2010 Best of #1

I'm bored and housebound for the second time this year. I've herniated a disc in my lower spine and can't walk any distance, dunno why or how exactly but years of poor posture and latterly hunching over a computer and also carrying 2.5Kg of camera gear over my shoulder several times a week for the last 3 of those years probably haven't helped.  So whilst I sit here listening to the construction noise outside cursing sciatica, noisy men with hardhats and life in general I've sorted out some photos from the first part of the year.



January 2010 was a good month in Yakumo for both species of Sea Eagle and I got some OK BIF shots compared to previous years................thanks to the 7D for that.

The above two are Stellers Sea Eagles and the following two are White Tailed Eagles.





Here's one in a tree.



It was a good winter for eagles, much better than the previous one due to the large numbers of salmon.

In amongst the Sea Eagles this Mountain Hawk Eagle at the end of the month was a nice find..........

This individual attracted quite a kot of attention. We found it and another photographer stopped, looked and thought it was just a Black Kite (!). He was about to drive off when I told him what it was. This is quite a scarce bird in Hokkaido and was only the second one I'd ever seen. Unlike the other eagles this one was not harassed by crows, looking at those talons I can see why.



The Long Tailed Ducks provided nice photo opps at Oshamanbe.



As did the local Brent Geese in Hakodate..............



Small birds were thin on the ground in what proved to be a very cold winter. I did manage to get some nice shots of Daurian Redstart at last though.........



There were no Waxwings at all in early 2010 and also no winter finches. Not a single Crossbill, Asian Rosy Finch or even Siskins or Redpolls. Only Hawfinches............



The tame Tits and Nuthatches at Onuma were around for the third winter running.





The slow winter for passerines was compensated for by some great birding in the local harbours in Hakodate in March and early April. Both Black Throated and Red Throated Divers were around.





And lots and lots of Black Necked Grebes too..........coming into summer plumage too.





And quite a few Red Necked Grebes also put in an appearance...........



And how cute are Ancient Murrelets?



Spring began with a nice scarcity right near my apartment with this Hoopoe..........



Plus the returning Night Herons on the local river.



Common migrants in the bushes in town included Red Flanked Bluetail and Eastern Crowned Warbler, both birds I seem incapable of taking a decent shot of...........






And waders on the local beaches included Whimbrel..........



Overshoot migrants included this Intermediate Egret at Onuma.



The usual colourful summer migrants arrived, my fave has to be the Narcissus Flycatcher, an abundant summer visitor to Onuma.



Nearer home the Red Cheeked Starlings looked great in among the cherry blossoms.





The Oriental Reed Warblers returned in mid May to set up shop along the river...........



And at the same time the Siberian Stonechats were arriving in the padis.............



Part 2 to follow soon.................unless my back miraculously heals in the next few days and I can get out and take some new photos.


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On this day (November 25th)...........

November 25th 2007.

A Varied Tit, one of the tame ones at Onuma.

I got my lens 3 years ago today, actually it was only lent to me at first but I ended up buying it several months later. This was the first real shot I took with it and this Nuthatch was just a few clicks later.......



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Oh No

A Great Egret near Kikonai this afternoon. Winter birds are arriving, Black Scoter and other ducks on the sea, lots of Gulls everywhere...........

I was surprised to see this female Pheasant cowering in the bushes near my apartment.

On Sunday I went to Yakumo with a Japanese friend and there were plenty of eagles, they were pretty skittish though and stayed up high. Here's an immature White Tailed followed by an adult and then immature Stellers Sea Eagle.

It was in the car after taking these photos that I began to experience excruciating pain down my legs. I seem to have a herniated disk meaning I have back pain and the pinched nerve has seized up my calf muscles meaning I can hardly walk. I think it's called sciatica, a term I was unfamiliar with until Sunday evening. My wife drove me around a little this afternoon and I hobbled a couple of hundred meters on Monday to see if there were any Waxwings around near my flat (there weren't). It took me 10 minutes to complete a walk I'd normally do in about 90 seconds.

Forgive me but I'm not feeling very positive at the moment. An expensive trip to the hospital beckons in the next 2 or 3 days (followed no doubt by an online fight with my insurance company as they try to pay as little as possible) and a long plane flight with a bad back and not being able to walk properly when I go back to the UK isn't filling me with mirth either. Throw in some money worries into the mix too. The construction noise means I can't even relax in peace at home. 

A bit of a downer but I know most of my visitors to this blog are Japanese and don't (or can't) even read what I say, for those that do I apologise for my whining, hopefully things will look up soon. In the meantime I don't think I'll be able to do much birding at all.

On this day (November 21st)....................

November 21st 2007.


A Hawfinch in the park near my apartment after an early bite of wintry weather.


They tend to be much commoner from midwinter onwards when large numbers from mainland Asia arrive in Japan, I guess this may have been a local one.


This was taken with a 70-300 lens.

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.