Rain

A Black Winged Stilt from May.

I've had 2 days off and it has been raining for the past 48 hours, hence the old photos. This individual stayed for about a week in Goryokaku Park this spring and was very tame and approachable. Normally scarce this tfar north, There was an influx of the species into the region in klate April to mid May 2013, I saw several birds at several different sites.

I took lots of photos of it, these are from a day when I didn't upload any to the blog.

Not much birding recently. A flock of Red Necked Stint were ate Kamiiso earlier in the week  but not much else, a couple of Great Egret being the only noteworthy species. At Sawara last Monday there was a Wood Sandpiper, Long Toed Stint, Red Knot, 2 Mongolian Plover and the inevitable Red Necked Stints.

I'm 45 later this week. Forty Five!!! I guess it's time for my midlife crisis and yesterday I did what a lot of men do at this stage of their life and buy themselves an expensive toy. Not a Harley Davidson. Something better. A Canon 500 f4 MK2 plus various accessories. The only thing is it won't arrive for another 4 weeks or so................
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Another Sunday in September

One of many Red Necked Stints around this last week. This one was at Oshamanbe this afternoon, there have also been quite a few in Kamiiso too.

Also around in the same place were a few Grey Tailed Tattler, a lone Greenshank, a couple of Mongolian Plover and a Sanderling in one of the stint flocks.

Yakumo was rather quiet. 1 Black Tailed Godwit, 9 Greenshank and 6 Eastern Curlew.............

Here is an adultof the latter species looking rather raggedy.

This is an immature with a much shorter bill.

Bit of a quiet 2013 for waders, still a couple of weeks to find something intersting though.

The Kingfisher spot was productive again.

These pics are cropped 50% or so. It is possible to get closer but I'd need camoflage. Perhaps next year................

A Black Browed Reed Warbler was singing nearby...............a bit odd considering the time of year.

Should I get up to follow the torture that will be the Ukraine v England game? It's just that if I don't watch it I think we'll nick a win.
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A hard rain fell.

An Eastern Curlew at Yakumo this afternoon. It seems to have a rather short bill which got me thinking it might be one of the rarer types (Bristle Thighed) until I saw a flock of 6 of them in the same place later. And then I checked the fieldguide...............

It was a grey drizzly day. The weather has been just awful in the second half of August. Very heavy and frequent rain has filled the rivers and they have dumped all sorts onto the local beaches.............sediment and trees mainly.

The Curlew was a nice close one at least.........

Not so many waders around this year, so far at least. Today was the end of a 4 day break for me and theere have been almost no waders around at all near Hakodate. At Yakumo there were 2 Bar Tailed Godwit, 1 Terek Sandpiper and 2 Common Sandpiper. Last week saw another Curlew, some Grey Tailed Tattler, Red Necked Stint and this Black Tailed Godwit.

At Oshamanbe theer were more Red Necked Stint today and 1 Great Knot.

This was a grisly find on the beach at Oshamanbe.

Some kind of albatross I think. Laysan? Short Tailed? It was partially buried in the sand and I let it be (maybe I could have looked to see if it had been ringed or tagged).

This Kingfisher was at Yakumo.

So a pretty quiet last couple of weeks photo wise at least. There have been a few birds around. Returning Black Headed and Glaucous Winged Gulls from the north, Great Egret, lots of Japanese Green Pigeon at many locations on the coast, a Sand Martin colony at Oshamanbe (a bit late but I hope it is still there in 2014). various raptors including Peregrine, Goshawk, Eastern Marsh Harrier and the inevitable Ospreys. The Black Faced Spoonbill hung around for a week or so but I couldn't get close to it again.

So not a great end to my short holiday. To top it off I trod in some dogs**t and lost a lens cap.

After England retaining the Ashes and everything rosy in the world of cricket  let's hope my footy teams pull their fingers out. Let's start with Liverpool beating Man U today and England not f***ing it up against Ukraine next week.
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On this day (August 19th)................

August 19th 2011.

A Long Billed Dowitcher at Kamiiso 2 years ago today. It was in pretty much full summer plumage and was a lifer to boot. A couple of individuals have appeared on other local blogs since then (but they were immatures or winter plumaged adults) so they are probably a scarce but regular visitor.

It shared the beach with a Great Knot and Ruff..............an interesting trio of shorebirds.



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On this day (August 14th)..............

August 14th 2010.

A Black Footed Albatross off Tomakomai 3 years ago today. This was my first pelagic trip and it was a very successful one.....................6 additions to my Japan list and 5 lifers. This was my first ever albatross (we also saw Laysan) and it was pretty exciting, they were even tame and approached the boat for some squid handouts..................

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Black Faced Spoonbill

An immature Black Faced Spoonbill at Kamiiso this afternoon. A real surprise, I was just doing a very quick check to see if there were any shorebirds around and stumbled across this rare east asian specialty.

I saw one a couple of years in Yakumo so obviously a few occur in Hokkaido but this is primarily a bird of more southern locales. A very nice addition to my local list (which is running around 220ish now I think).

It's been very hot the last week or so, maybe the warm winds wafted over the spoonbill from mainland Asia.

So hot and humid that we have got an airconditioner!!!!! Actually a friend had an old one which he didn't need anymore so he kindly came round an attached to it to one of our window frames. Thank you Tomoo...........

The spoonbill probably enjoyed the hot weather..........

Hope England get a few early wickets today.................otherwise we'll be hoping for another rainy draw.

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Still slow

A young Osprey at Yakumo a couple of days ago.

Not much around. A Peregrine disturbing the gulls, a lone tired looking Sooty Shearwater offshore, a couple of piping calls lost in the wind that may or may not have been waders.....................that is all.

Hot and humid outside, not many birds, not much motivation to do anything. Summer? Meh.

Manchester summer weather secured the Ashes at least.

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Linked to Wild Bird Wednesday.