hakodate a couple of days ago................

It's been a grey old week, cool enough for a light dusting of snow on the hills but not cold enough for any of it to fall in town yet. The skies have been grey all week.............

This Grey Heron looked a bit odd perched on top of a house just around the corner from my flat.

I messed up the Osprey shot, my settings were all wrong as I had forgotten to change them from the week before (it was set up for BIFs on a sunny day basically).

Lots of birds on the move now. Large numbers of Dusky Thrush especially as well as lots of common ducks at various locales. Nearer home today there were lots of small birds in the thinning vegetation alongside the river including Red Flanked Bluetail and Japanese White-eye, it was too dark for any decent shots though.

In the same place were Coal, Varied and Great Tit, Daurian Redstart, Bullheaded Shrike, Rustic and Blackfaced Buntings,  Hawfinch, Japanese Bush Warbler, Grey Starling and Dusky Thrush.

I also saw a rather lost looking Salmon splashing around in the tiny river............

Looking forward to the Ashes, this blog started just under 4 years ago when England were getting hammered 5-0, hope it is a totally different outcome this time. In the footy I've given up on Liverpool and England for a while, caring about them and their results after the previous 12 months showings has brought nothing but misery. So hopefully the cricket will bring some cheer..........

I missed that BBC show about Lee Evans and other famous twitchers, BBC's iplayer doesn't work outside the UK (dunno why, I'd even pay for it if I could) and birding documentaries don't seem so popular on torrent sites either.........

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On this day (November 3rd)...........

November 3rd 2008.

2 Harlequin Ducks at Menagawa. I find this species very hard to photograph, either the highlights are blown or it's too dark. It doesn't help this location faces south so most of the day in winter the sun is behind the birds...................

Still at least on this occasion they were fairly nearby, a couple of days ago they were distant specks bobbing around on the waves.............

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Slow times

A female Harlequin Duck at Menagawa yesterday afternoon. The colourful males were well offshore unfortunately.

Well it's been a very very quiet last couple of weeks. Crappy weather when I've had free time, nice weather when I've been too busy to go out. When I've been out the only thing of any interest has been the Night Herons.................these pics were from over 10 days ago, there are only 1 or 2 left now..........

Not much else, no rarities alas. Some common Buntings moving through, the first Daurian Redstarts and a few Dusky Thrush. I haven't really felt motivated to update my blog much recently and to be honest I got a bit bored of endlessly posting Night Heron photos............

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On this day (October 24th)....................

October 24th 2006.

Not a great photo of course but how often do you see a Dunlin running around on a picnic table next to a big ashtray?

This individual was in a big busy car park up in the hills in Shiretoko. What the hell was it doing there?

Taken with a cheap nasty compact digicam.

Very quiet in Hakodate the last week or so, nothing to photograph except Night Herons and no migrants except the ultra common ones.