Ospreys and the start of Spring

An Osprey near my flat this afternoon. It was hunting on the tiny nearby river before it got chased off by the local Crows. I wasn't quick enough to catch its' dive into the stream and am still not completely au fait with the camera's settings so this was the best pic I could muster. Ospreys are common summer vistors across the region and most major rivers have a breeding pair (the river near my house isn't big enough to support a pair plus it's bang in the middle of town). I remember the first Osprey I saw. Loch Garten. May 1976 (I think). Just a female's head visible as it was incubating the eggs on the famous nest. I've seen lots since. In Asia, Australia and South America.



A Brown Eared Bulbul. Dirt common at the best of times but now spring is here there are even more as newcomers arrive from down south. This species is extremely noisy. When I first arrived in Japan (June 1999) I had 4 or 5 free days before I started work. So naturally I went on a 4 or 5 day bender. This combined with the jetlag meant my sleeping patterns were somewhat interrupted. I remember being awake at dawn almost every day listening to them screeching and whistling above the noise of the cicadas.



A Grey Heron on the river this afternoon. Overexposed of course. I changed the camera's compensation setting after this shot which meant the Osprey an hour later was underexposed. Other birds on the river today included lots of Teal, Black Backed and Grey Wagtails, Daurian Redstart and Dusky Thrush are still around, Hawfinch, a couple of Bull Headed Shrike (another spring migrant), a female Reed Bunting, ever increasing numbers of Asian House Martin, Blue Rock Thrush and a few Red Necked Grebes offshore.



This over exposed male Pintail was on the river a couple of days ago. There are usually 3 or 4 common species of Duck there, the resident Spotbills plus Teal and small numbers of Mallard and Tufted Duck outside the breeding season. Occasionally they are joined by others like this Pintail. Of course at Kamiso there are loads of Ducks but this was a nice one so close to home.



A not very good pic of the Hokkaido race of the common or garden Bullfinch eating some cherry blossom buds. This was one of a group of 4 feeding next to the local kindergarten.

On Friday I went to the Harlequin Duck spot to see if I could finally get some decent pics of this beautiful and colourful bird. I failed.



Inspired by a similar photo on one of the blogs linked to the right here's a Slaty Backed Gull.



Some pretty good matches last night. All 4 live on TV too. Nice tense one (Chelsea), a satisfying victory (Liverpool) and at the same time another laughably slack Arsenal defeat (ha!). Shame I fell asleep in the second half on the Man U game and missed Rio's own goal. Mind you I'd had 5 beers and a couple of large whiskies. Waking up at 5.30am on the couch with a dry throat and bad head is never nice........

Around April 8th down the years:

1983 (April 8th). The highlight of my school life probably. A 2 week exchange trip to France (Lyon). The usual high school japery. I saw some pretty good birds too. Red Crested Pochard, my first ever Black Kites, White Stork, Apline Chough, Serin, Citiril Finch, lots of Black Redstart, Pied Flycatcher, Honey Buzzard..........plus Arctic Skua, Gannet, Fulmar, Manx Shearwater and Common Scoter on the ferry. Here's a pic of me ski-ing near Chamonix.



The only day's ski-ing I've ever done in my life even though I later lived near the Alps for 2 years in my late 20's and now live very close to to some top class slopes. I was wearing jeans! The other thing I remember very clearly was that my host family took me to their relatives deep in the countryside and there was a whole pig being roasted on a spit. And they even let me get drunk on wine and beer (I was only 14).

1984 (April 8th) Walked to Longton Marsh on the Ribble. Whooper Swan, 250 Black Tailed Godwit, Greenshank, Long Eared Owl, Corn Bunting and Shoveler.

1998 (April ?). It was around this time I and some friends went hiking somewhere in the Austrian Tyrol. Can't remember the exact date but I can remember seeing Crested Tit and Chamoix. We hiked quite high and slept in a shepherd's hut (we broke in). That night it snowed outside and was absolutely freezing and my thin sleeping bag was woefully inadequete. I had a huge row with my then girlfriend about something or other and (unrelated) had to take a dump behind a bush which is never a nice thing to have to do. Despite all this I had great time. Bizzarely we also saw a Cappercaillie at the border checkpoint between Germany and Austria.

