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| Hakodate Birding |
Geese and Swans One of about 20 very tame Whooper Swans at Utonai-Ko on Friday. This place is about 4 hours drive from Hakodate and is pretty well-known in Japnese birding circles. I don't know if these had returned for the winter or indeed had never left all summer. Also 10 Mute Swan, 2 Bean Goose (see below) plus a variety of commoner waterfowl (lots of Pintails), Little Grebe, Common Tern and the suchlike. The Mukawa river to the east of Utonai-Ko is famoous for waders and there was a good selection. 3 Ruff, several Greenshank, 2 or 3 Spotted Redshank, 7 or 8 Red Necked Stint, a single Grey Plover and a handful of Little Ringed Plover. Whooper Swan was present here too plus flocks of Mallard, Wigeon and Pintail. All this potential prey proved too much for 2 Peregrine and a female Goshawk. Not so many small birds about though except Stonechat and lots of Black Backed Wagtails. A lone Olive Backed Pipit and a couple of Varied Tit were the only other passerines..............oh and lots of Common Tern on the sea here too.  Both the above pics were taken without the scope as the birds were so tame. Digiscoping with my new camera is proving a bit frustrating. It should be better than my old one but I'm struggling a bit. Here's an absolutely dire pic of the Goshawk. Heavily cropped and photoshopped and this was as good as it gets.  We went to Kamiso today. Common Tern was present here as well (and was a local tick too-my 165th bird in Hakodate) and bird of the weekend was a juvenile Hobby being mobbed by the much larger Carrion Crows. A pair of Tufted Duck and 3 Teal were the first of the winter down here. Here's a couple of slightly dodgy pics of the Common Tern and Grey Heron at Kamiso. Bad. But not as bad as the Goshawk.   The Heron at least offers some hope for my new camera. 21:41 - 24/9/2006 - post comment
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