Hakodate Birding

21 April 2014

Black Monday

Some Black Scoter at Yakumo this afternoon....................

Meet the locals #9

Black Browed Reed Warbler Acrocephalus bistrigiceps

It came back............

Everyone had thought it had gone.

But they were mistaken..................

Meet the locals #8

Blue and White Flycatcher（Cyanoptila cyanomelana）

Another in my occasional series of local species not well known outside the region...........

A tree full of Waxwings...................

I was surprised to find a large mixed flock of Bohemian and Japanese Waxwings near my apartment on Monday afternoon.................

Just me and it.................

I had a brief look at Sawara on Monday morning.........................

Some birds in the harbours at last

After the Gyrfalcon last Sunday we checked out a couple of the local ports..................

Still there....................

The Gyrfalcon was still there. I hadn't seen it since early March and had been back 2 times unsuccessfully. I was surprised to read on other blogs it was still around...........

We had just missed it consuming an unfortunate immature gull. It was just sat around in the grass.....................

It was a cold windy day (it snowed quite a lot later) and I don't blame it for hunkering down out of the wind.....................

Still here...........................

A male Crossbill in the park near my apartment this afternoon. One of only 2 left seemingly.................

The park is now snow free and not much rain so far this spring means it was full of kids so the Crossbills were pretty wary. The ground was absolutely littered with pinecones................

Not much else aroud, just a few Dusky Thrush.

1 April 2014

Some late Waxwings

Some Japanese Waxwing this afternoon in the trees next to the local river, part of a flock of a dozen or so birds. Either the stragglers from the flocks I saw earlier in the winter or a small group of birds on their way north............

It was another mild very early spring day.....................

Spring, I think...................

A sunny springlike day in Hakodate, well it is the end of March I suppose.

This afternoon I was in the harbour at Kamiiso.............

Still in the park..............

The Crossbills were still around today, I had another brief break from work................

They were in the trees behind the public toilet (which is closed in winter). Not the nicest place......................

They're everywhere

I was able to slip out a couple of times today to the small park near my apartment. Crossbills were here too............the 4th location in Hakodate I've photographed them in this year.

It was mild today and the snow is receding leaving muddy grass covered with pinecones. And litter as well actually.

The crossbills were pillaging the pinecones on the ground................thry must have eaten all the ones in the trees I guess.

f4 and sore arms

A Crossbill in the east of town this morning....................there were quite a few of them around as well as lots of Redpoll................

Both of the above are males................

Although it was a bright, sunny (even warmish) day most of the time the birds were in shade. I was handholding the 500 f4 lens and it was wide open most of the time. I should have used a monopod or tripod: after a couple of hours my arms were pretty tired.

A surprise addition to my Japan list

A not especially good photo of what appears to be an injured bird (check out its bill) but this Eurasian Curlew was a Japan tick for me. An early migrant: waders don't usually start passing trough until late April. All the curlews I'd seen up to now have been Eastern Curlews which lack the white rump............

This bird was over in Esashi, I noticed it while we were watching 2 Seals in the harbour............

Not sure which species it is.

We had a long drive west, not much going on birdwise. Most of the winter waterbirds were around but not in great numbers and almost none in harbours. This winter has been very poor for harbour birds and I have no idea why. The first Osprey of the year were at Asabu but not much else.