More of the same but less

Yet another male Narcissus Flycatcher near my apartment.........

After Wednesday's fall of migrants the weather improved but I had to return to work (the inconvenience!) so could only spend a little time in Goryokaku Park chasing the migrants around the cherry blossoms.

All the same species were around but on Thursday they were much more active and on Friday the numbers had dropped quite a bit...............

Not so many Blue and White Flycatchers...................

This is a female.......................

Some Eye Browed Thrush remained too..............

And there were still lots of Eastern Crowned Warbler....................

Many of the same species were on the river..........in fact all of the flycatchers amnd warblers. Also passing through was a lone Common Sandpiper, 6 Night Heron and the first Oriental Reed Warblers of the summer arrived on the 15th.................


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Migrants galore on a dark dark day

A male Blue and White Flycatcher and a male Narcissus Flycatcher.

I had a day off on the 14th and spent most of it in Goryokaku Park. There were lots of migrants about. I don't know how many but seriously there were f***ing loads.  Birds were buzzing around everywhere, it was like something out of a Disney movie.

The light was very poor and there was the constant threat of drizzle. I suspect the poor weather was the reason so many migrants were grounded..................the chilliness also meant they were pretty lethargic and easy to approach. The nasty weather also meant the park wasn't so busy...............

Blue and White Flycatchers were still very common................

And Narcissus Flycatchers were even more numerous, loads of them, everywhere.

The males were at various stages of moult, some of them hadn't quite acheived the full summer look yet...............

As you can see they were just sitting around on walls....................

The above 2 (and yesterday's post with The Siberian Blue Robin) were the stars of tha day but there were lots of other migrants around too.

Asian Brown Flycatcher for starters.

I couldn't find any Sooty Flycatchers...................there are a bogey species for me..............

There were 5 species of thrush. Japanese and Dusky plus these 3............

First Pale Thrush...........

And Eye Browed Thrush.................

And finally Brown Thrush...........................

Both Eastern Crowned and Sakhalin Leaf Warblers were common................

Other stuff included large restless flocks of Japanese White-eye, Siskin, a few Crossbill, Olive Backed Pipit, Japanese Bush Warbler and this drake Shoveler on the moat..............

Of course once I was busy again at work the weather improved dramatically.

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A Siberian Blue Robin

A male Siberian Blue Robin (SBR) in Goryokaku park yesterday morning.

I was already up very early (watching the Wigan v Arsenal game) and got to the park about 6am in the morning gloom...................but there were absolutely loads of birds around.

The SBR was skulking around in the undergrowth for the most part but occasionally showed itself. This was the first time for me to photograph this species. The light was very poor and I was at ISO 800 but I got some OK (ish) shots, not great but better than record shots.

They are quite common in the forest on Mt Hakodate but very difficult to see. This one was more obliging than most......................

It was still there today in much better light but I was very short of time and couldn't take any pictures of it. Yesterday I was wishing for a f2.8 lens instead of an f5.6 one that still needs to be stopped down to get sharp.

A LOT of migrants have been passing through Hakodate this week.......................more updates soon.

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