A change in my life

A Night Heron the river near my apartment this morning.................

Not much around, a few Asian Brown Flycatcher still passing through.

The only other bird of interest was Varied Tit................

It was a quiet weekend as the tail end of a typhoon hit Hakodate.................so very grey and wet.

So I'm typing this on my new computer.....................this is a big step as I've left the closed world of Mac and am now using a Windows laptop. Cost was the main factor in my choice. I got my imac about 4 1/2 years ago and love it but I got tired of waiting for the latest update (Apple only seem to care about iphones and ipads these days). Mac latops are too expensive so I bought a BTO Windows one with SSD/i7CPU/16GB RAM and have hooked it up to a big external monitor.

It was a tough decision................on reading Mac vs Windows stuff on forums it seems some people take this stuff way too seriously: as if moving from one to the other is  kind of like changing one's political standpoint or religion.....................I'd say it's more like moving house. Lots of minor hassles and a nagging doubt as to whether I did the right thing.

The main reason I got a new PC was processing photos had been a real chore for a while, now I have the juice in the tank to tackle my thousands of mediocre photos and try to sort them out properly and delete lots (do I really need 1500 RAW photos of Red Necked Stints in slightly different poses in slightly different light?

Speaking of  moving house it is exactly 10 years ago that we moved to this apartment. My god, where did those 10 years go?


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Autumn..........at last

An immature Night Heron on the river near my apartment this morning. There were 3 altogether including 1 adult.

Actually there were probably more but as you can see they skulk and there is still a lot of vegetation for them to hide in. These were the first Night Herons I'd seen in town this year.........

There have been a few migrants passing through. Arctic Warbler,  Siberian Stonechat, Asian Brown Flycatcher, Blue and White Flycatcher, Hawfinch, Marsh Tit, the first Teal of the autumn, Grey Wagtail, Grey Heron, Kingfisher etc.........

The wader season has fizzled out, 2012 was not a vintage one. At Kamiiso last week there were only a few Red Necked Stint. Common Tern was a good offshore find but they were to far off for a decent shot. The first Wigeon and Vega Gull of the season made their appearances.......

Last Sunday was spent in Yakumo. Lots of ducks here too, many species including Shoveler and Gadwall. Not much else though, the only wader was a lone Greenshank and at Oshamanbe there were only a handful of Stints.

It has cooled down at last. Thank god.

The Liverpool loss to Man Utd was frustrating.............but at least Shelvey redeemed himself by swearing at Ferguson.

I just watched the entire first 2 seasons of Game Of Thrones in about 5 days.............


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A very quiet long weekend

A not terribly good pic of a young Goshawk at Shikabe this afternoon. This and a Peregrine were terrorising the Japanese Green Pigeons...........

It was grey, windy and drizzly on the coast around Shikabe. We checked Kamiiso (twice) but couldn't find any waders, at Onuma there were only common birds and mosquitoes. In the mountains near Mori we saw 3 Crested Kingfisher but they were way too far off for any pictures.

Still really hot, the weather has to break this week. Surely?


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Return of the return of the heat. Again.

Well it got hot again. I thought after all that rain at the start of the week the hot weather would be over for 2012 but no..............

I headed to Kamiiso yesterday. The Stilt was nowhere to be seen, the only waders were 1 Grey Tailed Tattler, 1 Common Sandpiper, 1 Terek Sandpiper and the grand total of 3 Red Necked Stint.

The light was very good and I could get close to one of the Stints.........

It just stood around............not doing much at all.

It did move once, Just the once.

So 2012.........the heaviest snow in my 13 years here and probably the hottest summer too.


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Stilt

3 or 4 days of non stop heavy rain meant little chance for birding in the last week. It was hot and sunny yesterday but the rain must have damaged the railway because my train was cancelled, I had to wait an hour for one that was only going a few stops down the line.

In Kamiiso there were the usual Red Necked Stints, a lone Terek Sandpiper and several Common Sandpiper.

And a Black Winged Stilt. This is fairly scarce in Hokkaido, I have seen this species up here before: in 2005 and 2006 I saw several individuals both springs. This was the first for a while and in autumn too.

The top shot was backlit and the only chance I had to get close............these 2 were in better light but much further away and heavily cropped.

A nice find, what a great looking bird.........

Nearer home some migrants have appeared along the river. Hawfinch, Siberian Stonechat and Asian Brown Flycatcher as well as several unidentified things (thrushes, buntings) flitting around hidden in the undergrowth. No Night Herons anywhere.................I guess the tree felling last winter has meant not enough places for them to nest anymore.

I got up to watch the second half of the Ukraine game. Hmmmmmm...........not so good. A point gained or 2 points lost?


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Yet another tame wader

A Bar Tailed Godwit at Oshamanbe on Sunday afternoon. It wasn't as tame as the Great Knot below but it's a much bigger bird.........

Again, not much cropping going on as it was easy to get close...........one of the advantages of the fact the beaches are very narrow here and there are no tidal mudflats to speak of either.

Having said that the Spoonbilled Sandpiper near Sapporo was on the only decent sized areas  of mudflat in Hokkaido.

Not much ese around. At Yakumo there was 1 Greenshank, 1 Black Tailed Godwit, 1 Terek Sandpiper and several Common Sandpiper, Great Egret, Osprey and Kingfisher.

It was a bit windy and I was surprised to see a dark shearwater just offshore at Oshamanbe, I guess it was a Sooty Shearwater. The only other waders were the inevitable Red Necked Stints.

I've only seen common species this wader season but that's OK, waders are one of my favourite groups of birds ever since I saw my first local flock on the Ribble at Penwortham thirty years ago.

I went to Kamiiso yesterday. Still hot and humid but at least there was a breeze............

Not many birds though. Not a single Osprey and only 3 species of wader on the section of beach I checked.....

And they were almost all Red Necked Stint, 40 or so of them scattered along the beach.

Several Common Sandpiper and these 2 very wary Terek Sandpiper completed the meagre wader count........

So it's still around 30 and humid outside..........c'mon autumn, hurry up.


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A different pair

We took a quick look on the beach ar Nanaehama yesterday morning. It was overcast and a little breezy: the tail end of a typhoon and the whole day was a lot more more bearable than the last few weeks.

There were 2 Great Knot on the same part of the beach as 10 or so days ago, a different pair I think, one of them had a slightly deformed bill.

They were extremely tame and just jogged down the beach feeding in the surf.

These photos are not cropped (or only very slightly).

As you can see it was a little dark.........

Not much else around except lots of Red Necked Stints here and at Kamiiso. A Spoon Billed Sandpiper was near Sapporo yesterday, I'll head over to Kamiiso this afternoon..........it's about 1 day south as the small wader flies, you never know eh?

Liverpool looked utterly toothless last night............and Gerard looks just about ready to call it a day I think. Sad but maybe true.
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