Brents and Harlequins

The construction work started early this morning, they were digging up the road right outside my window. There was nothing wrong with the road before but hey public money has to be spent on meaningless crap, this is Japan after all with the biggest national debt in the developed world.

The weather was nice so I decided to escape the deafening noise and went down to my fave spot for Brent Geese and Harlequin Ducks, they were both present although the harsh bright midday light made photography a little hard, after I tweaked these photos on the computer they do look a tad artificial.

There were about 25 or so Brent Geese in 2 lose flocks...........

And there were 6 or 7 Harlequin Duck too........

Not much else around....................I'm waiting for the Crossbills in the local parks and the Grebes/Divers in the local ports...............fingers crossed some or all will arrive shortly.

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An odd one in the pine trees

I went to the small local park this morning to check for Crossbills. There weren't any there but I was surprised to find this Great Egret sitting in the pine trees..........

A nice sunny morning, this and the white plumage made it one of those very rare days when I use ISO100 on my camera.............

Also around were Daurian Redstart, Long Tailed Rosefinch, Hawfinch, a lone male Wigeon, Dusky Thrush, Coal Tit whilst in Goryokaku Park there was a flock of 15-20 Brambling and the male Grey Headed Woodpecker, no shots from there alas.

Yesterday a friend tried to drive me to Yakumo but we had to turn back because he got his car keys mixed up with another set (his wife's car) and we thought we had been locked out of the car after a stop at a convenience store..............mechanics and a locksmith came before the mistake was discovered...............it's funny now at least..........

At Onuma we fed the Nuthatches.

Among the tame Whooper Swans and Mallards there were a few Goldeneye but the main point of interest was a violently bubbling hot spring that seems to have emerged.............it means an ice free bit of lake at least............

Well out of range for a decent shot were 4 Smew, 3 males and one female.

Like I say they were well out of range........

We were able to sneak a quick look at Nanaehama, the Lapland Buntings were still there..........

I've tried not to mention it but the road construction outside my apartment has been going on since that day I got back from England (so about 6 weeks), my god I'm getting sick of it.

I've been watching 'Peep Show' on youtube, this completely passed me by here in Japan and I have to say it's pretty funny.

I watched the Manc derby, great goal by Rooney but please not another Man U title, christ I'd rather Arsenal won it.

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Views from a bridge

A real rarity today: blue skies and sunny weather in Yakumo.............

The eagles are still around, they have moved downstream and are now squabbling over the remaining food supplies, I fired off this sequence of shots of one swooping down...........

See that delicious looking salmon head in the bottom right hand corner?

I should have maybe used a faster shutter speed for these shots but I was glad I persevered over an hour on the bridge, waiting for one of them to actually do something.......

The above sequence was taken from the bridge on Route 5, usually the birds are a long way away like this.

But I got slightly luckier with this Stellers Sea Eagle........

You can see another 3 eagles in the background of this one.................

In east Hokkaido of course it is possible to get much closer to the eagles, in Yakumo with a 400mm lens and cropped pics this is the best it gets really. These BIF shots further upstream were all pretty close however and didn't need much cropping at all...........

And here's the obligatory one in a tree..........

We stopped briefly in Onuma in the morning, there seemed to be more birds around than before...........the most interesting birds being a small flock of Crossbills. They stayed high in the trees before flying off so no photos. This species was very common near my apartment in late winter/spring in both 2008 and 2009 and I took lots of photos of them. Hopefully some will arrive in Hakodate later in the week..........

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

11th February 2009.

These 3 Bean Geese overwintered at Yakumo, I took this picture from the busy bridge on Route 5 over the river near the coast. I was waiting for eagles to fly over but there were other species around, not only these geese but also a lone Lapwing (a scarce bird up here).

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Whitefronts

A pair of White Fronted Geese at Kamiiso this afternoon. Not a vintage week for photos so far.........

Not much around in town the last week, it turned pretty icy and nothing to report from near my apartment except a couple of Red Breasted Merganser and a male Goosander on the river yesterday.

I checked out the port in Kamiiso, not much here either. Lots of Great Crested Grebe offshore, the usual common seaducks including flocks of Black Scoter and the Kentish Plover was still around too.

I headed slightly inland and the Geese were in among the Whooper Swan and ducks.

There were also Pochard, and these Goldeneye and Goosander here.......

Small birds included Japanese Wagtail, Siskin and Long Tailed Rosefinch. These 2 White Tailed Eagle were in an inaccessible place of the river, I didn't want to wade through snowdrifts to get any closer so this record shot will have to do.......

There were lots of dead salmon in the river, probably a little too deep for the eagles to get easily(and too deep for the abundant crows/kites too). Actually this spot is very good for Kite BIF shots as they fly around very close but against stone grey skies like today it's difficult to get any keepers............

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Sunday Staples

My wife kindly drove me to Yakumo for a couple of hours and there were a couple of obliging Stellers Sea Eagles, this is turning into a weekly thing now............

It stayed in the same place for a couple of hours as I waited in vain for it to do something. I'd left my 1.4 teleconverter at home so this video is actually cropped, it shows it having a bit of a scratch.....

There are still lots of eagles of both species around but I've noticed there are hardly any first winter Stellers Sea Eagles-does this mean they had a poor breeding season last summer?

Here is another adult, nearer than the first but not at a great angle...........

On the way back we crossed the river near the coast and I noticed about 20 or so eagles standing on the ice..............

Not close enough really plus I only had a few minutes before we had to head home.........I got some good shots a couple of years ago from this bridge and weather permitting I may try and go up again this week by train (it's the only eagle viewing spot that is feasible to get to on public transport). It was mild today, I've spent some very very cold times on this bridge before............

Other stuff around today included flocks of Rook plus the usual common wildfowl including lots of Whooper Swans........

I watched Newcastle's amazing comeback last night, what with Wolves beating Man Utd maybe Liverpool can pull a surprise against Chelsea tonight.

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Geese in the rain

Some very unexpected weather this morning.................it rained.

I was down at the local Brent Goose spot.

Can't believe it was raining. Very slushy and icy (I slipped and fell for the first time this winter), horrible in fact..............

I took a mini-tripod and made a short video. Dodgy sound yet again, should I buy an external mic?

Brent Geese Feb '11 from Stuart Price on Vimeo.

Not much else around, a few Harlequin Duck and a flyover White Tailed Eagle being the main stuff of interest.

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