Blackouts, quakes, typhoons and thunderstorms.

A Crested Kingfisher near Hakodate earlier in the week.

There was a crazy 24 hour period midweek, First a typhoon passed over Hakodate (it woke me up at 2am). The next day saw the mother of all thunderstorms in the afternoon and at 3am the next night I was woken again by a rather large scary earthquake that knocked out electricity over the whole of Hokkaido.

We were pretty lucky. No damage or danger near Hakodate and our apartment strangely got its power back a long time before most of the rest of town (we were only without electricity for about 16 hours). The fatal landslides were actually in the same town that I took all those wader shots last week..............

No car this weekend and more rain forecast. Hope there are no more disasters at least.

Before the disaster(s)

Some more photos of the tame Whimbrel from last Sunday, which seems like an awfully long time ago now.............

A walk on the beach..........

Last Sunday saw a brief break between 2 typhoons with some clear sunny weather...............

Waders in the rain.............

Some more waders from near Tomakomai last week...........

Long-toed Stint creeping around..........

Our quest for the Spoon-billed Sandpiper was unsuccessful but there were some compensations...........

Broad-billed Sandpiper

Whilst camping we heard of a Spoon-billed Sandpiper reported near Tomakomai so we went to look for it............

2018 late Summer trip #3

 The second day of our short trip was windy but sunny...................

2018 late Summer trip #2

Although we stayed in Oshamanbe waders were pretty thin on the ground compared to Yakumo...............

2018 late Summer trip #1

We just got back from a 3 night camping trip. The weather was awful: strong winds coming in off the sea, heavy rain...................

We stayed 3 nights in Oshamanbe and our focus was on waders. We managed to see quite a lot over the 4 days despite the weather.

On this day (August 30th).....................

August 39th 2015.

A White-winged Black Tern near Yakumo 3 years ago today. Terns of any kind are rare in Hokkaido and this one especially so................

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

August 28th 2011.

A Long-toed Stint near Hakodate 7 years ago today. This tame juvenile bird stuck around for several days and didn't mind being photographed at all............

On this day (August 25th)...................

August 25th 2015.

A Great Knot at Oshamanbe 3 years ago today. This is a regular passage visitor in late summer/early autumn and is often very tame.............

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

August 24th 2014.

Black-tailed Godwits near Tomakomai 4 years ago today................

On this day (August 21st).....................

August 21st 2015.

An Osprey just outside town 3 years ago today. It's wonderful to have such birds on tap all summer...................

Another wader season begins...............

Some Red-necked Stints near Yakumo this afternoon..............

On this day (August 19th)........................

August 19th 2011.

A Long-billed Dowitcher near Hakodate 7 years ago today. This remains the only one I've ever seen and it was in summer plumage too................

Obon

A hot humid weekend.............................

On this day (August 10th)...............

August 10th 2015.

A Terek Sandpiper near Hakodate 3 years ago today. This is a common passage visitor but is usually very shy. This one was not so shy and was a bit earlier than usual............

Still on the river

I haven't done much birding at all in the last 2 weeks. I had a bad back, it was pretty hot and my main lens is in a Canon Service Center somewhere in south Japan.

It wasn't so hot today. The Crested Kingfisher family were on the same stretch of river as 2 weeks ago. A shame I only had the 100-400 as they were reasonably close.

Other stuff around included lots of Ospreys on the coast as well as some Japanese Green Pigeon. Yesterday there were Great Egret and Wood Sandpiper in the ricefields. I hope my big lens comes back before the waders season gets going.

On this day (August 3rd)..........................

August 3rd 2014.

A Osprey with a big fish in Kamiiso 4 years ago today. Amazing what size fish they can carry...................