Unfortunately I lost all my photos of my 2 years in Germany when I moved.......

2003 (April 9th). Hakodate. Grey Headed Woodpecker, Common Crossbill and Osprey.

2005 (April 8th). Hakodate. Common Sandpiper and Red Flanked Bluetail near my flat.

Here's a couple more pics from the feeding staion last Tuesday. The Hokkaido race of Great Tit and a Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker.

First summer arrivals

A Black Kite flying over my apartment this afternoon. Just a practise shot.

The first summer arrivals in Hakodate were 3 Asian House Martin flying around one of the bridges over the river close to my flat. A small colony of them nest there every year. It actually snowed a bit today. Bet they felt cold. They appear identical to the House Martins back home in the UK but are apparently slightly different and are a separate species. Japanese Skylark, Oriental Turtle Dove and Common Reed Bunting also made their first appearances of 2007 in Hakodate. I saw all 3 species of Wagtail today with Japanese Wagtails singing and displaying.

Still lots of winter stuff. The Dusky Thrush pics are getting (very) slowly better.



Basically very similar to Fieldfares in habits, Dusky Thrush can be a bit difficult to approach. The other 6 species of Thrush in Japan are usually even shyer. No hopping across the lawn or singing atop TV aerials here.

Other birds around this week have included Buzzard, Peregrine, Brambling and the usual common woodland stuff. Here's a Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker at the feeding station at the foot of Hakodateyama yesterday.



My wife says these pics (and the exceedingly tame ones at Onuma) are cheating. So here's a real genuine shy Nuthatch that would never eat out of any human hand in the forest yesterday afternoon.



All pics taken with the new camera. I'm slowly getting to grips with all the settings and things on it. Of course now I'm thinking of which lens I'm going to upgrade to next.

Great result for Liverpool last night. A Liverpool v Man U final????

Around April 4th down the years:

1984 (April 6th). Ribble at Penwortham. 54 Fieldfare, 9 Ringed Plover, 1 Grey Plover, Tree Sparrow (abundant here in Japan but where are they in Penwortham now?), Corn Bunting......earlier in the week I also saw Willow Tit which is similarly very scarce now in those parts.

2006 (April 5th) Hakodate. White Backed Woodpecker plus all 6 species of Japanese paridae.

Spring in northern Japan

2 pics of 2 of the commonest residents in Hakodate. Slaty Backed Gull and Large billed Crow. Very easy to photograph and good practice for my new camera.

So spring is here. It's been raining on and off the last 3 days so I haven't done much birding. Next week is election time. Electioneering here consists of the candidates driving around in little convoys with a speaker attached to the roof. They are very very loud. "Vote for me! My name is Sato! Thank you! Good morning! Thank you! Vote for me!" etc etc. They do this all day. Another 7 days of this. I can't even vote (I'm a nasty suspicious foreigner you see) and even if I could I couldn't bring myself to vote for any of these bland grey-suited corrupt lackeys to the construction industry middle aged nobodies.

I found a feeding station in the forest at the botton of Hakodateyama. Lots of Tits (4 species), Nuthtaches, Woodpeckers (2 kinds) and also some Brambling. There's even a hide. Here's a pic of a Great and Coal Tit pecking at I don't know what.



And a perky but scruffy Coal Tit.



If you click on the above 2 you'll see I'm having a few resizing issues.

Annoyingly my brand new camera's memory card started playing up just as I was snapping away at a Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker. This is the second time it has happened and will result in a polite but firm and assertive trip to the electronics shop next week. I switched to my baby Scope and compact digicam and got these pics of a male Brambling and a female Great Spotted Woodpecker.




Not too much around town this last few days. A female Red Flanked Bluetail and a handful of Japanese Waxwing didn't hang around in shot long enough for a photo. Glaucous Winged Gull are still about and there was this odd Gull on the beach. Probably just a Herring (Vega) Gull but it was much smaller than the other Herring and Slaty Backeds abd had yellow legs. Apparently some of them do.



