Owl in a hole

A Ural Owl at Ouma this afternoon. It was also in the same place in the morning too.

There were 2 or 3 people taking pictures of it in the morning but when we returned in the afternoon there was one very large car inside of which sat a grumpy looking oldish man with a big lens. He was parked right in front of the Owl (which was about 10 metres or so off the road). The Owl is tolerant of people as long as they stay on the road. Knowing this I got out of the car and took a couple of photos, the light was good. The old man then shouted at me, telling me I had to get back in our car to take pictures. I was somewhat taken aback (surely the shouting was more intrusive to the Owl than my quietly taking a few pictures but anyway). 

There are times like this when I really wish I could speak more fluent Japanese. I would have loved to have been able to say 'who the f**k are you, the f**king Owl police?' but I was restricted to 'anato no fukueo desuka?' which means 'is it your Owl?'. Sarcasm loses everything in translation. Actually I should have walked in front of his car and stood in front of his camera. Or maybe I should have said 'sshhhhhhhhhh. don't shout, there's an Owl in that tree over there'.

I tried experimenting a bit with auto ISO today, here are some of the results from ISO 100 to ISO 3200.........

The Glaucous Gull was near Oshamanbe, the Tits and Nuthatches were at Onuma.

It was a bit of a frustrating day, some nice birds but not many nice shots. There were several Eastern Marsh Harriers near Oshamanbe but I could only get this crappy record shot.

Back at Onuma the Black Woodpeckers and Mandarin Ducks were around but again no chance for a keeper.

It was sunny but very windy today, and the wind was cold. Here are some sheltering Dunlin at one of the ports near Oshamanbe.

On Friday I got up early to check if the Crossbills were still in the park, they were but only high up in the trees. The Siskin and Brambling were still there too. I then did the long walk down the river, along the beach and into the forest at the foot of Mt Hakodate. The first singing Japanese Bush Warbler of the spring were there as were the common resident Woodpeckers, Tits and Nuthatches. There were some Red Necked Grebes on the sea and a group of 30 or so Common Buzzard on their way north. No decent photos of any of them though.

So do I hope Liverpool lose tonight meaning Arsenal can close the gap on Man Utd? Hmmmmmmmm.

Here's a view from Onuma at the end of the day. Nice and peaceful but I was still fuming about being shouted at by some stupid old oyaji.

I hope the Owl flew at him and scratched the front of his lens.

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Garganey, #250

This drake Garganey was a nice find on the small river near my apartment. It was my first one in Japan and brings my Japan list up to 250 (you can see how little I travel around though by the fact my Hakodate list is now at 201, more than 80%).

The river is very unattractive at the moment, lots of trees and vegaetation have been cut back as the city 'improves' the river and my god there is a lot of garbage. Several TVs, 2 or 3 VCRs, lots of tires, countless plastic bottle and cans.

Surprisingly there are quite a lot of fish. Oh and a male Garganey.........

It was hanging around with the local Teals and Spotbills.

It was pretty wary though and spent some time hiding in the grass.......

I've seen a couple in the UK but the last was almost 20 years ago. I think they are a little scarce in Japan, I don't often see them posted on the local blogs anyway.

The Brambling and Siskin were still around today, as were Dusky Thrush, Daurian Redstart and Hawfinch. 2 days ago the 3 Pochard in Goryokaku park were joined by a 4th and the Crossbills were still present but high up in the trees.

The first Asian House Martin was also around on the 11th, spring in south Hokkaido is well underway, I heard the first singing Black Faced Bunting of the season this afternoon too.

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Spring 2011 continues..........

A male Crossbill this afternoon in a small patch of pine trees next to one of the harbours at Oshanambe. It was a productive stop, I got this shot of an Osprey there too.

My father-in-law informed me the fish is an 'akahara' (redbelly) which is apparently almost inedible to humans, I hope baby Ospreys are less fussy.

Another nice spring day saw us start off in Onuma. The Black Woodpeckers were active but difficult to get close to, it looks like they may be nesting in the middle of a swampy patch which should ensure privacy from prying lenses. This crappy record shot of the female was the best was the best I could manage.

There were still plenty of Whooper Swans plus all the usual residents, the Nuthatches are starting to look a bit scruffy............

Other stuff at Onuma included Siskin, Mandarin Duck, Goosander, Great Egret, Japanese Grosbeak etc.......

Lots of common ducks everywhere including large flocks of Pintail and Wigeon at Yakumo and Oshamanbe, Shoveler, Harlequin Duck and Black Scoter, lots of summer plumage Great Crested Grebes.

Today was definitely a BIF day. This Osprey was at Yakumo.

There seemed to be lots of raptors on the move, this was one of several Sparrowhawks.......

The 7D is a great BIF camera.........

The Crossbills were a nice find, they were sharing the trees with a flock of Siskin. They were very flighty although this male stuck around long enough for a few shots...........

