More signs of winter..............

A Black Legged Kittiwake shaking itself dry at Yakumo this afternoon. There were 8 species of gull at the mouth of the river and they included 50 or so Kittiwake...........................and unfortunately they all appeared to have black legs.

We were in Yakumo to check if any eagles had arrived. There were small numbers of salmon spawning and the Yurappu Valley was aflame with autumn colors (what a cliche that is but I don't know how else to describe it) and we found the grand total of ONE adult White Tailed Eagle (and that was too far away for a photo). The only raptor apart from the abundant Black Kite was this Common Buzzard.

We did see a Crested Kingfisher, I managed to get this record shot as it flew at great speed over my head...........................

This is one bird I hope to finally get a decent photograph of this winter.

There were some interesting birds at the mouth of the river too. Goshawk, the first Goldeneye of the winter and another species I hope to get a good photo of this winter. This was the best I could manage today. 2 Snow Bunting. It looked like they had literally just arrived (they came in off the sea). They flew over my head and landed on the beach, stayed 10 seconds and then disappeared to the opposite side of the river.

When I walked back to the car I disturbed another 2 buntings....................I snapped a record shot and when I reviewed the image back in the car I was surprised to find it was a male and female Pine Bunting.

Back at Onuma there weren't many birds in the forest but the lake was looking very autumnal..............

I watched The Hunger Games a couple of days ago. Very silly.
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Birds in the park

A Great Egret in a pine tree in the small park near my apartment this afternoon.

The park and the adjacent riverside bushes were full of birds actually. A male Red Flanked Bluetail and a female Daurian Redstart were much too active to get a shot of. There was a mixed roving tit flock in the park with several Coal Tit, Great Tit and Varied Tit as well as 2 Marsh (or Willow?) Tit, 1 Nuthatch, 1 Treecreeper and 1 Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker. The first 3 species on the list are common in town but the latter 4 aren't, indeed it was my first ever local urban Treecreeper in Hakodate. A flock of a dozen or so Siskin was another indication of the passing seasons.

Very autumnal now...............just a matter of days before the first snow on the hills and maybe only a couple of weeks before the first flurries in town. Can't believe it was too hot to sleep only 6 or so weeks ago...................

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A quiet end to October............

Some Scaup at Kamiiso this afternoon, there were about 10 or so species of duck around (lots of Pochard) as well as several Great Egret and the 5 commoner species of gull.................a Siskin in the long grass on the beach was a surprise.

The Scaup were a scruffy bunch, they'll look much better come spring.

And here is a hybrid of Mallard and Spotbilled Duck, I saw quite a few of these last year too.

Nearer home over the last few days  there were more Great Egret, Night Heron, Rustic Bunting, Daurian Redstart, Red Flanked Bluetail and Hawfinch.

Last Sunday it was very very windy and the direction was from the east so we headed over to Sawara where in the last couple of years several Red Legged Kittiwakes have been found at this time of year after such storms. There were about 50 or so Black Legged Kittiwakes but I couldn't find any of the (much much rarer) Red Legged. There were a few Harlequin Duck around but not much else, at Onuma there was the usual common stuff in the forest but nothing noteworthy.

I've been a bit lazy this year. No trips to Mt Hakodate at all. I need to get my arse in gear in 2013.


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Things moving a little......

1 of 2 Great Egrets on the small river near my apartment today.

Quite a few different birds around town this last week....................Marsh, Varied and Great Tit, Rustic, Black Faced and Chestnut Eared Bunting, lots of Hawfinch, several Daurian Redstart, Red Flanked Bluetail, Brown Dipper, 3 types of heron, the first Tufted Duck of the season as well as Wigeon and Pintail.............

Still a few skulking Night Heron around.............

Last Sunday we went to the mountains to look for bears (somewhat halfheartedly it has to be said). Of course we didn't find any but we did see several different Crested Kingfishers. Very low numbers of salmon at Yakumo, hopefully this is due to the extremely hot end to summer and they will appear in numbers soon.

At Onuma the common resident wood land species were in evidence as well as the first Whooper Swans of the winter...............

Most interesting bird of the last couple of weeks was a female Mugimaki Flycatcher at Onuma. No photos (way too dark). I also found a small group of half a dozen or so Grey Bunting. This is a shy skulking bird that loves dark forested areas..................so almost impossible to photograph for the non serious types like me. Here is a very poor heavily cropped record shot.

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First winter visitors

A tatty looking Glaucous Gull at Kamiiso this afternoon, one of several 'winter' birds appearing in town the last couple of days.

There were 5 species of gull at Kamiiso including a large flock of Black Headed Gull. Wigeon, Pochard and Tufted Duck were on the river as was a lone Great Egret. There were also hundreds of Brambling in the fields feeding on sunflower seeds. Nearer home I saw  the first Daurian Redstart of the season on Friday and the resident Spot Billed Ducks are being joined by Mallard and ever growing numbers of Teal. # species of heron included the usual skulking Night Herons and another Great Egret...................

I've had a bit of a cold and sore throat the last 2 or 3 days so didn't do much. Can't believe it was too hot to sleep at night only 3 or 4 weeks ago..........................
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Autumn Geese

A juvenile White Fronted Goose at Tomakomai last weekend.

After the pelagic trip we visited Utonai Ko, a large shallow lake near Chitose airport. It is famous as a resting place for geese in autumn on their way south. There were 2 species: White Fronted and Bean Goose.

99.9% of them were in the middle of the lake.

They feed in the rice stubble in the local padi fields I guess. We see both species near Hakodate but never in great numbers........................

We've been visiting the lake for over 6 years and there is one resident Bean Goose, presumably crippled. It is tame and spends its days with a group of similarly injured Whooper Swans.

Sadly it would call to the birds in the middle of the lake but they ignored it................

In the same area were 2 tame White Fronted Goose, as far as I know these are wild (I've never seen them before so close).....................perhaps they were just mega bold ones?

There was also a small tame flock of Pintail in various stages of moult.

Not much else around. A big flock of swans were on the other side of the lake, there was a lone Great Egret, a few Wigeon, some Little Grebe and Tomakomai's famous Magpies nearby.....................

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A pelagic visitor..............

OK I know it's a crappy picture and a very heavy crop  but it is quite an interesting bird....................

It was identified as a South Polar Skua, a visitor to northern oceans in the the southern winter I guess.

Taken from the pelagic trip off Tomakomai on Sunday. I was the only person who saw this individual, I didn't even ID it until a couple of hours later. when it was suggested it was a South Polar Skua................there must have been more than one around because luckily the other people on the boat saw a distant one later (I missed that one).

**Edited to add**

It seems to be that this was misidentified and  is actually a Pomarine Skua, check out the comments below and on this thread on birdforum.

I made a bit of a fool of myself, after 4 boat trips I still haven't worked out how to put on the lifejacket properly and have to be shown how to do it. I think I've worked it out now but I fully expect to stare at one in a dumbfounded way the next time.

Apart from the Skua it wasn't a productive trip...........................there were almost no birds on the sea at all. Really, virtually nothing. Except a few Streaked Shearwater, none of them particularly close.

Very nice autumnal weather and it was quite relaxing on the boat.

I don't regret missing the Liverpool v Stoke game at least.

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More of the same

There seem to be 8-10 Night Herons on the river, all hidden away most of the time. Not much else this last week: Arctic Warbler, Hawfinch, Siberian Stonechat all passing through...................

I will hopefully see some interesting stuff on a pelagic trip tomorrow....................it might even be sunny.


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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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