Things happening.........................

A very springlike day and one of my best days birding for ages...................

We started off at Onuma, not much around in the morning except this Intermediate Egret...............

This isn't so common in Hokkaido and as you can see it is in its breeding plumage, it was in a pond where I usually see Great Egret or Grey Heron. There were also some Mandarin Duck about as well as lots of Dusky Thrush everywhere. Jaapnese Thrush, Black Faced Bunting and Jaapnese Bush Warbler were singing in the forest but it was a little overcast and chilly so we headed up to Yakumo.

There were 4 Bar Tailed Godwit in the river (one in summer plumage) and several Osprey hunting..............

A group of about 10 Great Egret were there too...........

On the north side of the river was this lone Marsh Sandpiper, I couldn't get close enough for a decent shot.

No other waders around except this trio............

Common Redshank. I would barely raise my camera to my eye for them in England (at this distance anyway) but this is only the 2nd time I've seen them in Japan and the first time I've photographed them. They flew off noisily just like they do back home...........

Other stuff at Yakumo included Eastern Marsh Harrier, Whooper Swan, Glaucous Gull, various species of duck including Shoveler, Wryneck and lots of Siberian Stonechat.

Further north at Oshamanbe I found a tame flock of Dunlin in one of the ports. Many were coming into summer plumage................

Also at Oshamanbe were several groups of displaying White Winged Scoter (well offshore) and Glaucous Winged Gull.

We stopped back at Onuma on the way home. There were some noisy and active Black and Grey-headed Woodpeckers but they didn't come close enough for any pictures.

The tame tits and nuthatches did of course.

The day finished at Kamiiso with another Osprey.............

And yesterday's Black Winged Stilt was still present.

A long long day but worth it. Late April to late May is the best time of the year for birds here and it really felt like it kicked off today...............

So the footy season is fizzling out, maybe the last day of the season will have all 20 clubs with nothing to play for. Liverpool and England are slipping into medicrity, thank god for Game Of Thrones and the upcoming Ashes.
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Channel Hopping

A Black Winged Stilt at Kamiiso this morning. This had arrived yesterday with a Common Redshank (a scarce bird in Japan and missing from my Hakodate list). The Redshank wasn't around but the stilt was...............and very shy it was too.

Summer plumage Great Crested Grebes were on the sea as well as various ducks including my first Gadwall of the year.

We then hopped over the Tsugaru Straits on a ferry................a poor man's pelagic.

The main bird to see at this time of the year is Short tailed Shearwater. There were quite a lot of them around (and they've come all the way from the South Pacific) but not as many as I'd been expecting. It was futile trying to get good shots of them. They never came close to the boat and the sea was so choppy 90% of my photos focused on the waves not the birds.

Here are a couple of shots to give you a flavour of the Tsugaru Straits anyway.

There were also a few small flocks of Red Pharalope.................these were also impossible to get a decent shot of.

I saw a couple of lone Red Necked Pharalope but the birding was pretty quiet.

Not as quiet as Oma (the town on the other side of the straits). This is a small economically depressed town on the northern tip of the main island Honshu. It is (was) famous for its tuna fishing fleet but it has to be the dullest most depressing place I've ever been in Japan. Horror of horrors it doesn't even have a convenience store. I had to kill 3 and half hours there and that is 3 and a half hours too long.

There were a few birds about. 3 Whimbrel, a Little Ringed Plover, Common Sandpiper, Grey Tailed Tattler, some Red breasted Merganser, a small flock of Scaup and 3 Brent Goose.

Oma is in the news now because a new nuclear power plant is being built there and it is uncomfortably close to Hakodate. After what happened 2 years ago nobody in Hakodate is happy about that but Oma is so poor the money from the nuclear plant may well keep the town alive. It looks like the cash has already started rolling in. The ferry terminal is shiny and modern (it used to be tin shack) and the port had possibly the nicest public toilet I've used in a long long time. No squatter in sight, heated toilet seat and an ample supply of soft toilet paper.

Let's hope the power plant doesn't get hit by a tsunami then.

The way back was darker and windier but there were more shearwaters................

The Black Winged Stilt was still around when we returned................

And there were lots of Black Headed Gulls. They don't breed in Japan so we usually don't see much of them in summer plumage, so here they are looking strangely exotic............

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Some more white-eyes............