We had a quick look at some of the wetlands but these don't really get interesting until mid to late May. The only birds here were lots of Skylark and a few Reed Bunting.

On Friday I went back to Goryokaku Park to see if the Crossbills were still there. They were but not close enough for a picture. The Brambling, Hawfinch and Siskin flocks were also around as were the 3 Pochard. A Peregrine was a good flyover bird. The only photos I took though were of this rather tame male Grey Headed Woodpecker.

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They came...........

A beautiful spring day in Hakodate saw me getting up very early to locate a small flock of Crossbill which I had found yesterday in Goryokaku Park. I got up to watch the second half of Real Madrid v Spurs and after the 3rd goal went in I'd had enough so off I went outside just as the sun was coming up.

The Crossbills have finally arrived back in town after an absence of more than 2 years. Unfortunately Goryokaku park isn't the best place in which to photograph them as the pine trees there are very tall, these pics where when the flock flew down to nibble on some cherry buds. Not the best Crossbill shots I've managed, I hope they stick around for a couple of weeks, or better still others join them.

I was spoiled 2 years ago when there were several flocks in town including ones in parks with low trees. Also that winter they stuck around for ages exhausting the pine seed crop and ending up having to feed on fallen pinecones on the ground. This probably won't happen this year...........

I hope these or others visit the small park near my flat (which is usually very quiet and also has low trees and lots of pinecones on the ground).

And here's an uncropped one in the distance, the building behind is Goryokaku Tower, well known local eyesore.

Lots of stuff in the park this morning. Flocks of Siskin, Brambling and Hawfinch, lots of Coal Tit and Dusky Thrush, Great Spotted and Grey Headed Woodpeckers. Yesterday there were 3 Pochard on the moat. After breakfast I went on a long walk to check out the sea and local harbours (nothing doing there at all) and to check a couple of other possible Crossbill spots (nothing doing there either, just more Siskin and Brambling).

The electioneering is getting noisier and noisier, only another 4 days of it.

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On this day (April 5th)........................

April 5th 2009. Black Necked Grebes at Shikabe.

The harbour at Shikabe always has lots of this species in late winter/early spring and if you're lucky they'll swim en masse to the corner of the port where you're waiting. The secret is to only move when they all dive.............

They congregate to eat these horrible worms that must slither around on the floor of the harbour..........

2008-2010 were very good in this harbour for this species but 2011 was an absolute stinker, actually I've hardly seen any Black Necked Grebes anywhere in south Hokkaido this winter, just the odd one or two here and there. Slavonian and Red Necked have been thin on the ground too yet strangely Great Crested (usually pretty scarce) have been everywhere. Mysterious.............



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On this day (April 4th)........................

April 4th 2008.

Black Tailed Godwit at Marshside, Lancs UK.

I see these in Hokkaido only occasionally, Bar Tailed Godwits are much commoner. This was one of many at Marshside which was a former haunt of mine back in the early 80's, it had changed a lot since then: the Godwits were sharing the pools with Avocets and Little Egrets, 2 species that were wildly exotic in Lancashire in the early 80's.

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Black and White

A female Black Woodpecker (at Onuma) and an adult Glaucous Gull (at Yakumo). It was a very cold snowy grey kind of day today, winter has returned if only briefly.

Not much at Yakumo, a small flock of Great Egret, a lone Slavonian Grebe, the usual common ducks plus lots of Glaucous Gull. This is one of my fave winter birds, not so many in Hakodate as a rule but there always seem to be plenty in Yakumo. They were at the rivermouth and impossible to approach closely. 

The Black Woodpecker was a nice find at Onuma, the first one i've seen for a while actually. It was very dark though and it flew off after a minute or so. I could only get heavily cropped noisy record shots.

Though I've seen them many times I've only ever gotten decent photos once and that was over 3 years ago. There were lots of Woodpeckers of various species drumming everywhere in Onuma and that combined with the honking of the Whooper Swans made for a nice peaceful atmosphere.

The Black Woodpecker was in the same general area as the common Tits and Nuthatches. These certainly aren't shy.

The birds were scattered by a female Sparrowhawk but all returned 10 minutes later. There was also a Japanese Grosbeak and Hawfinch too but they were even shyer than the Black Woodpecker. The Mandarins were as uncooperative as ever and only allowed record shots, how can something as colourful as this be so shy?

Not a great Sunday for photos as you can see. Continuing the crappy cropped record shot theme of the day........

Great Cormorants (the same as in the UK). They have a bronze sheen in breeding plumage unlike the much commoner green sheen of the Japanese Cormorant (which is usually found on the coast and generally not at freshwater sites). These are I think pretty rare in Hokkaido but Onuma has a small colony of them every summer.........shame they sit out in the middle of the lake all the time.

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