A quiet grey mild Monday in December

White-tailed Eagle

Not many eagles at Yakumo now sadly…

And not much else around to be honest. Some interesting ducks on the sea were too far off for photos. I also missed a couple of great photo opps (a bathing Peregrine, a feeding roadside Steller’s). Just one of those days.

Great Egret
Great Crested Grebe

A break from Waxwings

Harlequin Duck

I headed up to Yakumo yesterday and was amazed to find virtually no Eagles. Only about 6 or so, they’ve eaten all the Salmon they could find and have gone. I was very surprised: in the 19 or so winters I’ve been going up there, this is by far the earliest they’ve dispersed.

Not much else around there either. On the way back one of the ports at least had a few common birds like the above Harlequin and this Great Crested Grebe.

Great Crested Grebe

Today we went east of town to the Hawk-Eagle spot and there were 2 of them. This is an immature.

Mountain Hawk-Eagle

Other stuff around included White-tailed Eagle, Black-legged Kittiwake, Black-necked grebe and Peregrine.

The Waxwings were still in town this morning and I saw some in Yakumo and Esan this weekend too.