A summer evening in the ricefields

I finished work early so I had time to check out the local ricefields. Always good at this time of year, today produced a surprise with these 3 Cattle Egret.

This is a scarce overshoot migrant to south Hokkaido, these 3 must have been wafted in with the warm winds from the last few days.

They are building a new highway in this corner of the ricefields, sadly next year I'm sure this habitat may well have disappeared. There is a a reedbed here, Siberian Stonechats breed here.

Also in the reedbed were Oriental Reed Warbler, Black Browed Reed Warbler, Reed Bunting and Chestnut Eared Bunting. I hope the reedbed is still around next summer. I got some nice shots from her last year. Also around were Common Cuckoo and Lathams Snipe. And lots of big trucks.

We then went to another location in the ricefields to check for Night Herons, all I could get was with this BIF shot.

More of the same here including the inevitable Stonechats.

Just before sunset we went to the rivermouth at Kamiiso to check for Ospreys. Nothing doing there but there were 2 Goosander and somewhat surprisingly 4 Harlequin Duck.

I've never seen these in this location and never in June in Hokkaido either. I tried to get close to them but they just swam away, they must be moulting.

No sport on TV tonight, thank god for beer.

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Summer Staples

A Bullheaded Shrike near my apartment earlier this week. The last migrant passing through has been and gone (a singing Arctic Warbler on June 6/7), now in the neighbourhood all that is left are the summer staples.

One or two pairs of Bullheaded Shrike breed along the river, they were busy hunting this week. 3 years ago I saw one catch and kill a Tree Sparrow, no similar action this week, just them sitting around being watchful.

This adult Black Crowned Night Heron was the first one I've seen on the local river this year.

I didn't see any last summer, they must have bred further upstream, hopefully they'll breed nearer like they did the previous years.

The Red Cheeked Starlings will fledge in the next week or so, there is always a huge feeding frenzy and the adults suddenly become very tame for a short time. They were still pretty wary today though.

There are always 10 or so singing Oriental Reed Warblers singing atop the bushes next to the river. Last summer a male sang in a very convenient bush next to the path, the grass wasn't cut last June so the weeds hid it from public view. This year all I can get are distant heavily cropped record shots.

Other species around are Asian House Martin, Swallow, Oriental Turtle Dove, Kingfisher, Tree Sparrow, Brown Eared Bulbul and lots and lots of Oriental Greenfinch.

Numerous pairs of White Wagtail breed along the river too..........

This is one of several species already with fledged young. Spot Billed Duck and Carrion Crow babies were present today too. The larger more aggressive Large Billed Crow tends to breed later and can be very protective if you go too close to their nest, i've been buzzed several times in recent years.

And to finish with here's a rather cute baby Great Tit.

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A quiet start to June

A Pacific Swift this afternoon near Imagane. It's been a quiet week, today saw the first blue skies for a while and another new bird for my Japanese list.

A Spoonbill at Yakumo. I'd actually seen it last week but it was resting with its head under its wing so I couldn't get a positive ID on it. There was a Black Faced Spoonbill (much rarer) which I saw last year, today I could confirm this was a Eurasian Spoonbill. I couldn't get very close, both these shots are very heavily cropped.

Also at Yakumo were Wigeon, Sand Martin, Osprey, Oriental and Black Browed Reed Warblers plus the usual common stuff like these Siberian Stonechats.

We headed west over the hills, a nice drive but not so many birds. Just outside Imagane we stopped on a bridge to admire the view, there were lots of Sand Martins, an Osprey and a large flock of Pacific Swift, very difficult to get any kind of shot but I did my best.

The day started and ended in the ricefields in Ono, here's a Night Heron on the hunt for frogs........

Not a vintage week for photos as you can see.

Last week was very quiet in Hakodate, a Kingfisher on the river being the only noteworthy species. On Friday I headed out to Yunokawa.

This Common Cuckoo was singing, as was an Oriental Cuckoo, lots of Oriental Reed Warblers, one Black Browed too. Kingfisher was also here as was a Little Ringed Plover............

I watched England draw 2-2 with the Swiss, I've been watching crappy performances like this from England for approx 35 years now, I've finally accepted the inevitable (which is most of the time England just aren't very good basically).

I could have taken solace in the cricket before Sri Lanka started batting in the 2nd Test.

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Another weekend away in May

Despite cold, foggy weather I think we can say summer is almost here. The grasslands at Yakumo and Oshamanbe are full of birds and Siberian Stonechat are probably the commonest, these shots were at Yakumo on te way back from a night at Lake Toya.

The most dramatic bird is Lathams Snipe, which has an amazing display flight, they are everywhere in this area in early summer.

The Black Browed Reed Warblers have arrived, they get bolder as June progresses and sing from exposed perches, for now they are skulking. Other birds around were Oriental and Common Cuckoo, Long Tailed Rosefinch, Black Faced and Chestnut Eared Bunting, Japanese Bush Warbler, Oriental Reed Warbler, Skylark, Brown Thrush, Wryneck, Bullheaded Shrike and several of these.........

A crappy record shot of an Eastern Marsh Harrier in the early morning gloom on Sunday.

We stayed Sunday night in Lake Toya.

We often stay here, it's about 100 miles from Hakodate and is a well known hot spring resort. It is suffering a bit now though, not many visitors (other east Asians are understandably chickening out of coming to Japan after the quakes/tsunamis/nuclear meltdown) and the hotel we stayed at was basically half price and only about 10% full.

There were a few birds around, this Grey Headed Woodpecker and Nuthatch were in the trees at one of the lakeside campsites.

Other birds included Eastern CrownedWarbler, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Great Egret, Mandarin Duck, Oriental Cuckoo, Russet Sparrow, Goosander, Tufted Duck, Common Sandpiper, Red Cheeked Starling, Narcissus Flycatcher and yet more Lathams Snipe. I checked out the coast a little too, the only wader was 1 Grey Tailed Tattler at Oshamanbe. There were a few Brent Geese offshore at Yakumo (the latest I've ever seen), a couple of Pintail too and a few Scaup remained at Oshamanbe.

I watched the Champions League final, a bit of an anticlimax, I didn't expect it to be so one-sided...............

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

May 30th 2008.

Male Yellow Wagtail (of the local race) near Wakanai. In Japan this species only breeds in the far north of Hokkaido but they were easy to find on the wetlands at Sarobetsu.

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Flying fishers

I got up early this morning to try and photograph the Ospreys in Kamiiso. I arrived at the port at about 7.30am, after about an hour I was feeling thirsty and went to the nearest vending machine to get a cold drink, the Osprey chose that exact moment to arrive. I missed it diving (again) but got these shots (very similar to shots on several earlier days it has to be said).

Never mind I thought, I have 5 or 6 hours to wait and it'll be sure to come back several times.

It didn't.

The weather improved, sunshine and blue skies but no more Ospreys. I had to dash to a toilet and nipped over to a convenience store to buy some lunch so I suppose I could have missed it. 

I hung around, not many birds about. A Kingfisher flew very close but too fast for a photo, a couple of Goosander, 3 Tufted Duck, Oriental Reed Warbler, Grey Heron, Black Faced Bunting, Temincks Cormorant, there were still a few Grey Tailed Tattlers and Common Sandpiper too, I also heard a distant Greenshank.

There were lots of Gulls, they were catching fish too.

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