Here's a Dusky Thrush near my flat today. It was tiny in the original but with heavy cropping and a little editing in my ancient copy of photoshop it's almost ok.



The fast shutter speeds on my new camera offer some intriguing possibilities with action shots. Here are a couple of experimental shots from today. A Teal taking off with a splash and 2 very distant Carrion Crows mugging a Black Kite.




A classic Crouch hat-trick against a team with major international defenders last night. Never thought I'd ever type that. If he can do it against Estonians that'd be nice too. Although it'd mean McClown keeping his job. Of course if there's an all out nuclear war with Iran all this will be irrelevant.

New camera, old birds

I finally got my telephoto lens on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday me and the wife headed up to Lake Toya (a hot spring resort about 2 or 3 hours north of Hakodate). We first visted here back in 2000 a couple of months after the local volcano (Uzu) blew and the town had had to be evacuated (those moronic guys with red batons had a field day).

These are some of the pics I took of the tame Nuthatch/Tits at Onuma. Not drastically different results from digicoping but so much easier to set up. I just take my camera out and start snapping away. Of course I'll still digiscope for long range subjects. I have to work out what all the settings and controls on my (D) SLR actually mean. I just set it in continous shooting in the apperture control and fired off several bursts and hoped for the best. Less post shot editing than digiscoping though.






Signs of spring were around yesterday and today. Woodpeckers drumming and Swans honking. These swans at Yakumo give me a hint of what my new camera may be capable of. Heavily cropped and very heavily edited but quite effective.




A Barn Swallow was around at Yakumo. Very early indeed. Japanese Skylark were singing, Spotted Redshank and Ruff were passing through, Oriental Turtle Dove had returned from the south of Japan and there were huge numbers of Duck on the river and offshore (15 species in all). Best of all was a male Long Tailed Duck mixed in with the Black Scoter. A Japanese first for me. I was checking the Scoter flocks for White-Winged (I couldn't find any) and was delighted to find the Long Tailed..........a common bird in northern Japan but one that had eluded me up to now. Lots of Glaucous Gull looking brilliant white in the spring sunshine plus various Grebes and Divers too far out to ID. 1 adult White Tailed and 1 immature Stellers Sea Eagle were at Onuma, a Great White Egret was at Yakumo, Mandarin Ducks had returned to Onuma and a lone Mute Swan was on Toya.

This is a view from my hotel window. I'd stayed at this hotel in 2004 with my parents. In high season the buffet was great. In low season it isn't.





And this is the same mountain up a bit closer. Mt Yotei. I've actually climbed it twice. Japanese Accentor at the top both times plus my first ever Red Flanked Bluetail.



Thank god I missed the England debacle in Andorra. I think this will be the first time in ages they'll miss out in qualifying for a major tournament. Like USA '94, Euro '84 and Argentia '78. I can remember all of them. It's painful being an England fan. Since beating Poland in 2004 I can't recall a single decent England performance.

Around March 29th down the years:

1984 (March 29th) Penwortham. 2 Long Eared Owls (found by a reader of this blog in fact). Still the only ones I've ever seen (they stuck around a while). 2 days later they were still there along with Whooper and Bewicks Swan, 50+ Black Tailed Godwit and 20+ Golden Pover.

1988 (March 29th) Seaforth. 1 adult Med Gull.

2004 (March 29th) Hakodate. My first ever Ural Owl. Dramatically pursued through temple grounds by 50 hysterical Crows.

2005 (March 30th). Hakodate. A HOOPOE flapping around in the sleet on the rugby field at Yunokawa. Very strong westerlies had presumably blown it over from the Asian mainland. A Rhinoceros Auklet was at the Cape on the 31st.

So I got a new camera but..............

I bought my DSLR last Monday. A Canon EOS 400D to give it its' European name (it's called the "EOS Kiss Digital X" in Japan). I got the standard 18-55mm Kit lens and ordered a cheap and cheerful 70-300mm Sigma telephoto lens to start taking bird pics. Annoyingly the big lens hasn't arrived yet so I haven't been able to take any decent bird pics yet. I've been chomping at the bit. The Night Heron stayed until Monday and this pic (with the standard lens) popped the camera's cherry. If you look very closely you can just about make out the Night Heron.



