Winter Returnees

A Brent Goose in Hakodate today, they must have arrived in the last week or so. There were about 20 of them in the usual spot as well as half a dozen Harlequin Duck. The ducks were too far away for photographs and the geese a little wary (by spring they will be very tame).

Other winter stuff on the sea included Wigeon, a lone Slavonian Grebe and these 4 Black Necked Grebes.

Great Egret, Nuthatch and Varied Tit were the only other species of note. Yesterday saw us at Onuma and Kamiiso. There were more Black Necked Grebes at Onuma as well as a female Smew and several Goldeneye but the forest was very quiet...................not even any tame Nuthatches.

It is a little cold now, yesterday saw the first snow flurries of the winter in town.....................

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Before the snow.....................

Well it hasn't started snowing yet but it can't be far off...........................a light dusting on the hills the other morning and snow forecast for the weekend.

Lots of birds near my place this week, in Goryokaku Park there were at least half a dozen Nuthatches (a bird I don't normally see in town), Varied, Coal, Marsh and Great Tits, Great Spotted and Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker (see above), the first Wren and Dusky Thrush of the season, Pochard and Tufted Duck, Coot, Little Grebe and best of all 4 Crossbill briefly seen in the tops of the pine trees .

So here is a non tame Nuthatch.

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Some more signs of winter

The tame flock of tits and Nuthatches were around at Onuma, shame it was so dark I had to use a flash. The feeding log has rotted away over the summer but the birds returned to the same place and devoured the sunflower seeds we left out for them. The flock of Whooper Swans in one quiet corner of the lake is growing and there is snow on distant mountain tops....................winter is coming.

Up at Yakumo I searched for the Snow Buntings from last week but couldn't find them, I did see a couple of small birds bolting off that may have been Pine Bunting but they could have been pretty much any small passerine. There were Whooper Swans here as well as Great Egret, lots of ducks, Great Crested Grebe, Goshawk and Crested Kingfisher. 8 species of gull were present including a few Kittiwake hanging on from last week.

And quite a few Glaucous Gull too................

Upstream we looked for eagles.....................and found about 10-15 of them. Mainly White Tailed but there were 3 adult Stellers. All of them were way too far off for a decent photograph. Here is a photo just to show you I'm not making the eagles up.

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A big bird with a small fish

I took a short walk on the small river near my apartment yesterday and there were 3 Great Egrets. 2 were rather shy but one individual was very active.

Those fish it was catching look absolutely tiny....................they must taste good to a Great Egret I suppose.

4 species of tit and the usual common stuff was around.................but the egrets were the main attraction.

I hear this species in breeding in the UK now and has been seen regularly in the northwest of England................what an exotic bird this would have been to see back in the 1980's.

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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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