|
| Hakodate Birding |
Some winter bird pics from Japan A Stellers Sea Eagle at Yakumo in January. It's been a very mild winter so far with much less snow than usual and temperatures above freezing almost every day. Onuma Lake is still frozen however and here's another Eagle looking pensive on the ice last week.  The tame flock of Nuthatch and paridae have been present all winter at Onuma.   And the Owl at Onuma from December was a bit more revealing in the New Year.  The usual winter waterbirds/seabirds have been around. Here are some Japanese Cormorant and a Brent Goose at Menagwa from January.   A Daurian Jackdaw near Hakodate on Jan 1st was a lifer. It was with a large flock of Rooks which were new to my Hokkaido list. The only other new addition to my Hokkaido list was an Ancient Murrelet in January. This Bean Goose (together with a Whitefronted Goose) was new to my Oshima list.  A big influx of Japanese and Bohemian Waxwings were the main highlight of winter near my flat. Other interesting local birds have included a Thayers Gull, Merlin and White Tailed Eagle. More info on my new blog here 23:37 - 1/3/2007 - comments {0} - post commentWinding downWell the year is well and truly winding down. Some fairly halfhearted birding yesterday at Menagawa. Japanese Wagtail, Brown Dipper and Harlequin Duck were the only noteworthy species. Not much snow but a very cold wind blowing in my face and rattling the tripod. This is a pic of a Pelagic Cormorant. The sun was right behind it too so it wasn't a very good pic.  NewYear is a big vacation in Japan. Quite similar to Xmas in the west. Lots of places closed, you get drunk with family members, eat too much, put cheesy decorations up, send meaningless cards to people you never actually see anymore, watch absolutely crappy "light entertainment"on TV and miss work for a week or so. God it is the same.  2 Brent Geese in one of the local fishing harbours on New Years Eve. This particular harbour is at the foot of Hakodateyama near the docks. It smells a bit squidy because of all the seafood processing plants. It's also ALWAYS very cold, windy and exposed making photography a bit tricky especially with an impatient driver waiting to leave the area asap.  Still can't get a decent shot of a Harlequin Duck. They are always here (along with the Geese) in winter. There are also a variety of Gulls. Today the most interesting was this adult Glaucous Winged.  So that's that. 2006 is over. I got 143 species on my local patch. I digiscoped with varying results for the first time (today's seem no better than 12 months ago though!). I saw Brown Bears and visited some new places in Hokkaido. I quit smoking. I watched some awful sporting performances by my favourite teams. My new blog is here 14:47 - 31/12/2006 - comments {0} - post commentEnd of year in Hokkaido Not a very successful day photo-wise. A White Tailed Eagle at Yakumo yesterday. The Stellers this winter have all decided to perch in places where motorists can't stop and where pedestrians can't safely stand either. Lots of the usual commoner winter stuff around today. Goshawk, Glaucous and 6 other species of Gull, various Tits and other commoner small birds, Whooper Swans, lots of Ducks and loads of grebes on the sea. Bobbing around hundreds of yards offshore these can be tricky to ID sometimes. Black Necked, Red Necked and Slavonian were all present.  A Slavonian Grebe. This female Peregrine was worrying all the gulls and Ducks.  The above pic especially shows digiscoping only works when you can get quite close to a bird. The Peregrine wasn't that far away but still way too far for a nice pic. Maybe I should have waved a dead pigeon around (or picked up a rotting Salmon for the Eagles) and I could have gotten these eating from my hand too. I didn't follow the cricket when we were driving around yesterday. When I left the house Australia were batting. When I got back England had lost. This blog will be wrapped up on Dec 31st. My new blog will be at the link to the right. 10:14 - 29/12/2006 - comments {0} - post commentChristmas Day in Hokkaido A nice wintry scene from Onuma this afternoon. If you think Christmas in the west is a shallow, artificial souless experience you should come to Japan. They have all the annoying things here (crappy carols and oldie Christmas hits in shops, cheesy decorations everywhere etc) but none of the good things (good TV shows, time off work, gifts etc). They religiously go to Kentucky Fried Chicken on the 25th. Honestly.  1 of 3 Whitefronts at Kamiso this morning. Some pretty good stuff around despite most of the river being frozen. Whooper Swans, several species of Duck, 2 Great White Egret and over 20 Grey Heron, Coot (rare up here), Slavonian, Black Necked and Red Necked Grebes on the sea and some unidentifiable Divers way out. A female Peregrine swooped down low over the river and grabbed a Teal for Xmas lunch.  