2014 Best of #2

Well another quiet week combined with a heavy cold means no new photos to post so here's some more stuff from earlier in the year............







In late February we went to east Hokkaido...............and I took rather a lot of photographs.

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

October 14th 2011

A Little Egret on the river near my apartment 3 years ago today.

It was sharing the river with several Grey Heron and Great Egret.

This is not especially common in Hokkaido but I usually see 1 or 2 a year. This one stayed a few weeks and is the only individual of this species I've photographed much. Not as common here as they have become in the UK..............no dramatic northward invasion this side of the Eurasian landmass. Not yet anyway.

2014 Best of #1

Well it's been a very very quiet last 2 or 3 weeks so here are some of my fave shots from early winter 2014, all taken in SW Hokkaido............it seems like a long time ago already..............

A mellow Sunday

On this day (September 29th)...........................

September 29th 2011

A Mongolian Plover in Hakodate 3 years ago. Most of my local wader shots are in Kamiiso and this was a surprise find on a beach where I'd never seen any waders before................plus it was quite late for this species in Hokkaido.

2010 and 2011 were both very good years for waders around Hakodate. 2012 and 2013 were nothing special and 2014 has been dreadful...............

On this day (September 25th).............................

September 25th 2011

A flock of Pacific Golden Plover in the ricefields just outside Hakodate 3 years ago today. I was actually looking for Sharp Tailed Sandpiper in the same area, but I couldn't find any (and I've yet to find any anywhere).

Not a great photo by any means but it did earn me $75 as it was used in an American birding magazine...............

A night away

A Grey Plover on the beach at Oshamanbe today.............

Alone

Another waderless weekend

A very slow weekend again.....................

A lot of beaches but not a lot of birds

Over the last couple of days I spent a lot of time walking up and down beaches all over SW Hokkaido.......................

Default

One of many Red Necked Stints on the beach at Oshamanbe today. An immature I think. This is the 'default' common small wader in autumn. There were several loose skittish flocks strung out along the long beach. I had to use the 1.4 teleconverter and still needed to crop a bit. Other wader species mixed in among the stints included Terek Sandpiper, Mongolian Plover, Grey Tailed Tattler and Sanderling.

Not much else around. The first Glaucous Winged Gull of the 'winter' at Yakumo, a Peregrine carrying prey near our apartment..............

Summer seems to be coming to an end and it was the mildest (or coolest) I have experienced in Japan since I came here in 1999. Apart from one very hot week at the end of July/start of August the temperature has rarely climbed above 25 and we have hardly used our air conditioner at all (in summer we have one attached to the window in my working room). I'm not complaining by the way, I much prefer coolish summers to the usual hot humid ones we usually have to endure in Japan.

So war in Ukraine, religious terror in Iraq/Syria, ebola on the rampage in Africa, horrible sex abuse scandals in Yorkshire, fatal landslides in Japan....................but hey everyone lets cheer up: Man Utd are still as comically bad as last season and we should enjoy it as much as possible.

Waderless weekend

Well I have 4 days off and the first 3 didn't produce much. I always take a few days off at this time as it is usually the wader peak but the only waders I saw were a few Common Sandpiper at Kamiiso. At Yakumo yesterday there were 3 species of egret including the above Great Egret but no waders anywhere. Black Headed Gulls have returned to Kamiiso and I also saw a Peregrine, Mandarin were at Yakumo and Osprey and  Kingfisher were at both.

Today I spent lazing about, hopefully September 1st will produce a few waders.

On this day (August 29).............

Long Toed Stint, August 29th 2011.

An immature Long Toed Stint at Kamiiso 3 years ago today. Normally this species seems to be extremely shy but not this individual. This pic was only at 300mm and is uncropped too.........

It had appeared the day before and was still around the day after too, 3 days hanging around in a rather dirty little stream flowing into the beach at Kamiiso.

Terek Sandpiper

 A Terek Sandpiper at Kamiiso yesterday. There was also a small flock of Red Necked Stint, several Common Sandpiper, a lone Greenshank and an Osprey.

This species is very wary and flies off as soon as you approach (in stark contrast to the recent Great Knots)...........I managed to sneak up on this one but it's still cropped by about 50%.

Wader season at last #4

On the way back from Tomakomai we stopped at Oshamanbe again. The 2 Great Knot were still there...................

Wader season at last #3

A Red Necked Pharalope at Atsuma a few days ago...................

Wader season at last #2

We stayed near Tomakomai one night last weekend..................

Wader season at last #1

The waders have finally started showing in front of my camera....................

Phoned in Great Knot

Great Knot at Oshamanbe this morning.  Edited in camera and on phone......

Waders arrive................

A couple of Sanderling at Sawara this afternoon. Not much around anywhere.......a lone Wood Sandpiper hiding in the ricefields near town a couple of days ago, a lone Red Necked Stint and Grey Tailed Tattler near the Sanderlings...........

It was very hot at the start of the month which was followed by a big typhoon and now the weather is just meh. At least it's not too hot to sleep...............