End of Golden Week

A male Blue and White Flycatcher on the river near my apartment yesterday. That branch is a tad annoying..............

Golden week (the major spring holiday week in Japan) has just finished, it is always great for birding as it co-incides with the arrival of lots of migrants from the south............

Yesterday was particularly good, in addition to the flycatcher there was a male Siberian Rubythroat, several Red Flanked Bluetails, a female Japanese Thrush, several Eastern Crowned Warblers and a flock of Russet Sparrows.

This is a common summer visitor to Onuma but I very rarely see them in Hakodate. Surprise of the day was another small flock of Japanese Waxwing. they look a bit odd with no snow or red berries anywhere.

Commoner migrants included Japanese Bush Warbler and several groups of Japanese White-eye.

Shame I couldn't get them in the cherry blossoms............

Lots of Red Cheeked Starlings around now. These are one of the summer staples, unlike the above birds they aren't just passing through town, they'll be here all summer.

And here's an Oriental Greenfinch, a very common local bird but I think this is the first halfway decent shot I've managed of one............

Very nice light yesterday as you can see. Today was hazier (and now, this evening, it's p***ing down with rain). Not many migrants present this morning, a few Dusky Thrush and Hawfinch remain and I saw my first Oriental Reed Warbler of the year.

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Some more spring waders

Yesterday afternoon at Kamiiso saw several species of wader present on the beach. From the top: Kentish Plover, Black Tailed Godwit, Red Necked Stint and Grey Tailed Tattler.

The Godwit was presumably the same one I'd seen a couple of days earlier.

This species is somewhat scarcer than the Bar Tailed Godwit, at least here in south Hokkaido. I've seen it a few times at Yakumo but this individual was the first one in Hakodate.

It was hanging around with the Tattler. Grey Tailed Tattlers are the commonest spring wader.......

Indeed it seemed to be stalking it............

This Kentish Plover was looking pretty cute..........

It was paired up with the Red Necked Stint.

Red Necked Stints are abundant in autumn but I only ever see a few in spring. They look much better at this time of year............

Other waders around included 1 Whimbrel, 2 Turnstone and a Greenshank. Not exactly Mai Po but still nice to see..............

Let's hope Chelsea make the end of the season a little more interesting for the neutrals, a big gaffe by Howard Webb leading to a controversial last minute goal would be very nice indeed.

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Red Rumped Swallow...........

I got up early to catch the second half of Man Utd's reserves beating some German pub team and as the sun came up it became apparent that we were finally to get some nice weather this Golden Week.

I had a quick look down the river, a lone Red Flanked Bluetail was flitting around in the bushes and this Kingfisher was flying up and down the river.

I was hoping for some of the scarcer migrants, a Wryneck maybe or perhaps a Whites Thrush. There didn't seem to be any migrants around (apart from the Bluetail) except lots and lots of hirundines. Just Asian House Martins and Barn Swallows I thought  but I was wrong...............

The flock contained 3 or 4 Red Rumped Swallows, a new bird for my Japanese list. I've seen them before in Indonesia and Greece, both times I remember thinking eh that swallow looks a bit weird.

I'm raking in additions to my Hakodate list, this was the 7th of the year so far (#204 I think).

My wife disappeared to take some cherry blossom pictures and I went back to bed for a couple of hours. We then headed out to the ricefields at Ono, no waders inland today but lots of Siberian Stonechats as always.

In the hills I got my first Sakhalin Leaf Warbler but otherwise not much else around so headed home visa Kamiiso where I saw several wader species on the beach (I'll post those later).

Back home the cherry blossoms are out. I prefer views of them like this rather than whole trees of them.

Lots of Red Cheeked Starlings arriving now.

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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.