2007 winding down........

The Kingfisher was still there yesterday.......and in reasonably good light so I took the 400mm lens. This (above) was my favourite shot. Not much else around........December always seems to be a bit of a quiet month. The Kingfisher kept me entertained for half an hour.





It hasn't snowed this week..........in some places the snow has gone, in others it is kind of powdery and in shady places it is hard compacted ice. The river is generally always ice-free so no pronged beaks for this bird.



*WARNING* Ranting ahead.

I went to Yunokawa this morning. A bit depressing as there is a huge construction project going on next to the river. This was an area of farmland/grassland that had breeding Chestnut Eared Bunting/Siberian Stonechat/Black Browed Reed Warbler/Bullheaded Shrike and Latham's Snipe. Now it's full of Japanese men in hardhats and overalls operating huge cranes, drills and diggers. Shifting lots of land, digging and drilling lots of holes. I don't know what they are building. A supermarket perhaps. Another pachinko parlour maybe. The area isn't big (about 3 or 4 footie fields in area I suppose) and in world terms the habitat loss is insignificant but I'm still annoyed. Why build new stuff when there are loads and loads of derelict and empty pieces of land already in town? I think Japanese people prefer concrete to grass anyway. They won't be happy until every last bit of flat land in the country has been concreted over. The country will be one third existing buildings, one third old empty shells of buildings and one third under construction buildings.

I suspect it may even be publicly funded and Yunokawa may be blessed with a useless eyesore masquerading as some kind of 'community centre' or some such crap. They use pointless wasteful construction projects as a way of keeping unemployment figures down. A couple of years ago they 'improved' the river in Yunokawa by chopping down lots of trees (which used to be great for migrants in spring) and channeling the river (before it was gentle and meandering) and of course adding yet more concrete to the riverbanks.

There's a construction project near my flat now. A block of flats. Hakodate's population is actually falling and there are lots of empty apartments. But no. Let's build some more. I can watch them working from my window (and hear them too the noisy bastards). Interesting job descriptions some of them must have. The 2 men whose job it is to wave around those absurd red batons and blow whistles incessantly for no apparent reason. Several workers jobs seem to entail standing around all day watching others work. Others seem to do construction work completely by cellphone or via smoking cigarettes. FIVE MONTHS it will take them!!!! The only thing that hinted at speed and efficiency was when they put up their little prefab hut. The place where they sit around smoking, napping and eating instant noodles all day.

*END OF RANT*

Birds? Not much at Yunokawa fittingly enough except a couple of Great White Egrets. Nice to shoot something that isn't very fast, small and blue. They still flew away as soon as I raised my camera.





Around December 12 down the years:

1986 (Dec 13) A long day's birding on Merseyside began at Marshside.........not much here except lots of Pinkfeet and a few Twite. Nowt at seaforth either and at west Kirby we had a fruitless search for Shore Lark (which I've yet to see anywhere).

1988 (Dec 11). A long day's birding around Newcastle. 2 lifers.......Long Tailed Duck at South Shields and Bohemian Waxwing at Washington. Also saw Eider, Red Throated Diver and lots of Golden Plover plus other common waders........

1998 (Dec 11) I arrived back in England after a long stint abroad (2 years in Germany plus 3 or 4 months travelling around Asia) with no money, no voice, no job and no girlfriend. Gloomy........so I did a lot of birding this week on the Ribble at Penwortham and saw.........nothing interesting at all. 60 Curlew on the 17th seems the most noteworthy entry.

2002 (Dec 13) a male Goshawk near my flat in Hakodate was a lifer. Would have made a great picture if I'd had a camera as it was very close.

2003 (Dec 17). 4 years ago and Yunokawa was much nicer than it is now. Water Rail (my only ever view of this species) and Long Billed Plover (another lifer at the time) were the pick of the day's birds and there were also Japanese Wagtail and Goshawk.

I watched the Liverpool game last night. If they can beat Man U on Sunday and England can appoint a decent manager (I quite like the idea of Capello I have to say) life looks a bit rosier. The cricket team are still sh*t though.

Diving and fishing

Rather gloomy weather recently.........cold and grey (although almost no snow since last week's blizzards). I took a short walk to the river this morning and was rewarded with this shot of a diving Kingfisher. I only had the 300mm lens (I'm too nervous about slipping on the ice and damaging the 400mm) but it did a good job of catching the moment as the Kingfisher left its' perch.



I couldn't get a clear view of it eating the fish.......this is the best one I could manage.

Yesterday I went to Ono chasing a Rough Legged Buzzard. Unfortunately I didn't see it though I did see 1 or 2 Common Buzzards. Common Buzzards are extremely variable (so much that it seems difficult to actually define a single diagnostic ID feature for the Rough Legged). I took some crappy pics which you can see here along with discussion of the ID by people much more knowledgeable than me.

Not much else around the last few days. A male Goshawk and juvenile Night Heron today, White Tailed Eagle at Onuma yesterday, Redpolls still around a few days ago, rafts of Scaup and Goldeneye offshore at Kamiso as welll as flocks of Black Necked Grebe yesterday..........

