Glaucous Winged Gulls and other stuff

A Glaucous Winged Gull this afternoon. Not much around today, I took a lot of gull shots.

We went up to Oshamanbe today, it looks like winter has ended. Still freezing but no fresh snow for several days.

I was hoping to see Long Tailed Ducks in the harbour at Oshamanbe. And see them we did. 5 or 6 of them but they didn't come close enough for any decent photos, this heavy crop was the best I could manage.

Aside form the usual common ducks there wasn't much around. I counted 8 or so White Tailed Eagles at various locales but none were close enough to photograph. The Stellers all appear to have left........

Do whilst I was waiting in vain for the Long Tailed Ducks to come closer I checked out the gulls. Usually there are 4 large white headed gull species present in winter. The resident Slaty Backed and the winter visitor Vega Gull are the commonest and they are joined by Glaucous and Glaucous Winged in winter.

My fave is the Glaucous but there weren't so many around today, this rather small dainty individual was the only one close enough to get a shot of.

 I always thought Glaucous Gulls (lets call them GWGs) were the biggest most agressive gull species but not in Hokkaido. I'd say the GWG is the Alpha Seagull in south Hokkaido. This is one with a Slaty Backed on the right.

I snapped a few BIFs of various GWGs.

And a few non BIFS..........

It does seem to be dominant over the Slatybacks. I hardly saw any Vega Gulls today (where are they?) and not many Glaucous either but the GWGs looked like they were in total control of the seafood offal areas in the various harbours we visited. This brute was bullying the Slatybacks for sure........

Liverpool last night? What a nightmare of frustration. We dominated the game but couldn't score in a brothel. If Van Persie played for us we'd be talking about the title instead of the Carling Cup and 6th place at best.

I just watched the Tyne/Tees derby, can I stay up and watch Man U v Spurs? Hmmmmmmm.........maybe not I think especially after that 3rd beer on top of a 5am start this morning.

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So this is March

A Red Breasted Merganser and some Scaup on the sea this morning. I walked/waded through the slush down to the nearest fishing port, not much around. In addition to the above there were Great Crested Grebe, Goldeneye and Wigeon. I could have walked down to Irifune to check out the Brent Geese and Harlequins but couldn't face the inevitable trudge through the deep snow, they'll still be around in a week or 2 when hopefully the thaw will have set in.

There were also 2 or 3 Red Breasted Merganser on the river near my apartment.

I don't really know why they are hanging around so far upstream. Not much else around: Wren, several Daurian Redstart, a handful of Dusky Thrush, a single Long Tailed Rosefinch. Very quiet. No Waxwings. No Crossbills or other winter finches.

The Grey Heron and Great Egret were still around yesterday.

Here's one of the commonest local birds, a Brown Eared Bulbul. It seems to be missing a tail.

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On this day (March 2nd)

March 2nd 2009.

A Stellers Sea Eagle at Rausu.

We got unlucky with the weather that day, the sea was too rough to approach the ice and feed the eagles.............this was the only bird around alas.

I vowed to go back and do the eagles justice but as things have transpired I just haven't had the chance to, time and money and the lack thereof being the main reason. Still, maybe next winter eh?

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So that was February...........

I sent an hour or so this morning watching a Great Egret and Grey Heron on the river near my apartment. There was another very heavy snowfall on Sunday night/Monday morning, it's really difficult to go anywhere, the snow is several feet deep and many of the places I visit or short cuts I use are buried.

I think there are 2 egrets, one a little more upstream than the other. Today's shots are the 'upstream' one.

Actually it's quite well camouflaged.........

The Heron wasn't doing much.

Other stuff around the last couple of days have been 3 Red Breasted Merganser among the commoner ducks, Peregrine, several Daurian Redstart, Long Tailed Rosefinch and significantly fewer Dusky Thrush.

February 2012, the snowiest month of my life so far. C'mon, let's have a thaw. Soon please.

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Will it ever stop f*****g snowing?

A Jay at Onuma this afternoon, as you can see it was snowing and there was a ridiculous amount of deep deep snow at Onuma meaning it was difficult to do anything between the blizzards.

The dead tree where we feed the Nuthatches is basically buried, they were still around however.

And the Ural Owl was still in its hole, showing a bit more body today.

Other birds included lots of Rook with a few Daurian Jackdaw thrown in, Pintail, Whooper Swan, Goosander, Smew, the common tits and woodpeckers and lots of Dusky Thrush.

Among all the Duskys was this individual.

A hastily grabbed and heavily cropped shot of a Naumanns Thrush, a recent split from Dusky Thrush and a lifer...............

It's still snowing outside, February 2012 has been a nightmare weather-wise.

The people who live above my apartment are absolutely doing my head in. They are so noisy, all they seem to do is stomp about and slam doors and windows all day. There are only 2 of them: a youngish mother and her son who appears to be about 8. They probably aren't bad people but my god I'm starting to hate them. Every night they bang about for hours, what the hell are they doing? We tried a nice letter to them but now I just bang on the ceiling. Sometimes that works. I would move out but the expense and hassle are too much. For now.

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On this day (February 25th)

February 25th 2009.

Normally Hawfinches are very very shy and difficult to approach but 3 years this one in Goryokaku Park let me get close enough to pretty much fill the frame. It didn't mind getting its beak dirty either.

Most years Hawfinch is a common winter visitor but this winter there have hardly been any.

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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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