An afternoon in the ricefields

The rain and grey gloomy weather returned today but we had a productive couple of hours in the ricefields of Ono and Nanae.

The Siberian Stonechats returned about a week or so ago, these are one of the commonest farmland birds in Hokkaido.

The padis haven't been irrigated yet but due to the recent rains there were plenty of wet muddy areas and we were lucky enough to find a small flock of Wood Sandpiper. These photos were taken out of the car window.

They were eating some wormlike thing, is it a leech I wonder? Yuk.

These are much commoner in east Asia than back in the UK, indeed I've only ever seen one back home (at Marshside in the mid 80's). I've seen them from a distance a few times in the ricefields but never up close like today.

In the same field I noticed this bird, a Buff Bellied Pipit or at least I think it is. This is a bird I only ever see occasionally, usually flying away on some icy windswept beach in winter.

I took a crappy handheld video of one of the Wood Sandpipers out of the car window.........

A flock of geese flew over late in the afternoon, too far away to ID but probably Whitefronts.

Surprise of the day was a flock of 8 Japanese Waxwing in someone's garden. I've never seen these in May before............

I've had 6 out of the last 7 days off but we've been pretty unlucky with the weather. Hopefully tomorrow (my final day off in Golden Week) will see better weather. May is always the best birding month, fingers crossed for some interesting things turning up in the next 2 or 3 weeks.........

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Some spring waders

Whimbrel, Marsh Sandpiper and Wood Sandpiper, 3 waders from a long long spring day............

We started off very early and drove up Hakodateyama to check for migrants. There were quite a few birds around including lots of Red Flanked Bluetails, a bird I can never get a decent photo of. It was too dark and gloomy this morning for photos anyway. Other birds in the forest included Dusky, Brown and Japanese Thrush, Siberian Blue and Japanese Robin, Black Faced and Siberian Meadow Butnings, Japanese Bush Warbler, Japanese White-eye and Long Tailed Rosefinch. We didn't stay too long here, it looked sunnier to the east so we headed over that way.

Lots of stuff on the sea: Scaup, Red Breasted Merganser, Goosander, Harlequin Duck, Brent Goose, Pintail, Wigeon etc............our first stop was at Kikonai.

There were 7 species of wader here. Grey Tailed Tattler were the commonest, here's one with a Marsh Sandpiper. Like most of today's photos, some heavy cropping going on here.

And a lone Wood Sandpiper............

The other species were Common Sandpiper, Little Ringed Plover, Whimbrel and Kentish Plover. There were 3 heron species. Grey Heron, Great Egret and Little Egret, just one of each plus a lone Whooper Swan that is always here. Did it just get bored of migrating north every summer? It looks fighting fit, is there such a thing as a lazy Swan?

Ducks here included a male Falcated Teal, a female Gadwall, Tufted Duck and Pochard. There were also a pair of Osprey but they were flying too high for any photos. Chestnut Eared Buting, Siberian Stonechat and Blue Rock Thrush were all singing, it was very springlike and even slightly warm.......

We then headed out to Matsumae, on the way I noticed 3 egrets in a field, 2 Cattle Egret and 1 Intermediate Egret. One of the Cattle Egrets was in full sumer plumage........

I think that's the first time I've seen all 4 egret species in one day in Hokkaido before. The 3 smaller ones are all fairly regular spring overshoots but Cattle and Intermediate are a little scarce.

This Rustic Bunting was in the same field..........

In Matsumae I had a couple of hours to kill whilst my wife looked around the cherry blossom park. There were a few Harlequins and Brent Geese on the sea, more Grey Tailed Tattlers and Common Sandpiper and a pair of Whimbrel........

Plus the inevitable Ospreys...........

We headed back to Hakodate and the rivermouth in Kamiiso. There were 4 Great Egret and 10 or so Night Heron which brought today's heron list to 6 species. Just before it got too dark a Black Tailed Godwit flew over, a local tick no less (#203).

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I'm exhausted.

So the Premier League season isn't over yet after all. God I hope Chelsea win on Sunday with a really controversial refereeing decision, just to see SAF's red spluttering rage.

A few migrants appearing.......

Part of a flock of White Fronted Geese in a roadside field at Yakumo yesterday.

I still haven't really figured out BIF flock shots yet.

The nasty weather continues but there have been a couple of brief sunny interludes. This morning I got up early and saw my first Eastern Crowned Warbler and Red Cheeked Starlings of the year. Crossbill (a lone male), Hawfinch, Brambling, Dusky Thrush and Teal still remain near my apartment. Yesterday's birds included Glaucous Gull, Eastern Marsh Harrier, Peregrine, Osprey, Great Egret, Reed Bunting, Scaup, Red Breasted Merganser, Wigeon, Pintail, Goosander and lots and lots of Siberian Stonechat.

