
Back in Hakodate last week the Crossbills and Redpolls were still around……….

I took a long walk today. Very dark and overcast but there were a few birds in town: a small flock of Redpoll, 50 or so Crossbills, a lone Brambling, an injured Whooper Swan, lots of Dusky Thrush, a single Great Egret and 3 Goldeneye.
Hakodate City have been chopping down more trees next to the river. Looking very grim near my apartment now. Once again they chopped down the trees but didn’t bother picking up the garbage.
The big goose flock was still near Onuma yesterday.
I wanted to get some Cackling Goose pics (there are a few in among all the White-fronted Geese). You can see a couple resting here (the ones with the black heads and white cheeks).
They weren’t the only flocks around that location. Lots of swans of course but also this group of 100 or so Common Redpoll.
I spent an hour or so following the Redpolls around………….
The nearby big flock was huge, some appeared to have whiteish rumps (so potentially Arctic Redpoll) but the big flock was so skittish it was impossible to photograph.
These ones near the port were far more relaxed.