#199

I  once again braved snowdrifts and blizzards and was rewarded with the 199th species on my Hakodate list. 2 Lapland Buntings had been seen on a small beach in town, I went there a couple of days ago but couldn't find them (the waves were very high on the beach I think meaning they couldn't forage there) but today I saw them within a minute of arriving............

They were very unobtrusive and easy to miss. In fact they were pretty tame but after a few minutes a huge blizzard hit and I was forced off the beach, back through the snowdrifts and sought refuge in a convenience store. After an hour's really heavy snow I gave up and trudged back to the station for my 4 minute ride home (If I didn't have a slipped disc and it wasn't snowing so much I would have walked).

Thanks to Kim for the directions to find it..........

So 199! I wonder what #200 will be? Great Grey Shrike on Sunday maybe?

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

January 21st 2009.

Male Long Tailed Duck at Oshamabe. The closest I'd ever been to this beautiful species, hope I can check them out again soon this winter.............

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A long long cold walk

A slightly blurry out of focus Slavonian Grebe at Kamiiso this afternoon. I took a long walk along the beach looking for Lapland Buntings which have been seen by several birders, it would have been a local tick. I braved blizzards, waded through snowdrifts and got soaked by the waves from a very rough sea but alas no Buntings............

The Grebe was a nice find though..........

Also in the same harbour were several Scaup (young male above), Goldeneye and Wigeon. Offshore there were rafts of Black Scoter and on the river were groups of Pochard and Whooper Swan. Overhead there was a White tailed Eagle and on the beaches various Gulls including Glaucous Winged and the local race of Common Gull. These Brent Geese didn't care about the waves much........

And this was a local tick, a Kentish Plover. The other name for this species is Snowy Plover, oddly it was on the only place on the beach with no snow.

#198 on my Hakodate list, I need to double check that figure to make sure I haven't overlooked something (or maybe to lop off any stringy ones)..................the aforementioned Lapland Bunting as well as Great Grey Shrike and Mountain Hawk Eagle have all been seen in the local area already this year and they would all be local ticks. I want to know exactly what #200 is when it happens.

A bit of an annoying last few days. Due to a miscalculation in my checking account I missed a credit card payment and now they have frozen my card. This is the first payment I have ever missed in almost 8 years (and like I say it was a simple error) and the f**kers froze my card. As soon as I realised it wasn't working I paid it in full the next day and they still haven't unfrozen it..............and there are some important things on it like my health insurance premiums too. I also found out my insurance company won't cover me for my delays/lost luggage from last month and the money the airline should cough up looks like a non starter as they haven't answered any e-mails I've sent in the last 4 weeks.

Instead of getting angry about this I've developed the following philosophy: most of the service industry are tightfisted w**kers who'll lie to you and rip you off at a moment's notice. Once you accept his fact you will never be disappointed by appalling service. In fact if you are lucky enough to enjoy good service then well it's a bonus.

So DC Card Japan, KLM Customer Service and William Russell Global Travel...........F**K you!

Maybe Liverpool can take my mind off all that...............er maybe not.

I'll watch some of the new series of 'Shameless' I think. Not the US version (my god what were they thinking).

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More wintry stuff

A bit of a short entry today, I'm a bit tired and there's loads of footy on the TV.

A quick look at Yakumo this afternoon. I was expecting another eaglefest but there didn't seem to be so many as last week, where did they all go?

A lot did seem to be hiding in the snowladen trees..........like these adult Stellers Sea Eagles.

It was snowing yet again with very grey skies but I did manage a few BIFs, like this young White Tailed Eagle.

To complete the eagle set (well 3 out of 4, no Golden Eagles which are very rare in Hokkaido) here's a distant Mountain Hawk Eagle...................

The usual winter stuff was present including Rook and Daurian Jackdaw, here's one of the latter........both these usually rather scarce species of crow seem to be not so scarce this winter........

And this was a Great Egret at Onuma earlier in the day...........

Not a lot of colour today then...............hopefully I'll find some more Waxwings in Hakodate this week.

