More Rock Thrushes and Auklets

A female Blue Rock Thrush out west from a few days ago............

A surprise on the beach

A surprise on one of the local beaches last week...............

On this day (June 11th)...............................

June 11th 2011.

3 Cattle Egrets in the padis outside of town 6 years ago today. This is a scarce overshoot visitor to south Hokkaido in late spring/early summer, it was nice to see 3 together and all in summer plumage too.

A couple of common summer visitors

Summer can be a slightly quiet season birdingwise in south Hokkaido................

A Late Spring Trip #8

A while ago we noticed an injured Black Scoter in a port to the north of town.............

Some Ospreys and other stuff

I checked the Osprey and Peregrine nest sites on Monday...............

A Late Spring Trip #7

A final batch of photos from last week...........

Some seabirds came to town..........................

I was surprised to find quite a few Rhinoceros Auklets close inshore yesterday...............

A Late Spring Trip #6

There were several warbler species at the forest pool.................

A Late Spring Trip #5

Some more pics from earlier in the week.................

A Late Spring Trip #4

We found some Asian House Martins collecting nesting materials.......................

A Late Spring Trip #3

A male Grey Bunting from earlier in the week....................

A Late Spring Trip #2

A Siberian Blue Robin from a couple of days ago..........

A Late Spring Trip #1

We just got back from a 3 day trip.....................

A rainy Sunday

A Peregrine in the driving rain west of town this afternoon.............a crap picture for a crap day.

I guess the farmers need the rain though..............

Not much around. A few straggling wildfowl here and there: 2 Bewicks Swan, a lone Brent Goose, a few Scaup, Wigeon, Goosander and Red-breasted Merganser. A single Grey-tailed Tattler. A lot of Ospreys (non close).

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

28th May 2015.

An Atlantic Puffin.

2 years ago I was back in England and on a day trip to the Farne Islands. A great (and very easy) place for bird photography, there aren't many places like it in Japan. Teuri Island in Hokkaido may be the nearest offshore island with seabird colonies in Hokkaido but I've never been there. Not yet anyway.

It's over again............

Well the spring migration season for 2017 has just about run its course..............

Just the summer residents showing now on the river near my flat.

A pair of little brown birds.............

A Japanese Bush Warbler on the grasslands near Oshamanbe yesterday.............

A night away in late spring............

We spent Sunday night camping near Oshamanbe................

Some spring waders in the ricefields...........

We managed to find a small number of shorebirds in the padis.............