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| Hakodate Birding |
Winding 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 - post comment
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