2015 Best Of #1

Well it's approaching the end of another year....................

An afternoon off..............

A rarity these days.............yesterday afternoon I had no classes so I could take a walk down the river for a coupls of hours.

A grey Monday morning..............

A Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker in Hakodate this morning...............

And some squabbling gulls in Yakumo this afternoon.............

Some strays...................

We were out in Sawara and Shikabe this afternoon........................

Yet more autumn staples

A Black Necked Grebe at Toya yesterday and a Black Legged Kittiwake at Yakumo this afternoon..............

On this day (October 28th)..........................

October 28th 2013.

A juvenile Hooded Crane at Yakumo 2 years ago today. Another birder kindly shared this info with us and it was on the same beach where I had missed a Common Crane the year before............

I saw another young Hooded Crane, presunmably the same individual, in Oshamanbe the next spring......................

Some more signs of winter

Groups of Whooper Swans have started to arrive......it's getting very close to the start of winter..............

Autumn staples

Varied Tit at Onuma and Great Egret at Kamiiso, 2 common autumn birds.

Not much around, the weather was awful most of the day (and the mountain tops were draped with my first view of snow this winter). Buff Bellied Pipit at Sawara was the most noteworthy..................

October Harlequins

Every October the Harlequin Ducks return to the coast..............

More peregrines and dunlins............

We were in Yakumo on Sunday and Monday.............

Mellow autumnal Owl

Beautiful autumn weather at Onuma today..............

Amur Falcon

What I thought was a Hobby just outside town this afternoon..................

Mugimaki

A Mugimaki Flycatcher next to the river near my apartment this morning..................

Not a great photo, it was skulking in the shade and was very actively buzzing around.

I've kind of neglected the local river the last couple of years: a combination of my busy schedule on workdays meaning not much time to pop out, the city chopping down most of the trees and bushes along the riverside plus my wife isn't working these days so on my day off we go out further afield in the car.

Mugimakis are scarce passage migrants.............I see them most years but they are never common and always nice to see.

Shame I wasn't carrying the 500 f4, just my old 7D MK1 and battered 100-400L MK1.

4 species of duck, 3 species of heron, some Rustic and Black Faced Bunting, an unidentified thrush and cuckoo species, Bullheaded Shrike, Siberian Stonechat, Asian Brown Flycatcher.............typical autumn birds in Hakodate.

Autumn 2015 begins............

The season and the birds are both changing..............

Some October Dunlin

There was a small flock of Dunlin at Yakumo this morning.............

A bit of a lull

A bit of a quiet fortnight just passed me by....................

A quiet birthday weekend...............

The end of the wader season saw us up at Yakumo and Oshamanbe yesterday, my 47th birthday in fact.............

A rainy Sunday

I have a heavy cold and yesterday was raining all day........................but I mamanged to see a few common waders..................

It was the tail end of a big typhoon that had brought lots of flooding further south.

A few days away............

A Red Necked Stint jogging on the beach and a Sanderling gagging on something............

We went camping near Tomakomai for 3 nights.................

More waders but no photos of them..........

There were a few waders around again at the weekend but poor light on Sunday meant almost all the photos were sent to the recycle bin.

The above Red Necked Stints were at Oshamanbe on Sunday, there were about 40 of them. There were also 10 or so Mongolian Plover with a lone Great Knot whilst at Yakumo there were 6 Eastern Curlew, 1 Bar Tailed Godwit, some Commn Sandpiper and 3 Greenshank. At Sawara on Monday there were more stints as well as 2 Kentish Plover and a Wood Sandpiper.

Black Headed Gulls, Great Egret and Black Necked Grebe have all returned, it has got pleasantly cooler too: autumn is on the way. We saw Oriental Honey Buzzard and Goshawk, the raptors have started moving..................