99% of the egrets in Hokkaido are Great Egrets so it’s always good to see other types in late spring/early summer………..
Little Egrets are not particularly rare of course but they haven’t colonized Hokkaido as regular breeding birds yet.
Little Egret
Tag: Little Egret
2 Egrets again
As with the Spoonbill, the 2 egret species from mid-May were still around at Yakumo.
I even managed a shot of them together. Shame it was such a grey day.
Other stuff around included Dollarbird again, Oriental Honey Buzzard ,Red-necked Stint, Mongolian Plover, Wryneck, Osprey, Falcated Duck, Common Kingfisher and the usual common stuff.
Spring Egrets
We saw 3 species of Egret today. Great Egrets are pretty common in Hokkaido but the above Little Egret, whilst not rare, is much less numerous. I also found an Intermediate Egret but no Cattle Egret to make the full set. The latter 3 species are all ‘overshoot’ visitors and are usually seen in spring and early summer.
Other stuff today included lots of Grey-tailed Tattler and Ruddy Turnstone on the coast, a lone Red-necked Pharalope, the first Black-browed Reed Warbler of the summer, Wryneck, Eastern Marsh Harrier, Osprey, White’s Thrush and Falcated Duck.
The way home
A Brown Dipper on the way back from our short camping week earlier this week.
Other stuff we saw were Grey-tailed Tattler, Osprey and Oriental Honey Buzzard. Black-browed Reed Warblers have arrived en masse and there were also quite a few singing Gray’s Grasshopper Warbler too (including one near my apartment).
Nearer home the only thing of interest was this lone Little Egret looking miserable in the rain (one of only 2 rainy days all month).