Naturally we fed the usual suspects at Onuma. I'm tired of posting Nuthatch/Marsh tit pics but luckily there were 2 Varied Tits. Surprisingly Onuma had less snow than Hakodate.





I've tentatively started paying attention to the football again. Big week for Liverpool. And at least for the neutral the Premier League seems a lot more open than recent seasons.

A bit short of images this time so here's a picture of Black Kite from last Friday.

Kingfishers in the snow

Winter 2007/8 is here to stay.






The snow arrived a couple of days ago........a foot or more dumped on Hakodate. I haven't done much birding except trying (with limited success) to get a decent Kingfisher pic with the 400mm lens. Difficult in the poor light with snow streaking across confusing the autofocus. It fishes on the river 3 or 4 minutes walk away.I went to the river (complete with heavy insulated snow boots so I could stand in the snow) on 4 separate occasions in the last 3 days.





The bird in question isn't exactly shy either. It perches motionless, striking nice poses. I tried to get some shoots of it diving but I just wasn't quick enough (and it was too dark anyway). A couple of times the snow stopping briefly and the clouds thinning out temporarily co-incided with the bird being present but alas it wasn't as close as the pics above.





Nothing else exciting on the river. The Brown Dipper flies up and down and stops occasionally to sing its' strange warbling song (Dippers seem to have a strange talent for ventriloquism), a few Hawfinch and Dusky Thrush, the usual male Daurian Redstart, a cold and miserable Grey Heron, the last Black Backed wagtails and Oriental Greenfinches fleeing the snows of Hokkaido, a lone Grey Starling, a few of the commoner Ducks.



This was the local park yesterday........I got caught in a small blizzard. At least i had the park to myself. A couple of days ago (before the snow came) there were some pretty good birds in the park including this species. These shots were with the 70-300 lens.





A Common Redpoll, one of 4 feeding on pinecones. This was only the second time I'd seen this species in Japan, I haven't seen that many in the UK either. I'd noticed a few Finches zipping around in town the last few days with slightly odd calls....I suppose they must have been these. Also in the park were a small flock of Rustic Bunting (check the crappy picture below), lots of Coal Tit, a few Great Tit and Varied Tit, Hawfinch and Dusky Thrush.



So winter is well and truly here. Much colder than the UK and loads more snow......at least we usually get a white christmas.

Songs on my ipod recently have included 'bodysnatchers' by Radiohead (a band I'd never really given much time to but I like this song), 'vessel in vain' by Smog (the song from 'dead man's shoes'), 'peasant army' by the Redskins and 'sunrise', an old New Order song. I'm looking forward to seeing that new movie about Ian Curtis.......

More local patch stuff and some Kathmandu memories

The Kingfisher was still around yesterday as was a lone juvenile Night Heron. I wish I'd had the 400mm lens to get these pics but it just isn't practical to drag around town. A bit of a pain to update the blog as google seems to have a bit of a bug meaning I have to fiddle about with html just so you can enlarge my photos (none of which are particularly exciting today anyway). Just the usual stuff around my flat so here's 2 pics of the same birds again.





Even if I'd had the 400mm lens it couldn't have hidden the garbage from the background. Not much else around, nothing new anyway. So here's another Teal.



So Liverpool doing ok. Interesting group of death in that footie thing next summer which I probably won't be watching much of. England screwing up after a promising start in Sri Lanka.

Around December 3rd down the years:

1983 (Dec 3) Walney. Wow, 24 years ago (and just after England had got knocked out of Euro 84, these things go in cycles). My first and until now only Lapland Bunting amongst the commoner winter stuff.

1987 (Dec 2 and 4th). St Marys near Whitley Bay. I didn't do much birding in my university days but these 2 days I went to the rocks by the lighthouse and saw 82 Purple Pandpiper, lots of other waders, Puffin, Guilemot, Red Throated Diver, Eider and Rock Pipit.

1994 (first week Dec) Cairns. I wound up in Cairns, North Queensland for a few days after working for 6 weeks up in Cooktown. Cairns seemed like a huge metropolis after Cooktown. The birding on the esplanade was spectacular. I wish I'd had my current camera with me. Lots of waders very very close. My logbook (written up months afterwards) indicates almost 30 species but I've purged some of them off my list. I can recall some quite clearly. My first Terek Sandpiper and Red Necked Stints,Pacific Golden Plover, Pied Oystercatcher, Turnston and probably a dozen others, perhaps Marsh Sandpiper, Great Knot, Sharp Tailed Sandpiper?. Add in Crested, Little and Gull Billed Tern, several species of Heron, Royal Spoonbill and thousands of screaming Rainbow Lorikeets. I did my only touristy thing in Australia:I went to the Great Barrier Reef and did some snorkelling. I'm not a good swimmer and I even went in the water using cut off jeans with a piece of old string as a belt. And I saw 'Pulp Fiction' in a cinema............and for a short time thought it was the best film I'd ever seen. Mind you I was stoned and had been stuck in the bondooks for a while.

