2 days in a harbour

A Black Necked Grebe in Kamiiso today and yesterday.

I spent yesterday afternoon in Kamiiso and though there weren't many birds in the port there was enough to keep me busy. This lone Black Necked Grebe was pretty tame.

It seemed to be eating some kind of shrimp...............

I've seen them eating shrimp, worms and fish.................they are mot fussy eaters.

I tried to get pictures of them diving. Tried not very successfully.

Also in the port were a few Goldeneye and Scaup as well as several Great Crested Grebe.

On the sea there was more of the same plus several flocks of Black Scoter. White Tailed Eagle and Kentish Plover were contrasting flyovers. Also around were Whooper Swan and Goosander and some Waxwings spotted from the train.

Earlier in the week the flock of Japanese Waxwings near my apartment had relocated to the trees in front of the local Police HQ...................a bad place for photographs. Not only is it a busy street with potential waxwing feeding sites on both sides the police actually asked me to move on last year when I was photographing Dusky Thrush from the same spot. Go catch some real criminals why don't you................

Great Egret, 2 female Goosander, a lone Brambling and the flock of Long Tailed Rosefinch were also knocking about.

I had a brief visit to the same harbour this afternoon in much better light.

Still couldn't get a good diving shot though.................

It hasn't snowed much for a few days but it's still really cold, hope the clear weather returns on Sunday..............................
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Scoters and Dunlins

A Dunlin and Black Scoter at Oshamanbe today.

A bit of an weird day today birdwise. Again there were plenty of eagles at Yakumo but almost no photo chances..................they were all very actively feeding and squabbling on inaccessible stretches of the river. This immature White Tailed Eagle was the best shot I could muster.....................

I walked around a lot, flushing Crested Kingfisher, Bullfinch and lots of tits and nuthatches but nothing posing for the camera. We then headed up to Oshamanbe to see if there was anything interesting in the harbour there. I was hoping for Long Tailed Duck but they weren't anywhere to be seen. There were lots of Black Scoter however.

And in one corner of the port was a group of 5 Dunlin. Strange to think this species is probably scarcer than Stellers Sea Eagle in Hokkaido in winter..................

On getting back to the flat we received some sad news. One of the people I teach died of a heart attack yesterday. She had been coming for over 10 years and I had taught her before in my old job too. She was very kind to me and my wife and also to my parents when they visited. We'll miss you Keiko.


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A quiet Sunday in January

A White Tailed Eagle at Yakumo today. A bit of a quiet day birdwise. We arrived a little later than usual and there weren't so may eagles around. Annoyingly some hunters upstream disturbed them (they seemed to be shooting at the ducks, Goosander and Teal, WTF?) and even further downstream there didn't seem so many......................

It was only slightly below zero today so a lot of the snow turned into powder on the roads, Hakodate was especially nasty. The City Hall here has no money so the snow clearing isn't as efficient as in other areas of Hokkiado. Yakumo was much better than Hakodate at least.

Not much else around. A Long Billed Plover was the most noteworthy non eagle species in Yakumo and at Onuma there was a very noisy active male Black Woodpecker (unfortunately out of camera  range). I fired off some pics of the tame tits and nuthatches before the sun went down..............

So I hope Liverpool can get a result against Man U tonight. Ideally a controversial Suarez winner celebrated in provocative style right in front of Fergie....................

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Wintry Weather for Winter Visitors #2

I had a couple of spare hours yesterday morning so I thought I'd check to see if the Japanese Waxwings were still around.

They were.

The weather was better than yesterday but the sun was behind the birds. I couldn't go the road behind them as it was being cleared by half a dozen huge snowplows.

I even got a few crappy BIF shots.

It's still really cold, our door gets frozen (inside) every night...................that never happened before.

It was impossible to avoid the cluttered busy background..............

Should have had a faster shutter speed with the above 2.

The deep snow makes it hard to get around to some of my usual haunts so I was glad these were so near my flat..............................

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Wintry weather for winter visitors

A Japanese Waxwing in the park near my apartment this afternoon.

God it's cold. Absolutely f***ing freezing in fact. Bitter wind blowing in from Siberia, deep deep snow everywhere.

Still, winter is the season for Waxwings.

There were about 15-20 in the flock. At first it was snowing so like the eagles last weekend it was very dark and also difficult to focus.

The flock was also regularly driven away by the bigger more aggressive Dusky Thrushes and Brown Eared Bulbuls. I was freezing my a** off in the park hoping they would return and that the snow would stop.

The snow did stop and back they came.

The snow was deep enough to get inside my boots and my feet were frozen so I headed back to the warmth as the snow returned. Hopefully they'll stick around for a few days, the park is only 5 minutes away.

There were no waxwings of either species last year, I wonder if this is going to be a waxwing winter or not..............it's looking good so far at least.

Other stuff around this week included Brown Dipper, Wren, Siberian Meadow Bunting, a flock of half a dozen or so Long Tailed Rosefinch, Hawfinch, Dusky Thrush, Grey Heron and Great Egret.

There were 4 egrets around a couple of days ago and one of them caught a fish, I just about managed to get my camera on it just before it finished swallowing....................

It may be pretty darn cold up in Hokkaido but winter is my favourite season...................Eagles and Waxwings, what more could one want?

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