A summer visitor............

Despite a bitterly cold westerly and a light dusting of snow last night it was definitely spring. The above Little-ringed Plover was newly arrived at Yakumo. Shame about the background............

Still still hanging on

Some more photos from last Monday...........

Still hanging on....................

The Black-necked Grebes are still hanging on in there.................

Some more early April birds.........

We were out west on Monday.................

Some more Nutcrackers..........

Some more Nutcracker shots from Sunday............

Some early April birds.........

I concentrated on the Nutcrackers yesterday but there were some other birds around...............

Some Nutcrackers

We saw 4 Spotted Nutcrackers today......................

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

April 1st 2014.

Some Japanese Waxwings in Hakodate 4 years ago today. Not a red berry in sight either.

Early 2014 was a bumper season for both waxwing species that year.......................

Quiet in town..............

The last few days have been very quiet in town. Not much around: a few common ducks like Goosander (above) but not much else. No Bullfinch or Crossbills near my apartment, only a couple of Dusky Thrush and lots of Oriental Greenfinch.

The snow has almost all gone though and hopefully soon the spring birds will appear............

Still not left yet

The Black-necked Grebes were still around on Monday...............

Ospreys return

 Ospreys have returned and are a common sight on the coast in spring..............

Some smaller ones........

Not many small birds around at the moment.............

Not left just yet............

The Black-necked Grebes were still around on Sunday............

Spring underway

Spring was well underway on Sunday..................

Spring ducks

Late March is usually a good time for wildfowl..............

Pit Stops

The local fields had some visitors taking a short rest...............

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

March 24th 2014.

A female Crossbill in one of the local parks 4 years ago today. Part of a huge invasion that year: they were everywhere. Usually I ran into them them when I was out and about with the 100-400. This time I was able to photograph them with my 500mm lens......................

Another lone Egret

Yesterday we went to a park in the east of town. Usually the park is full of birds at this time of year but it was very quiet this time. Maybe they'd all gone south (or perished) because of the nasty winter?

A Great Egret was there but not much else. A flock of 30 or so Common Crossbill was in the treetops for a few minutes before disappearing. a skein of White-fronted Geese flew overhead and I heard a lone Grey-headed Woodpecker.

On this day (March 23rd)...............................

March 23rd 2015.

2 White-fronted Geese in Hakodate 3 years ago today. Large numbers of this species passed through south Hokkaido that March and I saw them in many places. These were practically in a factory car park

A rainy Thursday

I have 5 days off so of course it started raining on the first of those..............