It was dark and drizzly today but I had some spare time so I checked the river again for migrants.

The Japanese White-eyes were still about................

They are a very common resident in most of Japan but here in Hokkaido they are summer visitors and not so numerous, certainly worth pointing the camera at.....................

The Goldcrest were still around too. Lots of Dusky Thrush and also several each of Pale and Japanese Thrush (the latter including a singing male). A very vocal Wryneck was the highlight of the day (but too far away for any pics). The first Red Cheeked Starling of the summer put in an appearance as did several Red Flanked Bluetail, a Japanese Bush Warbler, Bullheaded Shrike, Blue Rock Thrush, Black Faced Bunting, Hawfinch, Swallow and Asian House Martin.

No warblers or flycatchers yet, hopefully they'll start showing at the weekend.


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Green on green.

I had a spare hour this afternoon so i took a short walk down the river to see if any migrants were passing through. Red Flanked Bluetail, Daurian Redstart, Coal Tit, Black Faced Bunting and Japanese Thrush were all around as well as various unidentified stuff only momentarily glimpsed.

Most of the trees along the river have been felled the last few years but the remaining trees are turning green and there were small groups of Goldcrest and Japanese White-eye feeding in the emerging foliage.

The goldcrests were as tricky as ever..............

The Whuite-eyes are slightly bigger and slightly less active but they too were a tad tricky...............

It has been a busy week workwise. Last Sunday was very quiet at Onuma, not many migrants there yet but lots of woodpeckers. All4 of the regular species were around, here's a Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker.

So we're approaching the best birding period of the year...............from the end of April to about the third week in May. My workload has increased dramatically recently (a good thing as being poor  is never nice) which means my birding time may be restricted to short jaunts like today................

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Goldcrest

A Goldcrest in a small pine tree next to the river this afternoon. I had a short break in the middle of the day and went out to check if the Hoopoe was still around from yesterday. It wasn't but as I was watching a female Red Flanked Bluetail in a tiny vegetable garden I noticed this lone Goldcrest just a few feet away.

The smallest bird in the UK is also the smallest bird in Japan......................

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Some crappy shots of some interesting migrants..................

Well we had a fairly eventful day. Sleet and an earhquake this morning and some interesting migrants this afternoon.

In Goryokaku Park there were several Dusky Thrush (above), Hawfinch and Swallow but no more bluetails.

On the river there were lots of birds passing through. My first Asian House Martin, Chestnut Eared Bunting and Siberian Stonechat of the year. Several Daurian Redstart, Coal and Varied Tit, a female Red Flanked Bluetail and yet another Osprey. A Woodcock flushed by crows was a surprise. This is the first photo of this species I've ever posted.

A male Pale Thrush. A crap photo and it isn't even  rare but like I say this is its first appearance on this blog.

Here's another even crapper photo.

A Hoopoe near my flat, the second one I've seen locally now and my 4th in south Hokkaido. It was very skittish and the above heavily cropped record shot was all I could manage....................

So some interesting things appearing. I hope it isn't f***ing sleeting again on Sunday/Monday (my days off).
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A pursuit of Bluetails

A male Red Flanked Bluetail in Goryokakyu Park this afternoon. It was very dark and the above shot is a big crop with lowish shutter speed and highish ISO.

I spent a few hours the last couple of days chasing this very active species around the park. They are a common passage visitor and I see loads of them every spring and autumn but can never get any decent shots, they are just too fast for me.

Yesterday had better light, there were 2 females and 1 male.

The females at least have the blue tail.................

Today was the opposite, 2 males and a female.

I hope they stick around for a couple more days. Just one shot a male close up in good light with a nice background, please.......................................

Yesterday an Osprey flew up the tiny river near my flat and today one was hunting over the moat in the park, it dived but on the other side of the park and I couldn't see if it came up with anything as I was busy getting frustrated with the bluetails. There was also a flock of 10 or so Common Crossbill but I couldn't get close to them. Other stuff included a few Dusky Thrush, a Great Spotted Woodpecker and lots of the common breeders such as White Wagtail, Oriental Greenfinch and Great Tit.

Last week I bit into a baguette and as the bread was a bit hard I cut the inside of my cheek and got a huge blood blister. Foolishly I popped it and now I have a huge great big mouth ulcer there. Hot food, spicy food, salty food...............all no-nos. At least beer soothes the pain...................


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