Bitten

An Osprey in Shireuchi this afternoon.

It's been another dull week, I was hoping to see some waders today but there were absolutely none about anywhere. On Sunday I saw Terek Sandpiper, Grey Tailed Tattler and a curlew species (probably Eastern Curlew) at Yakumo and more Tereks at Kamiiso but today was a waderless day.

Not much else happening. A Peregrine was a good bird to see from the balcony and there were 10 or so Great Egrets at Yakumo. My main wildlife experience this week involved mosquitoes.........I have 6 HUGE red itchy bites on my right foot/leg and I have no idea where the deed took place, I suspect it was from when we were drinking beer on the balcony last Saturday and there was a delayed reaction. Mozzies are not so common in town, maybe it was a different species from the ones in the forest at Onuma..........my god if so it is even worse.

I start a new 10 month job next week, nothing particularly noteworthy about it except it will be the first time in over 10 years I'll wear 'business' atire. I had to buy the full set on Monday.............I did have a tie somewhere but it's lost and my old shirts/pants wouldn't fit anymore even if I could find them. It is only 1 afternoon a week and the whole of my first month's salary was spent on the clothes and some new shoes.


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Quiet days continue

A Japanese Green Pigeon perched on a roadside wire just outside Hakodate last weekend.

A very quiet week, the humidity dropped slightly and I've been watching the Olympics on and off, wow some of the GB team are medal winning machines. Nice to see the footy team going out on penalties in the QF, where have I seen that before?

I got a new smartphone (the Galaxy S3) which has given me headaches trying to set up everything as I like.

Not much birdwise in town, no autumn waders yet. A Great Egret and a species of Snipe in the ricefields in Ono were most noteworthy species.

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Too hot to do much

Not a very good picture but this heavy crop is one of a flock of White Throated Needletails at Yakumo on Sunday. They were with lots of Sand Martin and will be heading south soon.

Not  much else around. Great Crested Grebe offshore, Grays Grasshopper Warblers still singing in the bushes and all the common stuff feeding their young,

It's been very hot recently, not much going on. Too hot to go outside. Hot enough to wish I had an airconditioner.

After getting up to watch the opening ceremony I tried watching a bit of the actual Olympics but all that seems to be on here is judo...................the coverage here is a bit one eyed and you'd think Japan is the only nation competing.. I would say it is the same in most countries though.

Whatever, I haven't watched the Olympics in 20 years............still I managed to crack how to watch the coverage from the UK online. Shame all the interesting stuff will be on in the middle of the night.


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A lazy Sunday in July

An Osprey and Black Browed Reed Warbler at Yakumo today.

It's that very quiet time of year, not much around anywhere. A pair of Great Crested Grebe in full summer plumage offshore at Yakumo was a surprise and the Grey Wagtails have appeared on the local river as they always do at this time of year (they have already bred further upstream).

Some of the Black Browed Reed Warblers were still singing but most were feeding their young, difficult to get a shot of this.

They must have nested in a patch of long grass next to a pile of old stinking fishing nets. Yuk.

There are 3 or 4 pairs in this small area of wasteland near the rivermouth. The young birds eventually popped out to take a look at the world on a dullish Sunday afternoon in July.

I spent a couple of hours hoping the Ospreys would do something interesting. They didn't.

My god England's bowlers are being ground into the dust by South Africa. Errrr........I thought we were supposed to be good these days?

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The annual lull.........

Well it's that time of year again. Mid July heralds a month or so of very quiet birding, most of the summer stuff has stopped singing and now I'm just waiting for the waders to start passing through in mid August.

The 2 staples at this time of year are the fishing Ospreys at various locales and the Japanese Green Pigeons at Shikabe. I had no luck with the Osprey pics last Wednesday at Yakumo (despite there being four of them fishing at the rivermouth) and headed out to Shikabe this afternoon on a dark grey afternoon more in hope than expectation. Recently every time I've been there have been fishermen standing on the rocks where they come down to drink but today I had the beach all to myself........

The light was terrible and I couldn't get that close to them but I managed to get a few shots of what is one of my favourite local species.

It was a bit dark for BIF shots.........

Not much else around here but I was surprised when 2 Grey Tailed Tattlers flew overhead heading north.............what's their story? Pretty late to be heading north to breed........

At Onuma earlier I spent a couple of hours getting bitten by mosquitoes.

If the above pigeons seem exotic to UK birders the Little Grebes and Moorhens at Onuma are reassuringly familiar. The latter is much scarcer (and shyer) than it is in the UK.

Nothing much in Hakodate the last few days, just common stuff like this Brown Eared Bulbul.

No sport on TV or the internet this weekend...........thank god for beer.

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A trip to the middle

A Siberian Rubythroat at the top pf a mountain in Tomamu this morning. There were loads of them singing near the top, a bit of a surprise as I'd always thought of them as a coastal grassland species.

We'd got up early and taken the ski-lift up to the top as my wife wanted to get above the mist and take some photos of it............this is the view (taken with my 100-400!).

It was the second ski-lift we'd been up on this short trip to central Hokkaido.

The previous 2 days we'd been camping near Asahikawa, my wife wanted to go the zoo.

The weather was terrible, heavy rain and grey skies all the time (at least it wasn't cold). We went up Kurodake in Daisetsuzan, a well known high altitude birding area. The mist and drizzle meant no photographs and we couldn't hike up to the top as the trails were too slippery. I had 3 target species to photograph (or at least see): Pine Grosbeak, Nutcracker and Japanese Accentor. I didn't connect with any of them. I did see a few things in the gloom..............Sooty Flycatcher, lots of singing Red Flanked Bluetail, Wren, Bullfinch.............I'll go back there in better weather for sure.

Other stuff on the trip included Little Cuckoo, Siberian Blue and Japanese Robin, Osprey and Hobby.


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Halftime again........

A lazy midsummer week 2012 is 50% over............

The Red Cheeked Starlings have fledged..........

The young are everywhere.........inside the bushes..........

and also on top................

The adults were busy bringing them food........

Nothing much else around: Barn Swallow, Asian House Martin, Oriental Reed Warbler and the usual common residents...............


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Gone fishin'

One of many Black Browed Reed Warblers at Yakumo yesterday.

I was trying to get some Osprey shots.........

I wanted to get some shots of them fishing, this was the best sequence I could manage. It was quite far out and these are heavy crops, it was also before the sun came out from behind the mist.........

It stayed in the water for a few seconds............

....................before emerging with a fish.

I also saw a Black Kite dive and catch a fish and (surprisingly) a Grey Heron which plunged into the waves offshore and flew off with a huge fish (the gulls followed it and made it drop the fish though).

It wasn't only the birds fishing..........

This Red Fox at Onuma this afternoon was bringing food to its cubs, the same ones we photographed several weeks ago.

The cubs are one month older and not as cute anymore.........

Bird of the week was a surprise Oystercatcher on the beach at Kamiiso. Other stuff around included Scaup, Pochard and Falcated Duck at Yakumo, more Ospreys at Kamiiso and a Grays Grasshopper Warbler at Shikabe which stayed in view for about 3 whole seconds (that's 2.5 seconds longer than any GGW I've seen before).

I stayed up to watch England lose on penalties to Italy. It would have been embarrassing if we'd gone through after being second best for almost the whole game but still.............that's now 6 times out of 7 we've lost on penalty shootouts. I knew we'd lose the shootout as soon as it started.

But Euro 2012 was better for England than I'd expected............plus at least now it means no more 3.45am rises to watch England blunder through games with 30% possession.


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