On this day (June 16th)...............

June 16th 2014.

Some baby Ural Owls at Onuma 2 years ago today.....................

A walk around the neighbourhood

I had a free morning (for a change )so I took a walk near my apartment...........................and despite the grey overcast skies there were a few birds for my trusty old recently cleaned and fixed 100-400 lens.

A rainy Monday in June

A grey wet Monday in June..................and not much about.

There were several Red Foxes with cubs at Onuma but I missed lots of photo opps and anyway it was so dark in the forest, it wasn't worth the mosquito bites trying to track them down.

Quiet time is coming.................

Blue Rock Thrushes

A male Blue Rock thrush west of town this afternoon...........................

A final visit to the pool.............

We went back to the forest pool the next day....................

Arctic Warblers

There were lots of Arctic Warblers at our campsite a few days ago...................

Some common forest birds............

The forest pool is a good place for some of the commoner forest species, some of which are usually difficult to photograph....................

A Siberian Blue....................

I revisited the bird pool near Tomakomai..............

Summer

Well spring is over and summer is here.................

A very busy month ends............

Wow that was a busy month (birdingwise at least)..............

Crap pictures but interesting birds.............

The warm weather in the last week brought a couple of interesting birds with it...............

Brown Thrush

A Brown Thrush at our campsite the other evening..............

A wild Stork chase

We just got back from a weekend camping trip..................and on the way we stopped to find an Oriental White Stork which had been seen by someone north of Yakumo.

Travelling light

My battered old 100-400 MK1 is so full of dust and also suffering from various other ailments that it has been sent off to the Canon service centre for an insurance quote...........

The 500 f4 is too heavy and too attention drawing to carry around town. So today I walked around near my flat with the Canon PowerShot SX50 HS...........hmmmm.............

Some Peregrines............

We were out west yesterday................

Curlew Sandpiper

A Curlew Sandpiper in the ricefields near Hakodate this afternoon..............

Wood Sandpipers

A windy (from the wrong direction) Sunday afternoon was pretty quiet birdwise..............

Stilts in the gloom

There were 3 Black Winged Stilts near Yakumo as we headed home on Tuesday.................

A grey morning by a lake

We stopped by Lake Toya on the way back from our trip..............

More visitors to the pool

 About a dozen species visted the small pool in the forest...............