We had our own xmas lunch over at Onuma. This is one of the extremely tame Whooper Swans that overwinter at Onuma. Also around were all the common woodland stuff from last week (not as co-operative photo-wise today), 2 White Tailed Eagle, Little Grebe and Goldeneye. This Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker was not tame at all and was almost directly above the Scope and the sun was at a difficult angle too.  Not much around in Hakodate these last few days, Hawfinch, Dusky Thrush, Daurian Redstart were among the typical winter birds. I'll try and get a decent Stellers Sea Eagle pic at Yakumo as my last meaningful birding task this year. 21:17 - 25/12/2006 - comments {0} - post commentOwl in the hole and Nuthatch on the hand. Another day spent with the exceedingly tame birds at Onuma. This is the Hokkaido race of the common or garden Eurasian Nuthatch. They were part of a mixed flock of paridae and similar woodland foraging species. As well as the Nuthatches there were Eurasian Treecreepers, Marsh, Long Tailed, Great and Varied Tits. Eurasian Jay and the 3 commoner Woodpecker species were also present.  These images were digiscoped. If I ever get a place out in the country I'm going to get the most kick-arse bird table/feeding station and set up my (much better than now) Scope/Camera on it all day. The Nuthatch was easy to photograph today but the other species proved a bit trickier. Here's a Marsh Tit.  Both the above 2 species and Varied Tit weren't shy at all and hopped into my hands to peck the seeds we brought with us. Here's a couple of pics of Nuthatches-the first one is my hand (I held the camera with the other hand) and the second is my wife's hand.   The Ural Owl I photographed a couple of weeks ago was present today too and was a bit more conspicious than last time.  It seemed to be a lot more awake today.  A bit less like a cuddly toy.  It flew off just as the sun had gone down (about 4.45pm) and the road began to freeze over. Here's a wintry scene at Onuma. The frozen lake is in the foreground and Mt Komagadake is in the background.  The lake isn't completely frozen yet (about 30% seemed to be ice-free). Global warming? After last winter's extremes in Hokkaido it's a pleasant change anyway. The flock of Whooper Swans was present today. A few individuals have been on the lake for a while but the main group must have arrived in the last 2 or 3 days. They are well fed by the locals (and tourists). They don't really have feral Mute Swans over here so they can get excited by the Swans more than a cynical Brit bider might. The Ashes debacle is a fitting end to a nightmare sporting year for the various teams I follow (with the exception of Carlisle Utd's promotion. My birthplace although I left when I was 5). 2007 will be better won't it? 19:21 - 20/12/2006 - comments {0} - post commentWoodpecker and birds in the hand A female Grey Headed Woodpecker at Onuma this afternoon. There were some amazingly tame birds around today. I gave up digiscoping after a Nuthatch perched on my Scope! Someone had left sunflower seeds out for the birds out in the forest and I had Marsh Tit, Nuthtach and Varied Tit perched on my hand eating the seeds. It was amazingly difficult to get a decent shot as it was a bit dark and the birds were hyperactive. Here's my wife with a Varied Tit in her hand.  The pic above was sharpened in photoshop. The focus on the camera was particularly frustrating. The camera focuses on the background not the foreground (I forgot to readjust the settings). Here's an unedited one (with my hand).  The Marsh Tit and Nuthatch pics were even more blurry and out of focus. Elsewhere in Onuma were Bullfinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Whooper Swan and Jay as well as the usual commoner Ducks. Earlier we were in Yakumo to try and get some shots of the Eagles. Lots of Stellers in nice unobstructed poses but unfortunately none were near anywhere we could safely park (the road width decreases markedly in winter as snow piles up at the sides and seafood bearing trucks speed by every 2 or 3 minutes). Last winter there was a car park with great views of the Eagles but today there was only 1 in the same place. This was the immature Stellers below which was hiding behind some branches anyway.  Not much else at Yakumo as it was only a brief stop. We started the day at Kamiso. It was bitterly cold next to the sea but in the brief time we stopped I got Glaucous Winged Gull, several species of Duck including lots of Goosander and lots of Grebes out to sea (mostly Red Necked and Black Necked though a few may have been Slavonian). Got back and checked the Test score expecting England to have lost and was amazed they hadn't. Mind you they lost 2 wickets at the end just as I started to listen to the online commentary. If England can rescue this I may think Liverpool have a chance against Barcelona. 18:58 - 17/12/2006 - comments {1} - post comment
|
Birding in South Hokkaido User Profile Archives BIRDFORUM KANTORILODE KANTORI Yamasemichi Some photos Tokyo Birder's blog Iceland birding Colorbox Ribble Blog My 2007 blog |