An Ancient Murrelet

I was surprised to find an Ancient Murrelet in one of the ports to the north of town today...............

Winter visitors

I had a couple of surprises at Oshamanbe the yesterday................

Some more shorebirds..........

Very overcast again, not good for photos. There were a few more shorebirds about at least..............

That time of year again

It's wader season again..............

A dreary week

A very quiet week.................

August begins

A not very good heavily cropped record shot of a Striated Heron to the west of town this afternoon. This is, as far as I know, an overshoot visitor only to Hokkaido and I've only ever seen half a dozen or so in the last 10 years.

Ospreys and Japanese Green Pigeons were plentiful but no photo opps. A female Black Scoter at Kamiiso was the first 'winter' visitor of the season...............

A bit of needle

A heavy crop of an Osprey carrying a needlefish this afternoon. An odd looking fish............must be tricky to swallow whole I'd imagine.

Not much else around. Grey Wagtails have appeared on the river near my flat. Nothing in Kamiiso except a few moulting Goosander. The heatwave is mercifully over and now it's normal summer weather. Pretty hot and humid as opposed to very hot and extremely humid.

North Hokkaido Summer 2017 #15

The last few photos from my trip at the end of last month...............

If at first you don't succeed............

 2 or 3 weeks ago we witnessed a pair of Little Grebes having a bit of a nesting disaster.............

A surprise on a Monday

We were in Yakumo this afternoon.............

Another hot humid Sunday

The weather is still hot and humid.........................

North Hokkaido Summer 2017 #14

Almost at the end of this huge batch of photos from the end of June............

More Ospreys on a rock

Some more Osprey shots from a few days ago.

The female Osprey eventually started feeding its chick..............

North Hokkaido Summer 2017 #13

Still a few photos to post from the end of last month....................

Some Ospreys on a rock.................

We returned to the location of The Osprey nest to see if the young had left the nest.................

North Hokkaido Summer 2017 #12

Yet more Rubythroats from the end of June..............I took too many pictures of them.

Too hot to do much

 Last week saw high temperatures in south Hokkaido..........

Summertime lull

It's the summertime lull................

North Hokkaido Summer 2017 #11

Some more Middendorffs Warbler pics from the end of June..............

North Hokkaido Summer 2017 #10

We found a different choice of background for Siberian Rubythroats..................