The heat returns..........

A Red Necked Stint at Kamiiso yesterday, still showing some of its breeding plumage.

The waders have returned.

And so has the heat: very hot and humid, 32 outside and no escape to aircon here in Hokkaido either.

There were 5 stints on the beach.

The beach was filthy, the remains of dozens of barbecues from the holidays last week.

The stints were not exactly shy but they were a tad skittish.

The only other wader around was an even shyer Eastern Curlew. No shots of that worth posting.

God it was hot. And today is even hotter............

On Sunday we were in Sawara and Shikabe. The coast was foggy which meant the temperature was more bearable........but the light was crappy for the Japanese Green Pigeons.

There were  a few waders around. 2 Terek Sandpiper, 2 Red Necked Stint and this Greenshank.........

When Prior and Swann were in I thought we could do it.

Liverpool? Well what a great start to the season that was.


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Bitten

An Osprey in Shireuchi this afternoon.

It's been another dull week, I was hoping to see some waders today but there were absolutely none about anywhere. On Sunday I saw Terek Sandpiper, Grey Tailed Tattler and a curlew species (probably Eastern Curlew) at Yakumo and more Tereks at Kamiiso but today was a waderless day.

Not much else happening. A Peregrine was a good bird to see from the balcony and there were 10 or so Great Egrets at Yakumo. My main wildlife experience this week involved mosquitoes.........I have 6 HUGE red itchy bites on my right foot/leg and I have no idea where the deed took place, I suspect it was from when we were drinking beer on the balcony last Saturday and there was a delayed reaction. Mozzies are not so common in town, maybe it was a different species from the ones in the forest at Onuma..........my god if so it is even worse.

I start a new 10 month job next week, nothing particularly noteworthy about it except it will be the first time in over 10 years I'll wear 'business' atire. I had to buy the full set on Monday.............I did have a tie somewhere but it's lost and my old shirts/pants wouldn't fit anymore even if I could find them. It is only 1 afternoon a week and the whole of my first month's salary was spent on the clothes and some new shoes.


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Quiet days continue

A Japanese Green Pigeon perched on a roadside wire just outside Hakodate last weekend.

A very quiet week, the humidity dropped slightly and I've been watching the Olympics on and off, wow some of the GB team are medal winning machines. Nice to see the footy team going out on penalties in the QF, where have I seen that before?

I got a new smartphone (the Galaxy S3) which has given me headaches trying to set up everything as I like.

Not much birdwise in town, no autumn waders yet. A Great Egret and a species of Snipe in the ricefields in Ono were most noteworthy species.

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Too hot to do much

Not a very good picture but this heavy crop is one of a flock of White Throated Needletails at Yakumo on Sunday. They were with lots of Sand Martin and will be heading south soon.

Not  much else around. Great Crested Grebe offshore, Grays Grasshopper Warblers still singing in the bushes and all the common stuff feeding their young,

It's been very hot recently, not much going on. Too hot to go outside. Hot enough to wish I had an airconditioner.

After getting up to watch the opening ceremony I tried watching a bit of the actual Olympics but all that seems to be on here is judo...................the coverage here is a bit one eyed and you'd think Japan is the only nation competing.. I would say it is the same in most countries though.

Whatever, I haven't watched the Olympics in 20 years............still I managed to crack how to watch the coverage from the UK online. Shame all the interesting stuff will be on in the middle of the night.


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A lazy Sunday in July

An Osprey and Black Browed Reed Warbler at Yakumo today.

It's that very quiet time of year, not much around anywhere. A pair of Great Crested Grebe in full summer plumage offshore at Yakumo was a surprise and the Grey Wagtails have appeared on the local river as they always do at this time of year (they have already bred further upstream).

Some of the Black Browed Reed Warblers were still singing but most were feeding their young, difficult to get a shot of this.

They must have nested in a patch of long grass next to a pile of old stinking fishing nets. Yuk.

There are 3 or 4 pairs in this small area of wasteland near the rivermouth. The young birds eventually popped out to take a look at the world on a dullish Sunday afternoon in July.

I spent a couple of hours hoping the Ospreys would do something interesting. They didn't.

My god England's bowlers are being ground into the dust by South Africa. Errrr........I thought we were supposed to be good these days?

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The annual lull.........

Well it's that time of year again. Mid July heralds a month or so of very quiet birding, most of the summer stuff has stopped singing and now I'm just waiting for the waders to start passing through in mid August.

The 2 staples at this time of year are the fishing Ospreys at various locales and the Japanese Green Pigeons at Shikabe. I had no luck with the Osprey pics last Wednesday at Yakumo (despite there being four of them fishing at the rivermouth) and headed out to Shikabe this afternoon on a dark grey afternoon more in hope than expectation. Recently every time I've been there have been fishermen standing on the rocks where they come down to drink but today I had the beach all to myself........

The light was terrible and I couldn't get that close to them but I managed to get a few shots of what is one of my favourite local species.

It was a bit dark for BIF shots.........

Not much else around here but I was surprised when 2 Grey Tailed Tattlers flew overhead heading north.............what's their story? Pretty late to be heading north to breed........

At Onuma earlier I spent a couple of hours getting bitten by mosquitoes.

If the above pigeons seem exotic to UK birders the Little Grebes and Moorhens at Onuma are reassuringly familiar. The latter is much scarcer (and shyer) than it is in the UK.

Nothing much in Hakodate the last few days, just common stuff like this Brown Eared Bulbul.

No sport on TV or the internet this weekend...........thank god for beer.

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A trip to the middle

A Siberian Rubythroat at the top pf a mountain in Tomamu this morning. There were loads of them singing near the top, a bit of a surprise as I'd always thought of them as a coastal grassland species.

We'd got up early and taken the ski-lift up to the top as my wife wanted to get above the mist and take some photos of it............this is the view (taken with my 100-400!).

It was the second ski-lift we'd been up on this short trip to central Hokkaido.

The previous 2 days we'd been camping near Asahikawa, my wife wanted to go the zoo.

The weather was terrible, heavy rain and grey skies all the time (at least it wasn't cold). We went up Kurodake in Daisetsuzan, a well known high altitude birding area. The mist and drizzle meant no photographs and we couldn't hike up to the top as the trails were too slippery. I had 3 target species to photograph (or at least see): Pine Grosbeak, Nutcracker and Japanese Accentor. I didn't connect with any of them. I did see a few things in the gloom..............Sooty Flycatcher, lots of singing Red Flanked Bluetail, Wren, Bullfinch.............I'll go back there in better weather for sure.

Other stuff on the trip included Little Cuckoo, Siberian Blue and Japanese Robin, Osprey and Hobby.


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Halftime again........

A lazy midsummer week 2012 is 50% over............

The Red Cheeked Starlings have fledged..........

The young are everywhere.........inside the bushes..........

and also on top................

The adults were busy bringing them food........

Nothing much else around: Barn Swallow, Asian House Martin, Oriental Reed Warbler and the usual common residents...............


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