2017 Best Of #4

Some more shots from earlier in the year: these are all from March and early April...............

Like moving house.............

Some Harlequin Ducks to the east of town this morning....................

A quiet Thursday in October

I took a quick walk this lunchtime............

One good tern.................

Another typhoon hit Japan this weekend.................

On this day (October 22nd)......................

October 22nd 2013.

A young Red-legged Kittiwake 4 years ago today at Yakumo.

A heavy crop and not a great photo but this is a rare bird in Japan and I was very happy to find one. It was with a large flock of Black-legged Kittiwakes and to be honest I wouldn't have noticed it if it hadn't been flying around on its own and fairly close for a bit.............it was obviously different from the others.

2017 Best Of #3

Some more eagle shots from last winter...................

An autumn staple

Every autumn there are Great Egrets on the river (stream?) near my apartment. This year there are 2 (there may be more downstream).

There must be enough fish to support several individuals: sometimes they remain all winter. There were several salmon in the river too..............it would make a nice photo if one of the egrets tried to catch one.

Not much else around though and everything was grey.. A few Grey Starlings, a lone Grey Heron. 1 Grey Wagtail.

An autumn camping trip

We just got back from a 2 night camping trip..................

2017 Best Of #2

Some shots from Jan/Feb this year.............

2 of 3

Not much in town this week..................

2017 Best Of #1

Well we're in the last quarter of another year............

A short walk near my apartment............

One of 3 species of heron on the river near my flat today.................

A quiet Sunday in early October

A Common Buzzard near Yakumo today................

On this day (October 7th)...........................

October 7th 2013.

A Pomarine Skua close inshore at Yakumo 4 years ago today. Still a heavy crop (it was before I got my 500mm lens) and not a good photo by any means but an interesting species that I haven't seen much of . Actually my only real experiences of skuas were on a trip to the Orkneys over 20 years ago.

There were loads of them heading south that day visible from shore, I have no idea why. It wasn't even particularly windy. I saw 3 species of skua at Yakumo that autumn but not one before or since...............

A Late One

Beautiful autumnal weather today but not much about................

A grey Thursday in late September

A grey day today...................

Another summer gone............

A sure sign autumn is just around the corner is when I notice loads of  Night Herons skulking in the bushes along the local river.........................

End of wader season...........

The wader season for 2017 seems to have come to an end in SW Hokkaido................

Some Kingfishers

Some Kingfisher pics from near Yakumo the other day.................

Spoon-billed Sandpiper

We went camping the last couple of nights and we had to hastily change our plans after we heard a Spoon-billed Sandpiper was present near Sapporo.....