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More Waxwings

  

A Japanese Waxwing in Hakodate this afternoon. I couldn't get close to any flocks but this lone bird was pretty tame and also was on a quiet back street so I didn't have to worry about passing traffic or pedestrians.............

Lots of snow and very very cold still, the kind of places I like to poke around are knee deep in snow. It was a little dark where the Waxwing was but at least it was in a fairly low tree.

In the morning I took the tram down to Irufune to check out the Brent Geese and Harlequin Ducks, both of which were present.............

Lots of snow down here too. I was hoping for some Asian Rosy Finch here but couldn't find any, I did however see Long Tailed Rosefinch, Pale Thrush and Japanese Accentor.............

Bird of the day was a flyover adult White Tailed Eagle being mobbed by a Gull and a Crow............

Other stuff around included Pelagic Cormorant, Wigeon, Scaup, Goldeneye and Red Breasted Merganser. Common stuff included several Glaucous Winged Gulls..........

Looking at other local blogs it appears that Kentish Plover and Lapland Bunting have been seen in Hakodate. Add to the Mountain Hawk Eagle my wife saw last week and that's 3 species that would be new to my Hakodate list (although I've seen all of them elsewhere in Hokkaido). I'm on 197 at the moment so those 3 would have taken me to 200................hopefully I can pick these or other new ones up soon.

Looks like winter 2010/11 is going to be a harsh one here in south Hokkaido..............

Just watched England lose the second 20/20, I've hardly heard of half the team..........

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Wintry

A bit of an influx of Waxwings into the region, they're everywhere. I've seen at least 5 separate flocks but none were approachable. Almost all seem to be Japanese Waxwings. I did manage to fire off a few shots today but it was snowing very heavily and the light was just awful.

I couldn't focus at all due to the darkness and the blizzard like conditions so I used my 'BIF' custom settings which resulted in fast shutter speeds but massively underexposed images. I brightened them up (a lot) on the computer and although blurry and grainy I quite like the results...........

The one with the yellow tip to its tail is a Bohemian Waxwing. Usually this is the commoner one but not this winter..........

A lot of snow these last few days and it brought with it a few winter birds...........and a crappy birdscape photo opp.

Part of a very skittish flock of Brambling. Other small birds in town this week have been Hawfinch, Long Tailed Rosefinch, Bullfinch, Brown Dipper as well as the usual winter stuff like Daurian Redstart and Dusky Thrush as well as resident species like Coal, Great and Varied Tit. Teal and Tufted Duck share the mostly frozen river with a couple of Grey Heron and a Peregrine was a nice flyover bird yesterday. Surprise of the week was a pair of Oriental Turtle Dove: usually they're well gone before the snow comes............

I had a very quick look at Kamiso a couple of days ago. Scaup, Goosander, Wigeon, Goldeneye and Whooper Swan were present. At Onuma there wasn't much at all except the Tits and Nuthatches.

This is the Hokkaido race of the common Eurasian Nuthatch, the same species I was seeing back in Penwortham just last week. The ones in Penwortham are a bit more colourful though.

And UK Great Tits are more colourful than the ones out here too..........

I think there were several Marsh and Willow Tits. Both species occur in Hokkaido but I always assumed Marsh were much commoner.  Most of them at Onuma seem to be Marsh Tits but to be honest I don't look too closely at all of them. Unlike Europe call is not a reliable way to ID these 2 species in east Asia. I have noticed some bullying others, I read somewhere that Marsh Tits are dominant over Willow Tits. These 2 don't seem to have such glossy caps............

Sunshine has been a rarity recently but for a few minutes the other day the skies cleared and illuminated the mountain at Onuma..............

All the dark gloomy light recently reminds me of the UK. Here are some shots from last week in Preston of the wintering Iceland Gull. It was very active but it was late in the day and very dark indeed.

A very nice bird to see, don't think I'll ever see one here although we do sometimes get the closely related Thayers Gull.

I got some very dark BIF shots on my last evening in Preston............

I can't work out how to position these small thumbnail photos...............they're not aligned, I know I know.

Hopefully the snow will relent and I can find some more Waxwings tomorrow........

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