Terrible light and crappy pics but this was only my second ever Common Shelduck here in Japan…
I saw tons of these when I was growing up in NW England though.
Another local rarity…
Category: Wildfowl
Golden Week 2024 #10
Yakumo yesterday was a bit quiet. Here are a few random BIFs.
Lots of scoters offshore, lots of displaying Great Crested Grebes there too but not many waders; only a lone Wood Sandpiper, a lone Common Snipe and the 2 breeding small plovers including this one.
And a few migrating duck including Garganey and Shoveler…
Over
The on-tap parade of photogenic local birds seems to have dried up. Onuma had both swans and Greater White-fronted Geese yesterday but was otherwise a bit quiet.
No crossbills for several days now. Just a few Dusky Thrush around and the resident woodpeckers…
Spring migration is just around the corner at least.
Spring for sure
Lots of osprey around yesterday and also the first Stonechats of the year, the first singing Japanese Bush Warblers, the first Little Ringed Plover…
There was a flock of 100 or so Greater White-fronted Geese at Yakumo, Gadwall, Shoveler and some sunset swans…
Fog briefly clears
The fog cleared briefly…
Still foggy…
I changed to my big lens but it was still foggy…
f/11 and foggy
It was warm and sunny in Hakodate this morning and we headed north to catch the port birds before they depart…
Only problem was it was foggy. I used the RF 600 f/11 lens at first thinking I’d switch to my ‘serious’ lens on the way back when the fog cleared…
Close-up birds were just about manageable.
A quiet Monday afternoon in Onuma
Only a few swans, no geese and the ducks were in the middle of the now mostly unfrozen lake…
Not a vintage day for photos.
More scoters
Very photogenic at this time of year.
A weekend of wildfowl…
Lots of wildfowl passing through. These 2 Gadwall were at Yakumo.
At Onuma there were 000’s of Pintail and Bewick’s Swan as well as Taiga Bean Goose, Falcated Duck and Baikal Teal. But nothing close enough for a photo. Except this Redpoll…
Taking it outside
The squabbling spilled over…until it was time to chill.
Black Scoters everywhere
And the drakes were squabbling over females…
