September.........the second half begins

A Bar Tailed Godwit on the beach at Kamiiso today.

We enter the second half of September today and my god the first half was dire, rain almost every day and not much chance to go outside let alone take bird photos.

Today was pretty good though, hot and humid, a little dark but mercifully dry.

There were 5 Godwits together on the beach at Kunnebtsu. 2 Blackwits and 3 Barwits.

The former are common autumn migrants but the latter seem much scarcer, this was the only the second time I'd seen them in the Hakodate area.

Also on the same stretch of beach were 2 Red Necked Stint and 2 Mongolian Plover.

Further along the coast were large numbers of Red Necked Stints (over 100).

Not much mixed in with the Stints, just one Dunlin and another Bar Tailed Godwit.

Not much else around. 1 Great Egret, a few Black Headed Gulls, 10 or so Goosander.

Nearer my apartment there were a few Asian Brown Flycatcher and other unidentifiable small birds flitting about, flocks of Red Cheeked Starlings getting ready to fly south to the tropics for winter and a couple of Night Herons, 1 adult and 1 immature. The latter was easier to photograph.

I'll be in Tomakomai this weekend so I'll probably miss the big footy games on Sunday night (but I'll take a knackered old laptop and try and watch them online). If the weather is good i'll be on another pelagic trip, hopefully to see some Skuas and other stuff.

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Nice end to a slow slow week

It's been a grey grey rainy week and not much to report except the above Ringed Plover. A lousy week for photos but I got a nice bird at the end at least.......

I got an e-mail yesterday telling me there was a Ringed Plover on one of the local beaches, this is rather a rare bird in Japan and one I had yet to see here. I got up early today to try and see it and walked along the beach under the grey drizzly skies and saw nothing except the usual Red Necked Stints and Grey Tailed Tattlers.

On Thursday I has also been on the same beach, the birds that day included 2 Lesser Sandplover and a Sanderling in amongst the stints and tattlers. The Sanderling is the one below.

On Friday I had a quick walk along the river, a few Asian Brown Flycatchers flitting around in the bushes were the only migrants around. Today we headed over to Shikabe, I tried in vain to get some Japanese Green Pigeon shots but the dark grey skies defeated me. The only shot worth looking at was the flyover Peregrine.

We returned to a different part of the beach at Kamiiso and in amongst all the Red Necked Stints I noticed a Little Ringed Plover on the opposite side of the river, 5 minutes later I was on the other side comparing Little Ringed and Ringed Plovers, the 2 were together on the beach. #210 on my local list and #259 on my Japan list. Not a lifer of course as it is a common UK bird but as I said before it is a little scarce over on this side of the Eurasian landmass.

I watched England grind out victories in the footy and rugby, I watched Liverpool being wasteful and losing 3 points at Stoke..............when was the last time I enjoyed watching one of my teams?

Well, the cricket I guess..............

Hope the weather improves, the first 11 days of September have been awful.

Offensive though it was I had a genuine LOL moment whilst watching 'Shameless' a few days ago.

Someone had the name 'Bobby Sands' taped to their forehead as part of a game. "Who am I?" they said, "give us a hint".

Frank said "you're a sh*t interior decorator".

I spilled my beer I was laughing so much.

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Typhoon hits Hakodate, sort of

Well the weather has been lousy for a while, very hot and humid followed by very windy and rainy (but still hot) as the fizzling out typhoon hit Hakodate. It was a big one further south a couple of days previously, 20 dead and 55 missing I saw on the news..........

Not much birding except on Sunday when we went out to Kikonai.

This Little Ringed Plover was at Kamiiso.

Also here was a flock of 15 or so Red Necked Stint but not much else. At Kikonai there were more Red Necked Stint as well as 2 Lesser Sandplover and 2 Sanderling. It was very windy (but still hot and even sunny, no rain yet), impossible to hold the camera steady by this point.

Here are some Red Necked Stint running into the wind.

Ospreys were everywhere, this one was diving pretty close but was facing away from me when it emerged with a fish.

I got up in the small hours to watch the second half of the Bulgaria v England game, bit silly as all the action was in the first 45 minutes, hopefully I'll get up early tomorrow to find them 3-0 up against Wales and I can stay in bed.

My next day off isn't until Friday, hope the weather is better then and there are some new waders on the beach, only 10-14 days more of the wader season left and I don't have so many free days to find 'em.

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A lazy end to the month

After spending 4 of the last 5 days trudging along beaches in the summer heat I took it easy today, just a short walk near my apartment. There were flocks of Red Cheeked Starlings everywhere but not much else. A briefly glimpsed Kingfisher, a few Grey Wagtails............

Yesterday I was on the beach at Kamiiso. Waders included 3 Terek Sandpiper, 1 Great Knot, 3 Mongolian Plover, and 70 or more Red Necked Stint. Here's a photo of the latter.

The Long Toed Stint was still present and I tried taking more action shots of it feeding.

It was eating lots of little insects on the sand (rather than the worms in the mud favoured by the Red Necked Stints).

I imagine this was the last time I'll be able to see it. I have days off on Friday/Sunday but it looks like Hakodate will receive the last dregs of a typhoon (meaning rain) so I don't know if I'll be doing any birding for a few days and next week I don't have much free time either.

By the time I get to Kamiiso again it'll be the end of next week when the waders will have changed.

It was great to have such a tame one, every wader season throws up such individuals from many different species.........and this August it was Long Toed Stint season.

I'm quite enjoying the start of the footy season, hopefully England won't spoil it too much this weekend. I'm sure they'll qualify (albeit unconvincingly) but don't hold out much hope for the finals. Mind you there do seem to be a few young players emerging, maybe the future isn't all doom and gloom.

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Another day on the beach.............again.

I spent a couple of hours on the beaches at Kamiiso again yesterday, as you can see the Long Toed Stint was still around..........

Other stuff around included a couple of Terek Sandpiper, a shy species that always disappears before I can get close enough for a decent shot, this was the best I could manage today.

Also around were a lone Common Sandpiper, a couple of Grey Tailed Tattler and loads and loads of Red Necked Stints.

But the Long Toed Stint was star of the day again.

I'll probably never get this close to this species again so forgive the deluge................

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Long Toed Stint up close

A Long Toed Stint at Kamiiso this afternoon. Thanks to Osamu for telling me about this one. The beach was packed with people (it was a beautiful sunny day) and I wouldn't have bothered checking it out had I not known about the Stint.

It was feeding in some drain that emptied out onto the beach (not sewage but whatever it was it wasn't nice) and it was very very tame indeed. The day today had started with 4 very shy Long Tailed Stints skulking in the ricefields and not wanting to be photographed at all. Why was this one so fearless?

It scampered around coming as close as 1 meter or so.

There were 3 Red Necked Stint further up the beach, on the next beach down there were more Red Neckeds and a few Common Sandpiper. Osprey, Black Headed Gull, Goosander were the other noteworthy species in Kamiiso.

Here's a jerky handheld video of the Long Toed Stint.

Earlier in the day we were at Sawara, there were over a 100 Red Necked Stints here as well as 2 or 3 Sanderling.

Also at Sawara a few Japanese Green Pigeon came down to the tetrapods...........

At Shikabe the usual Japanese Green Pigeon spot was overrun with fishermen so nothing doing there..................

Man City have just scored their 4th against Spurs, are we looking at this season's champions?

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