And heavily cropped on my PC here's the same pic. Definitely a Night Heron.



And extremely heavily cropped.



Of course the pics of the same bird with the cheap compact and tiny Scope from last week were much better. But that's not the point. Anyway the bast#*ds had better deliver my big lens before I start my 5 day break on Wednesday.

Birds this week in Hakodate included the first returning birds from southern Japan this spring. Grey Wagtail on the river near my house. Also 3 Night Herons flying over my flat. The Red Necked Grebe passage is in full swing offshore. A flock of 12 Japanese Waxwing were pressent today (and close enough to have managed a nice pic with my undelivered lens). Here's a couple of crappy pics from the week (handheld compact against tiny scope). Dusky Thrush and Blue Rock Thrush.




I stayed up until 5.30am (!) watching England's turgid display in Israel. It wasn't on live in Japan so I watched it via an internet feed from China (with Chinese commentary and a tiny picture). At least Kenya didn't knock us out of the cricket.

Here's a pic of me looking pensive at karaoke. I hate karaoke. I only went because it was my wife's birthday. She refuses to let me post pics of her online so you can't see her with mic in hand belting out classic J-pop anthems.



Around March 25th down the years:

1983 (March 25th). Hodder Valley. Goosander, Grey Wagtail, Willow Tit, Kingfisher and Dipper. Very similar (almost identical in fact) birds to what I've seen here in Japan this week.

1999 (March 27th). The grand total of 31 Oystercatcher in Penwortham.

2004 (March 24th) Hakodate. Whooper Swans flying north over town. Grey Headed Woodpecker, Treecreeper, Siskin and Brambling.

2005 (March 27th). Glaucous and Glaucous Winged Gulls on the river near my flat. Also Red Throated Diver offshore and Common Guilemot at the local cape.

Black Crowned Night Heron

I took a walk down the river near my flat and the same Night Heron was still there. I decided to go back and get my small 50mm Kowa Prominar 504 Scope and get some pics. Not bad for handheld shots (no adapter) on a crappy lightweight tripod. It helpled of course that the bird was completely motionless most of the time. There was another one downstream too. I'm not 100% sure of the status of this species in Hakodate. I'd assumed they were summer vistors (I often see immature birds from July to October) but I've seen several this winter. Perhaps the mild weather has resulted in them overwintering. I remember the first one of these I ever saw. Redscar, on the Ribble upstream from Preston on a balmy May evening in 1987 just before my A-levels.

Not much else about. The Thayers Gull seems to have gone. The usual common winter birds were about. I reached the beach and had a quick look out to sea. A few Red Necked Grebes, Black Scoters and red Breasted Mergansers were bobbing around on a slightly rough ocean.

I'm debating whether to buy A DSLR. You know I think I just might. Maybe.



Boring games last night. Why do Man U and Chelsea always win? I forgot the England v Wales Rugby game was on (turns out I was lucky there). I listened to the England/NZ cricket right up until Flintoff was out for a duck. Still at least I'm not a Pakistan fan. Ireland! Bangladesh! Who said the minnows shouldn't be there?

Around 18th March down the years:

1983 (March 19) A female Black Redstart on the river at Penwortham. Still the only Black Redstart I've seen in the UK (though I've seen lots in Europe). Also a very early Wheatear.

1986 (March 19th-) Blairgowrie Scotland, A Geography A level field trip. God it was cold. Memorable for 2 shameful reasons. The first of only 2 times in my life when I didn't make it to the bathroom in time (and the second time at least involved food posoining and heavy drinking). The second was the only time I've ever worn women's clothes and make-up (it was a kind of joke for someone's birthday party. No really it was). No particularly interesting birds though I did see a white Arctic Hare. I'm on the right with the gloves and when this photo was taken my bowels were ok I think. God knows what the other people in the photo are doing now. It's a bit wonky. I know.



1987 (March 22nd) A Woodcock flew over my parents' house in Penwortham.

1989 (March 21st) Fleetwood and Lytham. Purple Sandpiper, Commmon Eider and lots of commmon waders.

