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| Hakodate Birding |
Ural Owl and Harlequin Duck A Ural Owl peering out of a tree at Onuma this afternoon. The weather has turned really cold and there's a lot of snow around. The Owl was only 30 or so yards off the road. It didn't look bothered by me (or the other 3 birders taking pics) or by the subzero temperatures. Not much else at Onuma. Japanese Wagtail, Nuthatch, Dusky Thrush and lots of commoner Ducks on the water including hundreds of Goosander. The lake will be 99% frozen over in a week or 2 and most of the Ducks will have flown south (a few stay-there is one ice-free area they'll share with the Whooper Swans which weren't around today).  At Kamiso in the morning there were 6 species of Gull, 3 Whitefronted Geese, a Common Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and a Peregrine, a few Ducks (most seem to have moved south already) and 9 very cold looking Grey Heron. Scaup, Goldeneye and a few Black Necked Grebes were on the sea. On the other side of the bay I tried to take some pics of the Harlequin Ducks. These are surprisingly hard (for me) to take good photos of. The camera just can't seem to focus. I don't know why. They look stunning thru the Scope. This male was the best and the photo is completely unphotoshopped. Sharpening makes it look worse if anything. It was extremely cold, windy and exposed here which made patience an impossibility.  Looks like a draw in Adelaide. Liverpool scored and won away too. 22:09 - 4/12/2006 - post comment
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