The merest hint of spring

A Temincks Cormorant and Glaucous Winged Gull at Menagawa this afternoon, note that they are both in breeding plumage, it must be spring.

Well it has got above freezing this last week but there was another heavy snowfall yesterday.

There were lots of Glaucous Winged Gull on the coast.

I wanted to show Franck (a French birder who used to live in south Hokkaido) the Pine Bunting and Rough Legged Buzzards but we couldn't find either, maybe the snow drove them south. We did however see a couple of Mountain Hawk Eagles high in the sky.........

Here is one with a Black Kite..........

Other stuff included Peregrine, Common Buzzard, White Tailed Eagle, Brent Goose, Harlequin Duck, Whooper Swan and the usual common winter species. At Onuma we tried to find a Naumanns Thrush which Franck had photographed yesterday, no luck there. The Pintail was still present as were the Smew (11 now) as well as Goosander and Goldeneye but no chance of decent photos, the Smew were too far away and the Pintail was too close.............

The Ural Owl was dozing in its hole.

Not much in town last week, there were individual Grey Heron and Great Egret on the river.

And lots of Dusky Thrush still...........

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Where are all the birds?

A Grey Heron from Onuma last Sunday, there are one or 2 tiny ice free patches at Onuma (a result of the temperature climbing above zero occasionally) and the Heron was standing in one.

There was a larger open area where the Whooper Swans and Mallards gather. In among them were several Tufted Duck and a lone male Pintail.

There were 7 Smew and 1 Goosander further away but nothing else, here's a Red Squirrel instead.

The last couple of days in Hakodate have been pretty birdless, the Red Breasted Merganser was still around as was the Sparrowhawk, the Ducky Thrush and the single Hawfinch but not much else. It's been a strange winter: very mild at first and then an extremely cold snap followed by the heaviest snow in the region for a long long time. I'm guessing the odd weather may have disrupted migration somewhat. I've given up on the Waxwings, I hope we get some winter finches in town soon.

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A Sunday in Onuma

The weather has relented a little, we could actually leave Hakodate this afternoon. The snow was piled up head high on the sides of the road but we've only had light snow this week, the main roads were clear. It was still overcast though and only common birds were around but it was a relief to get out of town for the first time in ages (actually only just 2 weeks but it felt longer).

The tame tits and nuthatches in Onuma all appeared to have survived the cold spell.

It was nice to get some shots of them in the snow, shame the light wasn't great.

In the group there are 2 Nuthatches and 2 Varied Tits, one individual of each species is very tame and the other is more wary.

There are also at least 2 Eastern Great Tits, these are much shyer.

And there are 4 or so Marsh Tits. Or rather Marsh and Willow Tits. Most of them have glossy caps and short stubby bills, this one doesn't seem to. Is it a Willow Tit? I have to say I never really check. Perhaps I should do.

Not much else in the forest, Great Spotted Woodpecker, lots of Dusky Thrush, a distant Black Woodpecker calling, several Jay, a single Hawfinch.

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Dusky Thrushes

I could take my first bird photos for almost 2 weeks today, a large flock of 100 or so Dusky Thrush was feeding on the berries in the trees on a street in the middle of town.

This is a common winter visitor but they didn't arrive in any numbers until a couple of weeks ago when the weather turned nasty. I was hoping to see some vagrants with them, a Naumanns Thrush of Fieldfare perhaps but nothing doing there.

I hope they leave some food for any late Waxwings...........

A Sparrowhawk was around and spooked the thrushes several times. I was spooked too by the arrival of 2 burly men in suits. They flashed their police badges (the thrushes were across from the main Police HQ in Hakodate) and told me I had to move for 'security' reasons (I was standing in a car park used by the police apparently). I wish I could say 'oh go and catch some real criminals you corrupt incompetent idiots' but I don't know the Japanese for that so I just tutted under my breath and moved like they asked. In retrospect I'm glad my Japanese is limited sometimes...........

Nothing much else around, here's some kind of weasel a couple of days ago down the river........

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On this day (February 17th)

February 17th 2008.

A Long Tailed Tit near my apartment 4 years ago today. That winter there was a regular flock of this species foraging in the trees and bushes next to the river. Since that time I've seen the grand total of one LT Tit in the same area.

You have to say it's cute. Admit it.

Nothing doing this week photo-wise, nothing at all. The heavy snow finally relented from Monday but it is still lying in big piles everywhere meaning it's difficult to walk around, it's still pretty cold. There have been a few birds present: a distant adult White Tailed Eagle was a nice balcony bird on the 15th,  there have been a couple of Peregrines around, a lone flyover Great Egret, Sparrowhawk, a couple of Red Breasted Merganser well upstream near my apartment and large flocks of Dusky Thrush. Still no Waxwing though, maybe this winter will be waxwingless.

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Still snowing............

It has been snowing ALL week, Hakodate has its heaviest snowfall since 1985 and birding has been reduced to zero. The above Rough Legged Buzzard was taken over a week ago and I haven't taken a single bird picture since last weekend.

We tried to go back to the Buzzard location today but the driving blizzards prevented us from even leaving town so we headed back to the monkey hot spring.

I tried processing these in monochrome.

The end of December/start of January produced lots of BIF shots in Yakumo, here are some previously rejected ones that I didn't upload at the time.

My god it was sunny that day. And not snowing.

Blue sky!

I watched the Liverpool/Man U game last night. I don't often get hot and bothered by the footy anymore except for this fixture.................

I'm in a bit of a dilemma. New lens or new computer? My computer is 4 years old and whilst still OK for most things it has been annoyingly slow processing photos recently especially in Lightroom. I want to do all my processing in Lightroom but my 4 year old processer just can't render the images quickly, it takes 5 or 6 seconds to render one 7D RAW file. For individual files it's just about bearable but it's impossible to review and cull images quickly.

I had hoped to get a new lens this spring, I want something better than the 100-400L. Trouble is the next step up is SO expensive. Actually it is so expensive it is all but impossible. I really want a 500 f4 but the new one (which still hasn't been released) is beyond my humble means as is every Canon supertele suitable for birders. I thought about that new Sigma 120-300 f2.8 OS (which is affordable) but..................if I buy a Sigma I'll still be yearning for a better Canon lens some time down the line and to be honest I'm not convinced the Sigma will be a big enough step up from what I have now in terms of IQ and performance. Secondhand Canon? Still expensive and I'm not sure I'd be able to pay in installments (the only way I'll be able to pay).

Hope it stops snowing soon...........otherwise I'll be stuck in front of a slow computer cursing the fact lenses are so expensive and I'll never be able to afford one.

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