Winter still hanging on.........

Well spring began today and it was f***ing freezing, lots of snow flurries and a bitterly cold wind blowing in from Siberia, all this after yet another heavy dumping of snow last night.

In Shikabe there were several Black Necked Grebe in the harbour but they were all still very much in winter colours.

A typical view of this species........

All 5 common species of seaduck were around Shikabe and today there was a sixth: a drake White Winged Scoter that was too far off for anything but a record shot.

At Onuma the usual species were present but no Black Woodpecker today, just the tame tits and nuthatches.

The day started and ended in Kamiiso with 2 interesting birds. The first was a flying Lapwing seen briefly from the car window in the morning and the second was a fishing Osprey in the late afternoon gloom, these are summer visitors to Hokkaido and well it is the first day of spring........

This Great Crested Grebe was at Kamiiso.........

I got Lightroom 4 but on my 2008 imac it runs very slowly indeed, looks like I need a new computer this summer..........

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B & W

A very grey dark Sunday, windy and cool. At Sawara and Shikabe there were the usual common ducks, grebes and gulls. The above immature Glaucous Gull was near a place where I got splashed with gullsh*t, a truly horrible place: a seafood processing factory where thousands of large Gulls congregate, if I was better at ID and could put up with the stink I would find some rarities I'm sure.

The female Black Woodpecker was one of 4 woodpecker species at Onuma. Other stuff here included Smew, Great Egret, White Tailed Eagle and Hawfinch. At Kamiiso there wasn't much in the harbour but there were 17 Great Egret on the river..........

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Another long walk in the slush

I took the long walk down to Irifune to check on the Brent Geese. It was quite mild today and has been for a few days but the snow still hasn't really melted, some places at the Brent site are still inaccessible.

There were lots of them: 30 or 40 at least.

Other stuff today included the usual common winter sea ducks such as Scaup, Goldeneye, Red Breasted Merganser and Harlequin, Great Crested Grebe and Pelagic Cormorant. On the river yesterday were 6 species of duck including both merganser species, Great Egret, Merlin and another Great Crested Grebe at the rivermouth. I seem to be seeing a lot of these every winter now, I wasn't seeing any 10 years ago I recall.

So another quiet week draws to an end, the snow has to disappear soon I guess, at this rate it'll still be around in April, very unusual for Hakodate.

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On this day (March 14th)

March 14th 2010.

2 years ago the harbour in Kamiiso was teeming with birds: grebes, divers and ducks. There were loads of Black Necked Grebes: over 100 individuals...........and many in summer plumage.

Not many around this spring, in fact not many around of anything in Hakodate. Hopefully that will change in the next few days

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A grey windy Sunday in March

2 male Black Scoter at Sawara this afternoon, the fishing ports had the usual birds: Scaup, Goldeneye, Red Breasted Merganser, Black Necked and Great Crested Grebe, the usual winter gulls and several Harlequin Duck.

It was sunny but very windy and my fingers were frozen after 10 minutes outside, we headed back to Onuma. The weather was pretty poor here, grey and snowy but the thaw has started, slightly. 2 White Tailed Eagle were sitting on the ice next to an open area in the middle of the lake, the first Great Cormorant of the year had arrived and was swimming around in another area of unfrozen water. The Pintail and Smew were still present as were Goosander, Goldeneye, Whooper Swan and Great Egret.

Most of the common woodland stuff was around including Grey Headed Woodpecker and lots of Jay. The poor light didn't help with the photos, it was very dark. They were foraging on a bank which amazingly................was snow free.

By the time we got back to town it was very overcast, the port in Kamiiso had several Red Breasted Merganser eating rather large flatfish.

So Liverpool appeared to have totally given up and have stopped trying to even win games in the 2011/12 Premier League season. Nice.

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What a sh***y day that was

We spent the afternoon with the tame wildlife at Onuma.

It was one of those mornings, it happens to us all. I won't bore you with the details but I went to City Hall to do a simple procedure, I knew it would cost me but when they said I have to pay the best part of $5000 it ruined my day. Christ it has ruined the whole damn year. New lens? No chance whatsoever. New Mac to replace my creaky old one? Not much chance of that either. F**k it.

This fox struck some nice poses.

The tame forest birds were around.............

Other stuff in Onuma included Great Egret, Smew and White Tailed Eagle. I checked Kamiiso but yesterday's Red Throated Diver wasn't around, hope it is still OK. Or alive even.

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A slushy day in a harbour

A Red Throated Diver in the harbour at Kamiiso this afternoon.

The thaw has begun and deep lush lies everywhere. Cars get stuck in it and I found out my 'waterproof' winter sneakers are not in fact waterproof.

The Diver had a broken wing.

It was very tame and swam right towards me.

This is a species usually seen well offshore and is nice to see up close, I hope its wing mends soon.

Actually do bird wings repair themselves? I have no idea.

I got lucky with the diver, I had given up on the harbour and decided to go back for one last check and the diver had appeared as well as this similarly tame Great Crested Grebe.

None of the other 3 winter grebe species were around but both species of cormorant were, here's a Temincks in breeding plumage.

All the common duck species were around including several groups of Black Scoter.

6 species of Gull, Whooper Swan and Great Egret were the other noteworthy species.

So this winter saw the heaviest snow since records began in Hakodate and now it is melting little by little....................I can't wait for spring.

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