Some sunshine

I spent the last couple of days birding with Franck, a French cheesemaker who used to live in Hokkaido and was back in Japan for a holiday.

Today was bitterly cold and icy but was actually sunny. I'd forgotten what sunshine and blue skies looked like.

Yesterday we went up to Yakumo. There were still quite a few eagles but it was snowing most of the time and there were very few photo opps.

This may have been my last day with the eagles this season, it's been a good one so I can't really complain. We looked up the coast, I wanted to show Franck the Long Tailed Ducks but there were none about. Most of the common seaduck were present including White Winged Scoter.

Today we were at Onuma. The Varied Tits were especially photogenic.

The Nuthatches too...........

They are so tame they are almost like pets, hopping around on my hat and perching within a few inches of us as they awaited a handout of sunflower seeds.

Not much else around at Onuma: a couple of White Tailed Eagles, the usual resident Tits and Woodpeckers. Shikabe was also very quiet, the Black Necked Grebes were few and far between and not easy to photograph.

Franck is the person who sold me the 100-400 a couple of years ago. He has the 500L F4 and he uses it handheld most of the time too (lifting all those heavy cheeses is good training I guess). I tried his lens a little and it is so heavy compared to the puny little 100-400..............

I got up to watch Wednesday night's footy. 3 interesting games, annoyingly Liverpool lost and it's going to be tough to get 4th now. They have to beat Man City next week I suppose, easier said than done. Ashley Cole may miss the World Cup, that's not good news either.........

On this day (February 11th)....................

February 11th 2009.

Black Throated Diver in the harbour at Oshamanbe. This is one of 4 species of Diver that visit Hokkaido (one is the rare White Billed diver which I've yet to see). Usually they're way offshore and only viewable through a scope but this one was in the confines of the harbour and was possible to photograph from a distance at least.

A bright red bird in a dull grey week......

Not much happening in Hakodate the last few days, the snow melted a bit on a mildish day and then refroze meaning it's a pain to walk outside again. Not many birds about either, this male Daurian Redstart was the only thing I've photographed so far this week.......

And, er, that's about it.

The Waxwings didn't show. I suppose I could have missed them when I had a cold and was housebound last week but I haven't heard anyone else seeing any either.  On the watched-kettle-never-boils principle I'll stop looking for them..........

If Liverpool can get results in the next 2 games the 2009/10 season looks a lot lot better...............

Above zero

A Black Necked Grebe at Shikabe this afternoon. The temperature climbed above zero (just) after a bitterly cold week. Last week was a bit of a write off birdwise. Merlin and Great Egret were the only noteworthy species in my brief forays out.

Today we headed out to Sawara to check second-hand reports of a Gyrfalcon there. There used to be a regular adult in winter here (before we got our car though.........I've never seen one). Things looked promising as soon as we arrived, a falcon flashed in front of the car (it was just a Peregrine I think). Things took a turn for the worse when we got stuck in the snow on a dirt track. The only car we saw all afternoon in the area pulled us out, how lucky was that?

Not only was there no Gyrfalcon there was nothing at all except for lots and lots of Black Kites.

In the nearby fishing harbours there were a few of the above Black Necked Grebes as well as the usual common wildfowl including Harlequin Duck.

We also saw several White Tailed Eagles but they were high up in a grey grey sky.

Back at Onuma the tame Tits and Nuthatches have survived the cold snap.

There were a couple of White Tailed Eagle here too as well as Black Woodpecker.

Liverpool have quietly crept up to 4th, some good results last night...........

On this day (February 4th)....................

February 4th 2009.

The main influx of Waxwings into the local neighbourhood started on the 4th in 2009, slightly later than in most years. They had been around the city for a week or two but only hit the area near my flat on this day.

The flock was on the main high street in Hakodate, feeding on the wizened berries there. They swarm down from the wires and TV antennas en masse. They never do that near me, by the time I get there pedestrians have scared them off. Or they're on the other side of a busy road and by the time the lights change and I can cross they're back up high...............and I can't dash across the road because this is right in front of Hakodate Police HQ.