2003 (March 19) "Unidentified immature Eagle" flying over Hakodate. I think this may have been a Stellers which still isn't on my local patch list yet.

2004 (March 17-20). Hakodate. Kittiwake, Brambling, Long Tailed Tit, Goldcrest, Yellow Throated Bunting, Siskin, Peregrine, Kingfisher, Black Scoter and Red Necked Grebe.

I wish I had an expensive camera

Not a lot of birding the last couple of weeks and this photo from last week shows why. After almost no snow in Hakodate since early January winter finally decided to kick in during the second week of March. The snow was pretty heavy and made driving a bit too tricky to venture out into the sticks. Because there was no compacted ice on the pavements as per usual in winters here the snow quickly became slush. Actually I haven't had use of the car much this month anyway so all my birding has been on foot or by City Tram.

Last Wednesday (the 14th) I went to Yunokawa and had a surprisingly good day's birding. Bird of the day was a Northern Lapwing. The same species that we have back in Europe but it's rather scarce in this part of the world (it was new to my Japanese list). I remember the first one I ever saw on a family holiday to my grandparent's caravan in the Lake District sometime in the late 1970's. It seemed kind of exotic at the time until I saw tens of thousands of them all over the place. Here the lone individual looked exotic again.

Also around of interest were Buff Bellied Pipit, Japanese Wagtail, Brown Dipper, Pintail, Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker, Rustic Bunting, Bohemian Waxwing and Long Tailed Rosefinch, Marsh and Varied Tits plus the usual Ducks and Grebes on the sea. No photos I'm afraid. I took my small Kowa Scope and lightweight Slik tripod and my digiscoping gear (plus adapters this time) but couldn't get onto any of these birds on time (it wasn't the kind of place where I could just carry my Scope around at the ready. As a dirty foreigner I get enough stares from the locals anyway). If I'd had a decent DSLR around my neck though................just look at some of the pics on Sato-san's blog linked to the right. Mo-San and Carmo's blogs also have some great pics. All from DSLRs.

Digiscoping is fine as far as it goes. I can set up my larger Scope and tripod near the car in places like Kamiso, Onuma and Yakumo and fire off some acceptable shots. But on the hoof it's impossible or impractical to carry around that gear. Will my next big purchaase be a new MacBook or a DSLR plus lens?

Here's the best I can manage with my small crappy Nikon compact digicam in situations where a decent pic may be possible if the right gear were to hand. An adult Black Crowned Night Heron on the river near my flat this lunchtime. Heavily cropped and zoomed. Now if I'd had a DSLR............






The Thayers Gull was still around last week. Kingfisher and Hawfinch too. Common winter birds like Dusky Thrush and Daurian Redstart would make great photo subjects if I had........

Liverpool for the Champions League? Hope so. Will England make a balls up in Israel? Hope not. England not to get humiliated in the Cricket World Cup? I'm quietly confident they won't.

Blue Rock Thrush

A male Blue Rock Thrush at Yunokawa a couple of days ago. The pic was taken handheld against my small Kowa 50mm Scope perched atop a very lightweight rickety Slik tripod. Quite a few nice birds at Yunokawa-a couple of Buff Bellied Pipit, a pair of Ring Necked Pheasant, Varied and Marsh Tit, Sparrowhawk, a couple of singing Japanese Wagtail, Brown Dipper, Black Scoter and lots of Red Necked Grebe on the sea.



I walked in the forest on Hakodateyama last week but there wasn't much to see. Lots of Tits, Nuthatches and the commoner Woodpeckers but no photo opps except for this woodland shrine type thing. Pretty quiet in town recently too. Siskin was the most interesting species.

I made the post below when I was tired and emotional after the Liverpool/ Man U game.

Around March 4th down the years

1983 (March 5) Penwortham. A Chilean Flamingo escapee on the Ribble.

1984 (March 3). Marshside. lots of waders and wildfowl including Bewicks Swan and Black Tailed Godwit. Also Brambling, Twite and a female Merlin.

2003 (March 5). Hakodate. A Rosy Finch (still the only one I've ever seen) in the exact same place I went today. Also around were Crossbill and Brambling.

2006 (March 4). Hakodate. Female Merlin flew over my flat.

