A brief interlude of nice weather

Another trip up to Yakumo today, lots of eagles and OMG some sunshine at last. Well, sometimes it stopped snowing.

The snow was pretty deep, twice I floundered in snow drifts and my wife had to rescue the camera (I needed 2 hands to pull myself out).

Lots of eagles feeding on salmon but very hard to get a good shot, they just fly away as soon as they catch your eye. Some were in the trees but were obscured by branches.

There were lots of birds like this.........

But they see me and do this...............

So lots of BIFs again, and some even in a blue sky.

This one is uncropped, the immature White tailed Eagles always seem to be the least shy......

This immature Stellers flew right over my head.........

I really wanted some close up shots of birds in the river, I guess for this you need a lot of time and patience and unfortunately we had not enough of the former today. There were some in the trees at least...........

The weather close in again later and some of the BIF shots suffered........

Whilst waiting in vain for some eagles to come back to the salmon carcass I got a crappy record shot of this bird.

A Crested Kingfisher, a bit of a Yakumo specialty and one I often see but this is the first photo i've ever posted of one..........

Other stuff around at Yakumo included Peregrine, Goshawk, Brown Dipper, Japanese Wagtail, Whooper Swan and various common ducks.

At Onuma in the morning not much around bird-wise, here's  Red Fox on the frozen lake.

On the way back we got stuck in a traffic jam caused by an accident, I saw three smashed up cars today in various places. The last one didn't look good, a head on collision with a truck, I hope the driver(s) survived. I didn't see the impact but it was only 100 or so metres ahead of us. The roads were pretty nasty today.

Hope North Korea doesn't let off the nukes, that would be a bad end to the year.

Kim Jong-il, Bin Laden and Gadaffi dead. 2011-the year of the dead power crazed dictator. Oh I forgot to add Steve Jobs to that list.

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Sunday blizzards

An adult Stellers Sea Eagle at Yakumo today. The weather was quite awful, blizzards all day with very poor visibility. This was a big shame as there were lots of eagles...........they were flying low through the gloom or perching next to the road in places where it was impossible (or unsafe) to stop and take a photo.

We saw one car which had come off the road (the driver was unhurt).

As I said the weather was a big pity, I could have got some awesome BIFs if the sky had been blue (or even just cloudy). Only some slight cropping going on here.

There were many individuals standing in the river eating salmon but in inaccessible spots. Even in the trees they were obscured by twigs and branches.............

A frustrating day for eagle photos but it's always nice to see them so close, hopefully next time will be in better weather.........

We got back to Onuma just before sunset. This Ural Owl was in one its winter holes, it was almost dark when I took this, very high ISO and low s/s.........

A feast of football on TV tonight, the beer is in the fridge, the bath is hot and ready..............if only it wasn't a Monday tomorrow.

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Grey week in December

One of many Black Necked Grebes in the harbour at Kamiiso today during a gap in the snow. It's been a cold grey snowy week, not much birding and not many birds.

There were about 50 or so Black Necked Grebes.

Other stuff in around included the common seaducks (including Harlequin), Whooper Swana dn Glaucous Gull. Nearer town I could find only 1 Great Egret.........

The moat has frozen in Goryokaku park and the park itself was birdless. Sparrowhawk, Buzzard, Scaup were around a few days ago but not much else.

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A Snowy Sunday in December

Some adult Stellers Sea Eagles at Yakumo this afternoon. These (and most of the eagle BIF shots below) were taken in a 5 minute period when the blizzards stopped and the skies cleared briefly.

The day started off on a very cold windswept beach looking for Snow Buntings in a blizzard. This has been one of my bogey species in Japan, everyone else seems loads of 'em but until today not me (though I've seen them in the UK before).

There were 6 of them. They were difficult to approach and like I say the weather was just atrocious.

In amongst them were 4 Lapland Buntings, they were even shyer..........this was the best I could manage.

The eagles were up in the trees sitting out the blizzard.............this one was during a very temporary lull in the snow.

When the sun did break through several of the eagles took off..........this is an adult White Tailed Eagle.

Most of the birds my camera was chasing were Stellers though.........

The weather soon closed in again..............

And finally an immature of both species as the skies grew gloomier and gloomier.......

It was the first real heavy snow of the winter, it was just about possible to walk off road in Yakumo today but that'll probably be the last time until spring.

Not much else around, we had a look at the port in Oshamanbe, there were only Scaup, Black Necked Grebe and Goldeneye. Lots of Great Egrets everywhere too.

Liverpool won, now up to #6, will they get any higher?

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On this day (December 10th)...........

December 10th 2008.

A Winter Wren in Goryokaku Park 3 years ago, not a bird I often get to photograph. As you can see it is very different looking subspecies to the one in the UK...........

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10 Great Egrets

This morning was sunny so I took a walk down the river to see if the egrets were still around. They most certainly were, TEN of them to be precise, 10 Great Egret on the pokey little 'river' in Hakodate!

One of them seemed to be quite a bit smaller than the others (a different subspecies perhaps?) but they were all Great Egrets, the Little Egret must have left in the 2-3 weeks since I was last here.

They were catching little tiddlers in the shallow river........

Hardly seems worth the effort, unless the small fish are especially tasty to an egret.......

These typical BIF shots show the egrets were in the middle of town.........

There was one Grey Heron in with the egrets and other stuff around included 7 species of duck on the river (15 or so Tufted Duck, 2 Pochard, 5 Scaup, 1 female Goldeneye, several Mallard, lots of Teal and Spotbilled Ducks), Kingfisher, Grey Wagtail, Dusky Thrush, Sparrowhawk and Daurian Redstart. In Goryokaku Park there were 5 Coot and 5 drake Pochard on the moat (which still hasn't frozen).

Otherwise a very quiet week, the weather was pretty lousy most of the time and I was also quite busy with work. I've heard both Snow Bunting and Rough Legged Buzzard have arrived in south Hokkaido, these 2 are my top 2 targets this winter, they've both proved to be bogey species for me, hopefully I can see them soon..........

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