And the heat continues........

A Whimbrel on the beach at Oshamanbe this afternoon.

Very hot and humid still, I'm getting all kinds of nasty little rashes and itches.

At least the wader season is well underway now. At Yakumo there were 4 Whimbrel, 3 Greenshank, 3 Terek Sandpiper, 1 Long Toed Stint, several Common Sandpiper, 1 Grey Tailed Tattler and 7 Black Tailed Godwit. A small flock of 10 or so small waders I saw very briefly were probably more Long Toed Stints. Other stuff included lots of all 3 common hirundines, 2 Great Egret, 1 Northern Hobby, 4 Osprey, various small birds passing through and a lone Kingfisher.

Up at Oshamanbe there weren't so many waders. I Red Necked Stint, 1 Eastern Curlew and this very tame Whimbrel.

On Friday I did the beach at Kamiiso but the only waders were a flock of 10 Terek Sandpiper and about a dozen or so Red Necked Stints..........nothing posed for the camera and then it started raining (a temporary respite from the heat at least).


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A brief encounter on the beach

A Great Knot on the beach at Nanaehama this afternoon.

There were 2 of them, one was very tired and was resting most of the time.

It was limping slightly but it could fly and feed. Both individuals were very tame, some of these shots aren't cropped at all.

Actually I've noticed Great Knots always seem very tame. It's odd how some species are extremely shy (like Terek Sandpiper and Eastern Curlew for example) whereas other closely related species allow very close approach...........

No other waders around, just 1 Red Necked Stint.

Still hot and humid as hell.


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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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