They always fly off just as I'm about to press the shutter.

I think I've worked out what set off my herniated disk/nerve pains again. Last Friday when I was looking for the White Winged Crossbills I had an urgent call of nature, the only handy toilet was a traditional style squatter, I think I twisted something as I hunkered down.

Another reason to hate those type of toilets. I haven't met a single Japanese person who prefers them. Usually I avoid them but this was an 'any port in a storm' situation. Japan has more pressing problems now I know but the next PM should consider a nationwide upgrading of public toilets.

I mean you can't even check the news on your cellphone whilst using them.

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On this day (April 28th)

April 28th 2009.

Actually a day early but this week has been so uneventful I have literally nothing to post.........

The above pic shows a Japanese White-eye in the cherry blossoms near my flat 2 years ago. It must have been a warmer spring 2 years ago as the cherry blossoms are nowhere near open yet in 2011.

This has been a very quiet last week or so: cold wet weather, a busy schedule and ongoing nerve pains as a result of my slipped disk has meant very little action. I've had a couple of brief excursions but only Dusky Thrush, Hawfinch and Bullheaded Shrike are around. There were some Brambling around a few days ago and I had a brief fleeting glimpse of an odd looking bird from my window last weekend, it could have been a Woodcock. Or perhaps just a pigeon being weird.

2 years ago on this day there were lots of stuff around right near my flat, not only the White-eyes but also this Short Tailed Bush Warbler, not a bird I often get to photograph.



And this female Red Flanked Bluetail too.........



Unfortunately a lot of the trees and bushes along the river where I took the above 2 shots have gone as Hakodate City Hall have 'improved' the river (I wish they had picked up all the festering garbage at the same time). There really haven't been any migrants so far this spring in the handful of trees and bushes that have escaped the chainsaws.

On the same day 2 years ago there were a couple of very tame Crossbills in the park.



This one is uncropped.



Lots of stuff around 2 years ago but SFA around now, at least near my apartment.

I hope the weather improves soon, I have several days off coming up........

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First lifer of 2011

It's a lousy heavily cropped photo but it shows a male White Winged Crossbill this morning, part of a flock of 10 birds (at least one I think was a normal Crossbill). I guess you could say I twitched it as I'd heard they were present and decided to take a look myself.

This is a new bird for me although I've had a few 'maybes' of this species before.

This was in an area about 40 minutes walk from my apartment. It's in a nice quiet part of town and was a peaceful place to wander around in. Shortly after I arrived I saw Osamu who had found the crossbills a couple of days ago, he was with 4 friends and they said the crossbills had just flown off!

I waited another hour or so and heard their calls, the flock was fairly mobile and stayed up in the trees, it was impossible to get a good shot.

There were other birds around too. Siskin, lots of Coal Tit, Great Spotted and Japanese Pygmy Woodpeckers..............

It then started raining so I set off home, unfortunately the nerve pain from my herniated disk made a return so it was a long wet rather uncomfortable hobble through the rain..............but at least I saw the White Winged Crossbills.

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A grey Wednesday

It's been a grey cold week so far in south Hokkaido. There are a still a few Crossbill around, this male was one of a group of  half a dozen in Goryokaku park this afternoon.

There were 40 or so Brambling and a few Hawfinch but they were very shy.

Dusky Thrush are always very common at this time of year, there were lots in the park this afternoon.

A few White Wagtail remain in winter but generally it is an abundant summer visitor, they are everywhere at the moment.

The first Swallows of spring were skimming over the moat with a few Asian House Martin. The last couple of days has seen a few Bullheaded Shrike, Daurian Redstart and Japanese Bush Warbler pass through and today I saw the first Siberian Stonechat of the year too.

Why are all the decent footy games on at inconvenient times this season? Spurs v Arsenal tonight looks like it'll be a very interesting game but I'm not getting up at 3.45am to watch it, the only game I could catch last Saturday was West Brom v Chelsea for christs sake.

The city elections are at the weekend, like I said in a previous post electioneering here consists of candidates driving slowly around town hysterically bellowing slogans with their 'supporters' (usually the local equivalent of dumb blondes) waving and smiling out of the windows.

At least I don't have to put up with a Royal Wedding (although you'll at least get a day off work).

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On this day (April 19th)........................

April 19th 2009.

Female Black Woodpecker at Onuma.

One of the star birds of Hokkaido, this species can regularly be seen in Onuma. This female was checking out a nesting hole............

If you've been following my blog you'll know I've seen them several times this spring, and last spring too but the only time I could get nice shots of this species was this day 2 years ago and one day the previous spring.......

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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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