The Smifs

Very sunny weather the last couple of days...................

And a female........

The Bullfinches were more spread out on Friday and not as photogenic as previously..............

Also around were Brambling, Hawfinch and a couple of Redpoll. Still no Crossbills, looks like 2017 may be a crossbill-less year..........

Their work is not complete.......

Well they're still hard at it...........

Some common locals

The common local residents were present in Onuma earlier in the week...........

A couple of common harbour birds

East of Hakodate, Brent Geese and Harlequin Ducks are common winter visitors.............

More harbour stuff...........

The Long-tailed Duck from last week was still in the same harbour.............

A Black Woodpecker

A female Black Woodpecker in Onuma yesterday................

It hadn't left............

We spent the day in Onuma...............

Some Redpolls

We went back to the place where we'd seen the Asian Rosy Finches last week but they had long since disappeared.

A Friday morning walk

I had a spare couple of hours on Friday morning............

On this day (March 4th).....................

March 4th 2014.

A male Crossbill in town 3 years ago today. There were large numbers of this species in March of that year and they already scavenging pinecones on the ground, presumably having eaten most of the ones still on the trees. It allowed for a few nice low angle shooting opportunities........................

Springlike

Very mild weather yesterday saw us head west...................

A sunny Monday in late February #2

Some more shots from Monday.................

Yellow Throated Bunting and other stuff............

A male Yellow Throated Bunting in one of the local parks yesterday morning..............

On this day (March 1st)............................

March 1st 2009.

A Blakistons Fish Owl at Rausu 8 years ago today. Not a great photo once you pixel peep, the 400D was not a great low light camera and the 100-400 on it was never sharp wide open. And that yellow ring too..................

Like the cranes and eagles in east Hokkaido which are attracted by free food in winter there is an element of 'cheating' with these Owls (which are attracted by free fish handouts courtesy of a guesthouse next to the stream).

Still, you can't argue with being able to photograph the world's biggest species of Owl. I hope to go back and do it with my wifes's full-frame camera and my 500 f4 one day.

A sunny Monday in late February #1

Monday was very bright and sunny this week............

Some more Asian Rosy Finches

Some more Asian Rosy Finch pics from yesterday......................

Everything turned out rosy

We spent a couple of hours this afternoon looking for some Asian Rosy Finches to the east of Onuma................and we eventually found some.

A quiet Friday afternoon

I had a couple of spare hours yesterday afternoon..................

On this day (February 24th).....................

February 24th 2014.

A Stellers Sea Eagle on the drift ice off Rausu 3 years ago today.

We had a wonderful day on the boat and I took a lot of photos, you can see them here. Like the cranes at Akan it is a tad contrived (the boat crew toss fish out onto the ice for the eagles to come close) but still a great experience.

I heard the last 2 winters (which have been very mild) didn't see so much drift ice and these boat trips haven't been able to go out much (or even at all)...............we were lucky in 2014.