
I may not get back to this location again this summer. Maybe in 2 weeks…wonder if the young will already be flying then?


Near Tomakomai last weekend I finally got a shot of one of the most difficult to photograph local birds. Sakhalin Grasshopper Warblers are common summer visitors to the grasslands and their song can be heard everywhere in suitable habitat. I’ve been trying for years to get a shot. They are extremely skulking. But then one above popped up and sang atop a bush for a few seconds!
A few minutes earlier I’d been delighted with this lame effort, the first time I’d ever photographed it.
There were several Siberian Rubythroat around but they were also skulking. Other stuff included Masked, Chestnut-eared and Common Reed Buntings, Long-tailed Rosefinch, Eastern Crowned Warbler, Japanese Thrush, Black-browed Reed Warbler and lots and lots of Stonechats…
A wet miserable White-tailed Eagle on a wet miserable Saturday afternoon near Mukawa.
Lathams’s Snipe habitats have been damaged by the absurd number of solar farms spring up all the time and replacing grassland.
Plus they’re difficult to perch on…see how this one slid all the way down.
This perch the next morning was slightly better…
Pretty quiet now in town. The Chestnut-cheeked Starlings (male above, from this afternoon) are busy feeding their young but not much else about. In the past week or 2 I didn’t take my camera out when going for a walk. Black-crowned Night Heron and Peregrine were the most noteworthy birds.