1998 (first week Dec). I was in Kathmandu waiting to fly back to the UK. My long trip around the subcontinent was coming to an end and I was a little bit tired of Asia to be honest (I also had a nasty throat infection). Still, it was a nice end to the trip pottering around what is one of my favourite cities. i spent most afternoons on the roof top smoking hash and watching the Kites fly overhead. In the evenings flocks of Paddybirds and Cattle Egrets flapped across the horizon, I also saw Magpie Robin, Red Vented Bulbul and the other common urban birds of the area. In the mornings I explored the city and took lots of crappy pictures like these.





2002 (Dec 8) Yakumo and Sawara. Lots of Stellers and White Tailed Eagles but the main target of the day (a regular wintering Gyrfalcon) eluded us. It was supposed to be in a windwsept coastal area and a friend drove us there (we didn('t have a car at the time). It was bitterly cold and our friend got bored of waiting...I never did get to see it. The next winter it didn't return.

2006 (Dec 4) Kamiso. 3 White Fronted Goose.

A walk in the forest

One of many Goldcrests today. Difficult things to photograph.

We spent a very pleasant day in the forest at Onuma. My wife was a bit worried as a Brown Bear had been seen here a few days ago (there were a few signs up). This was the largest mammal on view today.



There were lots of birds in the forest and on the lake. This was the most interesting bird and least pleasing photo of the day.



One of a group of 3 Common Crossbills atop some kind of evergreen. These were the first ones I've seen in ages (over 3 years in fact). For 3 consecutive springs they were everywhere in Hakodate and then none at all until today.20 or 30 Whooper Swans were on the lake, 2 Great White Egrets were lakeside, there were also single Goshawks and White Tailed Eagles, huge rafts of Goosander, Long Tailed Rosefinch, Siskin, all the common woodland stuff including the usual suspects.



Common woodland stuff being Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker (above), Great Spotted Woodpecker, Grey Headed Woodpecker, the 5 paridae species, Nuthatch and Treecreeper.

It was very sunny today but the lake is beginning to freeze so the ice was making strange whistling creaking noises.





If those shots look unoriginal try these 2.





At least the Goldcrests broke up the monotony a little. Here's a pic of me fondling the (borrowed) Canon 100-400. My wife prefers anonymity on this blog but she couldn't object to the sunset picture surely.





Yesterday in Hakodate was also good for birds. I saw 2 very late species (usually they're well gone by now)-Black Faced Bunting and Japanese Bush Warbler. Also around were Grey wagtail, Grey Starling, Hawfinch, Dusky Thrush, Brown Dipper amd this Common Kingfisher. I didn't have the big lens with me for these shots......





So that was November 2007. I got a nice new lens, was loaned an even better one, watched in utter horror as England f*#ked up big style, ate the nicest sushi I've had for ages, changed my fave beer brand from Sapporo back to Kirin, went to a hot spring resort and updated my ancient i-mac with an external DVD writer, USB webcam and a self procured copy of Tiger.

Dark days

'Dark days' refers to the weather rather than any sinister happenings or mental anguish...............

A Red Flanked Bluetail at the foot of Mt Hakodate this morning. NOT taken with the 100-400 lens which was in my backpack at the time (actually it stayed in my backpack all day). Dashed difficult to get a picture as the bird just refused to stay still. Here's another one that at least shows us it's an aptly named bird.



Other stuff in the forest included Siskin, Japanese White-eye, Long Tailed Rosefinch, 1 or 2 Japanese Accentor (a local tick) as well as the common residents, none of whom wanted to be photographed. On the long walk to the mountain I saw Brent Goose, 5 species of duck including Pochard, Brown Dipper, Little Grebe, Glaucous Winged Gull and hundreds of Common Gull resting before heading south to Honshu. The snow has all gone (temporarily alas) but it was a raw wintry day. I went to the small hide in the forest that overlooks a feeding station (I wanted to get some shots of Woodpeckers with the big lens) but for some reason the folks who organise such things haven't left any food out yet so there weren't actually any birds there.

In the last 2 or 3 days I went to Onuma and the Brent Goose site in Hakodate and took some more predictable shots of the usual species. At least the Nuthatches were striking some different poses. The following shots were with the big lens.






And The Brent Geese were swimming around and trying to feed. I say 'trying' because there was an awful lot of garbage in the sea. I cropped most of the flotsam and jetsam out of these pics.





I tried to get some other shots of some other species the last few days. The 100-400 lens is great of course but it's a little heavy for a walkaround lens (especially dangling around the neck). It also needs reasonably good light which hasn't really been a feature of the last few days. Here's the Japanese race of Great Tit (much shyer in front of the lens than its' congeners). The Long Tailed Tit and Japanese Accentor shots on my PC aren't worth uploading..........



The Marsh Tits were as tame as ever.



And as the picture quality declines here's a White Tailed Eagle flying over Ono on Tuesday.



I'm sure winter will return in the next few days. Not much happening in my life at the moment........November always was a bit of a slow month.

Mourinho for England? Now that would be interesting. If I ever care about football again that is.

Today's gripe about Japan. Potato salad/spaghetti/noodles in sandwiches. Whose insane idea were those fillings? They were my only choices in the nearest supermarket to Mt Hakodate. And they put mayonaise on pizza too.