Despite the frustrations of getting a decent shot this is still one of the birding highlights of the year.........hopefully there will be an influx in 2010. In 2008 they didn't come until March, in 2005 there were several influxes over 10 or so weeks that included both this species pictured above (the Bohemian Waxwing) and Japanese Waxwing.

Brent Geese

Yesterday I walked down to the dock area to check out the Brent Geese. It was my first visit to the area for a couple of months and there were a lot more Geese this time, about 20 or so birds in 2 or 3 loose groups.

It was a cold raw day and the paths were very very icy, I even put my spikes on to avoid the inevitable slips. Not much else around, a few Harlequins bobbing around offshore, small groups of Scaup and Goldeneye but that's about it.

Today is really cold, a high of minus 9. Of course to those of you in the interior of North America, the high latitudes of Scandinavia or indeed further north/east in Hokkaido  this might not be so cold to to me it is. At least some fresh snow has fallen atop the ice making walking a little easier........

No birds around town (and still no Waxwings) except for a few Dusky Thrush and Hawfinch. Hopefully this cold snap will lead to an influx of some interesting stuff. Apparently someone reported a Gyrfalcon at Sawara last week so perhaps that's where we'll be heading on Sunday.......

On this day (February 2nd)....................

February 2nd 2009

A well known Ural Owl in a well known spot at Onuma. We know 3 Owl 'holes' and the winter of 2008/9 was a good one for Owl sightings. There were often 3 or 4 photographers sat in the snow waiting for the Owl to do something (it never did).

This winter hasn't been so good for Owl pics. I've seen the Owl only once in this particular tree and it flew off as soon as I glanced at it................it must have moved to a more upmarket tree deep in the forest away from prying eyes...............

Lots of good stuff to end the month........

Two of today's star birds, a drake Long Tailed Duck at Oshamanbe and a Mountain Hawk Eagle tucking into some salmon at Yakumo.

The latter is a scarce bird in Hokkaido and is only the second one I've ever seen. It has very thick powerful talons and it looks like it doesn't take s**t from anyone. The local Crows left it well alone (something they don't need to do with the bigger Stellers and White Tailed Eagles). The above photo was taken with a 1.4 teleconverter as was this video.........

This video was cropped and downsized, for the full HD version go here.

I still haven't quite got the hang of liveview, this video with DSLR lark is tricky to master as is editing it on the PC.

To be honest the jury is still out on the 7D/100-400L combo when used with a teleconverter and I took it off, these shots below are without.

It was by the side of the road and attracted several folk with large expensive lenses. We spent part of the afternoon with 'dotetin' (blog linked on the right) and although the Hawk Eagle was the top bird on show today the usual stuff was still around. Not many BIFs today...........here is an adult Stellers Sea Eagle in a tree instead.

As you can see we finally had some decent weather, after a whole month with only a couple of half days with blue skies.

I got several blurry out of focus shots of Crested Kingfisher, other stuff upstream included White Tailed Eagle, Jay, Brown Dipper, Japanese Wagtail, Goldeneye, Whooper Swan and Goosander.

Lots of Rooks around today. Near Onuma, just outside Yakumo and this one in a supermarket car park in Hakodate.

Rooks are a scarce winter visitor in northern Japan.

After Yakumo we headed up to Oshamanbe and the Long Tailed Ducks (well 3 of them) were in the harbour.

Other ducks in the harbour included several Wigeon. One of the drakes had a green crescent on its head, was this a hybrid with an American Wigeon? I didn't get a decent shot of it, it looked just like a regular Wigeon otherwise............

Lots of Goldeneye and Scaup..........

Lots of Glaucous and Glaucous Winged Gulls around, here's an adult Glaucous Gull.

The weather took a turn for the worse and sleet turned to snow on the drive home. The forecast for next week is very bad, well below zero all week and more snow so we got really lucky this morning........

I got drunk and fell asleep on the sofa watching Liverpool v Bolton last night. i'll stay up late tonight to watch the Man U v Arsenal game. A tough one to decide who I want to win, I dislike them both.............but I'd rather a northern team with a few English players won tonight's game. Having said that I'll despair if Man U win the league again (god that means I hope Chelsea do it).