White Winged Black Tern

Another dark cloudy day saw us up in Yakumo and Oshamanbe looking for waders. We did see quite a few shorebirds but the bird(s) of the day was White Winged Black Tern. 2 juveniles near Yakumo. A lifer no less..................

Finally some waders.............

A dark dreary afternoon in Hakodate..............but finally I could see a few waders. Very very bad light as you can see................................

There were 2 flocks of Red Necked Stints. I don't know why waders have been so thin on the ground this month, until today I'd hardly seen any anywhere despite looking all over the region at likely spots the last couple of weeks.

I did see another birder last week who told me about 2 rarities from earlier in the year. One was a female Canvasback (a bird I've never seen) which was apparently on the river in Kamiiso in summer. I did see what I thought was just a female Pochard there in June..............of course no photos survived (maybe it was just a Pochard that I saw, I did at least check it but perhaps not as thoroughly as i should have).

The other bird he mentioned was a SNOWY OWL!!!!! The bird in question was supposedly briefly seen on the frozen ricefields just outside town in Febraury. S**t.

1.4X=too much

I had a spare afternoon so we checked some of the local beaches for waders. In anticipation of skittish waders I attached the 1.4X teleconverter on my 500mm (to be used with the monopod if we found any shorebirds).

Naturally there was a not a single wader to be found anywhere. I didn't bother taking the 1.4X teleconverter off.

This Osprey was feeding on the beach in Moheji though. Right next to the main road, it stayed for about 10 seconds as I fired off some handheld shots from the window.

700mm handheld..............out of a window on a busy road with a panicking wife in the driver's seat worrying about that big truck right behind us. And no time to change settings.

They turned out better than I expected but would have been much better at 500 (where handholding is perfectly doable). Very slightly cropped for composition.

Not much else...............an Oriental Honey Buzzard flew over near the Osprey site but that's about it.

A long hot drive

A long hot drive around SW Hokkaido looking for passage waders on the west coast revealed.................1 Pacific Golden Plover. And 1 Little Ringed Plover/2 Common Sandpiper (which are summer breeders).

This hot tired looking Peregrine was near Kaminokuni and was the only decent photo of the day. Lots of distant Ospreys, a few flocks of Japanese Green Pigeon here and there, some Pacific Swifts hawking over the capes  but not much else around............

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

August 11th 2013.

A Black Faced Spoonbill at Kamiiso 2 years ago today.

This is a rare east Asian endemic with less than 3000 individuals in the wild. They can be seen in south Japan, Hong Kong and various other locales but are pretty rare this far north. I've also seen one at Yakumo.

This one was present  about a week and on one of the days it was feeding on the beach and i could get reasonably close to it.

The first waders arrive............

The first waders have appeared on the local beaches....................

Osprey feeding time

 An Osprey family this morning..........................

A pain in the neck. And shoulder. And arm.

A juvenile (?) Mandarin this afternoon near Asabu and an Osprey at Yakumo..............

North Hokkaido 2015 #5

A Yellow Wagtail near Wakanai last week..........

North Hokkaido 2015 #4

We left Monbetsu and headed north...............

North Hokkaido 2015 #3

We spent another morning in the Mombetsu area............

North Hokkaido 2015 #2

We spent a couple of days in the grasslands near Monbetsu................

North Hokkaido 2015 #1

We just got back from a week camping in north Hokkaido.......................

Phoned in Rubythroat vs Worm

The Rubythroat won.

Halfway

Well halfway through 2015 and it has been raining rather a lot.

Kingfisher and Chestnut Eared Bunting on the river last week, the regular summer species everywhere: Wryneck, Osprey, the above Black Browed Reed Warbler at Asabu yesterday. At Kamiiso there were 5 Goosander, 2 Red Breasted Merganser and 1 female Pochard: the latter 2 species probably sick or injured birds as I usually don't see them in summer.

A quiet midsummer

A very quiet midsummer weekend, I did nothing on the 21st and today (Monday 22nd) we checked Yakumo, Oshamanbe and Suttsu (where the above Osprey was taken).

2 Oystercatchers (scarce in Japan) at Yakumo, an Eastern Marsh Harrier at Yamazaki....................not much else though. 4 or 5 Osprey were fishing the rivermouth at Yakumo but I was alaways in the wrong place when they dived.

The Rescuers

I did my good deed of the week on a mountain road last Monday............

Black Browed Reed Warbler

A Black Browed Reed Warbler at Oshamanbe yesterday..............

Back to Hokkaido.............

I've been back a week................

England 2015 #5

My last batch of photos from England..................