2018 Best Of #6

Some of the little birds from early summer.............

Autumn Staples

Harlequin Ducks arrive back on the coast in October....................

On this day (October 26th)....................

October 26th 2015.

A Varied Tit at Onuma 3 years ago today. The background is autumn leaves, not a fire..................

Autumn continues..............

We are in the middle of a beautiful spell of autumn weather..................

On this day (October 19th)......................

October 19th 2015.

A Ural Owl 3 years ago today in Onuma. There were several easily accessible trees that held roosting Ural Owls but they've all blown down..............

More birds in the gloom

Some more birds from the forest pool near Tomakomai.............

A Gloomy Robin

We went camping near Tomakomai for a couple of nights................

On this day (October 17th).................

October 17th 2015.

An immature Amur Falcon just outside town 3 years ago today. At first I thought it was a Hobby but I was wrong and it is still the only one I've ever seen............

2018 Best of #5

Some shots from last spring.................

Winter not far away..........

Not a very good or interesting photo but it does show a Vega Gull at Kamiiso today, a winter visitor.

A couple of days ago there were loads of yukimushi around. These are small white midges that appear 2 or 3 weeks before the first snow............

Also around at Kamiiso were 3 Great Egret, a lone Osprey flying south and several species of common duck. The first Daurian Redstart, a male, appeared on the river near my apartment a few days ago: another winter visitor. Also around were Brown Dipper, Bull-headed Shrike, a briefly glimpsed Siberian Rubythroat and several Black-crowned Night Heron. A juvenile Moorhen in Goryokaku Park 3 days ago was only the 3rd I've seen in Hakodate..............

Autumn Terns

On Monday we headed north................

Another day off, another typhoon..............

It was the tail-end of yet another typhoon...........

2018 Best Of #4

Some finches and buntings from last winter................

October BCNHs

More nice autumnal weather, more Black-crowned Night Herons............

No Bear Sunday

We spent a dark grey Sunday unsuccessfully looking for the Brown Bear I'd seen earlier in the week..............

2018 Best Of #3

Some more shots from earlier in the year...............

A typical early autumn sight...........

There were lots of Night Herons on the river today.............

A morning surprise

I had my best wildlife experience for a long long time today. Not the Common Kingfisher above............

We got up early to try and find some Brown Bears. Several had been seen on a mountain road to the north of town and we headed up there just after sunrise. It was a wet dark day and at first it seemed like we had wasted our time. No birds even: just a couple of distant Crested Kingfisher.

We were on a narrow side road in the middle of nowhere and were getting ready to go back to the main road when I noticed a huge adult Brown Bear standing about 5 meters away! My wife missed it as she was looking straight ahead and it took her a few seconds to work out what was going on (I was swearing and making even less sense than normal). By the time we had reversed it had sadly disappeared. No chance for a photo of course (it was very dark) even if it had stuck around: no way would I have gotten out of the car either.

A bit quiet birdwise. In addition to the Kingfishers we got single Red-necked Stint and Common Greenshank, 2 Eastern Curlew, 2 White-winged Scoter, Great-crested Grebe, various common ducks including Pintail, Teal. Shoveler and Pochard, Osprey, Goshawk, 3 species of wagtail and Great Egret.

Afternoon mover

An immature Black-crowned Night Heron on the local river yesterday afternoon...............

A quiet Thursday............

The weather has been really nice this week.....................