Jesus F#cki*ng Christ

Liverpool lose in the last minute (completely against the run of play too I might add) to Manchester Utd. God I feel so dirty and angry. AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGHHHHHHHH.

This pic is from a church somewhere in Bamberg Bavaria I took in 1997. It reminds me of Paul Scholes. Only slightly less goblin-like than the ginge Manc himself.



I hope the pain goes away tommorrow.

End of Winter. Sort of.

A Varied Tit at Onuma this afternoon. Could have been a great pic if the head had been in focus rather than its back but you can't have everything. The usual stuff at Kamiso, Yakumo and Onuma today. All the common Ducks (12 species including large rafts of Scaup on the coast and the first decent size flocks of Black Scoter this winter) and Gulls (7 species with lots of Glaucous and Glaucous Winged) were present at the usual locations, a few Grebes (mostly Black Necked), an unidentified Diver way out at Kamiso plus the usual woodland stuff at Onuma and river stuff at Yakumo.

There was a Peregrine (at Kamiso) but only a few Eagles around. Maybe the mild winter has meant they've headed north a little earlier than normal. 1 adult Stellers and half a dozen White Tailed were all we could find at Yakumo and at Onuma there were 2 White Tailed and an immature Stellers which was sitting all by itself in the middle of the still frozen lake. Here's the best of some lousy Eagle shots. A rather small and weedy looking White Tailed at Yakumo.



This is a Black Kite. The commonest raptor by far in Japan. An abundant resident. Some folks are trying to make this into a separate species (is it the Black Eared Kite? Something eared anyway).



I remember the first time I saw one of these. Somewhere in central France from a TGV window in April 1983. I've seen many since. Lots in Queensland and Kathmandu (where they seemed the commonest bird) and now here in Japan. It's easy to get blase about them. A pair were doing a courtship display flight above my flat last week..........and I was more interested in a distant Hawfinch.




A pic of me hunched over the Scope at Kamiso this morning. There is some minor construction work going on here as there is at Goryokaku Park. This park, near my flat, is (or rather was) a nice little place that is usually good for birds at this time of year but is now basically a construction site (they're building a replica fort for literally millions of $). And there is nobody doing any actual work. Nobody. Just guys napping in trucks or sitting around all day in heated prefabs eating instant noodles and chainsmoking.

It wouldn't be a day out without a Nuthatch pic so here we are.




Around February 28th down the years:
1984 (Feb 25-27). My first trip to East Anglia. Not the tickfest I'd been expecting at the time. 4 lifers. White Fronted Goose at Minsmere and Brent Goose at Felixstowe Ferry (where my friend lost his boot in the mud). Redpoll and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker at Strumpshaw Fen.

1995. (Last week Feb). I was trekking in the Langtang region of Nepal. Quite an experience. From jungle to Snow, Yaks, exhaustion, stunningly beautiful views and about 10kg lost in weight. I didn't have a decent fieldguide and was too kanckered most of the time to even think about getting my bins out. I did see some nice birds however. Best of all was Lammergeier but others I remember were Black Faced Laughing Thrush Spotted Forktail, Brown Dipper, White Capped River Chat, Plumbeous Redstart, Hill and Snow Pigeons, a very colourful gamebird that may have been an Impeyan Pheasant, lots of Tits including Green Backed and Red Headed, Chestnut Bellied Rock Thrush, Whistling Thrush, Red Billed Blue Magpie, Red Billed and Alpine Choughs, Pied Bushchat and lots of Finches/Babblers/Warblers that I never did ID. This is me at the end of the 8 day trek smoking some local produce.




I need to go trekking in Nepal again. Both times I went I lost loads of weight and had a great time. I don't even smoke tobbaco anymore though.

1999 (Feb 27). Brighton. A Yellow Legged Gull out of my friend's window. I think. Bit of a heavy weekend I recall.

2003 (Feb 28) Hakodate. Male Crossbill singing in the aforementioned Goryokaku park.

2005 (Feb 27th) Hakodate. Good day in Yunokawa. Long Billed Plover, Brown Dipper, Yellow Throated Bunting and Buff Bellied Pipit.